Harvard Meets N.U. in Beanpot Opener Tonight

It's Beanpot time once again in Beantown as Boston's four major college hockey teams vie for the coveted Beanpot trophy beginning with tonight's semifinal round. Harvard faces-off against Northeastern at 6:15 p.m., and Boston University meets Boston College at 9:15 p.m.

Although the Crimson is coming off an 18-day layoff because of exam period. Harvard will be a decided favorite over the Huskies. The Crimson is currently the number one rated team in the country with a perfect 11-0-0 ECAC record and 13-2-0 overall. N.U. on the other hand is wallowing somewhere in the depths of the ECAC with a 6-8-1 ECAC mark and is 9-8-2 overall.

The two teams met earlier this season in December with Harvard coming out on top by a 5-3 margin in a penalty-filled tilt at the Boston Arena. The Huskies have a reputation for being one of the dirtiest teams around, and the contest tonight should prove to be a wild-and-wooly affair.

Northeastern does have one fine line in the persons of center Fran Huck, and wings Jim Martel and Dave Sherlock. Huck is currently the second leading scorer in the East with 47 points, and linemate Marel is right behind him with 45 points. The due has accounted for 42 of the Huskies 72 goals this season.

The 18 day-exam hiatus is not expected to hurt the Crimson too much. Harvard coach Bill Cleary had most of his squad skating at informal practice sessions at the beginning of exam period. During the last week however, Cleary has had the Crimson skating at full-tilt, emphasizing re-conditioning exercises.

Top Goalie

Sophomore goaltender Brian Petrovik is expected to get the nod for the starting assignment in tonight's contest. Petro is still the top goalie in the East with an excellent 2.37 goals against average.

Although Harvard has no scorers in the top of the ECAC scoring list, balance has been the key to the Crimson offense. All four Harvard lines have shared equally in the Crimson scoring attack.

Balanced Scoring

Captain Randy Roth is currently the team's leading scorer with 23 points, but five other players have 16 points or better.

In the second game of the evening. Boston University should have an easy time handling weak Boston College. The Terriers have already defeated the Eagles once this season, at McHugh Forum, and should breeze to vicgory, thus treating hockey fans to another classic Harvard B.U. confrontation in next Monday's final round. In last year's Beanpot final, the Crimson edged the Terriers 5-4 with Randy Roth zipping in the game-winner in the final minutes in what many consider the most exciting game of the season.