Harvard Begins NCAA Quest Against Minnesota

Harvard's varsity icemen with a 23-4 record, take on Minnesota (30-7-1) tonight In St. Louis, in hopes of being the first Crimson hockey squad to bring an NCAA championship to Cambridge. Since Harvard's first appearance in the tournament in 1955, it has won only two out of 12 contests and has never been to the finals.

It will not be easy to reach the finals this year, however, as the Crimson must face the number one ranked team in the nation in the opening round (7 p.m. Boston time) of the tourney. The East's top speed, Boston University, battles Michigan Tech in the second game at 10 p.m. The winners meet on Saturday night.

David and Goliath cliches aside. Harvard will be facing a rather formidable size disadvantage this evening. Minnesota boasts at least four players who are over six feet and 200 pounds, one of whom, Russ Anderson, plays football in the off-season.

The Golden Gophers' biggest man is 6 ft. 3 in. Paul Holmtern, who weighs in at 215 lbs. Winger Holmtern is the team's sixth leading scorer with 30 points on 10 goals and 20 assists. Other giants are defenseman Anderson at 6 ft. 2 in, and 210 lbs., Read Larson, 6 fit., 180 lbs., and Joe Baker, 6 ft, 3 in, and 210 lbs., and reserve forward Tony Dorn who also stands 6 ft. 3 in, and weights 210 lbs.

But coach Herb Brooks has not molded this collection of behemoths into a slow, brawling, elbow-flinging club. Brooks, in fact, admires the coaching of Harvard's Billy Cleary and emphasizes skating in practice. If the opposition wants to fight, Brooks will oblige them. But the Gophers can skate with the best of the East, as they showed last year when they outskated B.U. on the way to taking the title.

The team's leading scorer, in fact, in a little guy, Mike Polich, who was named yesterday to the West All-america squad, has racked up 61 points this season on 25 goals and 36 assists. Polich centers a top line of Russ Schneider (35 points) and Warren Miller (34 points).

Brooks sticks pretty much to the western style, of skating only three lines with three matching sets of defensemen. The defense is led by another All-American, Les Auge, and goaltender Larry Thayer, Thayer has an impressive 18-2-1 personal record and a mere 2.4 goals against average.

Harvard, meanwhile, will have three doubtful or sub-par starters tonight as late-season injuries mount. Forward Jim Thomas, who received a deep eight-stitch cut over his left eye against Cornell in the ECACs; center Leigh Hogan, who has been nagged by a stomach musical pull and defenseman Ed Rossi, with a shoulder problem could all be watching most of the game from the bench.

For the relatively small and hurting Crimson squad, a victory tonight over Minnesota will be a rather tall order.