Harvard Looks to upset B.C...While Tradition Favors B.U.

Pretenders, stake your claim. The decade of dominance may be over.

It's no secret that the Boston University icemen, who dominated the 1970s with seven Beanpot titles, three national championships and five ECAC crowns, are no longer deities. The once-mighty Terriers now sit in the middle of the ECAC scramble with a 6-6 league record, by no means out of a playoff berth, but by no means in, either.

It's also no secret that Boston College, ranked number three nationally, is the team to beat in the East, or that Harvard, which dealt B.U. a rare home loss in an overtime thriller earlier this year, won't lay down and die against anyone.

But what may be hush-hush information is that the Terriers don't have an easy ride into the finals of the four-team tournament. Even Northeastern, 1-9 ECAC, 2-11 overall, is making noise.

"I feel with a little luck we could do it," Huskies coach Fern Flaman says. "We haven't been playing that bad, so you can't count us out."

What they have been playing is undermanned. After losing four lettermen to graduation, the twin assassins of injuries and academics have knocked off a half-dozen more, and what remains is a hybrid of good, healthy students and JV's. Even Flaman admits, "You can't play Division I hockey with JV's."

Game by game, however, the ragtag squad is coming together to turn in creditable performances, including an 8-6 loss at Providence and two 4-3 setbacks at home to St. Lawrence and New Hampshire.

Goaltender George Demetroulakas, a freshman sensation, and blueliner Dave Archambault, back at full strength after recovering from a pre-season knee operation, anchor a solid defense. Wayne Turner, (eight goals, six assists) co-captain of the squad along with Archambault, has started to pour in the red-lighters after freshman center Mike Anzivino (who scored two goals against Harvard to open the season and has been flying since) joined the casualty list when he severed a tendon in his hand while hanging a curtain rod.

More than any one player, however, Flaman needs some help from The Event itself to fire up his Huskies. "We're alot like B.C. was last year," he says. "They came into the Beanpot below .500, but they put it all together in the tournament and came on strong the second half. Don't underestimate the Beanpot."

Before he starts talking tradition, however, Flaman had best be wary.

For, in the Beanpot, tradition belongs to the red-and-white, the Terriers of Boston University. Six and six or six game lead, it's all thrown out the window come early February when Boston's finest square off. B.U. coach Jack Parker feels it'll be no different this time.

"We play some smart games and then we play some poor games, technically," he says. "But, even though these kids are young, they're from the area, or they've heard from the older players. They know what the Beanpot means."

Simply, the Beanpot means B.U. Eleven times in the event's 24-year history, the Terriers have left the Garden ice "the best in Boston"--far more than any other club (B.C. is second with nine titles). For some reason, the crowd is always pro-Terrier, and knowing this, Parker's clubs are perenially fired up for the occasion.

Fired up, this team could go places. They're young, like everybody else around here, and though they don't have that aura of invincibility of years past, they may have the one thing that can beat B.C.: firepower.

Led by Mark Fidler (11 goals, 11 assists), the front lines are an experienced, talented bunch. Captain Tony Meagher and junior Bill Cotter have scored in the past, and will score in the past, and will score in the future. Daryl MacLeod, last year's Beanpot MVP, doesn't get the numbers but he gets the important ones. And a host of others, Robbie Davies, Todd Johnson, Tim Kimball just to mention a few, will hit the back of the net with regularity.

Unfortunately, the opposition has been doing just that to the Terriers. The defense is still teething--three freshman and a sophomore on the blueline, a freshman and a sophomore in the nets--they may be great someday, but they'll give Parker some headaches for a while.

"We're in a fight, not for the top but just for the playoffs," Parker says. "That's never happened to us before. But, I still think we are going to be something this year."

If they are, this is the place to start. "We haven't been playing up to our capabilities," adds Parker, and Flaman and Harvard coach Billy Clearly could echo his words. This time it's B.C. they're out to get, but the Terriers, with tradition and the crowd behind them, are still on everyone's mind. Dynasties are rare in sports, and there's a certain thrill in B.C., Harvard and Northeastern are all vying for.

They all want to end the decade of dominance.