Cornell and Princeton Topple Struggling Icemen

Weekends may be made for Michelob, but not for Harvard hockey. The icemen dropped two key ECAC Division One contests Friday and Saturday nights at Bright Center, in a double-barrelled disaster that saw hopes for an ECAC playoff berth fade from plausible to highly unlikely.

The one-two combination from rivals Cornell and Princeton left Harvard reeling at 4-7 in Division One play--good enough for a firm fourth in the Ivy Division and 11th overall. Harvard--which needs to slip into the top eight to qualify for post-season play--has now lost five straight ECAC contests since its 4-3 win over UNH on December 10.

Worse for coach Billy Cleary and his charges, Friday's defensive collapse--in which Cornell poured in five consecutive markers on the way to an 8-5 romp--and Saturday's listless 3-2 loss to Princeton, occurred on home ice. With a five-game road trip looming at the end of the schedule, it's now or never for Harvard to make a bid to get back in contention.

Cleary plans to make that clear by Wednesday's contest against Providence (Bright, 7:30 p.m.). "We're gonna do something, I'm not exactly sure what," he said yesterday. "It was a bad weekend and we will have some changes... absolutely...absolutely."

The futility of Harvard's weekend crystallized in one ludicrous moment of chaos during the final minute against Princeton. The icemen were desperately trying to tie the contest after Dave Connors brought Harvard to within a goal at 11:08. Goalie Mark Whiston headed for the bench so the Crimson could replace him with a sixth skater.

But before he could get there, the puck headed back toward the Harvard zone. Neither in nor out, Whiston, for a few horrible seconds, stood paralyzed on the blue line, yelling to the bench for guidance as Princeton just missed an empty net goal. "Jesus, he's not going to do us any good over there," mumbled a stunned Harvard fan.

In both contests, the Crimson fashioned a late, ultimately unsuccessful, come-back attempt.

Foggy Bottom

On Friday, before an SRO crowd of 3000, Harvard utilized goals by Jim Turner, Mark Fusco and Shayne Kukulowicz to take a surprising 3-2 second-period lead over the Big Red (now 7-3-0, 3-3 ECAC Division One). Then--after a damaging ten-minute misconduct to defenseman Neil Sheehy, who went off along with Cornell's Doug Berk at 13:55 of the period for "intimidation" after a verbal tussle--the bottom fell out of the Harvard hockey team.

Aided by sloppy Harvard play in its own zone and anemic goaltending by Wade Lau, Cornell quickly rattled off three goals--including two by star left wing Jeff Baikie--to end the period up, 5-3. The Crimson continued to see Red after returning to the ice, as Baikie's linemates, Roy Kerling and Brock Tredway, made it 7-3.