Black Bears in Hibernation; Icemen Take Easy, 7-2 Win

ORONO, Maine--The reason that the Harvard hockey team beat the University of Maine, 7-2, here Saturday night is not that the Black Bears were as off-key as vintage Lesley Gore, nor even that their All-American defenseman Andre Arbut did his finest imitation of a Boston traffic cop--waving stragglers past one-by-one, then vanishing during rush hour.

No, Harvard, now 3-2, could have beaten a good team Saturday night, not just one that hasn't held a Division I opponent below seven goals this year. The Crimson got production from all four lines of forwards, peppering sophomore goalie Duffy Loney with 40 shots and hitting the twines with seven--two from each of three lines and one from defenseman Neil Sheehy with the remaining line on the ice.

Billy Cleary said it before the season started: "It makes so much difference when you have more than one line that can score." Saturday night, his revamped connections (only the Wats line of Michael Watson, Greg Olson and Greg Britz has remained intact since the beginning of the season) put a strong-skating shift in front of the Maine defense every time out. And more often than not, one of those skaters found his way behind the Maine defense before the shift ended.

Twice that interloper was Jim Turner, who clicked for the first two-goal game of his varsity career. The junior winger, playing on Bill Larson's line with Scott Powers, parked in front of the net and deflected a Sheehy slapshot home to open the scoring 9:30 into the game. Later, with Harvard leading, 5-0, Turner picked up a loose puck in the slot, took a stride to the left and found an opening to Loney's right side at 7:14 of the third period.

Good Sense

"Jim's got good hockey sense," says new linemate Larson. "He knows where everybody is on the ice, and he's fast enough to get out in front on breakaways."

After freshman Brian Busconi scored 12 minutes into his first varsity period to give Harvard a 2-0 lead, the Wats Line struck for two more quick goals to open the second. Just 54 seconds after intermissions, Greg Olson's forechecking paid off in his second goal of the year off a Watson pass.

Two minutes later, Maine's Rob Zamejc picked up an elbowing penalty, and the amazing Harvard power play (32 per cent entering the game) worked Olson-to-Britz, for a four-goal lead.

A series of unintelligent Black Bear penalties (including two minutes assessed to Ray Jacques for flooring Crimson goalie Wade Lau) prevented any kind of comeback for most of the second period, and when Lau robbed Gaeten Bernier on one of the Bears' few chances in the stanza at 16:34, it looked like the senior netminder was on his way to his first career ECAC shutout.

But after two insurance goals (Sheehy on the power play and Turner's second early in the third period) put the game away, Black Bear David Ellis got his team into the scoring summary, beating Lau on a breakaway at 7:45.

THE NOTEBOOK: The three stars as awarded by the Cambridge media: Turner, Busconi (who also assisted on Phil Falcone's insurance goal at 11:54) and Lau... Busconi, playing on the pasta Line with Falcone and Visone, had been sidelined thus far this year with mononucleosis. Cleary made the decision to dress Busconi and Visone and leave sophomores Shayne Kukulowicz and Gary Martin home "to make some moves because people weren't playing well."... Maine's 0-3 ECAC mark has come without the benefit of a road game. Those come this week, when the Bears travel to B.C. and B.U., snow permitting.