Harvard Hockey: Fighting History, Stuck in the Snow

First of all, it's too early to take a hockey season seriously if Yale is undefeated and leading the ECAC.

Secondly, I have to take back a prediction I made last month. I had no way of knowing immigration restrictions from Canada would be tightened and the University of Maine would be forced to field a team comprised of former peewee skaters from the Orono YMCA and rejects from Sid Watson's squad down at Bowdoin. Maine won't make the playoffs.

That out of the way, I turn to the business at hand--the Harvard hockey team. A check into recent history reveals the Crimson is in the exact position it was at this point last year, sporting a 3-2 record with games against New Hampshire and Brown next on the schedule.

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Harvard disposed of UNH in Cambridge last year, 4-3. If you remember that game, you'll have a hard time forgetting the losing streak that followed--nine of ten games starting with the 3-2 loss to Brown Dec. 13. The next time Harvard won an ECAC game, it was 4-8 in the league and Reagan had already been inaugurated.

Since that is not the kind of history he wants to see repeated, coach Billy Cleary hopes the resemblance to last year ends soon--like, right after Wednesday night's game at New Hampshire.

"What we're looking for now is consistency," Cleary said yesterday. "We played a good game at Dartmouth, a bad game against Colgate, a good one against RPI, and then we didn't skate at B.U.--we've got to be mentally ready all the time."

Saturday night, the icemen were ready mentally, physically and genetically for a Maine team that looked as if it couldn't give Eliot House a game. The Black Bears were a different squad than the 23-11 (12-10 ECAC) entry which finished fifth in the East last season. It is true that All-American Gary Conn and goalie Jeff Nord were lost to graduation, but if they make that much of a difference, they should report for duty with the NHL All-Star team at once.

Tomorrow will be a different story. New Hampshire--19-13-1 overall last season--used to boast one of the finest lines in college hockey until coach Charlie Holt broke it up to form two good lines. Now, Dan Forget and Andy Brickley will skate with Steve Lyons, while Chris Pryor has been teamed with George White and Jay Miller.

"They're big," says Cleary (the Pryor-White-Miller line averages 6-feet, 210-pounds, larger than any Harvard forward), "and New Hampshire always skates well. But we've had good success against them recently, for whatever reason."

So far this year, New Hampshire has beaten Maine, Princeton and Providence and lost only to Cornell. Against Maine, the Wildcats scored six straight goals to cop a 7-5 victory. Against P.C. Saturday night, they rebounded from a 3-0 deficit with five goals to turn back the highly-regarded Friars, 5-3. "That is one explosive team," said a member of the Orono media.

A scan of the ECAC standings (see box) reveals other interesting trends. Two of Harvard's three wins have come against the worst two teams in the league, Maine (0-3) and Dartmouth (0-2). By contrast, Yale has handed Colgate and Clarkson their only losses, and beat a St. Lawrence team Saturday night that had upset Boston College the evening before. However, it is December, and Yale is still Yale--a team that hasn't finished better than seventh since 1967.

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The icemen are still recovering from Saturday night's trip home from Orono. The team bus left the arena at 11 p.m. and cruised at a snow-encumbered but steady pace until grinding to a halt with a broken clutch at a toll booth near the New Hampshire border. The blizzard delayed the arrival of another bus and attempts to revive the vehicle were unsuccessful, so everyone sat there for four hours and watched the snow fall. Finally, at 6 a.m., a new bus showed up and the squad was on its way.

By this time, however, so much snow had fallen that the going was even tougher, and it was almost nine o'clock when the bus hit Cambridge. Turning into Soldiers Field was another matter, and the vehicle ended up wedged between the stone gate posts at the parking lot entrance. Assorted people left there, but "there was another breakdown after that," said Cleary. "I didn't leave Dillon until noon."

ECAC Division I Hockey Standings

1. Yale (I) 3-0

2. Northeastern (E) 3-1

New Hampshire (E) 3-1

Clarkson (W) 3-1

Colgate (W) 3-1

6. HARVARD (I) 3-2

7. Cornell (I) 2-2

Boston College (E) 2-2

Brown (I) 1-1

10. Providence (E) 2-3

11. Boston University (E) 1-2-1

RPI (W) 1-2-1

13. St. Lawrence (W) 1-2

Vermont (W) 1-2

15. Princeton (I) 1-3

16. Dartmouth (I) 0-2

17. Maine (E) 0-3

I--Ivy Division, E--East Division, W--West Division

Top Eight Make Playoffs.