Sudden Spotlight

Mark Whiston knows that he would not be tending goal for the Harvard hockey team tonight had Wade Lau not collapsed in a heap with stretched ligaments in his knee Tuesday afternoon.

He knows that tonight at Princeton's Baker Rink, he will be donning the pads for the first time since the Tigers nipped Harvard, 3-2, in Cambridge back on January 10. Lau has played every minutes of eight straight games since then, allowing only 19 goals and sparking the team through a 5-2-1 streak.

But Lau's crutches are a reality. "It looks like I'll be skating again in about ten days," he said Wednesday, and that means freshman Whiston will probably play all four of the Crimson's remaining regular-season games. Nobody's even thinking past that.

So the spotlight swings to a guy with exactly 238 minutes of intercollegiate experience: a local kid (Ipswich) who proved he could play in the ECAC with a pair of 3-2 heartbreakers earlier on, but has not stopped a puck under game conditions in six weeks.

And just to make things a little more interesting, with the entire season virtually riding on this weekend, Whiston will face perhaps the most hostile fans in the East tomorrow night--the fish-throwing denizens of Cornell's Lynah Rink. It's not a pretty picture.

But goalies are a confident breed. "I've played enough so that I know what I'm doing," he said before leaving for Princeton yesterday. "I've been mentally ready. Wade's been hot, but these things happen, and I think I can do it."

Having faced Princeton before should help Whiston.

"I know all the shooters," he says, and his good outing against them last time will help him mentally.

He'll need a good game from his forwards to notch a win, for the Tigers have a star netminder of their own in Ron Dennis, and tend to play tight, defensive games.

And a Harvard win won't even mean all that much unless Cornell (which is hosting Dartmouth) of Yale (at Providence) can be upset. Of course, a loss pretty much ends it all.

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Junior varsity goalie Steve Better will dress instead of Lau, and he'll be sitting on the varsity bench for the first time in his career (he's a junior) tonight. Better played Wednesday, leading Kevin Hampe's j.v.'s to a season-ending victory at Dartmouth. The Crimson ended its season with a 17-0-1 record, with senior defenseman Doug Horton tallying in all but one game. Jackie burke led the squad in scoring with 16 goals and 18 assists for 34 points

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In case you're thinking of taking in this weekend's proceedings by tuning in to the powerful signal of WHRB, be advised that Denis Kennedy and Matt Greenberg's broadcasts will be tape-delayed until after the basketball games on both nights (probably 9:30 p.m.). And in case you've a mind to travel up to Ithaca for tomorrow night's contest, the word is that tickets will be quite hard to come by. Think about leaving now. ECAC IVY DIVISION STANDINGS Ivy Division Standings: Yale  9-8-1 Cornell  8-9-1 Harvard  7-9-1 Princeton  7-10-0 Dartmouth  7-11-0 Brown  3-14-1

All teams play 21 games, except Cornell which plays 22.

All teams play 21 games, except Cornell which plays 22.