Some Good News and Some Bad News

There are a lot of things to remember about the 1980-81 Harvard hockey season. As the old joke says, first the good news.

1. The Beanpot. Those two Mondays in February when everybody who had said, "No way, anything can't happen in the Beanpot" had to eat their hockey pucks after the Crimson shell-shocked Northeastern and Boston College, two of the East's best, in consecutive weeks. All right, so "anything" didn't happen. Five elephants didn't sing the national anthem. But Harvard won the Beanpot. That's not just anything, that's something. West of Route 128, something really special.

2. Every single minute that Greg Olson was on the ice. Nobody can shake you on your corduroys like Harvard hockey's number eight whether he's killing a penalty or floating in one-one-one on some poor goaltender. Hey Mr. Goalie, he's gonna get ya. Sooner or later, he's gonna get ya.

Olson finished with a team-leading 18 goals, two more than he had in his freshman season, and tied for the overall team scoring lead with Instant Karma-mate Tommy Murray, with 34 points. His three shorthanded goals are beyond description.

3. Where else to go now than to Murray himself, the team captain who finally, truly blossomed in his senior year. His 23 assists led the team as well as his 34 points, an amazing count because he played all season with assorted injuries, including a shoulder that separated enough times to lose count. But the Beanpot trophy on his lap on February 9 made it all worthwhile.

4. Goaltender Wade Lau. A streak of seven games with just 14 goals allowed. A most valuable player trophy pulled out of the magic hat otherwise known as the Boston Garden. Many spectacular saves, the most notable being a behind-the-head, he-didn't-really-get-it-did-he? job which helped preserve the 5-5 tie at Yale.

5. Defenseman Mark Fusco. Division One East All American honors and an All-ECAC first team selection to follow up last season's ECAC rookie-of-the-year award. The point totals (7-13-20) were down from freshman year, but the tough defense and heads-up play were still there, and The Gun came out of its holster when needed.

6. A variety of others, Mike Watson, rounding out the Instant Karma line with 15 goals and 14 assists, including six power play goals and five two-goal games. The very surprising defensive contributions of junior Alan Litchfield, who had the most consistent season of anyone on the blueline, and walk-on freshman Ken Code, whose dive-and-knock-the-puck-away style continually foiled the opposition's scoring chances.

Then there's David Burke, with a very quiet 8-17-25 season, good for fourth on the team. And Phil Falcone, centering on Burke's line, who led the freshmen with a 9-3-12 showing which included a four-goal game against St. Lawrence. Center Bill Larson came up from the J.V.'s in mid-December and notched two game-winning goals, including the decisive tally in the Beanpot championship game.

7. A four-and-two start and seven games without a loss in the middle, six of which were wins.

8. The fans at Bright. From the "sieve" cheer right down to Adam Beren's cowbell, Section 13 and company supplied more of a home-ice advantage than Harvard's had in many years. Screw B.U.

So the bad news really can't be that bad after all that, you say? Try this:

1. An 8-12-1 ECAC record (11-14)1 overall, 3-6-1 July), the Crimson's fourth straight losing season. Never in the history of Harvard hockey has Cambridge endured through four straight losing seasons. Never. The latest edition of the four-year saga included a ten-losses-in-11-starts streak, which ran from December 13th's 3-2 loss to Brown to January 31st's 3-2 loss to Clarkson. As a matter of fact, there were four 3-2 losses sprinkled among the ten, all of them at Bright Center. And the season ended with consecutive losses at Cornell, Vermont and Dartmouth.

2. Eight teams made the ECAC playoffs. Harvard was not one of those eight teams. Enough said.

3. Lau's knee injury with two weeks left in the season. Don't even think about it. Think about baseball and summer vacation.

If it seems like the good news dominates the bad news in this column, don't fool yourself. If you don't make the playoffs, you just don't make it in the ECAC. Harvard hasn't made it since 1976. Once again, it's time to say, "Wait until next year."

Of course, there's nothing here that a little bit of Bobby Carpenter wouldn't cure. All of him would be even better.