The First Test: Brown, Yale

This weekend marks the anniversary of two important games in Harvard hockey history: one which nobody here remembers, and one which nobody here can forget.

It was 90 years ago that Harvard and Brown engaged in the nation's first intercollegiate game of "ice polo," and it was one year ago Saturday that Yale upset a heavily favored Harvard squad in the opener for both teams.

The Crimson faces these same two schools tonight and tomorrow at Bright Center in a pair of 7:30 p.m. contests and has every reason to expect to celebrate the anniversaries with two victories.

Neither the Bruins nor the Bulldogs is tabbed to finish in the top half of the 12-team hunt for the ECAC crown that the Crimson is favored to capture. Harvard goes into tonight ranked fifth nationally.

Brown, tonight's opponent, has at least some reason for optimism--it returns 18 of 24 letter-winners from last year. Those 18, however, are part of a program that has won only one game since last Christmas and which finished the season with 4-19 record. As Bruin Coach Herb Hammond noted, "We're a veteran team with game experience. We've got to be better than last year."

Back for More

Last year's top defensive pairing of Mike Gerrard and Bruce McHall is back, as is goalie Michael Bayard (5.16 goals-against-average, .869 save percentage). Captain Steve Climo and Mike Rechan return to the first line and will be joined by Joel Swirbalus.

The ECAC coaches poll has Brown slated for an 11th place finish in the 12-team conference, and Hammond thinks it is a fair assessment.

"That's pretty honest based on last year," Hammond said, "But I'd like to think that we'll be a little better than that." He said he would like his team to "climb over a few people" to finish in seventh or eighth this season.

Don't expect the Bruins to get on the winning track tonight, however. "Obviously we're playing the runners up to the national champions," Hammond said. "We'll play smart, stay out of the penalty box, and stay in the game as long as we can."

While Brown approaches this weekend's action as a team on the rise, Yale comes to Bright as a team on the express train to the cellar.

The Bulldogs have lost 13 of 20 lettermen from last season's 21-10 ECAC runners up, including forwards Randy Wood and Bob Logan. Wood was the most potent scorer in Bulldog history, and Logan made last year's ECAC second team.

"Everybody mentions Wood and Logan," Yale Coach Tim Taylor '63 said, "but behind them were Darrel Acheson, Eric Borg and Sean Neely."

Yale scored 160 goals last year; the players responsible for 125 of them have graduated. As Taylor said, "We'll be considerably down in terms of potential goal production. We're an unproven commodity."

Harvard Coach Bill Cleary '56 says Yale still "has a good nucleus."

New Haven Green

Yale has lost eight forwards from the top four lines, and four of six top defensemen. Returning on defense are "a couple of freshmen and one junior who didn't play much as a sophomore," Taylor said. "We're a green team."