Crimson Reflects on a 'Pot of Misery

For the fifth straight year, the Harvard men's hockey team missed making the final round of the Beanpot.

Even fifth-year seniors Scott Fusco and Greg Chalmers were in high school the last time the Crimson avoided consolation game ignominy.

Fusco, who scored twice in the closing minutes of the 4-2 loss to B.C., finished his career with five 'Pot goals and four assists.

Chalmers' return, on the other hand, is a solid boost for the icemen. The left-hand shooting center gives Coach Bill Cleary much greater punch for his third or fourth line.

Chalmers has 26 goals and 29 career assists for 55 points in 77 games. That makes him the sixth-leading lifetime scorer on the team.

Fusco (209 points) is number one. Trivia question: who are two, three, four and five?

The Crimson is 7-1 in the Ivy League. With a victory over Princeton tomorrow in New Jersey, the icemen will clinch their fifth consecutive Ivy title and their first outright crown since 1981-'82.

Harvard's only other remaining Ivy League contest is a showdown with Cornell at Bright Center Febraury 14.

Princeton (5-7-1 ECAC) is battling a resurgent St. Lawrence team for the eight and final playoff spot in the conference.

The winner of that duel will very likely end up at Bright Center for the quarter finals. If not here, then at RPI's Houston Field House.

What fun.

If SLU is flying high, with six victories in its last seven conference outings, including a 3-0 triumph over RPI in Troy Saturday, then Vermont plummeting down.

The Catamounts, once the league's darlings at 7-1 and boasting about a 3-2 victory over the Crimson, have now lost six straight.

Everyone was talking about the phenomenal play of goalie Tom Draper and the stingy 'Cat defense in the first third of the season. Now everyone's talking about the lackluster offense.

The Crimson, which has scored more goals than any other team in the conference (87) and allowed the fewest (36), has a not too surprisingly lock on the top slots in the ECAC scoring and goaltending races.

Harvard has spots one through four on the scoring chart and goalie Grant Blair is way ahead of the field in netminding with a 2.62 goals-against average.

With sophomore John Devin injured, Dickie McEvoy got his first time of the year with a 16-minute stint against Brown Saturday. The junior was perfect, recording 11 saves and tightening the scoring race between the goalies. McEvoy earned an assist and closed in on Blair who has two this year.

The second, third, fourth and fifth leading lifetime scorers on the Crimson are senior Tim Smith 49-45--96, sophomore Lane MacDonald 30-38--68, senior Mark Benning 6-56--62 and junior Tim Barakett 24-35--59.

WMEB 1.  Denver (9) (25-7)  126 2.  Minn.-Duluth (4) (24-7-1)  118 3.  Harvard (12-4-1)  96 4.  Wisconsin (22-10)  84 5.  Northeastern (17-10-1)  50 6.  B.C. (17-9-2)  49 7.  Michigan State (21-8-2)  43 8.  Minnesota (22-10)  40 9.  N. Dakota (20-11-1)  33 10.  Bowling Green (22-10)  30

As voted by coaches and conducted by radio station WMEB in Maine, with first-place votes and records followed by total points.

WMPL 1.  Denver (6) (25-7)  96 2.  Minn.-Duluth (3) (24-7-1)  91 3.  Wisconsin (1) (22-10)  80 4.  Harvard (12-4-1)  59 5.  B.C. (17-9-2)  46 6.  N. Dakota (20-11-1)  37 7.  Northeastern (17-10-1)  35 8.  Minnesota (22-10)  28 9.  W. Michigan (22-10)  21 10.  Bowling Green (22-10)  19

As voted by coaches and conducted by radio station WMPL in Michigan, with first-place votes and records followed by total points.

ECAC Scoring Name/School  G  A  PT A. Bourbeau, Harv.  17  16  33 Scott Fusco, Harv.  11  21  32 Tim Smith, Harv.  11  15  26 Tim Barakett, Harv.  12  13  25 J. Nieuwendyk, Corn.  11  13  24 Gerard Waslen, Col.  9  14  23 Randy Wood, Yale  11  11  22 John Carter, RPI  13  8  21 R. Boivin, Colg.  11  10  21

ECAC STANDINGS Team  W  L  T  GF  GA  Overall Harvard  12  2  0  87  3612-4-1 RPI  10  3  1  65  44  17-5-1 Yale  9  5  0  66  49  13-7-0 Cornell  7  4  2  58  48  10-4-3 Clarkson  7  4  3  64  45  10-8- 3 Colgate  7  5  1  54  59  13-7-2 Vermont  7  7  0  41  44  12-9-0 SLU  6  8  0  51  62  12-10-0 Princeton  5  7  1  48  46  9-11 -2 Dartmouth  3  11  0  39  79  6-1 2-0 Brown  3  11  0  44  84  4-11-0 Army  1  10  0  36  57  9-11-1