This One Has All the Making of a Classic

If you were to check the other three teams besides Harvard participating in the inaugural Long Island Hockey Classic, December 27-28 at Nassau Coliseum, you would notice one common thing among them--fifth place.

Boston College: fifth place in Hockey East with a league record of 4-5-1.

University of Illinois-Chicago: fifth place in the CCHA with a league record of 8-9-1.

University of Minnesota-Duluth: fifth place in the WCHA with a league record of 8-8-1.

Now look at Harvard: first place in the ECAC with a league record of 7-1.

Three middle-of-the-packers and one team that's sitting pretty on top of the standings. Looks like the first-place team should be the favorite. But everyone knows that things don't always go as planned.

And these three fifth-place teams are as good as many other fifth-place teams. Considering they come from some of the better hockey conferences in the nation, these three teams are used to playing the underdog role.

Illinois, coached by former Crimson assistant Val Belmonte, entered last weekend on a four-game winning streak before dropping two games to ninth-ranked Western Michigan, 6-5, and 3-2 in overtime. In fact, the Flames have posted an impressive 6-4 road record, with three of those losses coming in overtime.

Belmonte's Flames will face Harvard on Sunday afternoon in the tournament's opening game.

Minnesota-Duluth started the season by losing its first four games. But the underdog Bulldogs have turned it around and will probably enter the tourney with a winning record, since they host WCHA cellardweller Colorado College this weekend.

Coach Mike Sertich's Bulldogs will face Len Ceglarski's B.C. Eagles in Sunday's second game. The Eagles, who last year finished first in Hockey East, lost three players (Greg Brown, Craig Janney and Brian Leetch) to the U.S. Olympic Team. But, unlike Harvard, B.C. still has been unable to return to first-place form.

Missing

The Crimson will go to Long Island without the services of sophomore C.J. Young and freshman Ted Donato, who are touring with the U.S. Olympic Junior Team. This also marks the first time this year that Harvard will face non-ECAC opponents.

"This will be our first look at the other leagues," Harvard Coach Bill Cleary said. "You want to go play against someone else. The kids are looking forward to it."

One thing the tournament shouldn't lack is offensive talent.

The Flames' leading scorer, Jeff Nelson, has notched 16 goals and 15 assists for 31 points. Barry McKinlay (8-18--26) and Rob Klaenk (14-6--20) round out Illinois' scoring. Brad Ryan (4.37 goals-against average, .864 save percentage) and Dave DePinto (4.21, .878) have shared playing time in net.

At the Top

The Bulldogs' top three scorers are Barry Chyzowsky (9-15--24), Jerry Chumola (6-14--20) and Bob Alexander (9-9--18). Goalie John Hyduke, who has started in Minnesota-Duluth's last four games, has posted a 3.93 g.a.a. and a .853 save percentage.

Boston College also lost two players, David Emma (9-7--16) and Steve Schiefely (7-9--16), to the Junior Olympic Team. Co-Captains John Deveroux (5-12--17) and Dan Shay (4-13--17) head up the Eagles' scoring list. David Littman (3.94,.890) will mind the net.

Captain Steve Armstrong (4-4--8) and Don Sweeney (2-6--8) lead the Crimson, which already has received scoring from all of its lines this season. John Devin's 33-save performance against Dartmouth proved that the senior is fully recovered from his knee injury. In his last three games, Devin has a 2.00 g.a.a. and an impressive .924 save percentage.