Bidding for the ECAC Banner

After the Harvard men's hockey team clinched the ECAC title two weeks ago by defeating St. Lawrence, 4-2, SLU Coach Joe Marsh told the Crimson to wait a few weeks before claiming ECAC bragging rights.

The Saints snagged the post-season tournament last year and the ECAC championship banner still hangs in their arena. This weekend that banner is on the auction block--and Harvard is heading into Boston Garden as the league's highest bidder.

The top-seeded Crimson (26-2) faces sixth-seed Vermont tomorrow night at 8 p.m. Number two St. Lawrence plays fifth-place Cornell in the 5 p.m. semifinal. The championship game is slated for 8:30 p.m. Saturday night, following the consolation finals at 5:30 p.m.

He's so Fine: Harvard Captain Lane MacDonald is in fine form heading into the second week of playoff action--a seven-point performance in the RPI series pushed him to the top of the Crimson leading scorers' list for the first time since the season's opening weeks.

MacDonald, who now has 26 goals and 27 assists for 53 points, is also at the top of the Crimson popularity list, at least in the eyes of one young fan Friday.

In the runway after the contest, MacDonald autographed a stick for a young Cambridge girl who claimed to be his biggest fan.

"I just think you're so fine," she told MacDonald.

Fiftysomething: With 106 goals scored in his career, MacDonald is only one tally shy of tying Scott Fusco '86 for most career goals.

MacDonald has broken the 50-point barrier in all four years of his Crimson career, and is currently in second place on the Harvard all-time scoring list with 218 points.

Senior Allen Bourbeau is only one point away from moving into sixth place on the all-time list with 150 points. Bourbeau is currently tied for third on the Crimson scoring leaders' list with junior C.J. Young (49 points apiece), while sophomore Peter Ciavaglia (10-41--51) joins MacDonald as a member of the 50-and-over club.

Jinxed: Everyone knew RPI was a bruising bunch of guys.

Everyone knew the Engineers would send a lot of Crimson players to the penalty box--and spend a lot of timing sitting in there themselves.

But junior Ed Krayer was the one man expected to be invisible to the referee's whistle. Krayer entered the weekend without a single penalty minute in 26 games of hockey action.

Then he met Bruce Coles.

Coles, whose let's-go-at-it-right-now attitude earned him the hatred of Bright fans, claimed the dubious honor of being the first player to draw a Krayer foul.

Just over 15 minutes into the second period, Krayer tangled with Coles, and was whistled for hitting from behind.