Future's So Bright: Icemen Host Union

Harvard hockey fans, get ready.

The ECAC puck gets its first taste of the Bright Hockey Center ice tonight when the Harvard men's hockey team faces off against Union in its season home opener.

Tomorrow, Harvard will host Rensselaer to complete this weekend's action.

The Crimson (1-0-0 overall, 1-0-0 ECAC) chalked up a 3-2 win over Brown last Saturday in the team's season opener, but playing at home is different.

Now Harvard must defend its territory, hold the line, protect its turf from invading hordes of stick-wielding goons...Get the idea?

Although RPI is a much more skilled squad than Union, both the Skating Dutchmen and the Engineers will come to Bright with one goal--battering the Crimson into submission.

And Harvard players said that the Crimson will not disregard anyone this weekend and will take the homestand one game at a time.

"We're not looking past anyone," junior defender Sean McCann said. "[Union] is going to be a very physical team, and we're not going to go in thinking we can dominate."

McCann said that against the Skating Dutchmen, the Crimson defense will try to move the puck out of Harvard's zone quickly, in order to take advantage of Harvard's speed.

But even if each of the Crimson players tied one skate behind his back, Harvard could probably out skate Union on any day of the week.

Union amassed a miserable 3-21-1 record for the season last year and the Skating Dutchmen don't look to be much better in 1992.

They dropped their season opener to Division III Army, the feeble squad that Union replaced in the ECAC last year.

Revenge Time

The Engineers will prove to be a bigger challenge for Harvard, and the Crimson most likely will have to play better than it did against Brown to beat this squad.

Last weekend, Harvard had trouble scoring on its power plays. In fact, the Crimson failed to convert on any of its nine opportunities against the Bears.

Senior center Steve Flomenhoft said that the Crimson has been working on its power play intensely in practice this week, and fans will see the results of that training this weekend.

RPI has shown that it has a penchant for feasting on high powered teams. The Engineers (1-0-2 overall, 0-0-0 ECAC) are coming off a stunning 2-2 tie of mighty eastern lord Boston University.

"Hopefully, our power play will pick up," Flomenhoft said. "It's all a question of who will work hardest out there."

But the Crimson may also have work hard in order to overcome the past against both Union and RPI.

The Flying Dutchmen gave a Harvard a scare last year, when they scored five goals on the Crimson before succumbing 7-5 and becoming Harvard's first meal of the season.

And although Harvard defeated RPI during last year's regular season, the Engineers made a meal of Harvard in the quarterfinals of the ECAC tournament, upsetting the Crimson in overtime, 4-3.

But Flomenhoft also said that RPI's defeat of the Crimson in the tournament will not be significant this weekend.

"Against RPI, we're just going to try to play our game," McCann said. "Some player's may have [last season's loss to RPI] in the back of their minds, but we're not going to dwell on the negatives of last year."

"The name of the college game is turnover," Flomenhoft said. "It's a whole new season."