Review Of Past Season Finds Harvard Sextet Unsurpassed Among Colleges

With the 1931-32 hockey season at a close, Harvard seems to be justified in claiming possession of the strongest collegiate team in the east and any and all mythical or actual championships attendant thereto, Boasting a passing attack and stick-handling ability that completely outclasses all their American opponents, the Harvard players exhibited particular prowess in their ability to score goals when circumstances made another marker essential to victory.

Overcoming early period leads of Brown, McGill, Dartmouth and Yale, Harvard showed a well-organized four-man attack good enough to penetrate even the most cautious of five-man defense systems. It is not to be supposed that Harvard underwent a let-down in form in the last two Yale games. Rather it was Yale, with the reattainment of its early season brand of play that made the Elis the most feared team in this region, that gave the lie to long odds placed on the Crimson at the start of the series.

Evolution in Harvard tactics this season may be in some degree compared to the style of attack employed by the Bruins, Boston' professional team. In its first two games against weak opponents, Harvard played consistently offensive hockey, sending the two wings up to the opposing goal at full speed while the center came down the middle and took a long shot which they were supposed to net before the goalie could clear. This has been the attacking plan of the professionals. In the McGill game, however, the Canadians poke-checking often caught the puck at mid-ice, leaving the two Harvard defense men at the mercy of the entire Maple Leaf forward line. In this situation, the second team should theoretically always score and where this continually occurs the primarily defensive team usually wins. Harvard was not long to learn by experience, however, and in subsequent games the Crimson center was made responsible for taking out one of the rival forwards, in the event of failure to get through to the second line. In this way the Harvard defense was left with merely a routing assignment. That this new policy was successful was evidenced in the manner in which the team swept through its Olympic matches and sank Princeton, twice victor over Yale.

In playing Dartmouth, Harvard encountered a sextet with little to recommend it but a group of well-trained athletes versed in the arts of body-checking and taking out competitors by physical contact. Wood and Saltonstall, who have an instinct for avoiding any direct collisions, escaped but other members of the squad sustained an injury of some kind. In the second tilt, however, the Harvard players were set for the onslaught and were careful not to parade down the ice after the fashion of light rope walkers. Practically no injuries took place in the second game.

In the Yale series, it is interesting to note that the two tie games, coupled with the deadlock of two years ago, are the only stand-offs on record in the thirty-one years of competition. Haytodd, red-headed forward of the Yale team, and member of the second football team in the fall, was the man who wrecked the Crimson's hope for a double victory. His uncannily speedy shot to the open far corner of the Crimson cage and his other tally, scored in the second period, put Harvard in the ruck and enabled Yale to hold the advantage through the remainder of the contest.

Graduation will this spring deprive Coach Stubbs of all his biggest men, with the exception of Saltonstall. Baldwin and Putnam are both experienced puck-carriers and the former, especially, knows the art of shooting the rubber to the right place when an empty enemy cage looms. Adding Martin to the list of exceptions, it can be said that no other members of the present squad give much promise of approaching the play of Wood, Cunningham, and McGregor. Unless unusual talent comes up from this year's Freshman sextet, this year's record may prove difficult to equal.