Hockey Team Faces Yale Tonight In Ivy Contest at Boston Arena; Win Gains Tie for Championship

The varsity hockey team meets Yale at the Boston Arena tonight in a game that will decide the Ivy League championship--unless, of course, Yale should win.

The Crimson, with a record of six wins and one tie in Ivy play, needs only one more victory to clinch at least a tie for the title. Only second place Brown, currently two games behind Harvard, has any chance to top the Crimson. The varsity has tied and beaten Brown in their two meetings. However, the Elis lost to Brown 6-2 earlier this week, and are not expected to give the Crimson much trouble.

In fact, coach Ralph (Cooney) Weiland's biggest problem tonight may be getting all his high-scoring forwards onto the ice. Two games ago Weiland moved senior Dick Blakey onto the first line to center for captain Tim Taylor and Ike Ikauniks, and Blakey has performed so well that he will probably stay there.

No Place for Kinasewich?

But if Weiland doesn't mix up this combination, or the high-scoring line of Billy Lamarche, Barry Treadwell, and Baldy Smith, he'll have no place to put Gene Kinasewich, without whom the Crimson was not even supposed to be able to field a hockey team.

Weiland will probably juggle the first two lines quite a bit, in an effort to find the best scoring combinations before the start of this year's ECAC tournament.

Harvard, which has been seeded third by the ECAC, will open the tourney at home against Colgate on March 5.

Although Harvard-Yale hockey games are traditionally exciting, the Elis have not won one since 1960, and have managed only two victories in the teams' last 21 meetings.

Crimson Upset Possible

They couldn't pick a better time for an upset, however. The Crimson is fresh from its tremendous win over B.C. Tuesday, and may not be up for the contest with Yale.