Harvard Beats B.C. in Overtime to Win Hockey Crown

Harvard fought its way to the top of the hockey world in a sudden-death contest of fist fights, rule books, and line juggling at Boston Arena Saturday night. Trailing by two goals for the second night in a row, the Crimson roared back on Gene Kinasewich's three goals to beat the Boston College Eagles 4-3 and take the E.C.A.C. tournament championship.

Kinasewich, who was voted the tournament's most valuable player, scored the Crimson's decisive goal at 3:49 of the overtime period. In a wild dash that covered half the rink, the junior forward skated around half the B.C. squad and pushed the puck between goalie Tom Apprille's legs for the score.

The game-ending goal gave coach Cooney Welland his 200th victory ("that doesn't make any difference") and his first Eastern hockey crown ("that's wonderful"). With feeling running high between the two local rivals, referees spent a good part of the tournament finale breaking up scuffies along the boards and stopping personal skirmishes around the goals.

Still sharp from their 6-2 win over St. Lawrence Friday night, the Eagles did all of the scoring in the first period. Boston's Eddie Downes tallied first--shooting through a melee of skaters in front of the Crimson nets. Goalie Godfrey Wood was completely screened on the play and B.C. led 1-0 after just two minutes of hockey.

Left wing Paul Lufkin added a second marker for the Eagles at 5:55 while the Boston College Band blared its approval. Held scoreless by Apprille, Weiland's skaters spent most of the early action riding out penalties for tripping and interference.

Tension between the two squads increased with coaches Weiland and Snooks Kelley of Boston trying to out-maneuver each other on line assignments. Two weeks ago, Weiland's JFK line of Jerry Jorgenson, Billy Fryer and Kinasewich held the Eagles highly-touted first line scoreless.

Determined to avoid a similar tragedy in the E.C.A.C. tournament, Kelley refused to allow his first unit of Jack Leetch, Billy Hogan, and Paul Aiken to skate against the Kinasewich line. Play was interrupted for five minutes while the two coachs trotted lines on and off the ice and argued with referees--rule books in hand.

After the first period was dominated by B.C., the second 20 minute span was all Harvard's, B.C. skated its first line against the Crimson's first unit and put its best skater, Eddie Sullivan, on Kinasewich. This strategy momentarily bottled up the first and third lines, but failed to take into account Welland's second unit of Bill Lamarche, Barry Treadwell, and Baldy Smith.

Keeping the puck inside the B.C. blue line, Weiland's second line worked away on goalie Apprille until a shot by Smith found its mark at 9:15. The goal was followed by more personal friction requiring official intervention. Feeling ran so high that the usually calm Weiland jumped on the ice to dispute a call midway through the period.

Kinasewich tied the score at 2-2 on the first of his three goals. Taking a pass from linemate Billy Fryer, the 5 ft. 8 in. forward outskated a host of Eagles to the B.C. goal, slipping the puck by Apprille's leg.

Stung by the Crimson onslaught, B.C. returned to the offense briefly in the third period. Eagle All-American Billy Hogan bounced a shot off the goal pipe and Wood made three fantastic saves in succession before the varsity could clear the puck to safer ice.

At the nine minute mark, Kinasewich tipped in his second goal, to give the varsity a 3-2 lead. B.C. countered with its first score since the opening period on a Hogan-to-Leetch combination. The two Eagle starts produced 108 points over the regular season, but managed only three points in as many games against the varsity.

Harvard peppered Apprille in the B.C. nets for the rest of the regulation period, but was unable to break the deadlock. The Eagle goalie made 18 saves in the third period alone and stood up to the Crimson tide in spite of a collapsing defense.

In the opening minutes of the sudden-death overtime, the varsity collected a penalty for having too many men on the ice. In the 120 seconds of sheer desperation that followed, Wood made five stops and Dave Johnston, a second goalie on the ice, made two more.

With Wood prostrate on the ice after a tough save, Eagle center forward Billy Hogan carried the puck and the game on his stick in the last seconds of the Crimson penalty. But Hogan missed his shot, and moments later, Kinasewich sewed up the game, the tournament, and the season for the Crimson with his solo dash down the ice.Forward GENE KINASEWICH blasts the winning scoore past B.C.'s goalie, repeating his earlier break-away goal.