Johnson's Goal in Last 15 Seconds Topples B.U. Freshman Sextet, 6-5

Barry Johnson's third goal of the afternoon, with only 15 seconds to play in the game, gave the Harvard freshman hockey team a come-from-behind 6-5 victory over Boston University at Watson Rink yesterday.

George Murphy opened the scoring for Harvard with a short shot at 3:49 of the first period with B.U. a man short. The lead stood up for about six minutes until B.U.'s Maxwell Gruy stuffed in a rebound of his own shot. B.U.'s second penalty cost them as heavily as the first: Pete Haley broke the tie four seconds after Ed Wright entered the bin.

The second period opened rather tamely, but the visitors erupted after eight minutes. Serge Boily and Herb Wakabayashi scored within 30 seconds of each other, the second coming with Mike Fenollosa sitting out a Crimson sin.

Reverse Power Play

Harvard's troubles were only beginning. At 10:02, a delayed penalty was called on Chuck Pieper, and before the whistle blew, Johnson had committed an infraction too. Playing two men down, Diercks staved off a stream of B.U. shots, until the referee hit his whistle again, and Gray joined the Harvard pair in the box. This led to the bizarre situation of a B.U. power play switching instantly to a Harvard power play when the double penalties ended, and no one knew who was on the attack.

Harvard tied the score on a goal by Johnson which should never have been allowed. Everyone in the rink except the the referee saw that Johnson's shot had bounced off the body of Pete Mueller, but the B.U. complaints came to naught.

Harvard Pulls Ahead

Bobby Bauer pushed Harvard ahead on a backhand shot, after a pass from Chip Otness. Two minutes later, at 19:28, Johnson plopped a rebound past goalie Jim McCann, and it was 5-3 after two periods.

The new layer of ice was still shiny when Gray closed the gap on a nifty tap from a few inches out. Harvard offered the visitors another opportunity when Tony Kotnik and Tom Michiletti were stewing together in the penalty box. The Crimson simply couldn't handle a five-on-three barrage twice in one day, and Darrell Abbott tied the game with a screen shot.

It looked like a deadlock was imminent, but Murphy flipped a perfect centering pass as the clock spun into its last quarter minute, and Johnson slammed it in for the win.

The victory was Harvard's 17th, against only two defeats. They will close out their fine campaign by crushing a hapless Yale team on Saturday.