Icemen Face Brown Squad In Away Tilt

The Brown hockey team is young, slow, and mediocre. The Bruins have won only half of their games, and their rough playing style usually produces more penalties than goals.

But Brown skates a tenacious, close-checking game that can frustrate a high-scoring, short-passing game like Harvard's. And when the Crimson takes on the Bruins tonight they will face the added disadvantage of playing in Providence before the Brown fans, who rank with the U. N. H. and upper New York state fans as the most fanatic in the East.

Harvard is not likely to be sleeping, however, Brown, Harvard, and Cornell are all tied for the Ivy League lead with one loss apiece, and the Crimson must beat Brown to have a shot at unseating Cornell for the championship. Further-more, the Crimson is in the unenviable predicament of having to win virtually every game remaining on its schedule to get a decent ECAC seed and avoid the possibility of playing the first round in Ithaca.

The Brown team Harvard must beat tonight is a better team than the one that fell to the Crimson, 5-0, last December. The Bruins have begun to show some offense after scoring only seven goals in their first five games, although they are still hardly a high-scoring team. The leading scorer on the Brown team has all of 18 points in 14 games, but the scoring is fairly evenly spread out.

Brown's defense is fairly strong. Goalie Lou Reycroft has played well against the Crimson in the past, and he gives up an average of only three goals a game.

Stunning Bruins

Brown has skated with some excellent teams and beaten some decent teams in compiling a 7-7 record. The Bruins stunned Cornell early in the season, 3-2, and held both Harvard and B. U. to five goals. More recently, Brown has beaten both B. C. and Dartmouth, although it had trouble overcoming miserable Princeton and Yale teams.

Harvard is a clear favorite, but the game may be a little bit like a Rangers-Flyers game. Brown is mediocre, but they know it and adjust their game accordingly, playing to keep the score low and close and the fans happy with a lot of checking and a little blood.