Icemen Face Clarkson in Showdown

The Harvard hockey team enters the toughest five game stretch of the season today when it hosts Clarkson, perennial powerhouse in the ECAC, at Watson Rink at 8 p.m.

Clarkson, with a 16-4 record, has been in the top six in the East all season. The Golden Knights from Potsdam, New York, have been upset twice by St. Lawrence and once by Penn, but Harvard isn't looking forward to an easy time. Clarkson crushed B.U., 6-2, earlier in the season, and last week they broke Cornell's 62-game winning streak at home, 4-2, with two goals in the last nine minutes of the game.

In the Cornell game, Clarkson coach Leonard Ceglarski put Russ Audycki, Pete Harasym and Brian MacKenzie against the Big Red's strong first line, and they responded to the challenge by scoring all four of Clarkson's goals.

But the biggest scoring threat should come from the line of Brian Mason, Jerry Kemp and Mike Conroy. Kemp is considered one of the best wings in the ECAC, and he leads the team in goals, even though he missed six games earlier in the season.

Clarkson's All-American goalie Bruce Bullock graduated last year, but the Golden Knights have two good net-minders in Carl Piehl and Tom Woods. Ceglarski used Piehl against B.U. and Woods against Cornell. Either one of them could start tonight.

Steve Warr is Clarkson's best defenseman, and he leads the team in assists.

Harvard's lay-off during intersession will work to Clarkson's advantage, although Crimson coach Bill Cleary was satisfied with his team's 8-3 victory over Northeastern on Monday. "We skated better than most Harvard teams do after exams, but we could have used a little more time before coming up against Clarkson." Cleary said.

The one question mark in Harvard's line-up is defensemen Doug Elliott, who sat out the Northeastern game with the flu. Elliott is still a doubtful starter, and Cleary will probably use sophomore Dave Hands, who played well as Kevin Hampe's partner on Monday night.

After Clarkson, the Crimson will host upset-minded Penn on Saturday before facing B.U. in the Beanpot finals on Monday. The Dartmouth Indians will invade Watson Rink on February 16, and then the Crimson must travel to Ithaca to face Cornell. "These next two weeks will tell alot for us," Cleary said.

Between now and February 19, Harvard will face Penn, B.U., Dartmouth and Cornell.