Icemen Face Hapless Princeton Six Tonight As Tigers Look for 500th All-Time Victory

The Crimson icemen, coming off a disastrous loss to Cornell that dropped the squad to second in the East and a tie for seventh in the nation, will get a chance to return to their winning ways tonight as they take on a hapless Tiger six in Princeton.

It's been a week for hockey history for the Tigers. Last Wednesday Brown had the choice of giving Princeton one of two milestones, either its 500th all-time victory or Bill Quackenbush's 100th loss in less than six years of coaching. They chose the latter.

Last Saturday, Yale too had the option of giving Princeton its 500th win, but like Brown, the Elis decided to add to Quackenbush's total, and gave him a 5-2 loss.

Harvard is next in line and you can be sure that the Tigers would love to get their 500th tonight, against the team that humiliated them on January 13, 11-1. The Tigers are 5-14 on the season and 2-6 in the Ivies. Their wins came against St. Anselms, Penn, Yale and B.U. (by forfeit).

Top Line

Old Nassau's top line has Brad Richards centering the Bengal's top scorer Mike Bascom and Corky Powers. Bascom has notched nine goals and nine assists for 18 points. Mark Stuckey, who was the leading scorer with 14 points going into Harvard's last meeting with Princeton, is out for the season with a broken collar bone.

The team's second leading goal getter, with eight, is Clay Kyle who plays on the third line with Paul McNamara and Wayne Bezan. Rounding out the Bengal firepower is the second line of Ethan Warren, Brian McIntosh and Walt Snickenberger, who has only been playing since exam break.

Guarding the Tiger net will be either Ed Swift or Phil Robinson. Robinson, the more effective of the two, has missed the last four games due to a groin pull, but Princeton hopes he will start tonight.

Princeton's defensive pairings of Jim Damberger and Peter McCann, along with Al Steuver and Ogden Honeywell, have been consistent all season, but as seen by their record, not spectacular.

Below Third

Harvard comes into tonight's contest ranked below third nationally for the first time this season. The loss to Cornell dropped them in the polls to a tie with North Dakota for seventh. Denver and Wisconsin are deadlocked at the top, while the Big Red moved up to third.

Also ahead of the Crimson are Michigan State, B.U., and B.C. Tonight's game, however, will not loom significantly in the standings unless an upset takes place.

As for the Ivy League, Harvard's only hope of capturing the title is if it can sweep the last four contests (two with Yale and single games with Princeton and Brown), while Cornell drops two of its remaining three league contests. Princeton seems doomed for the cellar once again.

What Princeton lacks in talent, however, they make up for in hustle, and it'll be doing plenty of that tonight.