'Soaring' Brown Six Invades Watson; Bruins Seek Sixth Victory in a Row

Brown hockey coach Allan Soares exclaimed yesterday, "It's great that Ivy League teams [Cornell and Harvard] are seeded one and two in the ECAC." But what the Bruins' coach thinks and what he says may be two different matters, as his 10-7 squad faces both of the top-ranked teams this week.

Brown, looking for a playoff berth itself, comes into tonight's game at 7:30 p.m. in Watson Rink in search of its sixth straight win and one of the remaining four ECAC seeds. Win or lose tonight, it seems almost certain Brown will be among the top eight. Soares, however, is cautiously pessimistic.

"I don't even know if we're going to make it," he said. "I don't really like our chances." The Bruins' competition for a seed includes Penn (11-7-2), UNH (9-7), Clarkson (10-8), RPI (10-9) and possibly St. Lawrence (7-9). At worst, Brown could end up with nine losses, and a record no worse than RPI's. A split of the remaining two games would almost certainly assure the Bruins of a seed in the final selections on Thursday.

In discussing the ranking, Soares added, "I don't understand why they [the ECAC selection committee] ranked the top four already. Cornell could certainly be beaten this week."

What he meant and what Crimson fans are hoping is that Brown might upset the Big Red this Saturday in Providence. A Cornell loss, coupled with Harvard victories tonight and at Yale, will give the Crimson a share of the Ivy League championship.

Wing Pete Rotelli emerged in Brown's last two victories over Yale and Dartmouth as a new star on the Bruin squad. Rotelli, a junior from Providence, had not seen much ice time during the first half of the season. But when promising sophomore Rich Heimbach was sidelined with a torn knee ligament, Rotelli was thrust into a regular shift.

Rotelli notched a hat trick in Brown's 7-4 victory over the Bulldogs and then fired in two more against the Big Green last Saturday. He tallied the game-winner in both contests. These were his first goals of the season and five of his ten career points while playing for Brown.

Other big guns for the Bruins are Norm Howarth, Brian Stapleton and Steve Shea. Howarth is Brown's leading scorer with 18 goals and 14 assists, while Stapleton and Shea each have 21 and 19 points respectively.

Goalie Dave Sagaser, who made 30 saves and allowed only one goals against Dartmouth, will be in pets tonight. Sagaser has a 4.08 goals against average for 12 games.

"We need to win this one," Soares said. "In our last three games we played Yale, Dartmouth and Providence, who were all contenders at the time, and we bumped them off. We needed to win those too."