B.U. Demolishes Harvard Icemen, 7-3

Boston University laid to rest all questions about which is the best college hockey team in the East with a crushing. 7-3, triumph over Harvard Saturday night to capture its second straight Eastern College Athletic Conference title.

The Terriers simply outclassed the Crimson in every aspect of the game. Harvard did not play poorly, as it had in the Beanpot final, but B.U. brought a superior brand of hockey to the ice.

Both teams opened the game cautiously yet the Crimson maintained a slight territorial advantage for the first half of the first period. Even though Harvard kept the puck in the Terrier end, the Crimson was unable is mount any good scoring threats on B.U. goalie Brian Durocher.

The Terriers' duo of Rick Meagher, the tournament's most valuable player, and Mike Eruzione got B.U. rolling. Meaghey scored tow goals within 23 seconds. On the first tally. Eruzione made a perfect pass to Meagher, who rammed it past Brian Petrovek from 15 feet out.

For his second goal. Meagher picked up a loose puck that had eluded a Harvard defenseman at the Crimson blue line and waltzed in alone on Petrovek. Meagher scored on the breakaway in textbook fashions, decoying Petro out of his skates, and lifted his team to a lightning quick 2-0 advantage.

Both goals came when the Crimson defensive tandem of Larry Pratelli and Todd Nieland was on the ice. In this respect, the game was a repeat of the 7-2 Harvard loss I the Beanpot-final, as the swift Terrier forwards were once again too much for the two to handle.

Third Score

The third B.U. score of the first period, however, at 18 seconds left in the stanza, propelled the Terriers to a lead too great for the Crimson to surmount.

Harvard was having difficulty working the puck out from behind the Crimson net, way onto the stick of Terrier Buddy Powers, who was all alone five feet out. He promptly backhanded around Petrovek for the tally.

For the rest of the night the contest was a game of cat and mouse. Three times Harvard came within two goals--3-1, 4-2, 5,3--but each time the Terriers surged back to restore their three-goal cushion.

The only thing Crimson fans could be happy about was the remarkable efficiency of the power play unit which accounted for all three goals. The Harvard power play had been batting at a lowly, 290 clip for the season, but against B.U. it was awesome, despite the absence of Jimmy Thomas on the left point. Thomas missed the game with a head injury he incurred against Cornell the night before.

Perfect Shot

Harvard took more shots than usual, instead of working the puck around for the perfect shot--and the strategy paid off three time. Each Crimson tally came on a rebound or a tip-in off an errant shot from far out.

Jim McMahon picked up two of the power play goals--first at 4:58 of the second period on a rebound of a Steve Dagdigian shot. Mac collected his second goal at 14:55, by knocking down an Eddie Rossi shot from the point and putting past Durocher from close in.

Dagdigian got the final Crimson score of the night, at 17:51 of the second frame gathering the rebound from another Ross point shot which Durocher had left lying in his crease.

Sandwiched in between the Crimson tallies were two goals by Terry Meagher Rick's older brother, that kept the Crimson at bay.

B.U. put the icing on the cake on a tip in from Mike Eruzione during a five-on three power play at 6:29 of the third period.

The Terriers Ken Kuzyk added insult in injury with another tally at 15:51, and school was out for Harvard.

B.U. goalie Durocher played a solid game for the Terriers, stopping 32 Crimson shots, some of which were stingers. Harvard's Petrovek, in the other net, endured perhaps his most dismal game of the season. Petro earned 19 saves, and although he was not at fault on any of the B.U. scores, he did not play up to the caliber of the top goaltender in the East.

It was the B.U. defensive corps that was the difference in the match, however. When Harvard was not on its power play, the Crimson offense was impotent. The loss of Thomas was not felt on the power play. But it was sorely suffered by linemates Leigh Hogan and Teddy Thorndike Coach Bill Cleary used Phelps Swift and Billy Hozack in an effort to get the line moving, but these substitutions were to no avail.

Randy Roth, Dave Gauthier and Kevin Burke played solid two-way hockey, and appeared to make up the most effective Crimson line on the ice with some tenacious forecheking--but forechecking did not make the big play.

The big guns for B.U. were Eruzione and Meagher. Both forwards are only sophomores and are the second and third leading scorers on the B.U. squad.

Meagher, the most dynamic player on the Terrier squad, showed that he is capable of scoring each time he touches the puck. Eruzione, though not as flashy or as smooth a skater as Meagher, is the hustler, always digging and never letting up.

As expected, both teams played a fast skating, clean game. Unlike the previous nigh against Cornell, there was no cheap stuff between the two squads. Each team had a healthy respect for the other, as though there was an unwritten agreement between the players to avoid needless rough stuff in the corners and around the net.

"A lot of players on each team know each other personally," said Harvard's Dave Gauthier. "You could call our games with them grudge matches, but we're not out to really hurt each other of give cheap shots. We want to go out and play a good hard game and may the better team win."

All is all it wasn't pleasant way, either for the players or for the largely inebriated Crimson fans, to end a highly-successful Eastern season, Next week brings the National Collegiate Athletic Association tournament to St. Louis, Mo, and another Harvard Crack at regaining its honor against B.U.