Harvard Skaters Pull Fast One Over Penn, 8-2

The Pennsylvania Quakers should have done themselves a supreme favor last night and stayed in Philadelphia. It's not so much that they lost the hockey game, 8-2, which made their journey such a waste of time (and Athletic Department money), but the fact that there was simply no way for them to win. The deck, you see, was stacked, and Harvard was holding the four aces.

In the first place, the Crimson skaters were coming off a 5-4 loss to Dartmouth which they should have won, and Coach Bill Cleary had pointed out after that game that goalie Brian Petrovek had already seen as many shots this year (in 17 games) as he did all of last (in 28 contests).

Secondly, Harvard had revenge on its mind (thanks to a 4-3 Quaker win in December, the Crimson's worst showing of the season), and then there was the fact that the Crimson could not afford to lose if its playoff hopes were to remain afloat, especially not to a team with a 5-14 record.

So when Penn coach Bob Crocker decided to go with freshman Wayne "he's only stopped 14 shots (in parts of three games) all season" Archambault as his starting goalie, he practially conceded that his squad was facing a loaded deck. Which it was.

Fortunately for the Quakers, though, there were no wild cards, which explains why the final was 8-2 and not 15-2, the likely result had Harvard taken advantage of all of its untold number of excellent scoring opportunities.

The Crimson relied instead on just the requisite number of breaks, enough to make the game a rout anyway, most of which somehow involved a remade second line of George Hughes, Kevin Burke (returning from the injured ranks), and Tim McKenna (replacing Paul Haley, who is still a member of those ranks).

It was McKenna who got things going with a backhander over Archambault's left shoulder sever minutes into the game, and after Bill Hozack (on a great rush through two Penn defensemen) gave Harvard a 2-0 lead after one period, Hughes (2 goals, 3 assists) scored on a power-play rebound 7:34 into the second stanza for a 3-0 advantage.

Gordin Harrigan then put Penn on the board before Burke countered by knocking home a loose puck in front, after Hughes and McKenna had similar chances nullified.

After that the third period was all downhill. Hughes's second goal (on a great pass from Burke) made it 5-1, a Kevin Carr blast upped the margin by one, and then with a Penn defender practically undressing him, Hughes somehow broke toward the net. Archambault managed to knock it off Hughes's stick, but he forgot to guard the goal in the process, so McKenna steered the loose puck into the vacated net.

Penn's Bruce Carrick and a Dave Bell goal rounded out the scoring, which concluded with, in addition to Hughes' five-point output, two goals and an equal number of assists for McKenna, and a goal and two assists for Burke.

Heroics

Brian Petrovek, who had to face 29 shots (as compared to 40 for Archambault) made the saves that he had to in Harvard's net, as the Crimson waltzed to its ninth win of the year (7-6-2 in ECAC, 3-4 in Ivy).

With Princeton (10-2 losers to Dart-mouth last night) at Watson tonight, Harvard should have little difficulty in adding another triumph to its slate, although rumor has it that the Tigers refuse to play cards away from home.