Quakers Defrost Crimson Icemen, 4-3

PHILADELPHIA--It's bad enough having to go to Philadelphia, but when you have to make the six-hour jaunt by bus, only to lose a hockey game, well, it's downright mortifying.

Such was the case for the Harvard hockey team here last night, at Penn's Class of 1923 rink, as a pair of power-play goals and a superb performance in the nets by Penn goalie Bob Sutton led the Quakers to a stunning 4-3 upset over the Crimson.

Sutton, the freshman netminder who was last week's ECAC player of the week, almost singlehandedly extended Penn's winning streak to four games, totally shutting down the Crimson offense in the first two periods.

Penn's Doug Berk scored the winning tally on a power-play goal at 8:30 of the final period. At that time, the score stood at 4-1 Penn, and it really didn't seem to matter until Harvard attempted some late-game heroics, and almost pulled them off.

With Quaker defenseman Tom Whitehead off for hooking, freshman Bob McDonald notched a power-play goal at 14:44 to pull the Crimson within two.

Twenty-three seconds into the man-up situation, Jackie Hughes took a pass from John Cochrane and led McDonald in alone past the Penn defense, and the freshman's wrister found the upper right-hand corner of the net. It was the first and last good goal that Sutton would give up.

Four minutes later, with 1:08 left to play in the game, the Harvard power play came through again with the final score of the contest. Gene Purdy's shot from the point deflected off the right skate of George Hughes and underneath the falling Sutton for the goal.

Coach Billy Cleary then pulled goaltender John Hynes with less than a minute remaining, and if a semi-breakaway by Cochrane had not been foiled by Sutton, the Crimson would have gone into overtime for the second straight game.

Although sloppiness and apathy was the name of Harvard's game for most of the first stanza, it was the missed power-play opportunities of the second period that aggravated the icemen the most.

Penn took a 3-0 lead into the locker room at the end of one, as a pair of goals by Ivy scoring star Tom Cullity and one by Dave Taylor, were the result of Harvard's non-offense and subsequent Penn pressure.

But in the second period, the Quakers turned war-like, and wound up with five penalties being called against them. A man or more up for almost half the period, Harvard could do no more than crank 13 shots on net and watch Sutton kick, glove or do whatever was necessary to stop them.

Meanwhile, Penn was too busy killing off all those penalties, and the count stayed at 3-0 with one period left.

The Crimson finally got on the board with a slapstick-type of tally at 2:28 of the third. Murray Dea fed Cochrane in on an uncontested breakaway, and almost falling down a second before he was about to shoot, the junior from Cambridge managed to push the puck by the bewildered Sutton before the goalie had a chance to smother it.

Harvard enjoyed all sorts of pressure after Cochrane's tally, until a high-sticking call on freshman Ricky Benson gave Berk a chance to do his thing.

And if a 4-3 loss isn't enough to tear your heart out, consider this: Harvard had a Phil Evans goal disallowed in the first period when the freshman was called for overtime parking in the crease.

W.C. Fields was right....

THE NOTEBOOK: The Crimson hopes for better things tonight, as the icemen take their 9-7 ECAC record to Baker Rink against lowly Princeton.

Last night's heartbreaker marked the third time in the last three seasons that Penn has beaten Harvard 4-3 at the Class of 1923 rink.

George Hughes needs only two more points to pass Billy Corkery '73 for eighth place on Harvard's all-time scoring parade.