B.U. Takes on the Champs

In only corner, wearing the Crimson and white trunks, we have the defender. A surprise winner the last time the title was up for grabs, but in virtually the same shape as a year ago, the champions chomps at the mouth-piece for the chance to make it two in a row. Directly opposite, decked out in scarlet with white trim, waits the contender. Alive down to the last punch a record number of times, and boasting more championships than anyone else, the challenger hopes to renew a recently tainted reputation.

Their rivalry goes back a long way, covering more than 100 contests. The most recent was two months ago, a nontide boar in which the challenger knocked the champ down several times and hung for the decision. Tonight, at Boston Garden, the bell rings for Round Two.

And it ain even the featured attraction.

When the Harvard University hockey team faces off tonight in the opening round of the Beanpot against Boston University, they will not be playing in the second, highlight of-the-evening game as originally scheduled. The Crimson--last year's Cinderella Beanpot champion and provider of some of the most exciting hockey ever to shake the ratters of ot Boston Garden--the Terriers--for so long the holders of the key to the trophy case, with 22 Beanpot finals (including 16 straight) and a record 11 'Pots to their credit--have been pushed to the undercard. The supposedly more attractive Boston College-Northeastern showdown will fill the featured slot and the headlines.

And so Harvard and B.U. will christen the 30th annual Beanpot tourney tonight, a situation that doesn't bother the coach of the defending champions. "It doesn't make any difference to me whether we play first or second," says Harvard's Bill Cleary. "The ice is a little better for the first game anyway."

The ice treated the Crimson pretty well in the first game of last year's Beanpot, when Harvard shocked pretourney favorite Northeastern, 10-2. Led by the goaltending of tournament Most Valuable Player Wade Lau, the Crimson went on to treat itself pretty well on the second February Monday of 1981, handcuffing a powerful Boston College squad, 2-0, to take home the beans for the first time since 1977.

Despite last year's heroics. Harvard will once again enter the Beanpot as the decided underdog, with losses this season to both B.U. and B C. The Crimson has not played Northeastern yet this year, but the Huskies as a team have been scoring with Gretskyan an efficiency and currently rate among the top squads in the East.

Of course, it is part of Beanpot legend that the expected will be damned when the puck hits the ice on the first Monday night in February at the Boston Garden. And for the last two seasons (Northeastern in '80 and Harvard last year), the underdog has had the 'Pot in its lap when all was said and done. But if you're expecting it to happen for the third time in a row, watch out. Remember, the expected be damned.

Eight-time Beanpot champion Harvard (5-7-1 ECAC, 5-9-1 overall), despite its recent slide under 500 and an extended schedule which left the team with only two practices to prepare for tonight's game, could conceivably turn in a repeat performance. The team started out 5-3-1 in ECAC play but then suffered its annual January thaw, dropping four straight conference games, including a 4.3 loss to B.C. at home before breaking for exams two weeks ago. Last year, the team dragged a seven-game ECAC losing streak into the tournament and proceeded to knock North-eastern into Section 64 But Cleary is to reads to make comparisons.

"A year ago we were just playing poorly," he says. "This year we've had our chances. We haven't played that badly defensively, but we've got to start putting the puck in the net.

"If we can regain that scoring touch: I think we'll be there. I've got a good feeling about it."

The scoring touch was certainly there on opening night last season and with all but three forwards back and some hot-shot freshmen to boot. B.U.'s coach. Jackie Parker, knows he does not want to get into a run and gun game with the Harvard Icemen.

"Our major concern with Harvard," he says, "will be to try and make sure it doesn't become a wide-open, high scoring affair. They have more fire-power than we do" Adds Cleary "B.U. is not going to outskate us."

The way to stop a fast team is to hit them, to harass them, and to play tight defense. "We would like to have a close-checking, tight game, something like 5-4 or 4-3." Parker says. "We don't have a lot of big scorers. But I think we may be a better overall defensive team than Harvard."

The last time out, when B.U. won, 5-2, on December 2, Dr. Parker got just what he ordered out of his Terriers, who forechecked and backchecked the Crimson out of its skating flow and broke open a tight game with three goals during he last seven minutes of the second period.

"I was very dissatisfied with our performance in that game," says Cleary. "I think we played poorer against B.U. than in any other Eastern game. The second period has been killing us. Don't ask me what it is. If I had the answer to that, I'd make a million bucks."

Harvard is actually led on offense by a defenseman, junior All-American Mark Fusco (6-14-20), whose sixth goal of this season pushed him past Dick Greeley and into first place on the Harvard list for career goals by a defenseman, with 26. Fusco's booming slapshot from the point remains a crucial weapon on the Crimson power play, which has been clicking at 23 percent on the year.

The Harvard forward lines have been a jumble since mid-December, as Cleary has searched for a trio or two that will consistently turn the red light on. One certainty for tonight's game is that co-captain and center Michael Watson (4-12-16) and left wing Greg Olson (5-8-13)--last year's leading scorer--will comprise two-thirds of the top line, possibly with flashy freshman Greg Chalmers (5-7-12) filling the other wing spot.

The second line is sure to be centered by the other freshman. Scott Fusco (7-7-14), brother of Mark, who should be flanked by sophomore Tony Visone (5-2-7) and junior Greg Britz (6-9-15). Others who will play include centers Phil Falcone and Bill Larson--who had the game-winner in last year's Beanpot final--and wingers Jay North. Jim Turner and Scott Powers.

The elder Fusco also leads Harvard's defensive corps, usually working with sophomore Ken Code (2-5-7), back after missing the last game before exams because of illness. Junior Neil Sheehy (2-3-5) and senior Alan Litchfield (1-7-8), the team's steadiest defensive defenseman, comprise the second pair.

In addition, junior Mitch Olson, a standout two year's ago who took last year and the first third of this season off, will start to see more action at the blueline. Olson may make up a third pairing with junior Scott Sangster, who has been steady while seeing limited action as the fifth defenseman.

And then there is netminder Wade Lau, whom Parker calls "the backbone of the Harvard defense." In addition to being the defending Beanpot MVP Lau, a senior, is so far enjoying his finest season in Harvard uniform turning in a 3.83 goals-against average and an 88-per-cent save percentage. In a tournament where a hot goalie can prove the difference between first and last place, Lau is as likely as any to snuff out the opposing offense's fire.

Generating anything more startling than a dim spark has been a Terrier concern during the last two Beanpots. Perhaps weary from toting the trophy over their heads for so many years, they have suffered through fourth-and third-place finishes, respectively.

But this season, despite a rag-tag 5-7-3 ECAC record (8-8-3 overall), a surge of late has put the Terriers in playoff contention, and, apparently, on the road to recovery. A recent trip to Clarkson and St. Lawrence, at one time the second-and seventh-ranked teams in the country, respectively, produced a tie and a win. Earlier, B.U. knocked off Ivy Division leader Yale, 1-0, in New Haven. And last Wednesday at Walter Brown Arena against Northeastern, in probably the Terriers' finest performance of the past few seasons, they defanged the Huskies, 7-3. The B.U. power-play, now hitting at better than 24 per cent on the year, accounted for six of the seven goals. And Parker got the close checking he demands from his skaters.

"B.U. is a much improved hockey team this year," Cleary says. "They don't throw anything fancy at you, but they're a sound team playing basic, fundamental hockey. And they're getting good goaltending."

Sophomore netminder Cleon Daskalakis, although currently alternating in the goal with back-up Bob Barich (who had 36 saves to stop potent North-eastern Wednesday), is the nominal starter for the Terriers tonight, based on his 30-save, two-goals-allowed performance against Harvard the last time. Though the posts were kind. Daskalakis thwarted Crimson forwards on numerous opportunities. His save percentage hovers around 90; his goals-against is just over 3.5. Barich's numbers read: 90 per cent and about 3.17 goals-against.

The Terrier defensive corps is balanced and big. Smooth junior Jerry August and soph T.J. Connolly (2-9-11) make up the top blueline duo. The "Brook-line," manned by George Klapes and 6-ft., 3-in., 196-lb. Bruce Milton (3-15-18), both natives of that Boston 'burb, forms the second pairing. The defensemen specialize in setting up B.U.'s deliberate offense and getting the puck to the forwards. "I think we move the puck out of our own zone as well as anyone," says Parker.

Once the puck moves across the red line, a talented, hustling crew takes over. Led by the top line of senior center Robbie Davies (7-18-25) and wings Bob Darling (13-10-23, including ten power-play goals) and captain Paul Fenton (15-9-24), the Terriers do have some firepower of their own, as the Northeastern game certainly shows.

Backing up the top trio is a line centered by leading scorer Tommy O'Regan (7-26-33), the prototype Terrier, with soph Mark Pierog (8-9-17) and junior Marc Sinclair (6-7-13) on the flanks. Freshman Kevin Mutch (6-9-15) should also be a factor.

Against Harvard, Parker wants more from his forwards than just goals. Most importantly, he wants them to forecheck as they did back in December. "We've got to have a close-checking game'" Parker says. "I think both teams want to forecheck well."

Cleary readily agrees. "Our success will depend on our skating and our forechecking," the Harvard mentor says. "If we forecheck well, we're going to win."

Both coaches, then, expect forechecking to be the ticket to ride into next Monday's final with either Boston College or Northeastern. Hmmmm. Could be. And then again, maybe not When four Boston schools take to the mystical blue ice of Boston Garden on the first Monday night in February, you've always got to remember one thing.

In the Beanpot, the expected will be damned.