One to Remember

I remember the first guy the best, because he had that silly all knowing grin on his face.

Only moments before Greg Olson had scored the second Harvard goal of the opening period. It was one of the prettiest goals you'll ever see Tommy Murray slid a pass to Olson at center ice, the flashy winger took the puck all the way in on Husky goalie George Demetroulakas, and tucked it in the net on the fly.

The Boston Garden scoreboard read Home 2, Visitors 0, and the Crimson was well on its way to a shocking 10-2 win over Northeastern in the opening round of the Beanpot.

And then this guy arrived, late because he got stuck in traffic or maybe he's a B.C. fan or just because he's one of those people who is always late. And always wrong.

"Hoooo boy. It sure didn't take those Huskies long to bring it to 'emhuh' knew they'd bounce back. Of course, against a team like Harvard, you can't really tell, right?" And he broke into that self-assured laughter that is best left on the sit-come set.

"Uh. excuse me sir, "I broke into the aura of joyfullness, "but whatever might you be talking about?"

"Hey, who had the goals, anyway?" he screamed, disregarding my interruption. "Beadle? McDougall? Or was it 'Hell of a line, those three. Hell of a line."

"Sir," I continued, "the first goal was scored by Greg Britz. And the second, which you just barely missed, was scored by Greg Olson Harvard is the home team Harvard is ahead."

"Well, I know that, son. I was just what did you say?" he paused, finally taking a breath.

"I said, or at least tried to say, that Harvard is beating Northeastern, 2-0. Harvard, seven-game losing streak still intact, is beating Northeastern, 12-2 record and all.

He started for a minute, swallowing the grin all at once--no easy feat. Just then Harvard's Mark Fusco ripped a vicious slap shot from the point by a bewildered Demetroulakas. Home 3, visitors 0. Mumbling something about finding some popcorn to go with his pride, he pardoned and excused himself all the way to the aisle, disappearing into the crowd.

It was like that for much of last year's opening game in the Beanpot, a half-full Garden watching with disbelief slightly-regarded. Harvard seen the East's top-rated team searching for a puck to hide under. Late arrivals mostly B.C. fans, the real ways late to the Beanpot would glance at the end of the first period, and 7-1 in the middle of the second, and pity poor Harvard for having as Beanpot sported by a first-round encounter with powerful Northeast- ern.

You could only correct them and sit back and try not to get too excited as Olson added another goal. Michael Watson popped in two more and it went on and on until the Harvard fans were singing "Gooooodbahhh Huskies!" and Harvard had won the opening round, 10-2. Not since the Crimson rapped the Huskies five year before, 9-0, had a Beanpot crowd witnessed such devastation. Not since the year before, when Cinderella Northeastern won its first Beanpot, had they been so surprised.

It was Beanpot magic at its best.

In the second game of the opening round. Boston College handily dispatched with Boston University, leaving the Eagles with the enviable task of snapping the Crimson out of its Beanpot dream and back to reality. The Brahmins had had their day. There was little question in anyone's mind that the 1981 'Pot was at the end of B.C.'s rainbow.

Anyone's mind, that is, except that of the Harvard hockey leprechaun and a goaltender by the name of Wade Lau.

Lau turned aside 15 B.C. shots on that second Monday--none of them easy saves and some of them very tough--to lead his team to a 2-0 victory and its first Beanpot title since 1977. The performance earned Lau, who had shut down two of the East's most potent offenses, the tournament's Most Valuable Player Award.

The supporting cast, led by Eagle netminder Bob O'Connor--who matched Lau save for save--and including the Harvard defensemen, the Harvard forwards, the entire B.C. squad and the guy who drove the Zamboni, was equally spectacular, producing what Harvard coach Bill Cleary calls "an almost perfect hockey game."

Harvard's first goal came from an unlikey source. Forward Bill Larson, recently called up from the J.V. and known more for his checking than his scoring, picked up an errant pass just in front of the net and poked it past O'Connor at the 12:41 mark of the opening stanza. It was sophomore Larson's third varsity goal.

And then for approximately 45 minutes, two college hockey teams skated their hearts out, spurred on by two college goalies hopping and flopping--and stopping anything that near to the goal mouth.

"At times, on the bench in the second period," says Eagle coach Len Ceglarski, "when the game went four or five minutes without a whistle. I'd say to myself. 'I'd like to be up in the third row of the balcony watching this one myself.' It was just a tremendous hockey game."

The ice--as in the scoring drought and also that which cooled the Harvard champagne--was broken with just less than two minutes to go in the final period. Harvard wing Dave Burke unleashed a bullet to O'Connor's left that clanged off the cross bar and fell into the net, for a two-goal Harvard lead.

What followed was a sight to behold. The entire Harvard bench stormed onto the ice, piling on top of Burke, rejoicing for more than a minute to the dismay of the B.C. squad and the referee. Finally the ice was cleared, the last two minutes played, and the Beanpot was in the arms of Harvard captain Murray, who was in the arms of Harvard coach Cleary.

The locker room after the game a cubical crowded with pens and cameras, microphones and questions. The grins on the faces of the Harvard players, grins that said. "We believed, and we made you believe."

Those grins, unlike the one from the week before were very nice to see.CrimsonNavin I. ShalitA jubilant Harvard hockey team--with grins a mile wide--takes its first Beanpot in four years for a skate around Boston Garden last February 9, after winning a 2-0 thriller in the final against Boston College.