Keeping Up With RPI

Although the Harvard men's hockey team takes two weeks off for exams, the icemen don't stand to lose much ground to league-leading RPI.

The Engineers (9-1) host Michigan next weekend for two out-of-conference contests, and the following weekend play home and home against their ECAC traveling partner, Vermont.

The Crimson (9-1-1) returns to action Monday, January 28, against Dartmouth at Bright Center.

Since Dartmouth boasts a 2-9 mark and Vermont sports a 1-9 record, in all probability, the Crimson should be 10-1-1 entering February, still just a half-game behind then-11-1 RPI.

That leaves 10 games on the schedule for both clubs, who have all but clinched spots in the first round of the ECAC playoffs that open March 8 and 9 at campus sites.

Should Harvard win its quarterfinal two-game series, the icemen would advance to the semifinals and the finals the following weekend at the Boston Garden.

The Crimson plays every other ECAC team once, except Army and Dartmouth. RPI faces every team except Army and Vermont once.

In case you're wondering, the RPI-Harvard showdown is scheduled for February 23 at Houston Field House in Troy, N.Y. A packed Houston house of 5600 should welcome Harvard at the league's largest rink.

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Poor Jack Riley. The winningest active college hockey coach in the nation (512 victories) saw his Army team bellyflop in its first year in Division I.

The Cadets finished up their shortened league schedule Saturday night with a 4-2 loss to Yale.

The evening was yet another Black night for the Black Knights, who dropped all 11 of their contests.

Army was admitted to the ECAC this year in the wake of the Hockey East defections, given a half-schedule (one game against every team) and barred from the playoffs.

Even though almost everyone in the ECAC makes the playoffs (eight of 12), the league did not have to exclude Army, which is guaranteed a last-place finish.

Army's failure to win even a single game points to the difference between Division I and Division II in eastern college hockey.

Last year, the Cadets went 28-5-1 playing a Division II schedule.

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If the Crimson beats Dartmouth during intersession, almost a certainty at home considering its 11-1 pasting of the Big Green at Hanover, N.H. last month, the Harvard men's hockey team would have a January record of 4-1.

Not even the ECAC championship team two years ago could boast such an impressive mark. That squad finished up the first month of the year 3-2.

Throw out '83 and '85 and the exam-plagued icemen have compiled a '2-17 overall record in January in the 80's

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Two Harvard players were named to the ECAC Honor Roll this week.

Junior Tim Smith earned the distinction for the second consecutive week by setting a new ECAC record for consecutive games with a goal (13)

Smith, a former defensemen who had scored a grand total of five times in his first two years, set the mark against Clarkson Friday night, but saw his streak end the following evening at St. Lawrence.

The right wing now has 19 goals and 10 assists for the season.

John Devin was named to the honor roll for the first time after saving the day for the Crimson against St. Lawrence.

The virtually untested freshman netminder stopped 29 of 31 shots in 55 minutes of relief work after junior goalie Grant Blair was struck in the face early in the contest and had to leave the game.

Just over halfway through the year, the leader in the honor roll appearance category: Scott Fusco, ECAC three, Ivy six. Fusco and defenseman Mark Benning have been ECAC Player of the Week once each and Benning, Blair and Smith have each been Ivy Player of the Week once

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In case you missed it. Blair broke his own record of saves in a game when he recorded 60 in the Crimson's 6-6 overtime tie with Boston College in December

Blair has already broken his own save record twice this year.

The junior could tie the Harvard record of six career shutouts if he whitewashes Dartmouth.

Benning has a chance to break Mark Fusco's record for points by a defenseman in a season. Benning has 23 in 14 games. The elder Fusco's record is 46.

The junior's chances probably depend on how far the Crimson goes in the playoffs.

Benning has a slightly better shot at the assists by a defenseman mark of 38 set by Ed Rossi in 1974-75. Benning has 21 so far, although he was blanked at Clarkson and St. Lawrence.

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The Crimson's victory over Clarkson knocked the Golden Knights out of a tie for first place in the ECAC with RPI.

The victory also avenged a 3-2 loss and a 2-2 tie at Bright Center last spring in the ECAC quarterfinals that sent Clarkson to the Garden and the semi-finals and the Crimson home.

Further, the victory justified last week's national poll that had sixth-ranked Harvard two spots ahead of Clarkson, despite me latter's better ECAC mark.

The Hockey Notebook appears every Wednesday in The Harvard Crimson.