Chalmers In, Bourbeau Out... Probably

The Harvard men's hockey team will get a small boost next week when Greg Chalmers '85-'87 returns to school and to the ice for the Crimson.

The boost will be smaller than previously expected, however, because Alan Bourbeau '87-'88, who is also returning to school, apparently is ineligible to play because of an NCAA rule.

Harvard had already granted Bourbeau permission to play hockey this semester, and most expected the former Massachusetts Schoolboy Player of the Year to join the team in February.

However, Harvard Director of Athletics John P. Reardon Jr. '60 said yesterday that Bourbeau probably will not meet an NCAA eligibility rule.

It appears now, pending clarification of the rule from the NCAA, that Bourbeau will return to school Wednesday but not to the ice until next November.

Bourbeau, who in 1983 entered Harvard as one of the most highly touted recruits in the school's history, played only one game last season. The center scored a goal against Colgate in the contest during intersession.

Two days later, the Administrative Board declared Bourbeau, who had been ineligible to play during the first semester because of disciplinary reasons, also ineligible for the second semester.

He withdrew from school in March and subsequently began playing hockey for the United States Junior National Team.

Chalmers, meanwhile, will return after a year and a half absence. As a sophomore, he was the eighth leading scorer (12-15 27) on the Crimson squad that advanced to the NCAA finals.

At the end of that year, Chalmers returned to his home in Alberta. He continued to play some hockey until he injured his retina while working on an oil rig in western Canada.

Chalmers has been working out in full equipment in Bright Center and is, despite his injury and absence, apparently in good shape.

Chalmers will not be able to play against Dartmouth Monday night at Bright, but he will join the team for games at Yale and Brown the following weekend.

Speculation on new line arrangements had centered on Bourbeau. It seemed that he and Chalmers would be on the second line, perhaps with sophomore Tim Barakett.

Now only Chalmers will have to be inserted into the line-up, perhaps on a revamped second line.

However, the new lines are arranged, it is imperative that Coach Bill Cleary find offense from somewhere other than his first line.

The Scott Fusco, Tim Smith and Lane MacDonald unit has accounted for 47 of the Crimson's 75 total goals.

Twenty-four of those 47 first line scores have come on the power play, where the icemen are still connecting at 41 percent, despite going 0-for-7 against Clarkson and St. Lawrence.

* * *

Fusco, who all year had been trailing RPI's Adam Oates in the national scoring face, has finally passed the Engineer Oates, who led the nation most of the year, now has a 2.84 points a game average.

Fusco boasts a 2.86 points per-game average, so he's in first place right?

Wrong.

So somebody farther down on the scoring chart passed both Fusco and Oates.'

No, in fact, Minnesota Duluth's Bill Watson is way back there with a 2 58 average.

What happened is that the College Hockey Statistics Bureau decided to start including players from independent Division I schools on the chart this week.

And one of those players, Steve Moria, who plays for the University of Alaska at Fairbanks just happens to be averaging 3.00 points-a-game.

Anyone know who's on ole UAF's schedule?

* * *

Meanwhile, goalie Grant Blair is now third in the nation in save percentage. The junior has stopped 90.5 percent of the shots he's faced and trails only Michigan State's Bob Essenza (92.4) and RPI's Darren Puppa (90.6) in that category.

Blair's sixth in the nation in goals-against-average with a 2.96 mark.

With a shutout Monday against Dartmouth, Blair would tie the Harvard mark for career shutouts at six.

December 14, at Dartmouth's Thompson Arena, the Big Green's Jeff Leonard spoiled Blair's bid to tie the record by scoring with just three and a half minutes left.

* * *

The new Cooper helmets that the Crimson has this year are fitted with a clear plastic visor and not a metal cage because of a new rule that allows the plastic facemasks.

Last year, several Harvard players suffered concussions playing with the old CCM helmets. After the head injuries, the players who had been hurt were fitted with Cooper helmets to give them extra protection.

This year the new helmets were purchased and so far the team has not had a single head injury.

* * *

There was exciting action at the Clarkson St. Lawrence battle last weekend St. Lawrence Coach Mike McShane accused Clarkson goalie Jamie Falle of using an illegal stick. The referee checked and discovered that the netminder's stick was curved too much, so Falle was assessed a two-minute minor and 10-minute misconduct penalty.

St. Lawrence was already on the power play when Falle was penalized, but freshman goalie Scott Dominges held the Larries off and Clarkson skated to a 5-2 triumph.

In other action, ECAC-leading RPI swept two games from Michigan at Troy, N.Y...SLU's fine freshman goalie Scott Yearwood is out for "an indefinite period" with mononucleosis.

Brown will become the first American college hockey team to travel to China next season when the Bruins venture east for three weeks during China's annual ice festival...Cornell's Joe Nieuwendyk and Yale's Randy Wood are ECAC Players of the week. Nieuwendyk also claimed Ivy Player of the Week honors...Cornell swept Brown and Yale to move into fourth place in the ECAC with a 6-4 mark. Since the top four squads will host the quarterfinal playoff--contests, making the first four is crucial...In addition, with those two wins, Cornell moved into a tie for first place with Harvard in the Ivy League standings. Both clubs are 4-0-1 in the Ancient Eight...Army, after going 0-11 in its first year in Division 1, returned to a more familiar opponent last weekend and earned a 15-2 victory over Division 11 Buffalo State Saturday night.