Icemen Head Home for the Holidays

Harvard hockey Coach Bill Cleary '56 may have graduated from Harvard with and economics degree, but he's playing rink shrink now.

No, the coach hasn't installed a couch at center ice. No, he doesn't have a translucent rock hanging from a gold chain ready to dangle in front of his players' faces.

Cleary practices psychology the Freudian way. He sends his players back to mother.

"Psychologically, it's more important that [the players] go home," Cleary said. "Being home is more important than all the practicing you can do."

So Bright Center, the Crimson's hockey home, will be shutting its doors until the new year. Harvard will have its last practice today and regroup in New York for the Long Island Hockey Classic December 27.

The only ice the Crimson will see for awhile will be in the freezer.

"We might be a little rusty in the beginning," Cleary said. "But some of those kids haven't been home since September. It's vital that they get home for Christmas."

Harvard will get a rest in order to make the rest of the season good.

Then it will be time to pick up the sticks again. Put on the shoulder pads. Pull on the jerseys.

The Crimson, in first place in the ECAC, will get its first taste of out-of-league competition when it squares off against the University of Illinois-Chicago in the opening round of the Long Island Classic.

The Flames have been burning a little low this year--they're in fifth place in the eight-team Central Collegiate Hockey Association. But there's a personal side to this confrontation. Flames Coach Val Belmonte used to be an assistant coach at Harvard.

Belmonte, who left Harvard seven years ago, was responsible for bringing in such superstars as Grant Blair (second on Harvard's all-time goaltending list) and Tim Smith (a ringmaster with a wicked shot who helped lead Harvard to the NCAA finals in 1986.)

The Flames also represent "the other guys," the uncouth opponents outside of the ECAC. In the past, these folks haven't given Harvard much respect.

Harvard's the school with all those eggheads, right?

"Everyone's always dumping on Harvard and the ECAC," Crimson defenseman Don Sweeney says.

Put psychologically, the Crimson will try to take advantage of its perceived wimpy image to inflict a massive hurt on the opponent.

In short, Harvard's psyched.