Icemen Off to Fast Start in ECAC While Rival Schools Falter

The Harvard men's hockey team is off to a blistering start: a 4-0 win over Yale and a 7-1 whipping of Princeton. Calls for a celebration, don't you think?

Well, kind of. Instead of your average run-of-the-mill practice session, Monday afternoon brought with it a special scrimmage: forwards on defense, blue-liners up front, sophomore goalies Tripp Tracy and Aaron Israel skating and senior defenders Lou Body and Sean McCann mugging it up in goal.

The brainchild of such a plan is, as usual, Head Coach Ronn Tomassoni; he's used such outings in the past to give his skaters time to recuperate and have a little fun on the ice.

But this season, Tomassoni stresses that such a tool can hardly be overused.

"We've always had those types of practices in the past," he said, "but I don't think we've had enough. After analyzing it over the summer, it's a long season, and pretty much since the first week of practice we've used Monday as a sort of `fun day.'"

The highlight of the mock scrimmage was probably Tracy getting dumped over the bench boards, only his skates visible to his laughing teammates on the ice. Asked if he had any comment afterwards, he replied: "No."

A Little Enjoyment: Harvard should be enjoying itself; the Crimson stands alone in first place in the ECAC with an unbeaten 3-0-0 record.

Its two chief preseason rivals, Rensselaer and Clarkson, are each three points back with identical 1-1-1 marks in conference play.

It was a wild weekend in the soon-to-be Frozen North, as St. Lawrence upset favored RPI on Saturday night, 3-2, one night after the Engineers had themselves knocked off Clarkson 5-4.

"That score doesn't surprise me," Tomassoni responded. "[St. Lawrence] is a tough place to play, and they have a team that can knock off anybody."

Give some credit to Union, too. The Consensus pick for the cellar among ECAC prognosticators, the Skating Dutchmen proved they can compete by losing two one-goal games on the same trip that RPI split, even leading Clarkson 6-4 in the third before succumbing, 8-7.

"They are a much more improved team--they brought in a lot of kids, and they've got a couple of pretty good freshman forwards," Tomassoni said. "I'm glad for them--for the league to get stronger, we need a strong Union College."

Bad News: Junior winger Perry Cohagan separated his shoulder in Saturday's Princeton game and is out for at least two weeks.

"I'll be in a sling from 10 days to two weeks, and we'll take it from there," Cohagan said. "I've just got to wait and let the pain settle down. I'm aiming to be back for the RPI game [on December 4]."

For now, senior utility forward Ian Kennish will take his place, but Cohagan is naturally looking forward to getting back on the ice.

"It's frustrating that everyone was playing so well, and that I'll not be able to be [an active] part of the team, at least for a while."

Striking: As you might have heard, the NHL's referees and linesmen went on strike Monday in search of higher wages, and replacements from various minor leagues and the college ranks were called up by NHL Commissioner Gary Bettman in an attempt to break the strike.

Each "scab" candidate attended a camp in Indiana last weekend set up by the league to familiarize them-selves with the rules changes that they may be exposed to in the NHL.

One of them is the "two-line pass" rule, which mandates that a pass from within one's defensive zone (i.e. behind the blue line) to a teammate that passes center ice without being touched is whistled offsides.

So--imagine the reaction of fans in Boston University's Walter Brown Arena when the referee whistled a two-line pass Friday night in BU's contest with Northeastern.

A fan yelled, "Hey, were you in Indiana last weekend?" The referee immediately jerked his head around and gave him a nasty look. Ouch. Say goodbye to one of your refs, Hockey East.