Icemen Clobber Tigers; Five For Senior Line

Patiently and sometimes sloppily biding its time until next week's ECAC playoffs, Harvard's hockey team toyed with outmanned Princeton for 40 minutes last night, then erupted for four goals within six minutes of the third period to dispose of the Tigers, 7-2, at Watson Rink.

But the victory, unfortunately, was meaningless, at least with respect to the Ivy and Eastern standings. Unless Brown loses its final game at Dartmouth next Saturday-and this is highly unlikely since Cornell defeated the Indians, 14-0 last night-Harvard will be unable to move past the Bruins into second place in the Ivy League.

Furthermore, the ECAC seedings released last Monday have assigned the Crimson firmly to fifth place, depriving it of home ice in the playoffs. So, regardless of the results at Watson Rink last night. Harvard was going nowhere.

Didn't Care

And for the first two periods last night, it seemed as though the Crimson didn't really care. Although senior center George McManama put Harvard in front with a beautiful open net goal after four minutes of play. Princeton countered with two within the next four minutes, both directly traceable to Crimson defensive mistakes. Moreover, it took Harvard until 13:39 to even the score again, on Ron Mark's power play goal.

It seemed, at the time, that part of Harvard's troubles were caused by the absence of junior wings Steve Owen and Dan DeMichele, and senior defenseman Chris Gurry Coach Cooney Weiland had benched both DeMichele and Owen Tuesday, evening for failure to live up to his expectations of them in recent games. Gurry had dropped a tire extinguisher upon his foot yesterday afternoon and was on crutches at game time.

But by the third period, when the Crimson began to put things together, the noticeable difference in the quality of its play indicated that Weiland's decision may not have been as harmful as it was thought to be.

The senior line of McManama, Mark and Jack Turco, which has been one of the most powerful units in the East since its creation in mid-February, accounted for two of the four goals in the final period. It had tallied both of Harvard's early goals, and has now scored 21 in its six games together. It more than compensated for the absence of two-thirds of the regular second line, as it has for the past six games, and, more than likely, will be responsible for most of Harvard's success for the remainder of the season.

And its play, last night, was one of the brightest spots in an otherwise uninspired contest. After Joe Cavanagh had increased the lead to a comfortable 4-2 at seven minutes of the third period. Turco to added another goal three minutes later. At 12:44, George Murphy poked in a sixth from point-blank range. And just 12 seconds later, Mark contributed the seventh, with assists from McManama and Turco to complete the explosion. The senior line had tallied 15 of Harvard's 21 points.

"They," said a jubilant Murphy later, "are the masters."