The Reluctant Poster Boy

"Bright Ice, Crimson Delights."

The posters are everywhere. And Peter Chiarelli is on them. His intense gaze and easy stance come at you in living color. He is set. He is ready.

Beneath his figure rests the Harvard men's hockey schedule--a schedule the Crimson thus far has had little trouble with.

Peter Chiarelli has made the big time. So--again--has the Crimson. And Chiarelli and his team hope to go a long way together.

Chiarelli, the Harvard captain and third-line right wing, hasn't always enjoyed the limelight. He's lurked in the shadows of some tough acts.

His father, Frank Chiarelli, played for RPI from 1951 to 1955 and finished as the Engineers' all-time leading scorer with 155 goals. He also broke the RPI record for most goals in a game (7) and in a season (55). His records still stand.

Peter Chiarelli's predecessor as Harvard captain was also a big scorer. Scott Fusco wrapped up his season last year by winning the Hobey Baker Award and setting Crimson records for most career goals (107) and assists (133).

Tough acts to follow. But it's Peter Chiarelli on the posters. It is his game now. And although his career numbers don't compare with his father's or Fusco's, he has helped the Crimson compile the most important statistic--team record.

Under Chiarelli's leadership, Harvard is 9-0 and off to its best start in 50 years. The team is ranked as high as fourth in national polls. Many Crimson players think this year's squad is better than the 1985-'86 team that lost in the final game of the NCAA Tournament.

Chiarelli is third on the team in goals-scored with five. He is on pace for a 15-goal season. Not bad for a player who scored only 13 goals in his first three years at Harvard. Against Princeton three weeks ago, Chiarelli recorded his first collegiate hat trick.

"He's done a tremendous job," Harvard Coach Bill Cleary says. "He's playing the best hockey of his career."

But Chiarelli's chief function on the team is not as a scorer, but as a leader.

"It's not like I'm a general leading troops in a charge up the hill," Chiarelli says. "I'm more of a figure, just trying to do a good job. I feel I can't have a bad game. I can't get down. I always have to give 150 percent because of the younger players."

Chiarelli's skating career began when he was four years old. He and his family used to go skating on the 12-mile long Ottawa Canal near his home in Nepean, Ontario.

Chiarelli didn't get serious about hockey until his last year of midget hockey.

"I consider myself a late bloomer," Chiarelli says.

He went on to play Tier II Junior League hockey in his last years of high school before coming to Harvard. Some of his teammates from his Junior League squad now play college hockey in the United States--including the present captains of Vermont and St. Lawrence and the co-captains of Clarkson.

Chiarelli's athletic career isn't confined to hockey, however. He played football and baseball at Sir Robert Borden High School and even tried out with the Pittsburgh Pirates in a free agent camp before deciding that playing hockey and going to college in the U.S. was what he really wanted to do.

As Chiarelli was growing up and growing into a fine hockey player, his father gave him a lot of advice. Some of it Peter Chiarelli didn't care for.

"I often didn't like the influence he had on me," Chiarelli says. "When you're younger, whenever you get constructive criticism in anything you don't like it. At least I didn't. But it helped me. He was careful in his criticisms, but he told me a lot of things that were good. He never pushed me."

"We kept him out of competitive hockey until he was 10," says Frank Chiarelli. "Peter's normal development took place after that."

The father still casts a keen eye on the son's career. Frank Chiarelli came to the Crimson's games against Colgate and Cornell last weekend, saw some things that could be improved in Peter's game and pointed them out.

"He had a ton of stuff to tell me," Peter Chiarelli says. "I can never please him."

Chiarelli's present coach was impressed, however.

"When we were tied with Cornell in the third period, Peter went out there and started digging the puck out of the corner, working like crazy," Cleary says. "It was incredible. This team's got a distinct character and it's mostly because of Peter."

This year Chiarelli has had to live with the ghosts of his father and Scott Fusco chasing him around the rink. But he hasn't found those ghosts intimidating.

"I never expected to do as well as my dad did," Chiarelli says. "He had 55 goals in 18 games. I couldn't do that. I don't think anyone could. But there's no pressure now. Maybe I felt it in the beginning, but it's just detrimental."

Chiarelli has had a solid hockey career at Harvard. For the most part. During his sophomore year, he was taken off the roster for a 15-game stretch. He didn't like it.

"We gave him a lot of encouragement then," Frank Chiarelli says. "When he was forced to sit out those games it was double difficult because of all the success he had in the past."

But Chiarelli overcame that. He's captain of the team that once benched him. He's leading the NCAA runner-up in a race for this year's title. He has two goals as captain--to inspire the other players, and "to win the NCAA Championship."

He may just be the right man to do it. Not a lot of goals, but a lot of guts.

"He's our friend, but he's our leader, too," Crimson forward Lane MacDonald says. "He's been more vocal this year. In the past he wouldn't say much, but he gives us a push when it's necessary."

And his and the team's success have earned him at least one new fan.

"When we were growing up, he was always into sports. We weren't very close then," Chiarelli's sister, Anne, says. "We're a lot closer now. I follow his career a lot more."

Chiarelli could do without the glory. All he wants is to keep winning. He doesn't even like the posters.

"I don't like them," Chiarelli says. "They're all over the place. I just try to keep it low-key.