With an eye towards its crucial game with Princeton this weekend, the Varsity hockey team travels to Rye, N. Y. tonight to oppose the St. Nicholas Hockey Club. In an earlier contest this winter the Crimson chalked up a 5 to 3 overtime win over tonight's opponents.

This meeting is especially welcome to Coach John Chase, who feels that a game is far more valuable to a team than practice sessions, and by virtue of tonight's encounter he hopes to have Harvard at its peak for the Princeton set-to, which will in large part determine the future of this year's team.

Early Biltz Expected

If past performances mean anything the Crimson may expect an all-out enemy assault in the early stage of the game, designed to build up a sizable lead which can then be protected by "back-hockey" during the later stages.

Since Harvard rallied from a 3 to 0 deficit to win in overtime in December, Yale and Princeton have both chalked up victories, and so tonight's results would serve as a valuable yardstick if it were not for the fact that the St. Nicks is composed of young business men, which makes it a fairly transitory organization, fairly strong one night and quite weak the next.

Thus, Stacey Hulse, last year's Crimson defense man, who played second string defense against his alma mater in December, recently started against Yale on the first line. Attempting to deduce future events from comparative scores which include the St. Nicks is at best a hazardous undertaking.

Chase will stick to his regular first line of McGrath, Paine, and Gebelein. Captain Summers, Dreher, and O'Neill complete the starting sextet. Caleb Loring is back in action after an extended layoff, and he will take a position on the second line, along with Albie Everts and Dick Harding. The third line of Earle Acker, Mare Beebe, and Johnny Burton, together with the second defense of Tom Cowan and Chuck Griffith will also see action.