For those who saw only the scores of the Arena Christmas hockey tournament it may have seemed a paradox that the varsity, in finishing first and winning the John Babine Trophy, found last-place West Point tougher to beat than runner-up Boston College.

The answer is the old hockey word "hustle," which the Crimson used to great advantage in defeating Boston University in the semi-finals and B.C. in the finals. And the hustle itself was prompted by a near-upset at the hands of Army in the first round.

Hustle alone would never have won the trophy. It took a lot of ability, too, on the part of a team that has had plenty of it in the form of potential. But until the ability could dominate, which it did in the final period against B.U. and in most of the B.C. game, two things--great hustle and outstanding goaltending by Captain Jim Bailey--saved the day.

Bailey unquestionably salvaged the B.U. encounter for two periods so that his teammates could win it going away with a three-goal burst in the third, 5 to 2. At the end, Bailey had turned away 36 of 38 Terrier shots.

Hustling Sophomores

The hustle seemed to originate in the all-sophomore second line of Dick Fischer, George Higginbottom, and Dave Vietze. Fischer exemplified it when he tallied against West Point, chasing the puck down the right lane, picking it up and outskating the defense to go in clear on the goal.

In the final minutes, Bob Cleary showed that this hustle had infected the rest of the team when he kept the puck in the Army zone almost single-handedly with relentless forechecking. If it was valuable then, against Army, it was vital against B.U. and B.C., the teams that had been called New England's best.

The Crimson took the ice in the opener with West Point obviously overconfident and then tallied three first-period goals to enhance the impression. The playmaking and scoring abilities that had characterized the 10-2 rout of Providence College the week before were much in evidence.

From that point, however, it was a different game: the scoring ability vanished in the second period and the playmaking disappeared in the third. Taking advantage of good goaltending by Larry Palmer and its own close-covering, hard-checking style, Army tied the score, 3 to 3.

McVey Saves Day

Almost panicked by its inability to score and outskated now by superbly-conditioned Army, the varsity played its worst hockey of the tournament until Bob McVey saved entry into the semifinals with a sizzling goal from the blue line five and half minutes before the end.

McVey's goal did something for the Crimson that every tally on to the end of the tournament would similarly accomplish: it restored the varsity's confidence, thereby relaxing the team and improving the quality of its play.

Thus reprieved, the varsity moved on to defeat B.U. in what the Boston papers termed a 5-2 "upset," but which was only an upset in that the Terriers dominated two periods and still lost.

B.U. dominated two-thirds of the game simply because the varsity's defense, especially its covering in front of the cage, was atrocious. Yet the score was only 2 to 2 after two periods be0cause of Bailey's agile play in the goal and the hustle that produced tying goals by Higginbottom and Fischer.

The scores came from hustle alone, for until the third period the Crimson attack found the B.U. defense a stone wall: plays in the Terrier zone, when started, were broken up almost immediately.