The Crimson sextet didn't exactly pay tournament hockey last night but it did skate well and set up nice pays and that was quite enough to beat a young but spunky Northeastern team, 6 to 1.
Actually, the game was more like a hard practice session for Coach Cooney Weiland's squad which was playing its first home game after a difficult western trip. With some nice playmaking, especially by the first two lines, the sextet scored easily and often and always kept up a strong defensive wall.
Most of the points were racked up by the Tim Taylor-Gene Kinasewich-Gerry Jorgenson line although Taylor was the one who actually shot in the puck--three times in all. Twice he scored on direct passes from Kinasewich and then again when he poked in a blue line shot from Dave Johnston.
The hat trick gave Taylor, who has netted seven goals in the last 3 games, a narrow lead in team scoring with a total of 13. Kinasewich it now second with 12.
Although the game was not a fast one--due mostly to Northeastern's ineffectual pass plays and perhaps because the varsity was still recovering from the long trip back from Colorado--the Crimson continued to display the good teamwork which marked its play in earlier victories and out West.
Particularly pleasing to the crowd which half filled Watson Rink was the Crimson penalty-killing play. During the varsity's three penalties (one was called for "too many men on the ice") goalie Godfrey Wood actually could have relaxed while teammates like Gene Kinasewich led the Huskies on merry chases.
The team's defensive play, which frequently included snappy saves by Wood, was admirable. Defensemen Howell, Patterson, Johnston and Thomson have definitely improved their technique of clearing the puck from the corners and behind the cage--probably as a result of the attack a fast Minnesota team put on them out West (two forwards charged the puck while the third trailed just behind).
And, as the scorebook shows, these skaters still had enough hustle to contribute to the offense. In the second period, after Taylor had scored the varsity's second goal at 7:19, Ron Thomson let fly a shot just inside the blue line which rebounded for a shot and goal by Tom Heintzman at 10:24. The defense also gave an assist to the fifth goal scored by Taylor at 6:32 of the third period when Dave Johnson started the action with his blue line slap.
There is no doubt that the new combinations of the first two lines are a mark of Cooney Weiland's great ingenuity. Last night, though irritated by Northeastern's eager sophomores, they were a delight to watch. They fed passes to each other all over the place and worked as good integrated units.
Cetrainly a great addition to the line of Captain Dave Grannis and Dave Morse is Ike Ikauniks, who poked in the Crimson's first goal at 6:03 of the opening period after Morse had sipped the play down the rink. Reports from the Western trip indicate Ikauniks did a great deal against that stiff competition, too.
One thing certain is that Weiland is not taking the Cornell game tomorrow night for granted. In fact he says he is rather worried, and Cornell's spectacular goalie Laing Kennedy, a junior from Ontario, is probably the reason for his concern. Goalie Kennedy last season made 57 saves against the Crimson and held the heavily-favored varsity to a mere 2-1 win.
He will be back tomorrow night at 8 p.m. in Watson rink when the Crimson faces off against the first Cornell hockey team that has ever beaten Yale. Tickets for undergraduates with coupons are available at 60 Boylston Street.
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