The Harvard hockey team's four-game winning streak, capped by Tuesday night's 7-2 win over Dartmouth, moved the Crimson into fourth place in the Eastern Collegiate Athletic Conference Division standings.
[Boston University, which was tied with the Crimson, lost to U. N.H. last night, 2-1, falling to seventh place.]
The won-lost records of the 17 Division I teams are the basis of selection for the prestigious ECAC Tournament in March. The selection committee seeds the top teams from one to eight. The top four teams have the advantage of playing their first-round game in their own rink, against their opposite number from the bottom four.
The higher Harvard can rise, therefore, the better chance it has of making the semi-finals and finals, which are played on neutral ice in Boston.
Cornell, now 8-1, is probably out of reach, even should Harvard upset the Big Red when they play at Ithaca February 28.
But Boston College is barely hanging on at number two and should have trouble with Clarkson, St. Lawrence, Cornell, B.U., Harvard, and Colgate--all of which it plays in the coming month.
R.P.I., which rose at one point to second by upsetting Harvard and B.U. back-to-back, is on the skids. The Engineers lost to Division II leader Middlebury, then last weekend to Colgate, 5-1. in a game that referee Giles Threadgold called midway through the second period. (A free-for-all exploded in that game at Troy, and neither side had enough players to continue once Threadgold finished meting out penalties.)
B.U., Clarkson. and Harvard, which were tied with .667 percentages before last night, could wind up in a struggle for second--if the Crimson is successful in the Beanpot Tournament.
Harvard faces B.C. in Boston Garden February 5 in the first round of the Beanpot and B.U. plays Northeastern. The winners and the losers meet the following Monday.
Student tickets for both evenings, at prices ranging from $1 to $2.25, are on sale now at 60 Boylston St.
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