The Crimson hockey team began its final sprint for another ECAC playoff berth last Friday night with a 6-1 trouncing of the perennially hapless Princeton Tigers, the first of nine Ivy League contests facing the defending Ivy champions in the next month.

With nine games remaining in the regular season (Harvard takes on North-eastern tonight at the Boston Garden in the consolation game of the Beanpot), the Crimson stands at 7-5-2 overall and 5-4-2 in the ECAC. The Princeton victory raised Harvard's Ivy log to 2-2 after a pair of early-season losses to Penn and Brown.

Freshman standout George Hughes was once again the driving force behind the Crimson victory, punching two goals past Tiger netminder Mike O'Leary to raise his team-leading point total to 24 (7 goals and 17 assists).

Other Crimson goal scorers were Bill Hozack, Paul Haley, Bill Horton and Dave Bell. Hozack and Bell also picked up three assists each.

Harvard goalie Brian Petrovek lost his shutout bid in the third period when Princeton's Gary O'Meara scored with assists from Al Rosner and Henry Lane. Petro was called upon to make just 16 saves in the face of a disjointed Tiger offense.