Sharing eighth place with the junior is his older brother Mark, who was appropriately enough on hand Monday night at Bright Center to see the Dartmouth-Harvard battle.

The younger Fusco should be able to climb as high as third by the end of the season, if he maintains his present pace of just under three-points-a-game.

The former Olympian will also move onto the all-time single-season scoring list soon and could move into that top five, at least.

* * *

Fusco has also scored or earned an assist point in all but the Crimson's first game for a total of 14 straight games with a point.

Linemate Tim Smith, however, leads the squad in that category with a point in all 15 games. Both Fusco and Smith are well short of the Harvard record of 24 held by Bob Cleary and the ECAC record of 32 held by, among others RPI's Adam Oates.

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In the never-taking-the-easy-way department, junior Rob Ohno scored his second goal of the year against Dartmouth.

His tally came when the Crimson was shorthanded, as it was when he tallied his first goal.

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Elsewhere in the ECAC last weekend, RPI swept its games with Vermont to up its record to 11-1. Harvard remains a half-a-game behind the Engineers at 10-1-1. At 10-2, Clarkson is one game behind RPI.

But while the top three remains the same, a fierce battle for fourth place and the last home-ice spot in the ECAC quarterfinals is developing.

* * *

In his last three complete games, junior goalie Grant Blair has allowed only three goals.

Blair, who had been playing well but without great distinction earlier in the year seems to have regained the fine edge that made him Ivy Co-Player of the Year in 1983-84.

* * *

With games Friday night at Yale, Saturday night at Brown and Monday night at the Garden against Boston University in the Beanpot, the Crimson is looking at three games in four days.

That's the toughest stretch of the season for the icemen.

The Hockey Notebook Appears Every Thursday in The Harvard Crimson