When Harvard men's hockey Captain Scott Fusco whips into the corner after a loose puck this season, he won't have to worry about being separated from his shoulder. Last year, that was a serious risk.

And when freshman defenseman Chris Biotti slams a Boston College Eagle into the boards at the Beanpot, he can be sure no stick will find its way into his eye.

Harvard icemen can play harder--and feel safer--this winter, thanks to recent perfections of hockey equipment.

After years of producing inadequate gear, manufacturers are now marketing drastically different--and much safer--equipment.

And Harvard is on the cutting edge of this revolution.

From face to foot, the Crimson is outfitted in spanking new, hi-tech garb this season.

"Everything's new," Equipment Manager Chet Stone says. "Everything's different. The game has changed a little bit--it's gotten a lot more physical. The old equipment just wasn't protective enough."

Or good enough for the Crimson, who need championship equipment for a championship caliber team.

Masking the problem

NCAA regulations require all nongoalies to wear protective face masks. Most teams use a simple wire shield, but no mesh of wires covers Crimson cheeks.

In fact at first glance, nothing seems to be covering the Harvard visages. But on closer inspection, nothing materializes into a deluxe unbreakable windshield.

The Itech "Face-Off Shield" is a solid, clear barrier made of Plexiglass-like material. Attached to the Crimson's Cooper helmets, the shield turns the puckster's headgear into a motorcycle helmet.

And more and more hockey players may resemble Hell's Angels in the future. "Last year we were the first that I know of to use the [Itech] masks," Stone says. While few teams followed suit at the time, Crimson Coach Bill Cleary predicts "more and more teams will be wearing it."

Fusco gives the mask full approval: "It didn't take me very long to get used to. There's no comparison [with the old wire masks] in vision."

Like a windshield, a face shield is prone to fogging up or shattering. The shield's manufacturer, International Forums, Inc.--never a company to let fog grow on its masks--has solved those problems by treating the shield with polycarbonate for strength and with an anti-fog inner coating.

"I've never seen one break yet," Stone says. "We did have a small problem when we first started using the masks--the part of the mask that anchors it to the helmet was cracking--but within a month they came out with a mask that had a stronger material in that part. The breaks have stopped."

Freshman forward Eddie Krayer notes the mask's only nagging problem: "It's really hot inside the shield. There's only a couple of holes to breathe through [near the bottom]. It's a big deal, because you're used to getting the air."

But most players insist this isn't a serious problem, so Itech needn't worry about designing an air conditioning system.

The pucksters did give up something, though--part of their ability to intimidate--when they put on the masks. The clear mask seems too honest.

Pawn to king bishop's five

Last year, the Crimson looked black and blue thanks to shoulder injuries. "About five or six guys went out with separated shoulders," Fusco says. "They all missed some action."

The problem, according to Trainer Dick Emerson, had a lot to do with the shoulder pads Harvard wore. "90 percent of the shoulder injuries were sprains [of a ligament between the humerus and the collarbone]," Emerson says. "Those usually result from falling on your shoulder or your shoulder hitting the boards."

You'd think shoulder pads would protect against that problem, but the pads Harvard wore last year had "floating" cushions over the oft-injured areas, cushions which tended to float away at the wrong moment.

To check the shoulder injury epidemic, the icemen are wearing a new shoulder pad this year--the "Checkmate." Stone calls the pad, "The thing of the future."

"Our trainer saw it at a convention and told me about it, " he says. "The kids wore it. Every kid liked it."

The Checkmate resembles a football shoulder pad: it has much more cushioning all around and its pads don't float. Instead, they're anchored right on the critical area.

Protection fit for a king--or at least a bishop.

Another revolutionary feature of the Checkmate is its ability to accomodate players of all shoulder structures. Conventional shoulder pads come in only one size, but the Checkmate comes in three sizes, so the smaller players don't find their pads down on their arms, and the bigger ones aren't choked.

So far, the pad is doing its job. "They don't seem to slide around as much as the old pads used to," Fusco says. "It's a lot better protection. Our problems used to come when guys got jammed into the boards. That hasn't been a problem so far."

So with new pads checkmating shoulder injuries and new clear masks guarding their faces, the members of the Harvard hockey squad are dressed to kill.

Their opponents, that is.