The Red Raiders of Colgate--Harvard's opening round ECAC Tournament foe for the second consecutive season--come to town this weekend looking for their first victory over the Crimson in over two years.

And although tickets for the two-game series went on sale last Wednesday, it is unlikely that Bright Hockey Center will be filled to capacity Friday and Saturday nights.

"We don't usually sell out for the quarterfinals, as a rule," Ticket Manager Gordon Page said.

"We've had pretty good sales here," he added. "We haven't heard from a few season ticket holders yet, but Monday we had over 700 students buying tickets."

Despite the Harvard turnout, however, there will likely be empty seats at Bright for the weekend contests thanks to the Crimson's opponent, Page explained.

According to ECAC regulations, the home team must reserve at least 20 percent of its rink's seats for the visitors. At Bright, this amounts to about 550 tickets.

"We're doing pretty well, but with the fact that we're playing Colgate, it kind of cuts our sales," Page said. "If we were playing St. Lawrence, for instance, they would fill the place up. They bring a lot of people."

Those reserved tickets which go unclaimed may be bought by "anyone who wants to sit on the Colgate side," Page said, adding that advance sales for Friday and Saturday are about even so far, with most purchasers buying tickets for both contests.

Calm Before the Storm

Last year, the 2250 fans who attended the Friday night quarterfinal match at Bright were treated to a relatively calm, 2-1 Harvard victory.

Relatively calm, that is, compared to the bloodbath that ensued the following evening, as 2650 viewers were privy to a Red Raider clinic on dirty play that Crimson Coach Bill Cleary termed a "bizarre scene."

With the icemen up, 5-1, Colgate's Gerard Waslen kicked a prone and pinned Grant Blair in the helmet.

The attack on his netminder prompted Harvard Captain Brad Kwong to charge Waslen, which in turn prompted a three-minute, bench-clearing free-for-all.

After 15 minutes of deliberation, the officials socked the brawlers with a slew of major penalties, and game disqualifications for Kwong and three Raiders.

And although the Crimson subsequently skated to a 10-2 trouncing of Colgate, Kwong's disqualification kept him out of the ECAC semifinal--a game the icemen eventually won, 2-1, over Clarkson.

"I hope it isn't an episode like last year," Cleary said. "They were hitting for the sake of hitting."

"They weren't angels the last time they were here [in February]," he added. "They hit a couple of zingies."

In regular season action last year, Harvard rolled to a 6-5 overtime victory in Hamilton, N.Y., and a 3-0 triumph in Cambridge, neither game giving much indication of the epic battle to follow.

This season, the Crimson (19-6-1 overall) has already swept Colgate with a 7-2 road win--in which a season-high 54 shots flew off Harvard sticks--and a 5-1 victory in Bright.

The big difference for the Raiders (15-13-2 overall) this year is the loss to graduation of first-team ECAC goalie Jeff Cooper. His replacement, Dan Delianedis, had 47 saves in the first meeting of the two squads, but is not of the same caliber of Cooper.

The Week Ahead in Sports

Last Saturday night the men's hockey team (19-6-1 overall, 18-3 ECAC) had nothing to gain and everything to lose, and lose it did. It took Clarkson's Charlie Meitner 3:43 of overtime to snap Harvard's eight game win streak, and only 30 seconds of the first period to separate Scott Fusco`s shoulder.

Fusco joins Allen Bourbeau and Chris Biotti on the sidelines as the rest of the team prepares for eighth-place Colgate, the Crimson's opening round opponent in the ECAC Tournament.

The men's swimming team (9-2 overall, 7-2 ECAC) hosts the Eastern Seaboard Championships at Blodgett Pool, March 6-8.

Shocked three weeks ago by consecutive weekend losses to Princeton and Cornell, the team completed preparations for its eighth consecutive Eastern title by beating Yale, 66-47, last Saturday.

The men's track team travels to Princeton Friday for the IC4A Championships. Seven members qualified for the meet, including Heptagonal champions Doug Boyd in the high jump and Cliff Sheehan in the 1500. The two produced season bests last weekend at the Heps, with Co-Captain Boyd clearing 7-ft. in the high jump, and Sheehan taking the 1500 in a meet record 3:44.62.

The women's track team heads to Yale Friday to compete in the ECAC Championships. A list of seven women have earned the right to make the trip, headed by Erin Segrue, who hopes to qualify for the NCAA Championships in the high jump.

The men's volleyball team (7-10 overall, 4-3 EIVA) carries a three match win streak against a visiting Princeton squad Saturday at 2 p.m. Coming off a 2-2 performance and a ninth-place (out of 20 teams) finish in the EIVA Tournament last weekend, the spikers seek revenge for a disappointing 3-2 loss to Princeton in February.

The men's fencing (14-2 overall) and women's fencing (10-6 overall) teams set sail for the IFA Tournament at Navy on Saturday. The men lost their final regular season match at Yale, 17-10, finishing a strong second in the Ivies.

Despite next year's Captain Penelope Papailias' NCAA qualifying victory, the women also lost to the Elis, 12-4, and finished fifth in the Ivies.

The wrestling team (11-9 overall, 2-4 Ivy) visits Springfield Thursday for what will be Coach John Lee's final meet with the Crimson. The grapplers placed eighth of 16 (second in the Ivies) by scoring 38 points in the Eastern Invitational Tournament last weekend. Heavyweight Kevin Wattles placed fourth and earned a "wild card" trip to nationals at the University of Iowa.