Harvard men's hockey center Allen Bourbeau will return to the Crimson line-up this weekend against Colgate in the ECAC quarterfinals.

Bourbeau will start on the first-line in place of Harvard Captain Scott Fusco, who separated his shoulder in last Saturday's 5-4 loss to Clarkson.

Bourbeau, Harvard's fourth-leading and the nation's eighth-leading scorer, missed a month of action with a torn stomach muscle. Meanwhile, Fusco's status remains uncertain.

"It's working out well," forward Tim Smith said of Bourbeau's addition to the first-line, which also includes wing Lane MacDonald. "Al and I always joke around in practice. We get along well on and off the ice."

How does Bourbeau's playing style compare with Fusco's?

"I find them very similar," Smith said. "If there's a hole in the defense, they'll be there."

For four weeks and seven games, from early February to the beginning of March, the Crimson icemen were invincible.

Northeastern, the third-place team in the powerful Hockey East, could not stop the Crimson. The Huskies fell 7-1 even though Harvard started backup goalie Dickie McEvoy.

Neither could Vermont, which had defeated Harvard, 3-2, in early Janurary. Despite having the ECAC's and the nation's second-rated goaltender, Tom Draper, the Catamounts were pummeled with 51 shots and seven goals in a 7-3 Harvard triumph.

Nor could RPI, then the ECAC's second-place team and the defending NCAA champion. The Engineers didn't even come close, trudging away from Bright Center with a humiliating 11-0 defeat.

In those seven straight wins, Fusco recorded eight goals and 12 assists. With 49 league points on the season, he would soon wrap up his second straight ECAC scoring title and was looking for three assists to break the all-time Harvard assist record set by Joe Cavanagh from 1968-'71.

The Crimson (19-6-1 overall, 18-3 ECAC) seemed destined to ride into the ECAC playoffs--which begin for Harvard with two games tomorrow and Saturday against Colgate at Bright--with an eight game winning streak and an unbeatable lineup.

But along came Clarkson and its 6-ft., 2-in., 205-lb., forward, Charlie Meitner.

And with three shots in the season finale for both teams last Saturday in Potsdam, N.Y., Meitner single-handedly stripped the aura of invincibility away from the Crimson.

For his first and most devastating shot, Meitner did not use his stick. Instead, he slammed his body against Fusco behind the Harvard net, separating the senior Captain's left shoulder.