"He's a mucker."

In ice hockey colloquialism, the above phrase describes hard-nosed players, those willing to dig the puck out of the corner by sticking their nose in and banging some bodies.

They are the tough, solid players on the ice whose sole purpose is to throw their weight around and get possession of the puck, the antithesis of a flashy goalscorer.

But after seaching for an appropriate description of sophomore forward C.J. Young, Harvard Associate Coach Ronn Tomassoni said simply, "He's a skillful mucker."

Clearly Harvard has a rare player in Young. Muckers usually don't find themselves in the position of leading returning scorer, as Young does this year. And muckers are rarely labeled skillful.

The 5-ft., 10-in. Waban native scored 12 goals and added 17 assists in his freshman campaign for the Crimson, but no one talks about his scoring ability.

"He's a talented, hard worker, which is rare to find in a hockey player," said Crimson Captain Steve Armstrong.

"He's a really solid coaches' player who can play both offense and defense extremely well," said Harvard Coach Bill Cleary.

"No one works harder," said junior Josh Caplan, Young's high school and college teammate.

You would think they're talking about the team's hardest playing defenseman. Leading scorers usually aren't followers of the Protestant work ethic.

"Anyone can skate the puck up the ice and shoot," Cleary said, "but everyone has to learn the other parts of the game, such as digging pucks out of the corner, playing solid defense, passing, blocking shots and banging bodies in front of the net. C.J. already does it all, which is rare in any level of hockey."

Doing it all is what Young did for ECAC Champion Harvard last year. From the beginning, the coaches thought him skillful enough to put him on the same line with present-day Olympians Lane McDonald and Allen Borbeau. Young also served time on the Crimson's power play and penalty-killing units.

"I was just glad that the coaches had enough confidence in me to play me," said Young. "When things weren't going well, they said, `Don't worry, we're not going to pull you.'''

Young did struggle during the beginning of his college career, but how many freshmen step in and play well on a nationallyranked team?

"For a freshman, the game is so different from high school," said the Belmont Hill graduate. "All the players are a notch better. I just didn't have enough confidence at the beginning last year and I got intimidated, but Lane and Allen helped me out a lot."