This year, the NCAA has decided to put the interference rule under scrutiny. According to the preface of the rule book, the purpose of doing so is to "restore skill, finesse, and skating" to hockey, and to end clutch and grab tactics.

It is yet to be seen what kind of effect the emphasis on clean play will have on NCAA teams this year, but it has made its mark this year on the Harvard hockey team.

Ron High, Princeton's goalie, uses his stick as a shield against anybody who even gets near the crease.

But with a little over 11 minutes left in the third period and the Crimson down by three goals, his tactics ran straight into the rulebook.

A Harvard player was skating in front of the Princeton net with a Princeton defenseman on his back as High raised his stick again. In the ensuing collision, the Harvard skater got caught on High's outstreched stick, leaving little choice for the referee but to call interference.

And you know exactly what happened in the next 14 minutes of play.

Causal Nexus: This year, strange things have been happening in college hockey with Olympic teams forming in the US and Canada. In the first week of the season, Ferris State, which had won only a handful of games in the past two seasons, went out and stopped Bowling Green.

Denver and North Dakota have both fallen from the national rankings and little Lake Superior State University (it's no longer a college) has cracked the top five.

But Northeastern University has probably had the wildest ride of all. Back in October, it played like it had been picked--sixth in Hockey East--as Vermont shut out the Huskies, 4-0.

Then, in a most improbable fort-night, it edged top-ranked Minnesota in Matthews Arena, and then beat North Dakota in Grand Forks.

But the Huskies have now fallen back to earth. Last week they were crushed by last-place Lowell, 9-0.

Next thing you know, a goalie might score a goal this year...

ECAC vs. Hockey East: In the three years since Hockey East formed from teams ceding from the ECAC, the young league has had a dismal 2-6-1 record in non-tournament, interconference games against the older conference.

This year, the same pattern is continuing, more or less.

In the five interconference games played this year, the ECAC has won three. Vermont shut out Bruce Racine and Northeastern, 4-0, back in October. Also, Colgate beat Boston University, 6-5, and Brown beat UNH, 4-3.

Both Hockey East victories were claimed at the expense of Yale in a Thanksgiving-week debacle. B.U. won the first game in an 8-6 shootout, and the next night, the Elis went to Orono to play the then-top-ranked Maine Black Bears. Yale was promptly dumped, 10-4.

Independents: The race for the independent at-large playoff spot in the NCAA tournament has begun, and three early favorites have jumped out of the 17-member pack. Merrimack is atop the ECAC Division II race, and Alaska-Fairbanks and Alaska-Anchorage are featured on the top of a new poll of independent teams taken by radio station KBYR in Anchorage.

Alaska-Anchorage, which was on top last week, narrowly missed upsetting both North Dakota (twice) and Minnesota this past month.

But Alaska-Fairbanks (now 8-1-1) beat Alaska-Anchorage twice last week. "I guess that put a damper [on the ranking]," said Karen Morris, sports information director of Alaska-Anchorage.

Both Alaskan independents are primed for the national hockey spotlight: in two weeks, they host Michigan State and Maine in a holiday tournament which should serve as a benchmark of how far the teams have come.

The Chalkboard: Char Joslin scored both goals against Brown two nights ago to lift Harvard to victory.

The diagram shows the first of her two power-play goals. Note the positions of Joslin (5), Julie Sasner (15), and Brita Lind (11). They formed a triangle around a Bruin defender whose assignment was to overplay Sasner. Joslin released her point position (H) and went down the slot to score.

The Women Are Awesome: Unbelievably, the Harvard women's hockey team has actually played a more dominating game against B.U. than it did last week.

One year ago, Harvard beat the Terriers, 9-0, while outshooting the Commonwealth Avenue denizens, 76-1. This past week, the score was the same, but the shot differential was 72-2.

In racking up its 11th straight victory over B.U. then, the Crimson allowed twice the offensive output by the Terriers and still won the game by the same margin.