HOCKEY
After a season unprecedented in its early weeks for its balmy and unseasonable weather, Coach Jeremiah's charges finally got under way in the Pentagonal League by dropping an 8-5 decision to Harvard on the local ice. To give you an idea of what lack of practice has done to the Green sextet, I need only indicate that this is the first time we have lost a hockey game to Harvard since 1936 a mere matter of 13 years, during which the Dartmouth ice supremacy over the Crimson has been unchallenged. There was no question about this defeat, however, for the combination of an aggressive Harvard aggregation and the lack of practice for Dartmouth was one which could not be denied.
As the game opened, it looked like a breeze for the Green. The initial face-off had hardly been completed when brother Joe Riley set out on a solo dash around the Harvard defense for a fast goal some 12 seconds after the game had begun. A few minutes later, Harvard demonstrated that they were very much in the game by knotting the count. Then brother Bill Riley took over and scored a couple himself, making the count 3-1 at the end of the first period. Harvard came to life in the second stanza and scored a total of 5 goals, leaving the ice at that point in possession of a 6-4 lead. (The intervening Dartmouth tally was scored by Joe on brother Bill's pass). The third period saw the Dartmouth scoring temporarily taken out of the capable hands of the Riley brothers by sophomore Cliff Harrison (of the hockey Harrisons), who negotiated a solo dash early in the period. But that was the end of the Dartmouth scoring and with it the hopes of the Green went glimmering.
A week later, it was a different story, with Dartmouth having been able to get in enough practice so that the boys at least learned each other's last names on the ice. Yale came to town and was soundly trounced by the score of 6-2 by a resurgent Dartmouth team. This contest saw Cliff Harrison shifted to the second line to give more scoring punch thereto and sophomore Mike Choukas moved up to the Riley line to take Harrison's place. This maneuver of the wily Jeremiah paid dividends, as the second line scored 4 out of the 6 goals for Dartmouth. Harrison scored 2 goals himself, with Walt Crowley and Spif Kerivan each contributing one apiece. The Riley brothers accounted for the other Green tallies, with one each, scored through the standing water of a sludgy skating surface. The defensive efforts of Mike Thayer and Red Bailey (the football tackle) were outstanding on this pleasant occasion, as were those of the second defensive platoon of Bob Gray and Bill Stout. As a result of these activities, the nonchalant Desmond was called upon to make only 18 saves during the entire evening, whereas his Yale opposite number put in a busy couple of hours repulsing some 40 Dartmouth shots. This pleasant change in the fortunes of the Green only goes to show what a little practice (with a little ice) can do.
The night before the College settled down to the long twilight of the examination period, the Green notched one of its most cherished victories, this one over Boston College by the score of 4-2. After defeating potent Boston University, 3-2, earlier in the week, the local boys indicated that they would henceforth be hard to stop by handing B.C. its first defeat in 9 games. Both Boston institutions are coming up in the hockey world and Boston College came to Hanover breathing fire and brimstone. They could not get by the inspired playing of the Dartmouth team, however, as Joe Riley scored twice and Walt Crowley did
the same. One of the B.C. tallies was bitterly protested by the Dartmouth team, inasmuch as it was negotiated with Desmond flat on the ice under an unidentified B.C. operative. That episode, however, eventually came out in the wash, as the aforementioned combination of Riley and Crowley scored 4 times. In addition to his spill on his face on the ice, Captain Desmond put in a spirited evening, making 43 saves against an aggressive foe, who pressed the attack constantly. For the Greater Boston boys on the Dartmouth squad (and this means most of them), this victory was especially sweet, in view of the friendly intramural rivalry among all hockey contestants from the Hub city.
A CLOSE CALL FOR THE BRUIN GOALIE: Mike Choulcas (right), sophomore son of Prof. Michael E. Choukas "27, rifles a hard shot in the Hanover game won by Brown, 4-3. Joe Riley is the other Dart- mouth player shown.
SLALOM WINNER: Colin Stewart, who skied on the 1948 U. S. Olympic team, took individual honors in the Winter Carnival slalom and was runner-up to teammate Tor Arneberg in all-around performance. He's the son of Dr. Colin C. Stewart '23 of Hanover.
