Hockey
After taking it on the chin for seven consecutive games, the Dartmouth hockey team finally bounced back to whip Princeton in their most recent contest by a 9-0 count. Coach Eddie Jeremiah took his team on the road during the Christmas holidays. When they left they had suffered only one defeat in five games. When they returned the record showed five wins and six defeats. The Big Green started out well enough beating the Duluth Branch of the University of Minnesota 5-4, but the University of Minnesota team, one of the strongest in the nation, trounced Dartmouth 11-0 and 10-3 before turning Dartmouth over to the University of Denver which administered 8-1 and 8-3 lickings. Still game, Dartmouth made a fight of it before losing the final game of the trip to Colorado College by a 5-4 count.
There is little doubt that Dartmouth was playing out of its league. Harvard, making a similar trip at the same time, also suffered like treatment and all reports would indicate that an array of Canadian talent plus local northern additions give the western teams a decided edge in playing personnel.
Returning from the West at the same time, it was only natural that Harvard and Dartmouth should meet, and in this contest the Crimson got sweet revenge for the 5-1 defeat pinned on them by Dartmouth in the Davis Rink dedication in December. Completely outskating and outplaying Dartmouth after a close first period, Harvard triumphed by a 4-0 score. Next up was powerful St. Lawrence, the number one team in the East and probably the only team that can match the western squads. Before a capacity crowd at Davis Rink the Big Green pulled away to a 1-0 lead in the first period, but you can't play the first two lines forever and lack of reserve power enabled St. Lawrence to dominate for the remaining two stanzas and win handily 6-1.
By this time the strain was beginning to tell. Second-string goalie Dave Conlan moved in on defense, and although awkward and inexperienced he was playing very well. An injury to Bruce Haertl, firstline forward and last year's captain, proved costly, although his replacement, Dan McCarthy, was playing very well, and "Danny-on-the-Spot," as Jeremiah calls him, scored three goals and collected two assists in the Princeton game. Defenseman Irv Sherwood, with two bruised ankles and a bad elbow, was still playing some of the best hockey of his career, while Captain Seaver Peters was all over the ice, shifting from first-line center to defense and setting up more goals that any other player on the team.
Peters also leads in the scoring columns with seven goals and 11 assists for 18 points, followed by first-line forward John Titus with li goals and six assists for 17 points, while Dan McCarthy has nine goals and seven assists for 16 points. Ned Heydt, second line center, has 14 points, and the injured Bruce Haertl has 11.
This is not a great Dartmouth hockey team. It may not even be a good one from the technical standpoint, but it is, without doubt, one of the scrappiest teams that Coach Jeremiah has ever put on the ice. There are tough games ahead, particularly in the Pentagonal League, but the Big Green skaters will win some more games along the way and still have an outside chance of capturing the coveted Pentagonal League title.
IN THE NEW ENGLAND BASKETBALL TOURNAMENT, staged in Alumni Gymnasium, December 28-30, Dartmouth advanced to the finals but lost to Connecticut, 70-58. Above, Captain Pete Geithner scores a basket against the tourney winners. Other Dartmouth players seen (l to r) are Toby Julian (3), Paul Wisdom and Ken Patterson (5).
