HOCKEY

Dick Gagliardi and Ab Oakes followed similar paths to their positions as coaches of hockey at Yale and Dartmouth. Both became freshman coaches under legendary coaches - Yale's Murray Murdoch and Dartmouth's Eddie Jeremiah — in 1960. Oakes is in his fourth season as Dartmouth's coach while Gagliardi has been at it for Yale five years.

They've actually met six times and Oakes has won twice, both in the last year when he's started the Indians on the road back to prominence in Eastern hockey circles. The coincidental thing is that he's taken both of those wins at Yale and has watched his Indians play to frustration against the Elis in Davis Rink. Last year it was a 4-3 setback at Winter Carnival. This season, it was a 5-4 contest that went to the Blue despite a furious three-goal comeback in the final period that turned the old rink to bedlam.

The loss just about put the lid on Dartmouth's flickering hopes for a berth in the ECAC Division I post-season tournament. The fact that the Green has been in the running bears proof that things are indeed looking up after five long seasons.

The Indians stormed into February with a fire that momentarily turned the Ivy League picture upside down. Fresh from a sweep of games at Penn (7-4) and Princeton (5-4 in overtime), the Green suddenly found themselves lodged securely in second place behind imposing Cornell.

Three days before they went to New Haven for the first encounter with the Yalies, Northeastern came to Davis Rink and took a fearsome pounding, 9-3. It was the heaviest barrage that Dartmouth has put together in several seasons and Dan Eberly had ample opportunity to prove he's probably the best goalie in Boston as he made 60 saves in the Northeastern nets.

At New Haven, it was more of the same. The score was 10-6 for Dartmouth as Ken Davidson, Kent Nyberg and Tom Coffman each scored a pair of goals and Yale had to settle for most of its goals after the Indians had built a comfortable 8-2 lead.

Things went just great until Brown and Harvard came to Hanover. Both games represented imposing hurdles in the road to renewed Ivy recognition but unfortunately both games went the other way. The Brown contest was a 3-2 affair before the Bruins unloaded five goals in as many minutes early in the second period. The final was 11-5, even though Brown goalie Don McGinnis had to make 62 saves.

Harvard came up for the Carnival game and methodically took away an 8-1 decision. Then Yale came up for its rematch and what shouldn't happen to any hockey team did. The Indians found themselves facing another "hot" goalie, Mark Fitzsimmons, who turned away a total of 44 shots and survived a final flail when Turner and Kosak scored goals within 20 seconds of each other that cut Yale's lead to the final 5-4 margin.

All this left the Indians with a 9-10 record (two more wins than last year) with five games remaining, including two with Cornell. Again it's a comparatively young group, with a sound sophomore goalie in Dale Dunning, and if the defense improves, things could keep moving next season.

Junior Scott Berry showing form thatwon the Dartmouth Carnival jump.