HOCKEY

There really isn't much one can say about the final stages of a hockey season that closed with eight straight losses. It seemed as though the Indians were snakebitten as they came out of impressive wins over Northeastern and Yale early in February; from that point on it became a harrowing tailspin that was complicated by a couple of tough injuries and no "big win" to turn the situation around.

Coach Ab Oakes' skaters did come close on the night of February 21, though, and it darned near turned the college hockey world upside down. For more than 50 minutes the Indians played undefeated, powerhouse Cornell to a 2-2 standoff before the vaunted Big Red capitalized on a power play goal to win, 3-2.

Win, lose or draw, no Dartmouth hockey team has turned in a better effort than the Green did that night. They checked ferociously, persisted in beating Cornell to the puck, kept the pressure on the Red goalie, Brian Cropper, and forced him to make more saves than he had all season.

Captain Denny O'Neill, the reliable defenseman, beat Cropper with a 30-foot screen shot for one goal and Jeff Kosak (who sat out the final three games with a shoulder separation) had the other on a crafty breakaway, and for the better part of the night it looked like the upset of upsets was in the making.

Not so, though. From that point, the Indians had problems getting on the scoreboard. Princeton, which lost to the Green in January, came to Hanover and won, 5-3, after the Indians had made a frustrating trek to Army where they lost the game, 5-0, and Kosak.

There are better ways to finish the season than with trips to Cornell (14-0) and Brown (7-5) and maybe 1970-71 will be brighter.

Be that as it may, the 1969-70 skaters improved on the previous year's record as they notched nine wins.

With Terry Adams '71 as stroke, Dartmouth's heavyweight crew hopes to continue last season's success, which included a second in the IRA Regatta.