Ralph Baer & Tony Buffa recalled the time some 30+ years ago when
Middlebury's Phil Latreille was far and away the East's scoring leader, with
an amazing goals-to-assists ratio. I, like Tony, watched Middlebury play RPI
during Latreille's senior year, and I vividly remember how he managed to
accumulate those statistics.
 
Latreille was a fast skater, had a good shot, and was good at dekeing a
goalie. And he never, NEVER, EVER played defense. When Latreille's line was
on the ice Middlebury's "defense" was having the other four guys form a box
around the goal and play a penalty-killing type of defense while Latreille
floated between the blue line and the red line. If the other four guys were
successful in getting control of the puck, they made a quick outlet pass to
Latreille, who would then skate in on the opposing goalie in a clean
breakaway. They did this each and every time that Latreille was on the ice.
 
Latrielle scored lots and lots of goals, but the Middlebury defense gave up
even more, as witness their poor record against Div 1 teams during
Latreille's tenure.
 
Bob Stagat
RPI '64 & '68