Three of the most important dancers will be missing from tonight's St. Valentine's Day at Bright Center.

Although the Cornell and Harvard men's hockey teams have been invited for a 7:30 p.m. rumba, scratch Cornell's Duanne Moeser, and Harvard's Chris Biotti and Allen Bourbeau from the guest list.

Moeser, a tri-captain at Cornell and one of the Red's most talented scorers, injured his knee during a practice on January 30. The diagnosis, torn ligaments, has sidelined the high-flying center ever since and he will miss tonight's action, but should return to action sometime later this season.

The prognosis for Biotti, the 6-ft., 3-in., 190-1b. Crimson defenseman, is less optimistic. The first round NHL draft choice injured his knee during Christmas break while playing for the U.S. Junior Team and has been in and out of action ever since.

Biotti underwent arthroscopic surgery Wednesday which revealed that his season was probably over. Furthermore, the Newton native may not return to skates for nine months.

Bourbeau

Flashy second-line center Bourbeau is the Crimson's second-leading scorer and the spark to the hosts' flashy "Killer B" unit. Bourbeau tore a stomach muscle over a week ago in the first Beanpot game, and although he played last weekend at Princeton, he missed the Beanpot consolation. Bourbeau did not practice yesterday, and his injury will probably keep him out this weekend, as well.

Without Moeser, Biotti and Bourbeau the Harvard-Cornell clash will lack some of its finest talent on the ice, but expect the action in the stands to remain fast and furious.

The sell-out crowd (the remaing standing-room tickets go on sale at Bright before the game) will be armed with 500 oversized number-one fingers courtesy of the Undergraduate Council.

The Big Red-Crimson showdown is always rip-roaring, and although the Crimson took a lopsided 11-3 decision in Ithaca in December, the fur should fly again tonight.

The Big Red has gone away victorious in its last two trips to Bright, including a stunning 5-4 overtime triumph a year ago.

Not only is Cornell (12-4-3, 9-4-2 ECAC) struggling to maintain the fourth and final home-ice playoff spot, the Red is also riding a nine-game road winning streak.

For the Crimson (14-5-1), there is the chance of its first Cornell sweep since 1981-'82 and an opportunity to move further ahead in the ECAC standings--its current 13-2 league mark is two and a half games ahead of second-place RPI.

The icemen are also looking to prevent a repeat of the shenanigans that marred the first Cornell-Harvard game. After the Red had fallen hopelessly behind, one of its captains, defenseman Mike Schafer, fired a puck at Crimson Coach Bill Cleary as he stood behind the Harvard bench.

And as Cleary waved the Crimson off the ice without the usual handshakes, Schafer took a run at the Harvard mentor, trying to push him into the glass.