The Harvard hockey team coasted to a 4-1 victory at Bowdoin Saturday night over an impotent Polar Bear squad, to even its season's record at 1-1.

In gaining its first victory of the season, the young and inexperienced Crimson skated better than in last Wednesday's 6-2 loss to powerful Northeastern. Continued steady improvement is what Harvard will need to cause trouble for this season's improved Eastern hockey teams.

Third-liners Pete Waldinger and Bobby Cowen netted the Crimson's first two goals. Waldinger drove home a long screened shot in the first period off a pass from Bob Clark. During a second-period Polar Bear penaity, Cowen netted a short backhand from a scramble in front of the Bowdoin net.

After the Polar Bears scored early in the third period, Harvard's Pete Sahlin and Kenny Burnes sewed things up in the third. Sahlin made it 3-1 by poking in a pretty pass from Burnes, who had freed his linemate by drawing away the Bowdoin defense. Burnes' goal on a solo dash from center ice concluded the scoring.

Welch Stands Out

Wade Welch performed well in the Crimson net. He stopped one Bowdoin breakaway, and had little chance on the lone Polar Bear goal. The Crimson defense, with Pres Wolcott filling in for the ailing Chip Scammon, limited the Polar Bears to just 17 shots.

While Harvard was proving to itself that it still remembers how to win, some portentous events were taking place elsewhere in Eastern hockey. Boston University, which comes to Watson Rink this Wednesday, destroyed Dartmouth, last year's Ivy League champions, 10-1. And former Harvard patsies Yale upset by 5-4 the Northeastern squad which had beaten the Crimson three days before.