Culminating a week of disaster, the Harvard hockey varsity absorbed its worst defeat in four years Saturday from a spirited Dartmouth sextet.

The unbelievable final score Saturday, 7-1, amazed and delighted a Winter Carnival crowd of 2100 boisterous Dartmouth students and their dates. It practically destroyed the Crimson.

All of the problems that have plagued the variety since the end of exams continued, but Saturday even their usual touchstone also collapsed. The weak offense which produced only three goals in the last two games was obvious.

But the defense which had kept the team in all previous games finally evaporated. Goaile Brandy Sweitzer had his first off day in two months. The defensemen showed only occasional spark, and Sweitzer was left to fend for himself far too often. Crimson clearing was practically non-existent.

By the time the Crimson could manage its first goal late in the second period, the score was 6-1, and the varsity was a beaten team. When captain Gene Kinasewich fired the puck unassisted past two Dartmouth defensemen and the Green goalie for his first goal since the exam break, he whirled quickly and skated to the red line to await the faceoff. No one cheered. No teammate offered congratulations.

Less than three minutes after the opening faceoff, the Indians' John Carpenter took the puck across the Harvard blue line and fired a shot from 20 feet out directly at the Harvard goalie. The puck caromed off Sweitzer's chest into the goal.

Then, in quick succession, two penalties were assessed on the Dartmouth stickmen, but superb clearing by the Indians enabled the Crimson to get off exactly one shot while it possessed a two man advantage.

A garbage goal for Dartmouth midway through the period almost sent the Dartmouth rooters out of their minds, and when the Crimson almost seemed to regain its form, three beautiful saves by goalie Brewster Gere left the Crimson with nothing but frustration to show for their effort.

Just before the buzzer ended the first period, the Indians' Doug Hayes stole the puck from Bill Fryer at the Dartmouth blue line, came in on Sweitzer all alone, and fired Dartmouth's third goal into the net with only seven seconds left in the period.

Two minutes after the second period began. Dartmouth had another goal and, ten minutes later, got two more, within 20 seconds of each other, before Kinasewich finally broke Gere's shutout. Dartmouth's Hayes finished the scoring and got his hat trick at 14:06 of the final period on a shot that Sweitzer never saw as it skittered through the pile of players in front of the net.

In the past two years, Harvard has had slumps after exams though it has usualy managed to avoid losses. Coach Cooney Weiland admits the slump is worse this year, but feels it is the product of a rash of bad breaks. The two losses earlier last week, "games which could have gone either way," inevitably caused a let-down. Thus against Dartmouth, "it was just one of those things. We didn't have it right from the start," Weiland said.

When a hockey team which has been primarily a scoring team in the past, can't devise an effective offense the result is confusion and lack of confidence. "We're pushing too hard, hurrying our shots, and then not shooting well," captain Gene Kinasewich said last night.

Both Weiland and Kinasewich felt that if the squad settled down and managed to score, Harvard would return to its winning ways. Tonight wouldn't be a bad time for the new era to dawn