The Harvard hockey team will barely have a chance to lick its wounds from Wednesday's rough, overtime loss to Brown before it has to take on one of the best college hockey teams in Canada. The Crimson skaters, now 2-3-1 in inter-collegiate competition, face the University of Toronto in the Boston Garden at 9 p.m. Saturday night.

Toronto, tied for first place in the Canadian College League, is led by firstline center Paul Laurent, the best individual who will skate against Harvard all year. Laurent scored 40 goals last winter for the Junior A. Marlboros, the Toronto Maple Leaf's number one farm team. There are others too, including the captain, Bob Awrey, whose brother Don plays for the Boston Bruins.

The Harvard-Toronto tilt is the finale of the two-night Garden Christmas Hockey Festival. Toronto against Northeastern and Boston College versus Dartmouth are the pairings tonight, and Dartmouth will play Boston University at 7 p.m. preceding the Harvard game.

The skaters have only a nine-day vacation before they return to the ice to prepare for the Nichols Tournament in Buffalo, N.Y. On New Year's Eve they will play Princeton, and either Yale or Dartmouth the next day, depending on the outcome of the semi-finals.

Closer to home, the undefeated Harvard freshman team will receive its first challenge at 7:30 p.m. tonight in Watson Rink from the Boston College freshmen. The Eaglets' 5-0 record is identical to Harvard's, but it was completed against tougher foes, including Princeton, B.U., R.P.I., and Merrimack.

Captain Jim Otness, high scorer George Murphy, and Bobby Bauer center three equally potent Yardling lines that netted 40 goals in the opening five wins. Goalie Bill Diercks limited the first four opponents to seven scores, and Paul Oldfield filled in with similar success in Wednesday's 9-2 romp at Brown.

Sharing the freshmen's success against Brown was the Harvard J.V. team. The J.V.'s won, 5 to 2, presenting Coach James A. Hutchinson '28 with the 100th victory of his Harvard career. Hutchinson, who coaches on his own without reimbursement, is almost solely responsible for the existence and operation of the J.V. setup, which has proved invaluable to Harvard hockey in recent years.