All-American Doug Ferguson stole the puck in the first 30 seconds and took a clear shot, only to be thwarted by Diercks. Then he repeated the act and banged one in off Diercks pads at 0:46 to give the Big Red a gift early lead.

At 14:51 Dave Ferguson's shot from a melee of broken sticks, referees, and players 45 feet out deflected off a Harvard stick into the goal's lower left corner. Ninety seconds later, with Harvard's Chip Otness in the penalty box, Bob Kinasewich bounced a shot perpendicularly off a Crimson defenseman's pads into the nets.

Harvard fans held out hope, remembering that the Crimson had been three goals down at Ithaca, 4-1, before bouncing back with two third-period goals.

Jack Garrity got the comeback rolling midway through the second period. The junior center beat Orr on a rush and passed to wing George Murphy. Garrity continued hustling around the net, picked up Murphy's rebound in the corner, and flipped it behind goalie Ken Dryden into the cage.

Then when Cornell's Paul Althouse was sent off for tripping and teammate Mike Doran was given a misconduct penalty, both at 19:30 of the second period, the Crimson saw its chance. But Big Red sophomore Pete Tufford, who had scored three of his team's four goals against Northeastern, turned the game in the other direction for good with a scrambling breakaway shot that bounced over a sprawled Diercks.

Garrity and Bauer led the pressure on Dryden in the final period, and Ben Smith had the best chance on a clean breakaway. But no one could score and the Crimson was stuck with a 4-1 defeat.

Diercks recorded 34 saves, to Dryden's 31. Fifteen penalties were called, and the eight on Cornell included two majors. A free-for-all almost erupted with five minutes left in the game when Doug Ferguson, with two infractions already to his debit, went after Garrity's head with his stick. Two more penalties in the next minute left each team with three skaters on the ice.

Harvard - Northeastern

Northeastern and Harvard, the Tournament's two losers, met Friday night in what amounted to a consolation game preceding the B.U.-Cornell finale. Between an early-season overtime win over Brown and Wednesday's near-upset of Cornell, the Huskies had bumbled through a lackluster December, and figured to be an easy victim for the Crimson.

But their four second-period goals dwarfed Harvard's lone first-period tally and made the boys from Watson work to prevent their vacation from being a total loss.

Garrity gave Harvard its early lead, after linemate Murphy stole the puck in the N.U. zone and dropped a pass for his center 20 feet in front of goalie Ken Leu.

Then came the barrage, with Dick Heagle, Jim Leu, Bob MacCauseland, and Dean McGranahan hitting the nets in succession for Northeastern.

Harvard showed signs of fighting back with Parrot's goal a minute before the period ended.

With a humiliating loss before them, Weiland's skaters came on the ice for the third period with determination. Five minutes had passed when McCullough stole the puck in front of the Northeastern net. Waldinger got off a short shot before sprawling outside the crease, and Parrot poked the puck over the similarly prone Leu for his fourth goal of the Tourney.

Two minutes later, Murphy walloped a 25-foot shot into the upper left corner, with about an inch to spare in each direction. Murphy's goal, which sent the game into overtime, followed a rush and blocked shot by Garrity.