Harvard lost to the two best hockey teams in the East at the Arena Christmas Tournament, and recovered just in time to salvage a 5-4 overtime win over Northeastern in the three-night round-robin.

Boston University, which had trouble downing the Crimson 7-5 on December 28, and Cornell, which scored a 4-1 win over Harvard the next night, tied 3-3 in double overtime in the Tournament's eagerly anticipated Friday night climax.

Twice on Wednesday it appeared that Cornell and B.U. would not enter the Tournament final with spotless records. Lightly-regarded Northeastern opened up a 2-1 lead over the top-ranked Cornell Big Red, and at the close of the second period it was still 2-2.

The Huskies were playing their best game of the year, passing well and hitting hard (Harry Orr, one of Cornell's roughest, limped off the ice three times because of colhsions). But the Ithacans pulled ahead, then added an opennet goal in the final 30 seconds to win, 4-2.

Harvard. B.U.

The Harvard. B.U. tilt went a period and a half further down the road to upset city. The Crimson found itself possessor of a 5-4 lead and seemingly in control of the game with seven minutes to play.

A goal by sophomore high-scorer Herb Wakabayashi tied the contest at 13:48, Crimson nemesis Fred Bassi put the Terriers ahead at 18:30, and then Serge Boily raised the final margin to 7-5, seconds after Coach Cooney Weiland lifted goalie Bill Diercks for an extra forward with a minute remaining.

Harvard had built up its lead through the efforts of Bobby Bauer and Kent Parrot. Parrot matched Wakabayashi's opening goal at 4:51 of the first period, with his team a man down. Two Terrier defensemen collided and Parrot was all alone for a 15-footer between goalie Wayne Ryan and the near post.

Defenseman Dennis Clark stopped a B.U. clear inside the blue line and passed to third-line center Bauer, who was stationed 30 feet in front of Ryan. Bauer's quick shot went between deenseman Pete McLachlan's legs and under the splitting Ryan to give the Crimson a lead at 12:22.

Bassi tied the game, but Parrot restored the lead at 1:15 of the second period, with an easy rebound from a shot by captain Dennis McCullough.

Forty seconds later, B.U. defenseman Brian Gilmour notted the game for the third time with a low hard screen not, and the score stood at 3-3 for the remainder of the period.

Bassi moved the Terriers ahead 40 seconds into the third period, but a great individual effort by Bauer, who scored from 15 feet on his own rebound, evened matters once more. Four minutes later Bauer held the puck on the left boards and timed a perfect pass to rushing roommate Dwight Ware. The sophomore winger tipped the puck just inside the left post to give the Crimson its shot at victory.

But Boily won a battle with Bob Carr behind the nets and somehow passed to Wakabayashi, who somehow put the puck past Diercks at 13:48. Then Bassi, who can smell a goal like other bears smell honey, half-volleyed a bouncing puck into the lower left corner to spoil Harvard's bid for the tourney's only upset.

Harvard - Cornell

The Crimson skaters played well again the next night, but, with no breaks going for them, couldn't get closer than three goals to Cornell.

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.

Harvard wasted little time in the sudden-death period. Ware took two shots and Charlie Scammon got off a pair which Leu stopped. Then Garrity drilled a neat pass to Murphy at the right corner of the crease. Leu went for Murphy, but the puck went to Smith at the other corner. With the whole net to shoot at from three feet, Smith easily sent the weary skaters to the showers.

B.U. - Cornell

They all came quickly back, though, to see "the Notre Dame-Michigan State of college hockey." The Arena, which had had plenty of empty seats the first two nights, was S.R.O. for this one, and not much of that. The difference on the ice was apparent, too, from the opening face-off. Both games Wednesday had been lethargic, and in their 6-1 and 5-1 wins on Thursday B.U. and Cornell hardly looked like the teams that went furiously at one another Friday.

With Mike Doran practically melting the ice and freezing the Terriers, the Big Red controlled the early play and carried a 3-2 lead into the third period. But B.U.'s strength showed through in the third period, and the game went into overtime, tied 3-3. The 5,000 fans and 1,000 people from Cornell, many of them watching their sixth game in three days, were going wild as midnight came and went.

When neither team scored in the ten-minute overtime, coaches Ned Harkness and Jack Kelley met at mid-ice and, amid screams of "More More More," agreed to a second sudden-death period to determine a winner.

Ryan and Dryden, who were named co-winners of the Tournament's Most Valuable Player Award, stood up to the tremendous pressure and kept their goals inviolate for another ten minutes.

The two teams went off the ice with 1's appended to their 11-0 records and the fans went home, weary from 5 1/2 hours of hockey, to wait for the final verdict, which will probably come ten weeks hence in the ECAC Tournament.