The Harvard hockey team pulled away with two goals in the final minute of the second period then coasted to an 8-2 win over RPI in a laugher at Watson Rink last night. A third period in which eight penalties were called and the Crimson outshot the Engineers 21-2 gave some excitement to the 1200 fans who had tolerated a slow and sloppy first two periods.

The brunt of the Crimson scoring came from three unusual sources. Junior Tag Demment and senior Pete Waldinger, who had three goals between them up to yesterday, each scored twice. And sophomore Tom Micheletti, in his first varsity appearance, led the squad with three assists.

The game opened with a shoddy first period in which the crowd mercifully devoted its attention to the exciting refereeing of Giles Threadgold.

Dick Scammell gave the Renselaers a short-lived lead at 11:30. Scammell's goal, after Crimson goalie Bill Fitzsimmons had stopped a shot and one rtbound, seemed to be a punitive measure directed at Harvard's sub-par play.

Waldinger Ties

Waldinger tied the game at 14:19, taking a pass from Parrot and sneaking a spinning, forehand trickler inside the left post from 20 feet.

Parrot moved Harvard ahead 24 seconds into the second period. The Crimson scoring leader picked up his own rebound and flipped a backhand past goalie Tom Nichol from the face-off circle.

With his team a man down, Scammell skated in on Bob Carr and scored his second goal to tie the game at 7:49.

Micheletti broke into the limelight six minutes later on the goal that gave Harvard the lead for good. The sophomore defenseman, filling in for the injured Charlie Scammon, carried the puck with a burst of speed into the RPI zone and dropped a pass for George Murphy. The second-line winger's shot rebounded off Nichol's stick to Ben Smith, who lit the lamp from five feet.

Then the Crimson broke the game open. Micheletti slapped a hard shot from the point and Dennis McCullough followed with a rebound effort. The puck lay loose under Nichol cntil Waldinger poked it into the cage at 19:06.

Ten Seconds Later

A scant ten seconds later, Don Grimble carried goalward and passed across the crease to Murphy, who stuffed the puck for a 5-2 lead.

The tone of the third period was set early, when Nichol made an insulting gesture toward the crowd as he skated onto the ice.

At 4:09 Demment intercepted a pass, rode off a defenseman, and flipped the puck off the bottom of the crossbar. Three minutes later Jack Garrity swatted in a knee-high rebound of a shot by Murphy, and the crowd rose in derision of "Birdman," as the goalie had been affectionately dubbed.

A comedy of penalities followed. Threadgold and Paul Burke sent off five Engineers and one Crimson, none for very serious misdemeanors, in the next six minutes.

Humiliation

Nothing serious erupted, despite Murphy's Irish temper, and the evening's last say went to Demment when he tipped a shot by Grimble past Nichol to raise the humiliation to a final 8-2.

Fitzsimmons, who registered nine saves in each of the first two periods, could have slept through the third. In all, he made 20 saves to Nichol's 40.

Micheletti's baptism was completed with two and a half minutes to play when he picked up his first penalty to go along with his three assists. He had played more than half the game up to then, and his debut was an encouragingly positive factor in the Harvard attack all evening.