Shaking off an early lethargy, the Harvard hockey team drove in four goals in the second period to top Princeton 5-3 last night at the Watson Rink.

Five different players scored for the Crimson in the rough, sloppy game, Coach Cooney Weiland's 250th college victory.

Down 1-0 after the first period, Harvard knotted the score when Chris Gurry gunned in a long shot from the point. Gurry had retrieved a centering pass from Bob Fredo that skipped by everyone and bounced off the boards at the feet of the sophomore defenseman.

Gurry's tying goal came at 8:38 of the second period. Thirteen seconds later Jack Turco tallied the go-ahead score, taking a pass from Barry Johnson right in front of the cage and flipping it by Princeton goalie Ed Tilghman.

Harvard made it 3-1 shortly thereafter on the prettiest play of the night as Fredo took Jack Garrity's pass and hit Kent Parrot with a perfect feed in front of the crease. Parrot fired the puck into the nets at 15:05.

Chip Otness capped the second period outburst when he stole the puck from a Tiger defenseman an dscored unassisted at 19:03. Harvard was down a man at the time.

Princeton's Jerry Kearney cut the Crimson's lead to 4-2 at 2:49 of the third period when he slapped a rebound past Harvard goalie Bill Diercks.

Penalty Killers

But Weiland had begun to use penalty killers Otness and Dwight Ware in the third period on a line with Turco, and the speedy new combination paid off at 11:15 when Ware scored from close range on a feed from Otness.

Princeton closed the scoring as Terry Peterman took an enormous windup and zinged a slap shot through Diercks at 12:26.

In the first period, Harvard spent virtually all its time circling the Princeton goal, with nothing to show for the effort. Not even three Tiger penalties proved enough help. Princeton's John Ritchie finally took matters into his own hands when he held Harvard's Terry Flaman with a good fake and then set up Jon Taylor, crossing in front of the nets for an easy score. Taylor's goal was at 16:43.

Diercks ended the game with 20 saves. The hard-pressed Tilghman stopped 33 Harvard shots.

Harvard now heads into its big games against Brown and Cornell with a 3-1 record. Princeton is 2-2.