The St. Lawrence hockey team scored three times in the first period against a drowsy Harvard defense and then fended off a Crimson counterattack for a 6-4 victory Saturday night at Watson Rink.

Bobby Bauer accounted for a pair of third-period Harvard goals, but by the time the Crimson recovered against their fast-breaking, sharp-passing adversaries, the cause was lost.

The defeat was Harvard's second straight after a string of seven victories.

Two of the first three Larrie goals were on breakaways. The initial score came at 11:18 when a lead pass caught Pete Slater flying down the right side. The St. Lawrence forward left the Crimson defense behind and shot a 15-footer past Bill Diercks.

After the Larries' Dave Erickson's beautiful feed to John Makins gave the New Yorkers a 2-0 lead at 12:09, the hustling Slater caught Harvard unawares a second time. With St. Lawrence a man down. Slater stole a setup pass to the Crimson's Bob Carr at the Larrie blue line and went the length of the ice again. Diercks made what looked like a terrific sprawling block, but the puck trickled beneath his legs and into the goal.

Facing a 3-0 deficit at the start of the second period, Harvard started a comeback. After squandering two St. Lawrence penalties, the Crimson finally scored on a herculean effort by Ron Mark at 14:43. Mark took the puck at the Harvard blue line, wheeled and twisted through several St. Lawrence defenders and beat goalie Jerry Healey for an unassisted goal. But Erickson deflected in a Larrie shot at 18:53, and Harvard ended the period no better off than before.

Harvard, a late-rally team all year long, put merciless pressure on Healey at the start of the final period, but the sophomore goaltender locked the Crimson out. Then, when Erickson stretched the Larrie lead to 5-1 by firing a carom over Diercks' shoulder at 7:13, the game was as good as over.

Too late, Harvard began to play its best hockey of the night. Bauer guided in a Carr shot at 7:27 for his first goal, but Don D'Angelo scored for St. Lawrence from close range at 8:05.

The Crimson pinned the Larries in their own end, but the St. Lawrence defense smothered shots and shielded the goal mouth until Harvard's Terry Flaman swept a centering pass by Dwight Ware into the net at 11:21. The Crimson continued to press until Bauer slid in a rebound at 18:48 for the last goal of the game.

Diercks had 23 saves for Harvard, but Healey was a marvel in the nets for St. Lawrence with 31 stops, 15 in the last period.

Harvard is now 12-7 overall, 11-6 in the ECAC. The Larries polished their record to 14-6, including a 5-1 over New Hampshire on Friday night.