Before B.U. rallied to dump B.C.. 5-4, for the downtown championship which an overthrown Harvard hockey team had relinquished a week earlier, the Crimson stumbled and staggered its way to a 5-4 overtime victory over weak Northeastern last night in the consolation round of the Beanpot Tournament at Boston Garden.

Although the Crimson deserved credit for rallying from a 4-2 deficit midway through the second period, the circumstances that created the deficit were inexcusable, and unbefitting a team that has pretentious to being one of the East's top four squads.

It was difficult to determine whether Harvard's lack of inspiration and neglect of technique was a result of overconfidence or merely consistent sloppiness, but nevertheless, the Crimson's appalling ineptness indicated that the losses to Penn and Boston College, which had previously been regarded as flukes, may not have been so after all.

Wing Dan DeMichele put the Crimson ahead at the 15-minute mark of the opening period with a rebound shot that caught Husky goaler Dan Eherly out of position, but no less than seven seconds later. Northeastern's Dave Poile knocked in teammate Tom Daniells' shot off the ensuing face-off, and the game was tied.

Tie Score

Smilarly, after Joe Cavanagh had set up DeMichele for the Crimson's second goal at 1:25 of the second period, the Huskies caught Harvard's defense: up-ice, 57 seconds later, and Terry Cain left a rebound for teammate Gene Anchambeault to flip by Harvard goaler Bruce Durdo. The score was tied again.

At the eight-minute mark, the roof began to collapse upon Harvard. With captain Chris Gurry off for elbowing, the Huskies scored on the power play, with Crawford Bell tallying on a centering pass. Then, at 14:31, Poile stole the puck from Gurry at center-ice, and on a near breakway, beat Durno cleanly to widen the margin to 4-2.

Harvard's Steve Owen cut the lead to a single goal seven seconds later breaking in off right wing directly after the face-off, but midway through the final period, Northeastern was still ahead and the Bostonians showed no signs of collapse.

Even faced with the distinct possibility of losing to the second-worst team in the East's first division, Harvard's performance had improved only slightly. The Crimson had surpassed the point where it was beating itself, but had not yet reached the point where it could beat the Huskies.

Tripping Out

At 4:42, Northeastern's Dean Anderson went off for tripping, and teammate John Boyce followed him a minute later, but the Crimson squandered the two-man advantage. The Crimson, clearly, was not going to get many more opportunities.

But at 12:13, Gurry gathered in a direct pass from a face-off in the Husky end, and slammed a point shot past Elberly to tie the game at 4-4 and Harvard, rescued from urgent danger, held on to force the game into overtime.

After nine minutes, the extra period was proving nothing, and it was apparent that Northeastern might be able to salvage a morally valuable tie.

But with 18 seconds still remaining in overtime, the Huskies had unusual trouble clearing the puck, and from a mix-up directly in front of the net that forced Eberly out of position, Owen pushed in a weak backhand shot that barely said past Elberly's outstretched glove.

Harvard had won 5-4, but it was a victory only in the most literal sense of the world.