In a game that was closer to Saturday afternoon roller-derby than National championship caliber hockey,. a depressed, tired Harvard team ended its unpredictable season by falling to Denver, 1-0, in the NCAA consolation game in Syracuse.

Harvard was clearly playing consolation hockey, but the Crimson can hardly be blamed for its frustrated effort. Fifteen hours before Harvard stepped on the ice to play Denver, it had stumbled off the ice in shock, eliminated by an inferior Minnesota team in overtime after holding the lead for all but the last seven seconds of regulation play.

The Crimson played Denver's own game of rough, close-checking hockey, and it didn't play it very well. Outshoot 36-20. Harvard managed to total up an NCAA record 11 penalties in the process of failing to score a goal for the only time all season.

And if it hadn't been for the acrobatics of goalie Bruce Durno, Harvard would have lest by a lot more than one goal. Durno ended his excellent career by turning away 35 shots, many of them from point-blank range.

Harvard didn't even fight very well. Dan DiMichele squared off with Brian Morenz midway through the first period, and after DiMichele threw the first two punches, Morenz pulled up DiMichele's jersey and beat the hell out of him. DiMichele, the fourth high scorer in Harvard history, ended his career by heading for the locker room with a game misconduct and a bloody mouth.

DiMichele's beating was the low point for a miserable first period for the Crimson. Harvard did not put one shot one net from inside 30 feet, while Denver constantly beat the Crimson to the puck and pressured Durno. Harvard did manage to blow one perfect scoring opportunity, however, as Bob MeManama missed an open net. The chance was set up by an unusual rebound off the War Memorial Auditorium's new boards that fooled the Denver goalie as he left the cage to cover the shot.

Harvard looked better in the second period, capitalized once on a five-on-three situation to exert its only sustained pressure of the game. Denver successfully killed its numerous penalties, however, and finally beat Durno for the game's only goal.

Pete McNab scored for the Pioneers, coming down the right side and letting go a soft but accurate shot that caught the far corner. McNab is one of eight freshmen on a Denver team that skated only one senior regularly.

The trips to the penalty box were fewer in the third period, but the hockey was just as bad.

Harvard tried to win, like Minnesota the previous night, with a last-second goal, but shorthanded Denver's four skaters tied-up Harvard's six by freezing the puck three times in the last ten seconds.

The tournament was a disappointment for the Crimson, especially for All-American captain Joe Cavanagh who, ending his career just eight points behind Babby Cleary's record 195 points, was shut out in his last game as a Harvard player.

The season, however, was a success. Watching the clock run out on his last game as a Harvard coach in a half-filled, upstate New York minor league rink, only a week after standing to an ovation of 14,000 at Boston Garden, Cooney Weiland couldn't have felt too wonderful, but he isn't unhappy either. Cooney, voted ECAC coach of the year for the second time in his 21 years as coach, called his 18-8-1 season "tremendous."