Boston University laid to rest all questions about which is the best college hockey team in the East with a crushing. 7-3, triumph over Harvard Saturday night to capture its second straight Eastern College Athletic Conference title.

The Terriers simply outclassed the Crimson in every aspect of the game. Harvard did not play poorly, as it had in the Beanpot final, but B.U. brought a superior brand of hockey to the ice.

Both teams opened the game cautiously yet the Crimson maintained a slight territorial advantage for the first half of the first period. Even though Harvard kept the puck in the Terrier end, the Crimson was unable is mount any good scoring threats on B.U. goalie Brian Durocher.

The Terriers' duo of Rick Meagher, the tournament's most valuable player, and Mike Eruzione got B.U. rolling. Meaghey scored tow goals within 23 seconds. On the first tally. Eruzione made a perfect pass to Meagher, who rammed it past Brian Petrovek from 15 feet out.

For his second goal. Meagher picked up a loose puck that had eluded a Harvard defenseman at the Crimson blue line and waltzed in alone on Petrovek. Meagher scored on the breakaway in textbook fashions, decoying Petro out of his skates, and lifted his team to a lightning quick 2-0 advantage.

Both goals came when the Crimson defensive tandem of Larry Pratelli and Todd Nieland was on the ice. In this respect, the game was a repeat of the 7-2 Harvard loss I the Beanpot-final, as the swift Terrier forwards were once again too much for the two to handle.

Third Score

The third B.U. score of the first period, however, at 18 seconds left in the stanza, propelled the Terriers to a lead too great for the Crimson to surmount.

Harvard was having difficulty working the puck out from behind the Crimson net, way onto the stick of Terrier Buddy Powers, who was all alone five feet out. He promptly backhanded around Petrovek for the tally.

For the rest of the night the contest was a game of cat and mouse. Three times Harvard came within two goals--3-1, 4-2, 5,3--but each time the Terriers surged back to restore their three-goal cushion.

The only thing Crimson fans could be happy about was the remarkable efficiency of the power play unit which accounted for all three goals. The Harvard power play had been batting at a lowly, 290 clip for the season, but against B.U. it was awesome, despite the absence of Jimmy Thomas on the left point. Thomas missed the game with a head injury he incurred against Cornell the night before.

Perfect Shot

Harvard took more shots than usual, instead of working the puck around for the perfect shot--and the strategy paid off three time. Each Crimson tally came on a rebound or a tip-in off an errant shot from far out.

Jim McMahon picked up two of the power play goals--first at 4:58 of the second period on a rebound of a Steve Dagdigian shot. Mac collected his second goal at 14:55, by knocking down an Eddie Rossi shot from the point and putting past Durocher from close in.

Dagdigian got the final Crimson score of the night, at 17:51 of the second frame gathering the rebound from another Ross point shot which Durocher had left lying in his crease.