Talk about your giant killers! The Harvard hockey team opened its season last night with an inspiring 5-2 upset over the University of Vermont. Before the game Vermont had been ranked tenth in the nation in hockey by the AP and the Crimson had failed to receive a vote in the preseason poll.

The Crimson went right to work in the opening stanza, scoring three goals and thoroughly outskating the boys from maple sugar country. Sophomore Gene Purdy clicked first for Harvard at 7:05 after Billy Hozack and freshman Jackie Hughes set him up.

UVM came back pressuring as two of their shots kissed the Harvard goalposts, but then sophomore George Hughes came up with the play of the game to give the pucksters permanent momentum.

With 10:25 gone in the first period Hughes was upended on a clear breakaway by a Vermont defenseman and thus awarded a penalty shot. The classy center wheeled in alone and fired a dart from the slot that found home in the right hand corner of the Vermont net.

Charlie Petersen rounded out Harvard's first period scoring with what proved to be the winning tally. Petersen 'clicked at 17:38 on assists from Bryan Cook and Kevin O'Donaghue.

It was basically rink-length catch in the second period, as the teams shuttled back and forth down the ice for the entire 20 minutes. The teams split 18 shots on goal at nine apiece and both sides failed to score.

The icemen awoke from their middle period siesta to play aggressive hockey for the first half of the third. Freshman Jon Garrity registered his first varsity goal at 6:53 on assists from John cochrane and Jon Schuster which made the score 4-0 Harvard and turned most thoughts to the question of whether or not Crimson goalie Brian Petrovek would chalk up a shutout in the season's first contest.

That question was painfully answered in the next minute, when UVM's Bill Reber scored at 7:39 with help from assists by All-American Randy Koch and John Glynne.

Less than two minutes later Purdy and Schuster set up Doug Thompson who responded by twining Harvard's final goal of the surprisingly one-sided tilt. Vermont's Tom Colby finished out the game's scoring, as he pocketed one by Petrovek with less than seven minutes remaining.

The strongest suit in Harvard's deck last night was its young but parsimonious defense, which except for two lapses in the final stanza, performed admirably and limited Petrovek's traffic to a total of 24 shots on goal, and only a half dozen or so super saves.

Forward Hughes also played an outstanding defensive game, killing off penalties in the final period like he had overdosed on Bobby Orr pills.

The road gets no easier now for the hockey team, which should break into the national rankings by virtue of last night's manhandling. ECAC hockey is about as friendly competition as a race for a spot on the Boston school committee. Harvard will travel to Northeastern for a game on the 29th, and the begin a three-game homestand, facing off against Providence, Penn, and the Superblades from BU on December 1, 4, 8.