Kevin Johnson kept Dartmouth's ECAC playoff hopes alive last night, at Harvard's expense.

Johnson banged home a Scott Colemar rebound at 18:39 of the third period to cap a three-goal rally that lifted Dartmouth (10-8 in Division I) to a 5-4 victory over Harvard (6-6-2) at Watson Rink.

With ten minutes left to play in the contest, the Crimson squad had a 4-2 lead thanks mostly to the efforts of Phelps Swift, who scored Harvard's first hat trick of the season. Harvard netminder Brian Petrovek looked sharp, shutting out Dartmouth in the second period, and the penalty killing unit had defused three consecutive Big Green power plays.

The Crimson defense could not smother Dartmouth's explosive squad, which has had its back to the ECAC wall several times already this season. Freshman Rick Racic rushed from center ice and scored at 12:01 of the third, to draw his squad within one and start the Big Green adrenaline going.

George Hughes was banished at 13:21, but the penalty killers who had been sc brilliant in the second period faltered. Ken Pettit's rebound-conversion at 14:42 tied the score at four.

Harvard freshman Gene Purdy had his chances to put the Crimson back on top again, after Mike Walsh was penalized at 15:49 for tripping. Purdy was robbed on two point-blank shots by Dartmouth goaltender Jeff Sollows (29 saves in the game), and fanned on a third that Kevin Carr tried to stuff home.

With 1:21 remaining, Johnson only finished what seemed inevitable as the stunned Harvard crowd sat in silence while the extremely vocal Dartmouth partisans went berserk.

The Crimson loss ruined an otherwise brilliant night by Swift, who took turns on his regular line with Bill Horton and Bill Hozack, along with power play and shorthanded duty. Swift put Harvard on the board first, at 3:18 of the first period, beating Sollows to his glove side.

After Dan Leigh tied the game at 7:01, the senior from Pinedale, Wyoming, again put his teammates on top, culminating one of the prettiest power plays Harvard has pulled off all season.

Looking like Kharlamov-to-Yakushev-to-Caputin, George Hughes took the pass from the point, slid a behind the back pass from the faceoff circle to Hozack at the side of the net, who in turn directed the puck across the goalmouth and onto the stick of Swift for a goal at 9:10.

Brian McCloskey brought Harvard back from Moscow Arena and into Watson Rink, knotting the score once again. With Bob Leckie in the box, McCloskey jammed in a Leigh rebound at 9:10, after Petro had made a great save on the initial shot of Dartmouth's swarming power play.

The second period belonged to Harvard defenseman Jim Liston, who looked like sure hero material when he put the Crimson ahead for the third time in the game. Liston intercepted a pass as he was coming out of the penalty box and beat Sollows on the glove side for an unassisted goal at 10:56 of the middle stanza.

Swift got the trick at 2:54 of the third on a deflection of a Jon Schuster slapper from the point, to give Harvard a seemingly comfortable 4-2 lead.

Crimson coach Billy Cleary was forced to shuffle his lines due to the absence of Kevin Burke (bad back) and Paul Haley (ankle bruise). Cleary moved Dave Bell to the first line, and concocted a second line of Hughes centering Tim McKenna and Murray Dea.