With forward Dave Bell picking up a three-goal hat trick and adding three assists as frosting on the cake, Harvard's varsity hockey team surprised no one by swamping hapless Yale Saturday night in New Haven, 9-3.

The victory, raising the squad's record to 11-7-3 overall and 9-6-3 in the ECAC, goes a long way toward insuring the Crimson skaters of a berth in the opening round of the playoffs one week from now.

Playing against everyone's choice as the worst team in Eastern collegiate hockey, it took Harvard a while to get warmed up, waiting until well into the second period to pull away.

Bell was first on the scoreboard in the opening period, converting the efforts of George Hughes and Bill Hozack into a power play goal at 3:02 of the stanza as Yale's Brian Kinsman watched from the penalty box.

Harvard's 1-0 lead was erased seven minutes later, when Randy Ludwar of Moose Jaw, Sasketchewan beat Brian Petrovek at 9:20 after taking a pass from Eli captain Keith Miller. Within two minutes, though, Miller was on his way to the penalty box for holding, and the Crimson was headed toward a lead it would not relinquish.

Miller enjoyed his box seat for only 33 seconds, as Harvard's Bill Hozack pumped the second goal past Eli netminder Rich Kozlak at 11:51. Bell (along with Hughes) picked up an assist on that one, and then finished off the period's scoring with a tally at 18:25, pushing Harvard's edge to 3-1.

Yale's last try to make it a game came eight minutes into the second period, when Dave McDonald combined with Brian Kinsman and Dave Harrington to bring the Elis within one. It was then time for Miller to get into his penalty act again, and he was stuck with a delay of game call at the 14:00 mark.

The Eli captain barely had a chance to sit down this time, as Todd Nieland took advantage of the man up situation to make the score 4-2, and Harvard coasted in from there.