It has all happened so slowly, but they tell me that's the best way to torture someone.

And if torture is what you're into, served up with Expectation as an appetizer and Realization for dessert, then you probably had a ringside reservation on Saturday afternoon at the Walter Brown Arena.

The Harvard hockey team was not only throttled by Brown 7-3 at its sublet home rink, but in addition, had its ECAC record fall to 2-7 and its playoff hopes all but dispatched at mid-season.

It appeared before the game that coach Billy Cleary had finally made the changes necessary to tighten his defense and inspire the offense. Cleary moved captain John Cochrane back to defense, John Dunderdale from defense to left wing, and reshuffled all his lines. And, with George and Jack Hughes back in the line-up, how much worse could it be than the discouraging 5-3 loss at Northeastern Thursday night?

It was a lot worse, and most assuredly was Harvard's poorest all-around performance of the season. After a relatively close first period, the visitors from Providence turned a 1-0 contest into justified teamacide, scoring three goals in each of the final two stanzas.

The Crimson appeared momentarily serious when freshman David Burke tied the game at one-all, notching his 11th goal of the year on a turn-around slapshot 15 seconds into the second period.

But Burke's unrequited tally proved to be the first example of the icemen's game-long habit of handing back momentum previously discarded by Brown. "Give and take" turned into "give and give back", and a minute and a half later Bruins Bob Free and Jim Bennett scored 14 seconds apart for a 3-1 Brown margin.

Harvard defenseman Jim Trainor and Brown forward Dan Santanello would exchange goals in similar fashion later on the period, but just to keep the image of a televised, hard-fought tilt.

The Crimson had actually driven its effort to the ranks of "listless" earlier in the second, failing to capitalize on three power-play chances. In all, Harvard went 0-for-9 in man-up situations on the afternoon, on four occasions drawing penalties themselves less than 30 seconds into the power play.

The power plays that the icemen did manage to complete were either thwarted by Brown's All-American goalie Mike Laycock or by their own sloppy passing and inability to get going.

With 13 games left to play it appears evident that a second-division finish in the ECAC is in the offing. Only a strong effort in the Beanpot would soften the fall to mediocrity.

THE NOTEBOOK After lengthy negotiations between officials and scorers, David Burke's first goal against Northeastern was credited to Rick Benson, giving him the hat-trick for the game.

SCORE BY PERIODS

Brown (7-6) 1 3 3...7

HARVARD (4-9) 0 2 1...3