Nothing went right last night, or at least very little. Even when Billy Cleary's skaters battled back to tie Northeastern--momentarily--at five apiece early in the third period, they had little to look back on except occasional flashes of individual talent amid a circus of give-aways, broken plays, Wacky Racers fast breaks and slapshot prayers from the blue line. It was one of those utterly ridiculous games, where three-goal leads topple like Persian Gulf governments, and "defense" seems like a wistful memory from a bygone era.

And when the somber Crimson icemen trooped through the debris-strewn entrails of Boston Arena to reflect in the privacy of their bomb-shelter locker room upon the embarassing 11-5 trouncing they had just been handed, the inevitable happened. "Where the hell are the keys?" a Harvard official shouted as the squad stood in a corridor and waited.

"Let me tell you, it was a total team effort," Cleary said as he surveyed the ruins of the heady optimism induced by Sunday's opening night 5-3 win over Brown. "It was a total defensive collapse."

And it was. While contests between Northeastern and Harvard sometimes end up close and sometimes laughers, they have always been conducive to wide-open, free-wheeling and not very well-played hockey that does not produce a winner so much as a team that happens to be ahead when the time runs out. Even during the first two periods--before the Huskies struck six times in 13:48, including three in 1:14--Harvard skated well, but repeatedly surrendered the puck in its own zone and failed to clear the area in front of netminder Wade Lau. When the dam finally broke, Lau, who could be faulted for only a few of the goals, faced a swarming, goal-hungry pack of Husky red-black-and-white.

The 2157 (announced) fans at Boston Arena saw a fast-paced, exciting, action-filled, rough-and-tumble and--except for the vocal cadre of 50 Crimson supporters lumped at the Harvard end--enjoyable sport last night. But it wasn't the kind of hockey Harvard can play if it expects to win more than a few, fortunate games this season.

***

Greg Britz had to leave the game in the first period after suffering a leg injury...Dave Burke, voted Ivy League player "of the week" for his two goals and an assist against Brown, contributed another assist and a beautiful one-handed tally last night...Heavily-recruited freshman Jay North, the Bloomington, Minn. native selected in the NHL draft by the Buffalo Sabres, made his college hockey debut, centering for Rick Benson and fellow freshman Gary Martin...the shots went like this: Harvard 8-15-7-30, Northeastern 12-8-12-32...freshman defenseman Bob Starbuck moved up to forward on the Rob Burns-Greg Britz-Shayne Kukulowicz line after Britz was hurt...a double minor (cross-checking and unsportsmanlike) to Mike Watson with 14:29 left in the game and Northeastern ahead 8-5 sealed Harvard's fate...the Crimson still leads the Huskies in their all-time rivalry, 50-15...Northeastern has cheerleaders.