Dartmouth goalie Carey Gaudy put the Harvard hockey team on the brink of its first ECAC playoff berth since 1977 last night, stopping Yale, 4-1, in Hanover, N.H., to give the Crimson the Ivy Division lead with one game remaining.

If Harvard can best Dartmouth here Saturday night, it will win the Ivy title and clinch the fourth seed is the eight-team ECAC playoffs. The Crimson would then play a quarterfinal-round game against the number-live seed at Bright Center on Tuesday.

Gandy, the only ECAC player from Huntsville, Ala., turned aside 34 shots to upset the Elis (now 10-9-1). The Big Green, which lost to Harvard, 11-1, in its season opener, took a 2-0 lead on goals by Tom Cross and Bruce Cullen before Jim Steiner put Yale on the scoreboard in the second period.

A pair of insurance goals gave Gandy a three-goal lead and he held on, handing Yale its fourth loss in six games.

The Crimson can still win the Ivy title if it loses to Dartmouth only if Brown upsets Cornell Friday night and the Big Red beats Yale on Saturday. Yale would finish 10-101, Cornell 11-10-1 and Harvard 10-9-2.

In other ECAC action, St. Lawrence upset Clarkson, 4-3, and Boston University blanked Boston College, 5-0.