PRINCETON, N.J.-The deck had been stacking up against the Harvard men's hockey team, with two dreadful periods against Yale last Saturday and a 60-minute stinker against Northeastern in the Beanpot opener Monday.

So this week Coach Bill Cleary called for a reshuffle and last night his hand came up with a 7-2 drubbing of Princeton before 2245 at Hobey Baker Rink.

It took tour brand news lines to do it, but the Crimson finally strung together three good periods of play.

"We wanted to get a little spark back," Cleary said of the new lineup. "We thought a little change of scenery might do it."

It also helped that the opponent was Princeton. At 4-15-1 overall and 3-12-1 in the FCAC, the Tigers are challenging Dartmouth and Brown for the Ivy cellar. Harvard is comfortably at the other end of the picture, now 8-7 in the ECAC (8-10-1 overall) and still holding a two-game bulge over Yale.

As right wing Rob Ohno said after the game. "You can't complain about this one." The Crimson controlled the game from faceoff to buzzet.

Musical Goalies

Gary Martin and Jay North started things off 6-23 into the game Martin drifted in on the left wing, then passed across to North who slid the puck by goalie Wally McDonough's left skate. Two minutes later, the Crimson found itself on the attacking end of a two man advantage Captain Ken Code responded with his first goal of the season, a slapshot from the center of the blue line that threaded its way untouched into the back of the net.

The next Harvard goal came as Dave Connors started off the second period with a beautiful centering pass from the corner, and Shayne Kukulowiez did the honors by tipping it in.

When the teams left the ice for the second intermission, the only question remaining was whether Crimson goalie Grant Blair could notch his third shutout in six games. A slapshot off the pipe and a couple of Crimson defensive lapses had been the nearest that Princeton had gotten to entering the scorebook.

"They didn't deserve to score against us," center Rob Wheeler said. Nonetheless they did.

Gray did the damage at 2:41, when he beat Blair with help from Bill Brady and Cliff Abrccht. Ten minutes later Gray tipped in a Steve Biss rebound, and the Tigers were back in the contest.

But just six seconds after the ensuing faceoff, the red light flashed on at the other end. Tony Visone took a Brian Busconi feed and slapped one from the point. The puck dribbled over McDonough's stick to seal the Harvard victory.

First Score

McDonough was so shaken that Princeton Coach Jim Higgins pulled him. His replacement. Dave Marotta never made a save. Ohno took a pass from Bisconi and backhanded the puck into the net just 28 seconds after Murotta took over Murotta hurt himself on the play and the red faced McDonough returned to duty, only to allow freshman Peter Chiarelli to notch Harvard's second power play goal of the night. At Princeton, N.J. Harvard  2  2  3--7 Princeton  0  0  2--2

H Jay North (Gary Martin. Tim Barakett) 6 23: H. Ken Code (Dave Connors. Rob Wheeler) 8:46; H. Shayne Kukulowicz (Connors. Randy Taylor) 19:H. Connors. (Kukulowicz, Wheeler) 17:34, P. Allan Gray (Bill Brady. Cliff Abrecht) 2:41; P. Gray (Steve Biff. Brady) 12:57; H. Tony Visone (Brian Busconi) 13:03. H. Rob Ohno (Busconi) 13:31; H. Peter Chiarellil (Brad Dorman, Taylor) 17:26.

Saves--H. Grant Blair 9-10-8--27; P. Wally McDonough 10-18-14--42. P. Dave Marotta--0--0

Att.-2245.