A first glance at the score reveals no big surprises.

Northeastern, the heavy favorite, coasts to an 8-2 victory over Harvard in last night's opening round of the Seventh Annual Women's Beanpot at Bright Center.

But anyone who watched last night's contest knows that the Cantabs have no reason to feel like losers.

"The big word on this game is class," said Crimson goalie Tracy Kimmel. "We went out there in the third period to show them some class and we did."

Trailing the Huskies, 6-0, after two periods, the icewomen rallied back with two goals just when it would have been easiest to stay in the locker room and call it a night.

The power play worked, the defense shone, and Kimmel registered 38 saves against one of the most dangerous offenses in women's ice hockey.

A loss, yes; a crushing blow to Beanpot dreams, certainly; but a poor effort, definitely not.

"Our kids demonstrated super courage, super class," said Harvard Coach John Dooley. "It would have been easy to fold under the pressure, but we kept coming back."

Ranked among the top five teams in the nation, the Huskies are large, physical, and recruited--and not a squad to let up on the pressure at any time.

"I'm not going to pull in the reins," warned Northeastern Coach Don MacLeod before the game. "I think we should be the [Beanpot] favorites each year now because of recruitments--we're pulling away from the other three."

The Huskies certainly pulled away from the Crimson early in the contest last night.

Just two and a half minutes into the action, Northeastern's sensational freshman center, Louise Duguay, brought the puck down ice. The Canadian slipped it to her wing, Jill Toney, who promptly deposited it in the unguarded right side of the net.

Then, at 4:39, Duguay paid Kimmel another visit, driving in a low shot to make it 2-0.

Harvard, meanwhile, had trouble merely getting into shooting range. On the occasions when the Cantabs moved past center ice, the passing wasn't sharp enough to set up shots before the Husky defense swept the puck away.

To make matters worse, forwards Lisa Sylvia and Tina Cardinale each notched tallies late in the period to give Northeastern a four-goal edge and 16-2 shot margin at the end of one.