BURLINGTON, Vt.--They came.

They saw.

But despite their national ranking and two first period goals from wing Tim Barakett, the Harvard men's hockey team could not conquer a scrappy Vermont club Saturday night at Gutterson Arena.

The Catamounts, behind the sterling play of goalie Tom Draper, held the Crimson (8-4-1 overall, 7-2 ECAC) scoreless for the last two stanzas of play while netting a goal in each period to win, 3-2, in front of 3335 frenetic spectators.

On Friday, however, Harvard did defeat defending national champion RPI, 4-2, in sold-out Houston Field House.

Had Julius Caesar faced as formidable an opponent as Draper (especially after battling a horde of brutal Engineers the previous day), he never would have crossed the Rubicon.

Draper stopped 37 Crimson shots--including a handful of power-play flurries at the beginning of the third period--to lift the Cats (12-3 overall) into first place in the ECAC with a 7-1 league ledger.

"Tom played on my team before I came to Harvard," Barakett said. "So I knew he'd be good. He definitely played well. But he didn't win it for them. Their hard work did."

The Cantabs--who had reigned over the ECAC since the beginning of December--seemed sluggish in the last 40 minutes of action while Vermont, with aggressive defense and short-handed breakaways by second-line center lan Boyce, slowly usurped the league lead.

"We just didn't have it tonight," Crimson Coach Bill Cleary said. "But take nothing away from them. They played well."

In the beginning of the contest, it looked like Harvard would hold onto first place.

With 10 minutes gone in the game, forward Allen Bourbeau smacked a shot from 15 feet that bounced off Draper's pads and dribbled to the right of the Cat net.

Barakett, hovering close to the crease on the power play, plucked the loose puck past his former teammate.

"I was just in the right place at the right time," Barakett said. "All I had to do was shoot it in."

Vermont retaliated three minutes later on Shannon Deegan's unassisted goal.