PROVIDENCE, R.I.--The Harvard men's hockey team's walk through the ECAC tulip patch was interrupted briefly last night.

After plodding to a 3-1 lead over Brown at the end of two periods at Meehan Auditorium, the Crimson gave up a goal, and then another in the third period.

Suddenly the Crimson's spotless record and its aura of invincibility was in danger. The small but noisy Bruin crowd was on its feet. The tulips weren't smelling so good.

But Brown's third goal--which came with two minutes left in the game--was called back and Harvard hung on for a 3-2 victory. The win was the Crimson's ninth this year against no losses--all against ECAC opponents. Harvard is off to its best start in almost 50 years.

Except for last night's game against Brown and a tough contest against Cornell in Ithaca last weekend--in which the Crimson pulled out a victory after going into the final period tied--Harvard has strolled through every game on its schedule this season.

The Crimson has never been behind in a game. Some of its games have taken on the look of glorified target practice. A crowd shows up and the Harvard forwards pound away at a defenseless guy in pads standing in front of the net. Meanwhile, the Harvard goalies barely lift a glove or move a stick.

Is the Crimson that good, or is the ECAC that bad?

"I think we have a great team," Harvard forward Tim Barakett said. "We have a lot of balance. If someone's not having a good game, there's always someone who takes up the slack. But it's true, we're head and shoulders above a lot of the other teams in the league."

Tailor-Made

Harvard's schedule up to this point has been tailor-made for an undefeated start. The Crimson has played Dartmouth and Brown--traditionally two of the weaker teams in the league--twice already.

Harvard bumped off Yale--a team decimated by the graduation of several important players from last year's team--in the second game of the year. The Crimson walked over Princeton, a squad that didn't make the eight-team ECAC playoffs last year and isn't any better this year. And Harvard bounced Army, which didn't join the league until this season.

"We've mostly played the teams at the bottom of the league," defenseman Randy Taylor said. "We're going to play against a lot tougher teams soon. Everyone wants to beat Harvard and it gives them more incentive if we're 9-0. But we're here now. Someone has to take it away from us."

Had Harvard played some of the ECAC's tougher opponents--Clarkson, St. Lawrence, Vermont and RPI--early in the season, its record might not be unblemished.

Things might be different.

As it stands, the Crimson has a difficult schedule ahead of it. Greater pests than the Bruins lurk somewhere in the Crimson's tulip patch.

But while the Crimson has disposed of most of the ECAC's weaker opponets, and has the tougher ones remaining, the fact remains: Harvard is unbeaten. The stroll is nice.

"I remember playing RPI in my sophomore year," Captain Peter Chiarelli said. "They were undefeated at the time. There was an aura about them. There's an aura about any undefeated team."

The Crimson has an aura--no matter how it got it.