His goalie safely restrained, Cleary took up the argument himself, along with several Crimson skaters huddled around the official.

After talking to the linesmen, Albert confirmed the goal--a move that defied the green lights at either end, the scoreboard which read 0:00, the goal judge whom he never consulted, the laws of physics, and all the hard work of Ben Franklin, Thomas Alva Edison and a lot of other people with more brains than one Mr. Ben Albert.

Did Albert see Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer flutter down and perch behind the Crimson net?

After the game, the Hockey East supervisor of officials said that it was a judgement call by the referee.

Harvard players had a different opinion.

"The referees didn't have the guts to make the call," Crimson defenseman Jerry Pawloski said. "They couldn't go against the crowd [Albert] is a bad official; he couldn't make his own call."

Hockey referees have to rely on their judgment almost all the time. You can question any number of decisions that they make.

The system of goal lights, however, is above question.

"You can't look at the clock and the net at the same time," Crimson Captain Pete Chiarelli said.

"Once the green light goes on, it's no goal," Cleary, a former referee, a member of the NCAA Rules Committee and the author of the NCAA rulebook said a hundred times after the game last night.

"As far as I'm concerned we did not lose," he added.

"I hate losing, but I can live with it when the other team wins fairly," Tim Barakett said.

The Eagles did nothing wrong last night. They skated a great game. So did the Crimson.

A win for fourth-ranked B.C. Another thrilling--if ugly--chapter in the teams' 70-year rivalry for the record books.

A brutal mistake by an ignorant, or cowardly, official.

For Harvard and its fans, only the sad chorus of the wronged:

"We wuz robbed."