Read form back to front, the Harvard hockey team's season is glorious: start with two losses, finish with 15 straight wins.

Read from front to back, the season is good, even great. Only the ending--that final pair of games in the NCAA Tournament--could use a little revising.

In the story book of this season, they should leave the last two pages blank. Fill them in yourself. Rewrite the dream. The Final Four in Detroit was a downer.

"The real Harvard hockey team didn't show up this weekend," Harvard Coach Bill Cleary said after the Crimson fell to Minnesota, 6-3, in the consolation game.

Harvard coasted to a first-place regular-season ECAC finish, and had little trouble winning the league's post-season tournament. Although the Crimson rolled over Bowling Green, 10-1, in a two-game, total-goals series in the NCAA quarterfinals, it fell in Detroit--first to North Dakota, then to Minnesota.

Despite the unfortunate finish, the season ranks as one of Harvard's best. The Crimson stormed to 28 victories, a Harvard record, and captured its first ECAC Championship since 1983.

Although Harvard Coach Bill Cleary claimed that this year's squad was a team with no superstars, the Crimson did have some fine players who turned in fine years. Tim Barakett played in every game this year to extend his consecutive game streak to 127, a Harvard and ECAC record. Barakett--who was named second-team ECAC--finished his career with 134 points (55 goals, 79 assists), good enough for 11th place on Harvard's all-time scoring chart.

Defenseman Mark Benning, who led Harvard's power-play, set a Harvard career scoring record for defensemen with 102 points. He earned 32 of those points this season. With Benning on the point, the Crimson's power-play clicked at a 35.9 percent efficiency rate, an unofficial Harvard record.

Goalie Dickie McEvoy quietly led the nation in goals-against average (2.22, also a Harvard single-season record) and had four shoutouts. He finishes his Crimson career with a 2.82 g.a.a., besting Grant Blair's 2.84 average, set between 1982 and 1986.

Who's Going, Who's Staying

Barakett, Benning and McEvoy will graduate this spring. So will Randy Taylor, Butch Cutone, Peter Chiarelli and Rick Haney. Not easy skates to fill.

Barakett, Taylor and Benning finished third, fourth and fifth, respectively, on the Harvard scoring chart this year. But the Crimson's top scorers--juniors Lane MacDonald (37-30--67) and Allen Bourbeau (23-34--57)--will be back, if not next year (both MacDonald and Bourbeau are considered strong candidates for the 1988 U.S. Olympic Team), then the year after.

The Best and the Worst

BEST CONSOLATION GAME: Harvard's 7-6 loss to Boston College in the Beanpot. B.C. scored a goal with zero seconds left in overtime to give Eagle Coach Len Ceglarski his college-record 556th victory. When the goal was allowed, the Harvard bench erupted in furry. Half-an-hour after the game, the Crimson was still fuming.

WORST CONSOLATION GAME: Harvard's 6-3 loss to Minnesota in the NCAA Tournament. Cleary invited anyone associated with Harvard to skate in the team's practice the day before the game.

BEST BETWEEN-PERIOD SHOW: North Dakota and Minnesota featured skating cheerleaders. The Minnesota mascot played frisbee with the crowd.

WORST BETWEEN-PERIOD SHOW: The Brown mascot appeared between the first and second periods of the second Crimson-Bruin ECAC playoff match. But he didn't show up afterward--someone had stolen his skates.

A Final Note: Brian McCutcheon of Elmira, a Division III school, will take Lou Reycroft's place as hockey coach at Cornell next year...Special thanks to Harvard Assistant Sports Information Director Frank Cicero for his help throughout the year.