The question was simple enough: "How do you beat the University of Vermont?"

But for the second time this year, the Harvard hockey team was Stumped.

In early January, Harvard fell to the Catamounts in Burlington, Vt., on an overtime goal by Scott ("Duke") Stump. Last night at Bright Center, Stump scored to give the Catamounts a one-goal lead, which they then expanded and hung on to for a 3-2 victory before 2853 spectators.

Stump scored with 11 minutes left in the final period to give the Catamounts a 2-1 margin, which Toby Ducolon expanded to 3-1 two minutes later on a shot off a rebound in close.

The Crimson cut the lead to one on an Andy Janfaza score. But Janfaza's 11th goal of the year came with only 30 seconds left. Harvard, which has made a pastime of coming back, was out of time.

"We were two strides behind all night long," Harvard Coach Bill Cleary said. "We weren't ready. We didn't deserve to win."

The Crimson (16-3 ECAC, 16-7 overall) fell into a tie for first place with St. Lawrence, a 6-5 victor over lowly Army last night. Three games remain on Harvard's schedule, including the regular-season finale against SLU in Canton, N.Y., a game which may decide the regular-season ECAC title.

The Crimson has already secured home ice for the opening round of the eight-team ECAC Tournament, which begins on campus sites in two weeks. Still, neither the Crimson's comfortable position in the standings nor its visions of post-season possibility could drown out the disappointment of last night's loss.

"We didn't come to play," Harvard Captain Steve Armstrong said. "We played 60 bad minutes."

Echoed Janfaza: "We came out flat. Usually we get out of it."

Vermont, which beat the Crimson, 4-3, in Burlington, Vt., January 3 skated side-by-side with the speedy Crimson, and got the breaks when it needed them. Stump's goal at 9:54 of the final period came off a pretty passing sequence, but Ducolon was sitting right in front of a rebound which came off the pads of goalie John Devin (29 saves).

"I think we did things to disrupt them," said Catamount Coach Mike Gilligan, whose team improved to 11-7-1 in the league and is dead-locked with Colgate for fourth-place in the standings.

The most dramatic play of the game award goes to Don Sweeney, who chased down a puck headed for an empty Harvard net with under a minute left and UVM holding a 3-1 lead. Sweeney swiped the puck aside at the goal-line, but then crashed into the cage.

"If it had been the first of the period, I would never have caught that puck," Sweeney said, suggesting that the chippy ice slowed down the puck. "But it's no consolation."