PROVIDENCE--No one expected the 1988-'89 Harvard hockey team to be just as good as last year's version.

But this is downright ridiculous.

Let's get this straight: Brown tied Harvard, 3-3, here Saturday night. Brown, the team that took a nap last November while the Crimson poured 10 pucks into the net. The team that finished at the bottom of the ECAC barrel. The team that still owns a 27-game winless streak.

Yale could be rationalized. At least Friday's 6-2 loss could be chalked up as a product of first-game jitters and the old El: jinx. But Brown?

Blech.

Harvard had the talent and the title. But Brown had the desire and the drive.

Cleary has 15 players back off his NCAA championship squad. Brown Coach Bob Gaudet had a bushel of freshmen--10 on his starting lineup, to be exact.

And these are not NHL second-round draft-pick freshmen we're talking about here. These are the guys that didn't even make it on Ronn Tomassoni's scouting list.

But these guys had guts.

Real Thing

What it worked out to was a double-dose of reality for the Crimson, which finds itself near the bottom of the league standings after the ECAC's opening weekend.

How did things go so wrong?

"I wish I knew what did happen," junior Pete Ciavaglia said. "For the most part, we didn't work as hard as we could. We have a lot of things to work on."

Oh yes, the Crimson should have a pretty long practice this afternoon. When asked what Harvard needed to work on, Coach Bill Cleary answered, "Where should I start?"

He could, perhaps, start with a little lesson about on-ice etiquette. See, the kids from the smart school played some pretty stupid hockey at times last night.