HAMILTON, N.Y.--The Harvard hockey team remembers last year's painful 6-5 overtime loss to Colgate here at Starr Rink. As one of only three season losses, it isn't an easy game to forget.

Unfortunately for the Crimson, Colgate remembers it, too. And in case the Red Raiders had forgotten, Coach Terry Slater gave them a little reminder in his locker-room talk.

"I told them that we weren't skating. I told them that we had better come back," said Slater, whose team trailed, 2-0, after the first period. "I told them they'd better remember last year, remember that feeling."

The Red Raiders followed Slater's advice. Colgate capitalized on--what else--a series of Harvard penalties in the second period to get back in the game. Then senior forward Shawn Lillie shoveled in a pair of third-period goals to give Colgate a 5-4 win and sole possession of first place in the ECAC. And there's worse news to come.

Last season, Harvard (2-4-1 overall, 2-4-1 ECAC) left Starr with a mere two losses and a lock on the league lead. Last night, the Crimson walked out with its fourth loss--one more than it had all last season--and a standing far from Colgate (7-1-0, 6-1-0) and first place.

"We're snake-bitten," Harvard Coach Bill Cleary said. "When we played five-on-five, we were a great team, but the penalties were so disruptive. The kids played their hearts out. They're conscious of the penalties; they're not looking to get them. I don't know what it is."

Freshman Ted Drury scored on a sweet wrist shot with 3:09 remaining to knot the score at 4-4 and make the Red Raiders, sweat. But with under a minute to play, Lillie struck for the second time. Grant Slater beat Kevin Sneddon and drew goalie Chuckie Hughes (28 saves) before heading the puck over to Lillie, who caught the short side of the net for the game-winner. More than 10 minutes earlier, Lillie had tallied on a breakway to put Colgate ahead, 4-3.

"When you come back and tie it up, you got to hope you can turn it around," junior Peter Ciavaglia said. "Colgate's a good team, and it's a mark of a good team to be able to come back like that."

Drury, who proved for the third-straight game that he is a force to be contended with, made OT seem almost imminent with his smooth stickhandling and swift flick past Dave Gagnon (40 saves).

"When they tied it up, I though we were in a little trouble," Slater said. "Regardless of the record, I know [Harvard's] one of the top teams in the league.When they get the momentum, you better watch out."

The Crimson owned the first period, but Gagnonhandled just about everything it gavehim--everything, that is, except for a fool's playand the quick stick of Ciavaglia. With 3:25remaining in the first, Ciavaglia teamed up withJohn Weisbrod on a two-on-one and sent a swiftshot into the open side of the net to give Harvarda 1-0 advantage.

The "gotcha" goal came with seconds remainingin the period and the Crimson on the power play.Cleary pulled out his surprise final-secondface-off play to fool the Raiders. Ciavaglia,Harvard's face-off specialist, pushed the puck upto Captain C.J. Young. While an evidentlyinvisible Weisbrod set up, the Red Raider defenseset back, and Gagnon ended up swallowing hissecond puck on a Weisbrod stuff that sent theCrimson into the locker room with a two-goal edge.

In the second period, Harvard's past caughtwith it and the Crimson started taking itstraditional trip to penalty box.

"It's the story of our season," said Weisbrod,who left the game in the third period with a minorconcussion but will play tomorrow against Cornell."We get a two-goal lead, then we have abreakdown."

In the beginning, at least, Harvard had thesense to drag Raiders into the box along with it.But by the end of the period, Colgate scored threegoals, two on the power play. The 14-penaltyparade put the two teams into nearly four minutesof three-on-three action, but the fast-skatingCrimson failed to create any momentum out of itsend of the ice.