The Harvard women's hockey team's fans have been spoiled. But you can't expect instant gratification every time.

Yesterday in Bright Hockey Arena, the Crimson waited almost five minutes before scoring its first goal, a slow start in comparison to its previous two contests.

But despite the "slow" start, the Crimson still managed three goals in the opening period en route to a 7-0 victory over Colby College and its second shutout of the season.

"This really was a team effort," Harvard Co-Captain Char Joslin said. "We moved the puck very well, better than we did against Brown, which created a lot of openings."

The 1989 Ivy Player of the Year took advantage of many of those openings, scoring three goals and setting up three more to lead the Crimson (4-1 overall, 2-0 Ivy).

Patience

Against Ivy rivals Yale and Brown, it took the Crimson less than a minute to geton the board. Yesterday, Harvard had a little morepatience. But not much more.

Co-Captain Martina Albright knocked in thefirst Harvard goal at the 4:52 mark. The seniorwing collected the rebound of a Joslin wrist shotand pushed it past Colby goaltender Shawn Gager.

Less than two minutes later, the Crimson gotits first and only power-play opportunity of theafternoon when Colby forward Heather Hamilton waswhistled for tripping Harvard sophomore LaurenMessmore.

The Crimson's five-on-four unit had not workedeffectively against Brown last Wednesday.Ninth-year Harvard Coach John Dooley devoted muchof Thursday's practice to going over this phase ofthe game. It certainly paid off.

"The one opportunity we were given we worked toperfection. It was very encouraging," Dooley said.

How perfect was it? The power-play unit neededonly 20 seconds and one shot to score. A strongwrist shot from sophomore center Sandra Whytesailed past Gager and put the Crimson up, 2-0.Classmate Bev Stickles and Joslin earned assistson the goal.

Harvard's penalty-killing unit lookedunbeatable as well, letting Colby out of its ownzone only a few times, and managing more shots onnet than Colby during Joslin's two-minute absencefor hooking.

Sophomore Messmore set up Joslin's first goalmidway through the first period, while Stickleslined up the All-Ivy captain's second tallyhalfway through the second.

With his squad comfortably ahead, 4-0, Dooleybegan using his third line of sophomores CourtneyHurley and Kath Ullman along with senior EmilyDiehl regularly in the last period.

"The third line really kept up the pressure,"Joslin said. "They held the puck in the Colby zonefor almost all of their shifts."

Third-period goals by Whyte, only 28 secondsafter the faceoff, freshman Kim Landry and Joslinclosed out the scoring for the Crimson.

Freshman Lexi Shear replaced junior JillianD'Souza in goal at 7:28 in the final period. Shearcame up with a fine save on a big slapshot fromColby's Emily Muldoon late in the game to preservethe shutout.

THE NOTEBOOK: Harvard will take the icetoday at 1 p.m. against Bowdoin at Bright.

Crimson, 7-0 at Bright Arena

Celby  0-0-0--0HARVARD  3-1-3--7

First Period--1, H, Martina Albright(Char Joslin) 4:52; 2, H, Sandra Whyte (Joslin,Bev Stickles) 6:35; 3, H, Joslin (Lauren Messmore)11:13. Penalties--C, Heather Hamilton (tripping)6:05; H, Joslin (hooking) 12:14.

Second Period--4, H, Joslin (Stickles)12:42. No penalties.

Third Period--5, H, Whyte (Joslin) 0:28;6, H, Kim Landry (Ceci Clark, Messmore) 11:27. 7,H, Joslin (unassisted) 14:26. No penalties.

Score--C, Shawn Gager 17-14-15--46; H,Gillian D'Souza 3-5-3--11, Lexi Shear x-x-3--3.

Power Play Opps: C, 0-1; H, 1-1.

Attendance: 100