HANOVER, N.H.--Harvard men's hockey Coach Ronn Tomassoni paced around outside the Crimson locker room like a wounded bull, searching for some way to take out a frustration that was starkly self-evident.

Finally he stopped, and in an all-too-knowing voice mumbled, "We got what we deserved tonight."

When you skate on thin ice for too long, it will eventually cave in on you. After surviving two ominously close calls last week at Cornell and Colgate, the luck of the Crimson (18-3-2, 15-2-2 ECAC) finally ran out last night, as Dartmouth (10-13-0, 8-11-0 ECAC) shocked the third-ranked Crimson here in Thompson Arena, 4-3.

The loss, coupled with RPI's defeat of Cornell, means that the Crimson are still a point shy of clinching the top seed in the ECAC postseason tournament.

But as Tomassoni would quickly tell you, that is the future and this is now. Big Green Captain Peter Clark struck the telling blow seven seconds into the third period--his freak shorthanded goal put Dartmouth ahead to stay in what would be its first win over the Crimson since 1981, a span of 23(!) games.

Tomassoni's postgame irateness can be traced to his proclamation last Saturday that the Crimson was "playing down to the level of the competition."

"You play that game, it's a dangerous game, and it catches up to you," he said. "I give Dartmouth all the credit in the world--they played a heck of a hockey game.

"But we've been playing this game too long; last weekend we did not play well overall as a team, and you start believing that you're a little better than you are, this is what happens. We definitely did not play well tonight."

Captain Ted Drury echoed that sentiment in a solemn and reflective Harvard locker room after the game. "We didn't play that well; there's nothing you can really say about it. We haven't played our best for a couple of games now, and you don't play your best, you don't win."

The Crimson certainly had its chances to draw level, even after Dartmouth junior Scott Fraser scored his second goal of the game with 16:38 left. But the power play, so potent against Colgate (three goals), drew a blank in 5:51 of man-up time.

"We had trouble putting it in the net tonight," Drury said. "We need to make a few adjustments for tomorrow [at Vermont] and see how it goes."

For a while, though, it looked as if this Shakespearean tragedy had more of a comedic bent.

The first period was a laugh, offensively, with penalties and icing goals marring any kind of rhythm from developing for both teams. Not even 1:17 of 4-on-3 power-action could rouse the Crimson forwards from their prolonged slumber.

And Dartmouth goalie Mike Bracco was equally asleep at the switch at his own end--on three separate occasions, his misplays of Harvard clearing attempts almost wound up behind him for goals.

It took an oddball goal from Harvard junior Brian Farrell to enliven things a bit. Taking a faceoff to the right of Bracco, Farrell won the draw, slipped with the puck through two Green defensemen, and fired quickly past Bracco low to his glove side to open the scoring at 17:55.