The date: December 7, 1941...er, 1994.

The place: Bright Hockey Center.

The contestants: Harvard, New Hampshire.

One man's viewpoint: couldn't have happened on a more appropriate date.

How long has it been since the Harvard men's hockey team allowed itself to crumble so tragically, at home, without a whimper or any hint of fighting spirit, bowing to an enemy with so few effective weapons?

At Pearl Harbor, at least the Japanese Navy had the surprise-attack-dagger-in- the back thing going for it. Not so last night: the threat was transparently clear, the UNH all-senior line of Eric Flinton (7-7-14 coming in,) Eric Royal (5-7-12) and Nick Poole (4-10-14) being the most likely source of trouble for Tripp Tracy and the Crimson.

So what happened? Thirty minutes into the game, Harvard had a 2-0 lead. More on that later.

Thirty-three minutes into the game, it was 2-2: a goal and an assist to Flinton, one assist each to Poole and Royal.

Thirty-seven seconds into the third period, it was 3-2 on a goal to Royal, with assists to Poole and Flinton.

End of game: 5-2, Poole adding a goal, Flinton an assist, Royal one more of each. That's 11 points in all for the troika, answered neither on the scoreboard nor in the sin bin by the Crimson.

This is especially worrisome. If there is one time in any hypothetical game that discipline breakdowns can, nay, even should be tolerated, it would be at the end of a come-from-ahead loss. And yet there was only one penalty committed in the final 20 minutes, its insignificance (too-many-men, UNH) standing out like a trash-talking taunt to Harvard's manhood.

Granted, the attendance figure--2206,600 short of capacity (although it looked and felt worse than that)--wasn't something to cheer about. Harvard has had several clunker crowds this year, making it difficult to fully take advantage...although then again, maybe the legions of the missing are merely catching on quickly.

But consider this: coming into the season, this year's senior class had lost two--count 'em, two--games in the Bright Center in their Harvard careers. And the just-concluded seven-game homestand, the Crimson went 3-3-1.

Ouch. Like, gag me with a short-handed goal.

Oh, and did I mention Harvard conceded one last night, its first of the year? But wait, there's more....

* The last time Harvard lost three home games in a season? 1989-90, when the Crimson finished 13-14-1 in Billy Cleary's last season behind the bench.

* The last time Harvard finished above .500 with three home losses? Try 1984-85 (21-9-2, although the Crimson started that season 8-0-1).

* The last time Tripp Tracy got beaten by the same move twice in a row, as happened on Royal's fore-hand-to-backhand motion, which he used to score both of his third-period goals? Maybe in a game of pond hockey as an eight-year-old back home in Michigan, I don't know.

There seemed to be light at the end of the Crimson's early-season tunnel after a convincing 4-1 win over Brown last weekend--now, after a loss in which the Harvard offense failed to generate a single tough chance on UNH netminder Trent Cavicchi (scoring only via garbage and a goalie's gift, as it were) and with a seven-game road trip on the way, that light could be of the "onrushing train" variety.

Could mediocrity be Harvard's true destination this season? Looks suspiciously like it.

When you play well in one game and not the next, that usually adds up to something around .500 no?