Keep a bad team close and it will smell blood.

For the second straight game, Harvard's men's hockey team let an inferior opponent stay close entering the third period, only to see that team tie the game.

First, the Crimson did it four nights ago against BU in the final of the Beanpot, and such lethargy proved fatal--Harvard ended up losing to the Terriers in overtime.

Last night in happened again, but, fortunately for the Crimson, the final result proved more positive: Harvard (16-4-2, 13-2-2 ECAC) squeaked by ECAC cellar dwellar Dartmouth (3-18-1, 2-14-1 ECAC) by a 5-4 count on a overtime goal by Jason Karmanos.

"We'll take the two points and hopefully learn a lesson," Harvard Head Coach Ron Tomassoni said, after setting off the proverbial fireworks in the Crimson lockerroom following the match.

The Big Green actually looked like it would get a big upset when it scored two goals in a 2:11 span in the third period, turning a 3-2 Harvard lead into a 4-3 Crimson deficit.

But Cory Gustafson, whom Tomassoni labelled as one of the Crimson's few good players last night, converted a pass from Steve Martins off of Dartmouth goalie Mike Bracco's pads just 43 seconds after Dion Del Monte had given the Big Green its short-lived lead.

"I think most of our problem was that we were watching the play," Gustafson said. "But [Kirk] Nielsen and [Ben] Coughlin played really well."

Neilsen, Coughlin and Karmanos almost single-handedly kept the Crimson offense going, and it produced the game-winner.

The winning play started when defender Lou Body stopped a Dartmouth clearing attempt at the blue line and fed Nielson. Nielsen then fed Coughilin, who passed the puck back to Ashlin Halfnight at the point.

Halfnight then sent a shot towards a mass of bodies in front of Bracco and the puck caromed first off a Big Green defender and then off Karmanos into the net.

"Thank God we had Nielsen's lie," Tomassoni said.

Harvard got off to a very slow start in last night's game, lowlighted by Dan Bloom's rebound goal past Tripp Tracy just 45 seconds into the game.

Dartmouth kept the pressure up and allowed only three shots for the Crimson through the first ten minutes.

Fortunately for the Crimson, it got the spark it needed when two Big Green players collided when they tried to make a line change, thus sending Nielsen and Coughlin fed Nielsen, who deposited the puck into a vacated net to tie the game at the 11:15 mark.