It was history in the making.

Unfortunately for the Harvard men's hockey team, it was a milestone which it would soon well forget. YALE  3 HARVARD  1

For the first time in the series' history, Yale defeated Harvard at Bright Hockey Center. After 84 years of failure, the Bulldogs' monumental victory came on Saturday night in the form of a 3-1 schooling of the Crimson.

From the very first face off the Harvard team (1-2-1, 1-2-1 ECAC) team--which had excited its fans the night before with a last second goal in regulation to pull a dramatic 3-3 tie with Princeton--was nowhere to be found.

And as the game progressed it became quite clear that the missing persons alert should have been released well before the players even took the ice.

"For whatever reason we were just out of sync both defensively and offensively," said Harvard Coach Ronn Tomassoni. "Give Yale an awful lot of credit. They came out with a lot of fire, and they sustained it for three periods."

Sixty minutes of hockey was indeed a concept which punishingly eluded Harvard the entire last night.

After only nine minutes of play, the Bulldogs exploded for two power-play goals in a matter of 20 seconds.

The extra-man advantage was precipitated by two Harvard penalties: one for holding and the other for hooking. Both infractions occurred behind the play and together led to a five-on-three break for Yale.

"Those just aren't smart penalties," Tomassoni said. "We just didn't play well and we got what we deserved."

The first Yale tally came off a loopy shot from the left point. Sophomore forward Jeff Hamilton rifled a shot which bounced off a Harvard defender on its way to the net. In acrobatic fashion, Daryl Jones reached behind him at the right post and tipped home the game's first goal.

Then, with only the five-on-four advantage, Hamilton struck gold himself--this time a blast from inside the left face-off circle. No one was around Hamilton, not even as he celebrated Yale's second goal.

"We feel that we have a lot of confidence as a team and that we can skate with anybody," said Yale Coach Tim Taylor'63. "I also think that our team is really fast and matches up really well with Harvard."

And on Saturday night, Yale was a different, more assertive team. Despite playing in a rink which has been unforgiving and against a team which has been its Achilles heel, the Bulldogs exhibited a confident, domineering style which stymied the Harvard attack. In the third period alone, Harvard goaltender J.R. Prestifilippo had to make 18 saves while Yale's Alex Westlund yawned through only four.

The only spark which Harvard could generate came in the second period. With the man advantage and quickly off a draw, junior Rob Millar corralled the puck and circled, from right to left, in front of Westlund. A quick wrister from 20 feet out was enough to beat the Yale netminder and all of a sudden Harvard was within a goal.

"As badly as we had played, it was still a 2-1 game going into that third period," Tomassoni said. "We thought that we could win and they took it to us in the third period. The only reason we still had a chance at the very end was because of J.R."