With no one looking and every other team already preparing for Christmas break, the Harvard men's hockey team jumped into a three-way tie for second place in the ECAC last night with a 5-2 win over Brown.

In a third period which was its best period of the season bar none, the Crimson (4-5-1, 4-3-1 ECAC) exploded for three unanswered goals and walked away from Bright Hockey Center with its fourth win of the year and two crucial league points.

"It was a good win and every two points is important, especially with all the parity in the league," said Harvard Coach Ronn Tomassoni, whose team trails only No. 10 Yale and Princeton in the ECAC. "We took over in that third period and pulled away."

After six of its first seven games were decided by a single goal, Brown (2-8-0, 2-6-0) was obviously not prepared for Harvard's third-period breakout, which began at the 3:45 mark. And following the sporadic, choppy play in the first 40 minutes which led to a 2-2 deadlock, none of the 1,213 spectators were quite ready either.

Once freshman Steve Moore back-handed his third goal of the season past Brown goaltender Jeff Holowaty (37 saves) to push Harvard ahead 3-2, however, attitudes began to change.

For the next five minutes, the Crimson trapped the Bears in their own zone in relentless pursuit of a two-goal lead. Their persistence would pay off two minutes later when sophomore Matt Macleod collected a rebound from classmate Clayton Rodgers' shot and deposited his first goal of the season.

"We were right at the edge through-out the whole game," Moore said. "That third period just opened the floodgates for us."

Senior Henry Higdon solidified the lead--which by that time was not in doubt--on a power play with six minutes remaining in the game. Higdon's one-timer came off a tic-tac-toe play in which junior Craig Adams slid a beautiful pass across the zone to Higdon on the left post.

"We are a pretty confident bunch and we have a lot of confidence in our team," said junior Rob Millar. "We knew that it was going to come; it was just a matter of time."

Yet through two periods the outcome was still very much in question, despite the efforts of Adams.

Continuing his dominant play from this past weekend, which earned him a spot of the ECAC honor roll, Adams put the Crimson on the board first.

With less than a minute remaining in the first period, Adams stormed down the left wing and launched a wrister at Holowaty, who made a quick stick save. Adams fought through two more hits and finished the rush with a shovel shot which Holowaty couldn't handle.

"Adams' shift when he scored was the best shift that I have seen in a while," Tomassoni said. "He fought through so many hits and never gave up. I just can't emphasize enough how great that was."

Harvard killer Damian Prescott got the last word 42 seconds later. Of his six goals this season, Prescott has scored four against the Crimson.

The second stanza was a carbon copy. Millar deftly worked his way deep into the Brown zone to give Harvard a 2-1 lead, but Prescott countered with the equalizer. That left a third period to decide the outcome.