AMHERST--The Harvard men's hockey team expects this to be a dream season.

After finishing fifth last season, the Crimson (1-1-0, 0-1-0 ECAC) feels ready to contend for first place in the East Coast Athletic Conference.

Last weekend was supposed to be the first step to securing that crown. Instead of making a huge statement, the Crimson went out and split two games, beating UMass-Amherst 3-1, but dropping the more critical divisional game 4-1 against Brown. It was not the most ideal beginning, but one successful enough not to discourage anyone.

Brown 4, Harvard 1

The first period of Friday night's opener must have unfurled just as Harvard imagined. The Crimson swarmed the Brown goal, peppering junior goaltender Scott Stirling with 15 shots, most of them high-quality.

A dream beginning--except nobody scored.

Only Bear captain Paul Giblin found the back of the net in the first period and Stirling did his part to turn the Crimson's dream into a nightmare. Brown (1-0-0, 1-0-0 ECAC) renewed college hockey's oldest active rivalry with a stunning 4-1 victory at Bright Hockey Center. By late in the third period, Harvard simply was sleepwalking.

"We played pretty well, especially in the first period." said Harvard Coach Ronn Tomassoni. "You have to tip your hat to their goaltender, he stood on his head."

Despite the Crimson's best efforts, Stirling would not accept silver Friday night, stopping 28 of 29 Crimson shots. He single-handedly kept the Bears in the game during the first period. With a little under five minutes remaining in the period, the Crimson sent a flurry of shots on goal from just outside the crease. Stirling robbed each rebound attempt, including a tricky backhand flip by senior Rob Millar. HARVARD  3 UMASS-AMHERST  1 BROWN  4 HARVARD  1

"Harvard came out strong and got a lot of shots," Stirling said. "It's good for me to see a lot of shots, it gets me into the game right away."

Especially in the opening frame, the top line of sophomore Chris Bala, freshman Jared Cantanucci and captain Craig Adams flew all over the ice. Bala dipsy-doodled past a Bear defenseman for a breakaway in the first that failed. Later, he threaded a pass through the crease to Adams's waiting backhand. Stirling slid across the goal mouth, stacking the pads to deny Harvard's captain. Estes said. "They made big plays, creatingturnovers, getting to the quarterback, raisinghavoc, and they put the ball in the offense'shands. I thought we played a complete game today."

Things looked good for the Crimson at the startof the third quarter. Two second-quarter MikeGiampaolo field goals had cut the Brown lead toone point, and the Crimson defense had held Bearquarterback James Perry, No. 1 in total offensefor Division I-AA, to one touchdown in the firsthalf. But things went south for Harvard on thefirst play from scrimmage of the second half.

On first down at the Harvard 26-yard line,junior quarterback Rich Linden dropped back topass. Senior linebacker Ernest Dean broke throughthe Harvard line and laid his shoulder on Linden,who had raised his right arm and was ready topass. The ball popped out of Linden's hand, thereferees ruled the play a fumble rather than anincomplete pass and Brown defensive tackle FryWernick pounced on the ball at the Harvard 16-yardline.

"I'll have to look at the film," Linden said ofthe call. "I was trying to throw the ball and Ithought I got rid of it. But the ball bouncedbehind me and it was a tough call."

That was the first of a series of keythird-quarter plays that turned the game inBrown's favor. Dean's forced fumble was one of ateam-high 10 tackles for him, and it marked aquick departure from Linden's productivefirst-half performance, in which he completed 11of 14 passes for 84 yards.

More importantly, Brown increased its lead toseven points 1:57 after the fumble. After anillegal procedure penalty drove the Bears back tothe Harvard 18-yard line, Perry found sophomorereceiver Steve Campbell for a 15-yard completion.Junior tailback Kevin Coyne walked into the endzone untouched on the next play.