When the Harvard men's hockey team opened its season against Brown last month, it skated away with its first win of the year, setting the pace for one of the strongest starts for the Crimson in recent history.

Since Brown hadn't yet won a game in this young season, the Crimson felt confident that it could duplicate that performance Saturday at Bright.

But in similar fashion to Harvard's 2-1 loss to BU last Tuesday, Brown (1-6-0, 1-5-0 ECAC) dominated the contest for most of the three periods, stealing a 4-2 shocker from the Crimson (4-3-0, 4-2-0).

"Of course we have to give credit to our opponent, but that's two times in a row that we've come out of the chute at home and we haven't gotten it done," Harvard Coach Mark Mazzoleni said. "It's not acceptable."

Harvard showed its only signs of revival in the second period after senior winger Scott Turco notched the Crimson's first goal on a pass from sophomore center Jared Cantanucci, wristing a shot from the right face-off circle through traffic to hit the backstop. That goal made the score 1-1 at 15:35 of the second.

But Harvard couldn't hang on, allowing the Bears to take a 2-1 lead with barely a minute left on the clock in the second. But the Crimson's fate was sealed early in the final frame, as Brown defenseman Greg Hayes scored the eventual game-winner, sending a hard slapshot from the left point right by senior goaltender J.R. Prestifilippo at 5:14 of the third, giving Brown a 3-1 lead.

Though Brown predominately controlled the flow of the game, Harvard forced the Bears' netminder Scott Stirling to turn away 29 shots.

Stirling, undoubtedly one of the top goaltenders in the league and quite possibly Brown's best asset, was stellar Saturday night in holding Harvard at bay. His presence between the pipes was an enormous psychological boost for the floundering Bears, since he sat out the last five games. Injured in his first outing against the Crimson, he was questionable for Saturday.