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The Harvard hockey team entertains yet another ECAC dark horse tonight as they take on Penn at 8 p.m. at Watson Rink. The Crimson defeated the Quakers, 11-3, in the season opener in December, but when the two teams met again in the consolation round of the Christmas Tournament out in St. Louis, Harvard needed four goals in the third period to avert major upset, 7-4.

Penn has continued to improve since then, and their 9-6 record in Division I includes a 2-1 win over Clarkson and a 4-1 romp over fourth-ranked New Hampshire. Wednesday night it took Cornell, the third ranked team in the ECAC, an overtime goal to salvage a 7-6 victory at the Class of 1923 Rink in Philadelphia.

"They were lucky" Penn coach James Salfi said. "We outshot them almost two to one, and the winning goal bounced in off of a player's pants as he was falling down in the crease."

The line of John Harwood, Bernard Lafrancois and Mike Callaghan provided the scoring punch for the Quakers, and Harwood picked up a goal and four assists. But Penn has a balanced attack with seven players with 20 points or more, and center Bobby Read leads the Ivy League in scoring.

The Quakers have only been fielding hockey teams for five years, but a strong sophomore class has boosted the Canadian contingent to 15, and a first division finish in the Ivy League is virtually assured.

Penn's biggest problem in the Cornell game was keeping their own crease cleared. Six of Cornell's seven goals came on tip-ins, and unless the Quaker defensemen can keep Harvard's forwards at a respectable distance, goalie John Marks will spend most of the night on his knees.

Harvard's defense will be strengthened by the return of Doug Elliott. Elliott was released from the Stillman Infirmary on Thursday, where he had been recovering from a bad case of the flu since Sunday.

Harvard coach Bill Cleary doesn't want to think about the showdown with B.U. Monday night until after the Penn game. "We've beaten these guys twice now, and it's the easiest thing in the world to get overconfident and start looking at the games ahead. But Penn has improved since we played them in December, and they have a bunch of really good forwards," he said.

Harvard hasn't won the Ivy League title since 1962-63, although it has finished second four times since then. The Crimson is 5-0 in league play.