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Harvard may not have come up with the most convicing win of the season Saturday night, but the pollsters seem to have looked favorably on the Crimson's two-victory weekend.

The Crimson made the jump this weekend from six to fifth in the country after downing Union, 4-0, and RPI, 4-3, making Harvard the highest nationally-ranked team in the East.

BU stumbled against Northeastern, dropping the Terriers to seventh, while Clarkson shot itself in the foot (and the head and heart) with losses to ECAC-pushovers Dartmouth and Vermont.

Then again, Vermont may not be the pushover everyone thinks it is. Its double-sweep of the North Country visitors (it beat St. Lawrence Saturday) pushed the Catamounts to eighth in the country.

Don't count on that ranking lasting too long. Goalie Christian Soucy can only stop so many shots.

As for Clarkson's anemic start, Harvard Coach Ronn Tomassoni had perhaps the most valuable advice to anyone who relies on early season polls. "It's a long season," the coach sighed.

Ain't that the truth.

Was the Jump Worth It?: Last year, Union Coach Bruce Delventhal had a pretty clear idea of how his team would do after making the jump from Division III to Division I hockey. Pretty bad, he suggested.

Now that his team has one year's experience (one year more of almost-Division I calibre players), he senses a noticeable improvement in the Skating Dutchmen's performance.

"I think we have more players of the calibre we need to compete in this league," Delventhal said after his team was pasted 4-0 by Harvard Friday night. "We skate better than we did a year ago."

That's hard to say. Last year, Union relied on cheap hits, interference, holding and an assortment of other illegalities to give Harvard a modestly tough time both the team's contests.

Friday night, there was less of the obvious goon-ery, but that may just have been because Union skates at the level of a paraplegic while Harvard is somewhere in Paul Wiley-land. The Dutchmen didn't come close to catching Harvard's lightning-quick forwards all night.

Run Ragged: Harvard Coach Ronn Tomassoni said his team needs to be in better shape for the season if it hopes to live up to expectations.

He attributed Saturday's third-period collapse of RPI to exhaustion. The Crimson, he suggested, simply hadn't played enough, err, any back-to-back games this season.

So what's the solution? Skating drills up and down the ice.

"The only way to fix that is to play more back to back games," Tomassoni said.

Wonder if that will work this weekend.

Goon Award

Goon of the Weekend award has to go to RPI senior defender Allen Kummu, who committed four penalties against Harvard three of them in the first Period.

But at least Kummu decided to try a different kind of foul for each of his penalties.

The Beaconsfield, Quebec native thought he might be able to get away with tripping first, and then he tried roughing, and finally he concluded that interference was the way to go.

Maybe Kummu hasn't read the rule book in a while, or maybe he just goes crazy everytime he sees Crimson.

Last year as a junior, Kummu collected three penalties in the second period when Harvard faced off against RPI in January.

At least this year, Kummu might be able get some money for the pieces of Ted Drury's jersey that he still has stuck between his teeth.

NCAA Poll 1. Maine (24)  4-0-1  247 2. Lake Sup St.  4-1-1  214 3. Michigan  4-2-1  174 4. Denver  7-1-0  157 5. HARVARD  2-0-0  153 6. Wisconsin  4-1-2  136 7. BU (1)  2-1-1  126 8. Miami, Ohio  5-2-1  39 9. Vermont  3-1-1  29 10. West Mich.  5-2-1  28

Compiled by the Albany Times-Union, with first-place votes in parentheses, records and total