The First Step: Paste the 'Gate

The Harvard men's hockey team has one last chance to distance itself from its 11-16-2 regular season record tonight at Bright Hockey Center.

After a whirlwind weekend sweep of Vermont and Dartmouth one week ago, the Crimson was able to sneak past Princeton and Colgate into the league's fifth-place slot, gaining home ice for the first round of the ECAC playoffs.

And as luck would have it, Harvard will be facing, not the first or second place teams, but the sixth-seeded Red Raiders.

After starting the season as a nationally ranked powerhouse, Colgate has since sputtered throughout the latter part of the season and has dropped five of its last six games.

Not a bad draw for a Harvard team that finished the regular season with a sub-.500 record.

It wasn't just Colgate's late season fall that helped the Crimson's cause, however .

Heading into the final weekend of play, seven teams were separated by a mere four points, and all were battling for the final six playoff spots.

Harvard was stuck right in the heart of the struggle, and considering that it held the tie-breaker advantage over only one of those teams (Colgate), the Crimson faced the distinct possibility of not making the playoffs at all.

Harvard's sweep over Vermont and Dartmouth, in addition to key wins by Clarkson, St. Lawrence and Union, which surprisingly tied, assured the Crimson of home ice.

It was a statistical nightmare for league officials down to the final minute of regular season play, but in the end the math favored Harvard.

"This is a completely new season for us where anything can happen in the playoffs," said freshman defenseman Graham Morrell.

"The one thing that we will take away from the past was that we did have a great last weekend. We gained a lot of confidence from that."

Not only does the Crimson possess the momentum from the weekend sweep, but it is also facing a Colgate team that is ice cold.

In addition, the Red Raiders are one of only two teams that Harvard has posted two wins against this season. The first victory came back in November when Colgate was considered the tenth best team in the land.

Harvard jumped out to an early 3-0 lead at Starr Rink and held off a four-goal second period comeback by the Red Raiders to hold on for the 6-5 win.

The Crimson disposed of Colgate for the second time on its home ice three months later. This time, in a much more convincing manner, the Crimson unleashed six goals on the Red Raiders en route to a 6-1 victory.

"We had a wild one up at their place in just the second game of the year, and then we had a much easier time down here at our place when they were going through a tough time," said Harvard Coach Ronn Tomassoni. "But like every coaching staff in America, once the season ends, you start to hype the playoffs as an entirely new season. I am sure that they are pumping that into their kids right now."

As its early season ranking indicated, Colgate possesses numerous weapons, the foremost being its explosive forwards, led by junior Jed Whitchurch and sophomore Andy McDonald, who have tallied 34 and 30 points respectively.

For most of the season, the Red Raiders led the league in overall scoring, but after a recent drought which has seen the team score only 11 goals in the last six games, Colgate has dropped to the level of the league's worst.

To make matters worse for Dan Frigden and his corps, its defense has been as porous as the offense has been ineffective.

Playing in front of senior Dan Brenzavich, who owns a 3.16 goals against average, the Red Raiders have allowed 33 goal in its final six games.

Those facts alone make it easy to understand how Colgate fell from fourth to sixth place in a matter of two games.

"We feel really confident against Colgate since it is a team that we feel we can beat," Morrell said. "They have some great forwards who have a lot of speed and firepower up front, but sometimes they play a little undisciplined; they play pond hockey out there."

On the other side of the spectrum, the Crimson is coming off a weekend in which it enjoyed its most successful offensive output of the entire season.

Scoring 13 goals in the two games, Harvard was led by the freshman duo of Chris Bala and Steve Moore. Undoubtably the two leading candidates for the ECAC Rookie of the Year award, Moore and Bala collected a combined 11 points on the weekend.

Bala, in particular, erupted for four goals in just the first period of the Vermont game to earn him Player of the Week accolades.

"They have been tremendous. They have led our team in scoring all season long, and they have had to do everything for us from playing on the power play to being on the short-handed unit," said Tomassoni about his two freshmen forwards.

"They have handled the challenge very well, and they have only gotten better and better as the season has gone along. That's a great sign for us heading into the playoffs."

Taking over the full reigns in net will be sophomore goaltender J.R. Prestifilppo. After splitting time between the pipes last weekend with freshman Oliver Jonas, Prestifilippo's 37-save performance against Dartmouth on Saturday assured him of the staring job tonight.

"Obviously [Prestifilippo] played very well last weekend, and that's a big boost for us going into the playoffs," Tomassoni said. "When it comes to tournament time, goaltending becomes that much more important, and like I have always said, we have one of the best."

Most likely both Tomassoni and Frigden have decided upon their lineups, and now it is up to the players to begin the quarterfinal round of the ECAC playoffs tonight at Bright Hockey Center.

The tournament format is simple: the first team to three points wins. The winner earns a date to Lake Placid, N.Y. next weekend.

"We have been slowly building up for this weekend, and we should peak at the right time for these playoffs," Morrell said. "The mood has been good in the locker room all week long. We have a good feeling about this weekend." FINAL ECAC HOCKEY LEAGUE STANDINGS

Team  Conf  Overall  GF  GA Yale  17-4-1  22-6-1  109  63 Clarkson  16-4-2  20-7-3  110  73 Rensselaer  11-7-4  17-11-4  115  100 Brown  11-9-2  12-14-2  89  96 Harvard  10-11-1  11-16-2  97  111< /B> Colgate  9-10-3  15-13-4  107  115 Princeton  7-9-6  13-9-7  103  92 Cornell  9-12-1  13-14-2  72  84 Vermont  7-11-4  10-18-4  85  112 St. Lawrence  8-12-2  9-19-2  83  116 Dartmouth  7-12-3  11-13-5  96  88 Union  4-15-3  6-22-4  74  117 ECAC SCORING LEADERS

Player  School  G  A  P Eric Healey   Rensselaer  15  22  37 Alain St. Hilaire  Rensselaer  7  25  32 Jeff Hamilton  Yale  19  13  32

ECAC GOALTENDING LEADERS

Player  School  W-L-T  Pct  Avg< /B> Alex Westlund  Yale  17-4-1  .795  1.99 Scott Stirling  Brown  7-4-1  .625  2.05 Dan Murphy  Clarkson  8-4-1  .654  2.06

Player  School  G  A  P Eric Healey   Rensselaer  15  22  37 Alain St. Hilaire  Rensselaer  7  25  32 Jeff Hamilton  Yale  19  13  32

ECAC GOALTENDING LEADERS

Player  School  W-L-T  Pct  Avg< /B> Alex Westlund  Yale  17-4-1  .795  1.99 Scott Stirling  Brown  7-4-1  .625  2.05 Dan Murphy  Clarkson  8-4-1  .654  2.06

Player  School  W-L-T  Pct  Avg< /B> Alex Westlund  Yale  17-4-1  .795  1.99 Scott Stirling  Brown  7-4-1  .625  2.05 Dan Murphy  Clarkson  8-4-1  .654  2.06