The key to the Crimson's success lies in its potent power play which has been converting at a unbelievable rate of 43.3 percent--after managing to score only 12.8 percent of the time last year.
The power play has been spearheaded by Fusco who does more than just lead the unit on the ice. The junior gets the Crimson a lot of extra-man opportunities when he gets hauled down by slap-happy opponents.
But the power play will have a new look this weekend Barakett will take over for the injured Rob Ohno (twisted ankle in practice) and Randy Taylor (separated shoulder against Western Ontario) at the right point.
The loss of the two might slow down a unit that has been clicking so smoothly.
"The people matter more than the set plays," Fusco says.
The Crimson feels it can outskate anyone, but the diminutive icemen can't beat anyone in a hitting contest, like the kind the Big Red likes to play.
"We talk about who's gonna protect who before each game," Smith said after an early contest. "It depends on who weight the most that day."
Smith and his linemates aren't gonna win any boxing matches but they can, if they get the chance, skate pretty little circles around their hulking opponents.
Last weekend, when the Crimson travelled to Canada, the icemen encountered a pair of big, hard-hitting squads in the University of Toronto and the University of Western Ontario.
Nonetheless, the icemen were able to elude the blows and earn two satisfying victories.
"They [Western Ontario] manhandled us," Barakett says. "When we skated the game was over."
The Crimson is going to have to get more production out of Barakett's second line if it is to top Cornell and Colgate.
The icemen have been relying on Fusco's first unit for the bulk of their offensive production, but the return of freshman wing Andy Janfaza from a shoulder injury should help the Barakett line.
"Everyone wants to jump in and score," Barakett says. "No one is in the corners.
"Now I'll let those big wingers [Janfaza and Pete Chiarelli] dig in the corners and I'll stay in the slot."
But the big question tonight is not really whether Janfaza can revitalize the second line, but whether the icemen can play their skating game with twenty players and a rink full of crazed fans breathing down their necks.
Forty-one hundred and twenty who'll be asking the Crimson, "Come on, make my year."