It's been four months or 16 weeks or 80 periods or 98 days or 1533 minutes or 92.013 seconds since the Harvard men's hockey team finished its first game, a 4-1 victory over Yale in the aftermath of The Game.

It's also been just about that long since Scott Fusco failed to earn a point in a game.

The junior set a new Harvard record for consecutive games with a point Saturday night, when he notched a goal and two assists against Clarkson to run his string to 25, breaking the Crimson record of 24 held by Bob Cleary '58.

Fusco can now take aim at the ECAC consecutive game scoring record of 32, held by Brain Cornell of Cornell (1967-69). Craig Homola of Vermont (1978-80) and fellow junior Adam Ontes of RPI, who ran 32 straight until North Dakota shut him out in last year's NCAA quarter finals.

Oates lost out to Fusco in the ECAC scoring race by a single point, although he led the league most of the year in that department and held a one-point lead going into the last weekend of games.

The pre-ECAC Eastern record is 38, set by Clarkson's Ed Rowe (1955-57).

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Fusco has finished up the regular season with all sorts of honors.

The Olympian clinched the team scoring title (29 goals, 40 assists, 69 points), tied for the Ivy scoring title (9-14-23) with Yale's Bob Kudleski, took the ECAC scoring title (23-29--52) and was the second leading scorer in the United States (2.65 points per game) and the leading scorer in the contiguous United States.

Fusco is a leading candidate (and one of 10 finalists) for the Hobey Baker Award, given annually to the most valuable player in college hockey.

He stands an excellent chance of being named the ECAC Player of the Year when that award is presented on March 14, and is a shoo-in to be named to the league all-star team.

Based on his league-leading scoring performance and the fact that no other team owes as much to one player as the Crimson does to him. Fusco might even be viewed as the favorite for the ECAC award.

Although Scott's older brother Mark earned the Hobey Baker Award in 1983, the defensemen was not named ECAC Player of the Year that season, when the honor went to Providence's Randy Velischek.

The last Harvard ECAC Player of the Year? Randy Roth, in 1974.

One good omen is that Fusco shared ECAC Co-Player of the Week laurels with St. Lawrence goalie Scott Yearwood for the last weekend of the regular season.