The Crimson is an extremely good hockey team.

It remains to be seen whether this squad is destined to become the school's first NCAA team champions since the 1904 golfers, but there are several indications that this unit is something special.

The list of credentials has grown long by this point in the season. Harvard is 11-0 (9-0 in the ECAC), and in first place in the league.

The Crimson has the league's best offense, its two leading scorers, a very effective defense and a stellar pair of goalies. Harvard has trailed for only 12 of the 660 minutes it has played, and is unbeaten at home since March 1985.

And by destroying UMD's Bulldogs, 4-1 and 4-2, last weekend, this team became only the third in Harvard history to sweep a series from a Midwestern team on the road.

This year's squad has also compiled an impressive list of quotes from opposing coaches. In chronological order:

"Harvard's got a marvelous team. They move the puck well and they're beautiful skaters."--Yale's Tim Taylor.

"That's the best Harvard team I've ever seen, and they've had some great teams."--Princeton's Jim Higgins.

"They pass the puck so much quicker than any other team that we've played."--Army's Rob Riley.

"Harvard's got a great team. They're the best team we've played all year."--Colgate's Terry Slate.

"Harvard's a great team. They're so quick and opportunistic, they come right back at you."--Brown's Herb Hammond.

"They're about the best team we've seen."--UMD's Mike Sertich.

Even the KDLK radio announcers covering the Duluth games got into the act. "Harvard scores quietly, not a lot of flash and dazzle," they said. "But they just bring it down and keep doing it to you, and doing it to you, and you just can't stop them."

"The Harvard Crimson is the second-rated team in the country," they continued, "and now we know why."

The More Things Change... This week's WMEB-Radio top-10 hockey poll has a familiar look to it.

Number 2 Harvard (last year's runner-up) still trails Michigan State (last year's national champion), while Boston College and Minnesota, two more of the 1985-'86 national quarterfinalists, remain in this season's top five.

The rankings: 1. Michigan St., 2. Harvard, 3. B.C., 4. North Dakota, 5. Minnesota, 6. Bowling Green, 7. Lowell, 8. Maine, 9. Lake Superior St., 10. Yale.

Last week's top team, North Dakota (16-4), lost its month-long hold on the position after its shocking upset by U.S. International. The country's surprise team is Lowell (12-2-1), which has never before received such national attention. The Billerica squad is second in Hockey East, behind 14-2 B.C.

ECAC Woes: The ECAC has fallen upon hard times this season. An 11-0 record is nice, but because of the weakness of Harvard's conference opponents, some still don't take the Crimson seriously.

The Boston Globe went so far as to claim that Harvard "startled the hockey community" by sweeping UMD. Michigan State has lost twice and been tied by Maine, but the Spartans are top-ranked nationally because their WCHA schedule is so much tougher than Harvard's ECAC stroll.

Every other ECAC team has lost at least three contests. St. Lawrence, who started the season impressively by winning four straight conference games, has since dropped three straight.

Cornell, who has been ranked as high as seventh nationally, has stunk up the league with a 1-4 mark. Even RPI, national champions just two seasons ago, is struggling with a 4-6-1 record.

Finally, although second-place Yale has compiled a 5-1 league mark, the Bulldogs are the ECAC's lowest scoring team, having won four of their five games by a single goal. Only a very strong defense has kept the Yalies in the chase.

Harvard has played only nine of its 22 league games, but it has already won most of the potentially tough road contests.

Cornell is always tough in Ithaca, but the Crimson quieted the Lynah Rink Mob with a 6-3 triumph. On the same road trip, the Crimson beat Colgate, 5-2, and last week, Harvard stayed awake through its uninspiring 3-2 victory over Brown.

A string of three straight road matches against St. Lawrence, Clarkson and Yale in January pose a significant threat to a perfect ECAC record. The last Harvard team to romp unbeaten through the conference was the 1974-'75 squad, which finished the season fourth in the NCAAs.

MacDonald Mania: The left-wing junior, who was just named ECAC Player of the Week, is still leading the conference scoring race, two points ahead of teammate Tim Barakett. After a 3-3--6 weekend, MacDonald's 123 career points ties him with Dan DeMichele for 10th place on the all-time Harvard scoring list.

Having played just over half of his career, MacDonald is 117 points behind Scott Fusco, the all-time Crimson scoring champ.

In the middle of the third period of Saturday's game, the Minnesota radio announcers found themselves mired in the midst of some marvelous MacDonald Mania, thereby muffing the call on what was apparently Scott McCormack first collegiate goal.

"He's a fine looking hockey player, that Lane MacDonald...and he scores," was how they described the first goal of freshman defenseman McCormack's career--which in fact was tipped in by MacDonald. The announcers quickly changed their call to credit McCormack with the score, inadvertantly switching the correct call to an incorrect one.

Tim Barakett leads the Crimson with five game-winning goals. After notching both game-winners in Minnesota, MacDonald is in second place with three.

Barakett, by the way, is two points away from tallying career point number 100, a mark that MacDonald passed in this season's second game. Barakett scored two goals in a game last year against Vermont's Tom Draper, who visits Bright along with his Catamount teammates Jan. 3.

Strings and Things: Harvard Coach Bill Cleary is now 4-10 against Minnesota schools....Wednesday's victory stretched Harvard's unbeaten streak over Brown to 10 straight....Over Christmas break, Harvard plays the Spartak Team, one the USSR's top national squads. Spartak has been touring U.S. colleges for the past two weeks....Chris Biotti and Ed Krayer will take time off from the Harvard squad to play with the U.S. junior national team, and won't return to the Crimson until mid-January...UMD has "Power-Play" jackpot contest for the team's fans. As in professional baseball teams' Home Run Derbies, an entrant who correctly guesses the Bulldog to score on a particular power-play wins the jackpot. The award, which stood at $70 for the Harvard game, goes up $10 each time nobody wins.