Although the rituals involving live chickens and dead fish will wait until the Crimson travels to Cornell's Lynah Rink in February, there will be more than a game on the line Sunday.

Some pre-season polls picked the Big Red to finish first in the ECAC, and Cornell is not ready to let Harvard forget that fact.

Cornell suffered its lone loss to St. Lawrence three weekends ago, and doing a favor for the second-place Saints (4-0 ECAC) is the last thing it has in mind. But the third-place Big Red needs to knock off the undefeated Crimson--giving St. Lawrence control of the league--if it wants to stay within a game of the league leaders.

Cornell's attack is led by senior Rob Levasseur (8-4-12), with junior Casey Jones (3-8-11), and sophomore Trent Andison (4-6-10)--last year's ECAC Rookie of the Year--giving an additional scoring punch.

"We always try to play a total game," Cornell Coach Brian McCutcheon said. "We certainly know there are a lot of people who can score [for Harvard]. They've got everything, then add [Allen] Bourbeau and [Captain Lane] MacDonald on top of it."

Bourbeau and MacDonald have combined for more than half the Crimson's total points. MacDonald has been the big goal scorer with two hat-trick nights and a total of eight goals and six assists (14 points). But Bourbeau tops the Crimson scoring list (3-12--15).

Expect freshman Allain Roy (2.00 g.a.a, .920 save percentage) to handle goaltending duties tonight, with classmate Chuckie Hughes (3.17, .860) taking over on Sunday.