Well, the ECAC says that Harvard's hockey season is over--cut short by a quarterfinal sweep at the hands of Cornell last weekend.

But don't tell that to anyone around here.

The Zamboni driver is still making fresh ice. The rink is still reserved from 3 to 5 p.m. And a parade of players is still making its way down to Bright Center every afternoon.

"We don't know what else to do with ourselves," said senior Scott McCormack, who's been so itchy for hockey he trekked across the river to see Boston College play Merrimack Monday night. "Our biological clocks say we still have one more month of hockey left."

On the first day without hockey, Kevin Sneddon and Pete Ciavaglia managed to keep themselves occupied without heading to Bright Center.

No, they didn't study. They played video games. Lots of video games. Lots of video games. Enough video games to kill the full two hours they usually spend at practice.

But hockey avoidance didn't last long. Monday afternoon, Sneddon found his feet carrying him across the river. And when he got there, he wasn't alone.

Out on the Bright ice were C.J. Young, John Weisbrod, Allain Roy, Mike Francis, Tod Hartje and McCormack, to name a few.

"It's kind of routine, heading down to the rink at 2 or 2:30," said Sneddon, who claims he did stay home and study yesterday. "It's hard to get used to not having practice."

The exodus continues today, as the Molson Cup (use your imagination) is on the line when the team gets together for a full-contact, intra-squad contest. Young and Brian Popiel will be drafting teams, and rumor has it that coaches Bill Cleary and Ronn Tomassoni are among those available in the first round.

Painful As It May Be: This weekend the ECAC Tournament will take place in Boston Garden, and for the first time since 1984, Harvard (13-14-1) won't be there. Saturday night, Colgate will face Clarkson and RPI will battle Cornell in the semifinal round, with the championship scheduled for Sunday night at 8 p.m.

A few of the Harvard players will be taking the green line to the Garden anyway--Roy and Sneddon have found themselves in the unenviable position of having to take a recruit to see other ECAC teams play--but Causeway Street won't exactly be the Harvard hockey hotspot this weekend.

"I know it sounds lame, but I'm not that big of a hockey-watcher," said Murphy, who just happened to be watching part of the Bruins-Flyers game on television. "I'm not that interested in seeing who wins."

Ditto for Weisbrod. He's so anxious to avoid finding out about the tournament, he's leaving the state.

"I'm going home," said Weisbrod, who hails from Long Island. "I don't want to see it, to hear about it, to read about it. I don't even want to be in the same town."