Normally a hockey club in the Beanpot finals has trouble focusing on its regular-season games between 'Pot engagements.

Normally.

But this weekend's schedule for the Harvard men's hockey club is anything but normal.

With crucial contests on the road against second-place Yale and a hot Princeton squad, Harvard players realize that they have some important ECAC business to take care of before they face Boston University Monday night in the Boston Garden.

Harvard travels down the east coast to meet the Bulldogs tonight in New Haven, Conn., and the Tigers tomorrow in Princeton, N.J.

From the looks of it, Harvard is not taking these games lightly.

"This is the biggest weekend of the season," Captain Kevin Sneddon said.

Sneddon may be right. While the Crimson (11-3-3, 10-1-3 ECAC) is alone atop the ECAC standings with 23 points, the Elis (along with St. Lawrence) are only two points behind.

"Right now, our goal for the year is to win the ECAC and Yale is number two. So obviously, this is an important game for us," senior forward Tim Burke said.

"I guess normally it would be a letdown [after the Beanpot], but this is Yale," Burke said.

A Harvard win, of course, would put the Crimson comfortably ahead of the Elis in the standings, and would undoubtedly bolster Harvard's place in the national polls.

A Yale victory, on the other hand, would send the two teams into a first place tie, which St. Lawrence could join with a win at home over Colgate. Considering Harvard's past performance at Ingalls Rink (the so-called Yale Whale), that is not an unlikely scenario.

In the last 15 years, Harvard has compiled a miserable 2-10-3 record down at Yale. No current Harvard player has ever beaten the Elis in New Haven.

Yale hasn't exactly been a powerhouse as of late, either. During the last 15 years, the Elis have never won the ECAC title and have only finished higher than seventh place in the conference three times.

This year is clearly an exception, which makes Harvard's task even more formidable.