These are the real times that try men's souls, right? The Harvard men's hockey team can take Thomas Paine's message to heart when it considers the following facts concerning its trip to Princeton tonight:

Getting back to top form after three weeks away from competitive action is a historically difficult task for the crimson....

. With a Beanpot date against second-ranked Boston University on the horizon this Monday, Harvard will do well to keep its focus on the present...

. After a comprehensive 7-1 drubbing at the hands of the Crimson earlier this year in Bright Arena, the Tigers no doubt have ample motivation for wreaking revenge and knocking Harvard from its first-place perch in the ECAC....

. Baker Rink is always among the tougher away barns in ECAC play; last year's Harvard squad, so dominant against Princeton in the postseason, only squeaked out of New Jersey with a 6-5 win on Matt Mallgrave's overtime goal...

. And the Crimson's once-massive ECAC lead wasted away over the break to two points from Brown and four from RPI and Colgate, all of which have a game in hand.

Yikes. Anything. good to report, Coach Ronn Tomassoni?

"Well, at least [Princeton] takes their exams at the same time we do, and they've only had one game themselves since their break," he said. "We have the problem every year of being not quite as sharp as we would like to be after exams, but this year we're sort of in the same boat."

The Tigers did resume league play last Saturday and avenged an early-season loss to Yale be eking out a 4-2 win, with two goals by junior left wing Ethan Early providing the winning margin. But Princeton (9-5-3, 4-5-3 ECAC) knows that Harvard (11-3-2, 9-2-2 ECAC) looms as a more formidable hurdle than the disappointing cellar-dwelling Bulldogs.

That said, Tomassoni knows the aforementioned (and very real) dangers his team faces as it comes out of its January closet and dusts away its cobwebs for the first time.

"This is one of the most difficult games of the year for us," he said. "We've had to go through a lot of media hype for the Beanpot, and we haven't even played a game yet-it could be a very real distraction."

In the current Troy (N.Y.) Record Poll, Harvard stands third, a spot behind B.U. That could change if the Crimson wins this weekend, because the Terriers fell at UMass-Lowell Wednesday night by a 4-2 count.

B.U. gets a chance to retaliate at home against the Chiefs tonight, and one senses that the Terriers' coach Jack Parker won't let his team look ahead to the Crimson again. But if Harvard should lose to Princeton, what stands to be one of the year's most anticipated college hockey matchups could a lot of its luster.

Coming into tonight, speedy junior center Steve Martins should be back from a one-game disciplinary suspension instituted by Tomassoni for taking a stupid penalty in the Vermont tie on January 14. Harvard will need him, too-the Tigers approach the game with a physical game plan, trying to neutralize the Crimson's formidable skating skills.

"They are very hard-working and play a brand of in-your-face hockey," Tomassoni said. "Especially on the road, the key will be to put' em away early, because if we let the crowd get into it and let them thin they can beat us, we might be in for a long night."