Four months and 27 games have passed since the 1993-94 hockey campaign began. Now the past means next to nothing. The playoffs are here, and anyone could conceivably beat anyone else and erase much of the good or bad of those past 120 days.

The Harvard men's hockey team (19-4-4 overall, 16-2-4 ECAC) will host Cornell (8-15-5, 7-10-5) in a best-of-three series in the ECAC tournament quarterfinals starting tonight at 7:30 p.m. Tomorrow's match is slated for 7:00 p.m. and Sunday's game (if necessary) will also begin at 7:00 p.m.

"It's a whole new season," Harvard Head Coach Ronn Tomassoni said. "It's the playoffs and everyone's on equal ground."

As long as the Crimson keeps its mental focus, it should win this series against the Big, Red in two games. Harvard won both meetings against Cornell this year--5-4 at Ithaca November 19 and a 4-0 shutout at the Bright Hockey Center February 12. Yet, both were very close contests.

Harvard built a 5-1 lead early in the third of the first game, but Cornell tallied three times in a short time-span in the third before finally falling by one.

The second game was close going into the third period, as the Crimson only held a 2-0 lead on two powerplay goals by junior Steve Martins. But senior Brian Farrell connected for the team's third goal with the man advantage, and freshman Joe Craigen iced the game with his late empty netter. Sophomore Tripp Tracy made 22 saves for his only shut-out of the season.

"I think they're a good hockey team," Tracy said. "I do think out of the teams we could have played [Cornell, Princeton or St. Lawrence], they are best team.

Offense: Simply put, there is nothing similar between the offensive styles of these two teams. Harvard's offense relies on speed and finesse and also features an incisive forechecking style.

Cornell, on the other hand, is a clutch-and-grab team. The players don't posses the same skills as the Crimson players do, so they will try to knock Harvard off its game with a rough style of play.

"They're going to come out and try and hook us, hold us and goad us into stupid penalties," junior Ben Coughlin said. "As long as we stay mentally disciplined, things should turn out fine."

Statistically, Cornell averages 3.22 goals a game, far blow the 4.74 mark of Harvard. The Big Red has scored five or more goals only four times this season, compared with the 12 times the Crimson has scored at least five.

Defense: Again, there is no comparison on paper. Cornell allows 4.14 goals against a game, while Harvard is fourth in the nation with 2.85 against.

The Crimson boasts six solid defensemen, three of them seniors--captain Sean McCann, Derek Maguire and Lou Body. The Big Red, on the other hand, has no seniors and three freshmen on defense, and this lack of experience has shown.

"They are primarily a freshman and sophomore team," Tomassoni said, referring to the 20 youngsters on a 28-mean team. "They play with a lot of enthusiasm and with a more physical style. They try to contain you and congest the ice."

Goaltending: Harvard's goaltending duo of Tracy and sophomore Aaron Israel have come up big this season in both important and not so important games. They are skilled players and are helped by the solid defense corps, and they also bring a lot of playoff-type experience to the team.