Most intriguing is the Brown-Clarkson matchup this weekend. Both teams are currently tied for second, and both probably need four points from this weekend to have a shot at the NCAA's, unless one wins the ECAC tournament. This should be an especially tall order for Clarkson, as it gets Brown the night after its duel with the champion Crimson.

RPI and Colgate face off Saturday in key battle for fourth place and home ice (and a potential rematch eight days for now), but keep an eye on Vermont. The Catamounts play at Yale and Princeton, but with a little focus they might steal four points and the coveted home Gutterson Field-house advantage.

And then there's Yale and Dartmouth. The duel for 11th place has never been more heated--tonight at Ingalls rink, the cellar-dweller should be decided, with nothing but Ivy League pride on the line as the two teams play out their schedules.

Team  W  L  T  Pts. HARVARD  15  2  3  33 Clarkson  12  5  3  27 Brown  12  5  3  27 RPI  10  6  4  24 Colgate  10  8  2  22 Vermont  8  8  6  22 Union  8  9  3  19 Cornell  7  8  5  18 Princeton  6  11  3  15 St. Lawrence  7  13  0  14 Yale  4  15  1  9 Dartmouth  4  15  1  9

The Big, the Bad, the Beautiful:Very interesting philosophy Tomassoni introduced to his team going into this weekend's two games with Clarkson and St. Lawrence: rock `em, sock `em hockey. Don Cherry would be so proud. Or would he?

"I'm not just stressing the hit for the sake of hitting," Tomassoni is quick to clarify. "But our guys need reminders from time to time that taking the body helps establish the proper position on their men, from both an offensive and a defensive standpoint."

"And that's been one of the areas in which our guys have lost a little bit of an edge."

So if the physical Golden Knights and Saints decided to get into a "war in the trenches," as Tomassoni puts it--with the vocal hockey-loving student bodies of both schools watching with bated breath--there could be blood on the ice.

But don't look for Olympic gunner Todd Marchant to ever shed any of his blood again for Clarkson--he signed several days ago with the New York Rangers' AHL farm-team in Binghamton, thus waiving his right to return to college.

Don't think for a minute that Knight's Coach Mark Morris didn't get a few gray hairs when he heard about that.

NCAA POLL 1. Michigan (17)  28-5-1  268 2. BU (9)  23-7-1  251 3. HARVARD (2)  18-4-3  213 4. Lake Superior St.  22-9-4  172 5. Colorado Coll.  21-9-4  168 6. Minnesota  19-11-4  156 7. Michigan St.  18-10-5  72 8. Wisconsin  20-13-1  68 9. UMass-Lowell  18-8-7  61 10. West. Michigan  20-10-3  41

Compiled by the Troy (N.Y.) Record, with first-place votes in parentheses, records and total points.

0-and-2 for "M GO Blue":For the first time since very early in the season, Michigan failed to corner every first place vote in the Troy (N.Y.) Record national poll.

As it fell to 28-5-1 after two losses last weekend, the Wolverine's first-place margin fell to eight votes over second-ranked Boston University. The Terriers' perfect weekend helped them leapfrog over Harvard (which still got two first-place votes of its own), securing nine first-place votes and clinching the Hockey East Regular season crown.

But Crimson fans need hardly worry: next in line from the East it is UMass-Lowell at ninth, and all Harvard essentially needs to do to secure a first-round bye for the NCAA tournament is finish as one of the top two teams east of Ohio.