With Veteran's Day coming up tomorrow, most Harvard students can look forward to a relaxing three-day vacation.

These students also won't be doing any forechecking this weekend.

On the other hand, the Harvard men's hockey team (1-0-0, 1-0-0 ECAC) faces a difficult road trip tomorrow and Saturday, where it will face ECAC rivals Colgate and Cornell, respectively.

"This will be a hell of a test for us," senior goalkeeper Tripp Tracy said.

Colgate (1-3-0, 0-0-0 ECAC) is many people's pick to win the conference. It reached the semifinals of the ECAC Tournament in Lake Placid last season, and it returns many experienced veterans. Heading up the list of returnees is forward Michael Harder (one goal, four assists), who was named to the all-ECAC preseason team.

"Mike Harder is one of the best players in the country right now," Harvard coach Ronn Tomassoni said.

Colgate also features another excellent offensive player in Chris DeProfio. In four games this season, DeProfio has netted four goals and racked up two assists.

While the Red Raiders are traditionally strong up front, their perennial weakness has been in goal. But their tradition of mediocre netminding was broken last season by now-sophomore goaltender Dan Brenzavich (.847 save percentage, 4.14 GAA this season.)

Colgate is coming off a 3-0 shutout victory of Ottawa in a non-league game last weekend, its first win of the young season.

"Colgate is one of the best teams in the league," Tomassoni said. "They're a good, solid hockey team."

"It's going to be a tough game," said freshman forward Craig Adams, who is the current ECAC Rookie of the Week after scoring two goals in a 7-2 romp over Brown.

Seeing Red

On Saturday, the team faces Cornell. The Big Red (0-1-0, 0-0-0 ECAC) played its first game of the season last weekend, a 2-6 non-league loss at Michigan State.

The Big Red returns a number of excellent players from last season. Offensively, senior captain Brad Chartrand (23 career goals, 30 career assists), senior Geoff Lopatka (24 career goals, 22 career assists) and senior Mike Sancimimo (24 career goals, 42 career assists) head the list.

Key defensive returnees are senior Bill Holowatiuk (four career goals, 15 career assists) and junior Chad Wilson (two career goals, 17 career assists.) Holowatiuk and Wilson each scored a goal in the Big Red's loss last weekend.