In a season characterized by many peaks and valleys, junior Kirk Nielsen has been a consistent bright spot for the Harvard men's hockey team.

Nielsen, a hard-shooting, fast-skating forward from the hockey hotbed of Grand Rapids, Minnesota, is the teams second leading goal scorer, with 13.

But Kirk Nielsen has always been more than just a hockey player. A dedicated student, Nielsen passed up a chance to play hockey before thousands of hometown fans at the University of Minnesota--an NCAA hockey powerhouse--to come to Harvard.

This is not to say that Nielsen has toiled in obscurity here in Cambridge. Quite the contrary, Nielsen's hockey experience has been marked by "a lot of team success," with his freshman year's Beanpot championsip, and last season's NCAA Final Four appearance as highlights.

Though those highlights are quite impressive, Nielsen still cites "playing in front of 18,000 people in the Minnesota State High School Hockey Championships," as the crowning point in his hockey career.

In fact, many of Nielsen's fondest hockey memories occured prior to coming to Harvard. A hockey player since age four, Nielsen and older brother Jeff converted the basement of their home into a make-shift street hockey rink.

Jeff Nielsen, himself a fine hockey player, was a four year star at Minnesota, and is now in the New York Rangers organization, with the Binghampton Rangers of the AHL.

Enduring constant comparisons to Jeff throughout his hockey career, Kirk maintains that having an older brother who is also a hockey star is an advantage.

"Having a successful older brother helps because when you have someone to look up to you want to better," Nielsen said. "There was never really any rivalry between us, since we never played against each other."

When his senior year in high school rolled around, Nielsen was confronted by a difficult decision between following his brother to Minnesota, or travelling across the country to Harvard.

"The Minnesota team is made up entirely of Minnesota kids," said Nielsen. "My brother and I are different people. I was always a little more of a student and he was a little more of a hockey player."

Though a superior education was the determining factor in Nielsen's decision, Harvard also boasts a hockey program steeped in tradition.

"There's a lot of history in that jersey," Nielsen said of Harvard's crimson and white.

This season was supposed to be a prime opportunity to add to that tradition as Harvard entered the campaign with a top five national ranking and high expectations. But the team has faltered, finishing with a respectable but not exemplary 14-13-1 record.

Some have claimed that the team's high pre-season ranking added undue pressure that contributed to the Crimson's problems, but Nielsen refuses to accept such excuses.

"We don't pay much attention to polls. The only pressure that matters is internal pressure we put on ourselves, "he says.

Despite the regular season's difficulties, Nielsen is `confident going into the playoffs as everything up' til now is immaterial. The playoffs are what matters."

This weekend Harvard takes on RPI in the first round of the ECAC championships. RPI and Harvard split two regular season contests and Nielsen feels that the series should be closely matched.

"The two teams match up pretty well, as we are both skilled teams," Nielsen says.

But Nielsen's diplomatic nature cannot cover-up his confidence.

"If we play well we will win," he predicts.

And win Harvard must to have any chance to get back to the NCAA tournament, a goal Nielsen calls "very important."

"Last year," Nielsen says, "we were unlucky, and we have some unfinished business to take care of. Every time you play a sport you want to reach the ultimate."

However, a return to the NCAA's is just one of Nielsen's many future goals. The junior chemistry/physics major plans someday to go to medical school. But first there is the matter of some other unfinished business.

Last season both Kirk Nielsen's Harvard Crimson and Jeff Nielsen's Minnesota Golden Gophers lost in opposite semi-final games in the NCAA tournament, preventing a much anticipated Nielsen vs. Nielsen matchup in the Championship Game.

Before trying his hand at medicine, Nielsen plans to take a shot at professional hockey, either in the minors, or in Europe, perhaps providing another chance to suit up against his brother, renewing a match-up that has lain dormant since the long winter nights in his family's basement.