"When the defensemen help out, and get four goals, it takes some presure from the forwards," McLaughlin said.

Not that the forwards needed help last night.

Harvard scored three of its eight goals on power plays and twice short-handed.

The power play continues to show marked improvement. Last night, Harvard set up nicely, took plenty of shots, and even when they didn't score, they made it close.

All of this means that the team stepped up in the face of the tremendous level of abuse that Steve Martins, the team's offensive catalyst, has been under this season.

Last night, Martins was again forced to trade his hockey gloves for boxing gloves; St. Lawrence banged him around like a pinball.

By game's end, Martins had spent ten minutes twiddling his thumbs in the sin bin.

"Martins is the premier player in the league," Harvard coach Ronn Tomassoni said. "I get disgusted with what teams do to him."

But the heat is off Martins if the Crimson can keep up the offense.

Now, the skaters must take last night's nosebleed into tonight's Clarkson matchup.

"To get both [games] at home [this weekend], it would be big for us," Tomassoni said.

Not big. Huge.