For the Harvard men's hockey team, the last weekend of hockey before the exam break was pivotal.

A strong showing could have left the team in a fine position in the ECAC standings, even after the team returned from exams. A poor performance could have left the team in as low as 10th place when they resumed play in February.

Despite this, the Crimson turned in one of their worst combined efforts of the season in Friday night's 4-2 loss to Union. But with the heightened urgency that it must have felt after the loss, the team rebounded with a convincing 6-1 win over Rensselaer.

Harvard 6, RPI 1

Where were you at around 9 p.m. on Saturday night? If you weren't at Bright Hockey Center, then you missed the most explosive offensive period in recent Harvard hockey memory.

Three minutes into the second period of Harvard's game against RPI, freshman winger Brett Chodorow broke down the right side of the ice, tearing across the RPI blueline. Spotting junior Henry Higdon, Chodorow zipped a pass for a Higdon one-timer into the upper lefthand corner of the Engineer net.

The shot was perfect; the execution, sublime. Coming into its last game before exams, Harvard was averaging only 2.35 goals per game. Perfect and sublime were not exactly the buzzwords of the Crimson offense.

But Saturday night? Ah, what a difference a day makes.

"We've been resilient all year long and we've been involved in so many close games," Tomassoni said." [Friday night] was not a very good night for this hockey team; but not only did they bounce back...they did it in so many ways that we needed."

Higdon's tally was one of Harvard's three power-play goals on the night and one of the five scored in just the 20 minutes of that second period.

Sometimes, when it rains it pours; Saturday night, even Lady Luck's drizzle added to the overall drenching applied by the Crimson offense.

Ninety seconds after his blast and with the game tied at one, Higdon innocently slapped the puck deep behind the RPI net during a Crimson power play. RPI goaltender Joel Laing went behind his net to make the play; the puck, however, had second thoughts, hitting a friendly slab of the back boards and bouncing onto the stick of sophomore Rob Millar. The tap-in goal was Millar's eighth of the season and gave Harvard a lead it never relinquished. RPI  1 Harvard  6

Union  4 Harvard  2

Nine minutes later, sophomores Ethan Oberman and Clayton Rodgers notched goals of their own just 24 seconds apart.

With the period starting so well, you wouldn't have thought that it could have ended more dramatically--but it did.

Harvard gave the Engineers a chance to get right back in the hockey game, giving them a 5-on-3 advantage for a full two minutes--which the Crimson killed with some style. Then, with two minutes left in the period, RPI surrounded the Harvard net, but freshman goalie J.R. Prestifilippo (31 saves on the night) rejected three straight close-range shots, his last deflection sending the Crimson up the ice on its own offensive rush. With the echo of Prestifilippo's stick slapping against the ice, the battle cry sounded once more.

Harvard began to pressure Laing again. On another rush, sophomore Craig Adams broke from right to left into the RPI zone, collected a lead pass from Millar and cut towards the Engineer net. With 20 seconds left in the period, Adams slipped by the one defenseman in his path and finished his rush with a wrister into the back of the net, giving Harvard its first four-goal lead of the season.

"We've shown it two weekends in a row," Adams said of about the team's ability to bounce back after a loss. "Coach just wants us not to back down. We can't let a loss sit with us. We showed it tonight. We were resilient and came back and won again."

The third period was more of a cebration of sorts--especially for sophomore Craig MacDonald. After being held without a goal for 53 straight periods, MacDonald finally tickled the twine with less than three minutes to go in the contest.

Millar spotted his teammate right in front of the RPI net, and without hesitation, MacDonald rifled the puck home, ending his personal goal drought and putting the final touch on the 6-1 Harvard win.

It is a relief. Going 17 games myself without a goal is frustrating," MacDonald said. "The puck hasn't bounced our way, but finally tonight it did."

"This is such a big boost going into two weeks of exams," Tomassoni said. "It can't help, I hope anyways, but carry over into the most important part of the year."

The Harvard players now look to take that momentum first into the exam room and then into their next game against fifth-ranked University of New Hampshire in two weeks. With only a month-and-a-half left in the season, and a modest .500 league record, making the grade has never been more important for the Crimson.

Union 4, Harvard 2

If any team was expected to give Harvard trouble this weekend, it would have been Rensselaer. But despite having defeated Union 3-0 back on December 11, and having never lost to Union at Bright Hockey Center, the Crimson appeared sluggish and overmatched by the Skating Dutchmen.

Harvard started the game with an early odd-man rush by Chodorow and sophomore forward MacDonald, which was shut down by Union goalie Trevor Koenig (35 saves).

But this early rush was just an illusion, as the game quickly devolved into a slow-paced, penalty-ridden affair with neither team gaining much momentum.

With ten minutes gone in the first stanza, the scoreless tie was finally broken when Union lit the lamp on its second power play of the evening.

Union's John Sicinski got control of the puck near center ice and skated down the right side into the Harvard zone unassaulted by the Crimson defense. He centered the puck to forward Jay Prentice, who tipped it to forward Chris Ford. Ford pushed the puck past netminder Prestifilippo (25 saves).

Harvard rallied back from this first score during a four-on-four with five minutes remaining in the first period.

Sophomore Harvard blue-liner Ben Storey got control of the puck in front of the Harvard goal. Spotting an open Millar at the top of the faceoff circle, he quickly shuttled a pass between two Union forwards to Millar. Millar took two steps, and then launched a slapshot from inside the faceoff circle past Koenig for the equalizer.

In the second period, Harvard, as it has throughout much of the season, had difficulty getting a strong power play set up. Union, on the other hand, capitalized on its power play opportunity of the period.

Seven minutes into the second stanza, Union forward Mark Szucs fed a puck to forward Brent Ozarowski. Ozarowski took a soft shot, but caught Prestifilippo off-balance and the shot slid into the net.

"We haven't been playing as well [on the short-handed unit]," Harvard coach Tomassoni said. "We've made some mistakes, and they've ended up in our net."

Harvard had three more power plays, including a five-on-three and a four-on-three, but couldn't convert.

Union netted two more goals in the third stanza, including its third power play goal of the night, and Harvard seemed to be completely out of the game.

But there was still a little life left in the Harvard squad. Playing short-handed, freshman forward Trevor Allman stole a puck from a Skating Dutchman at center ice and took the puck up the ice on a breakaway. He timed his shot perfectly, finding the five-hole and pulling the Crimson to within two.

But despite a late rally and a power play, Harvard fell short. They would have to wait for Saturday night to gain any points on the weekend, as well as a chance to make amends for Friday's loss.

UNION, 4-2 at Bright Hockey CenterUnion  1  1  2  --  4Harvard  1  0  1  --