Coming into last weekend's series against Dartmouth and Vermont, it hadn't won a homestand in two years.

It still hasn't.

The Harvard men's hockey team (5-8-2, 5-4-1 ECAC) squeaked out a close one against Dartmouth on Friday and appeared set for a regal sweep against league cellar-dweller Vermont the next night. Unfortunately, Catamount forward Jerry Gernander picked up his second goal of the year at an opportune time--with less than a minute remaining in regulation--to break a 2-2 deadlock and help send the Cats home with a weekend sweep of their own.

"The tough part about this is that we have nothing to show for it," said Harvard Coach Ronn Tomassoni following the Vermont loss. "I said to the boys that you just can't get down. We have to keep our chins up and go out and get two [wins] next weekend. No way is this a knockout."

Harvard 4, Dartmouth 3

Most worrisome in preparing for Dartmouth (4-5-3, 1-5-1) was not the Big Green's depth (18 juniors and seniors on its roster), its new coach (former Brown coach Bob Gaudet) nor its recent two-game winning streak, which included an impressive, 4-1 championship victory over Providence in the Sheraton/US Airways Holiday Hockey Classic.

No, the real adversity for the Crimson came by word of mouth on Tuesday when team doctors diagnosed Harvard goal-tender, J.R. Prestifilippo--last year's team MVP and the ECAC Rookie of the Year--with mononucleosis.

Prior to the announcement, Harvard had high hopes for the contest against the Big Green, a team languishing near the bottom of the ECAC. The Crimson had already faced the hardest part of its schedule and was still in a three-way tie for third place in league play.

"J.R. wasn't at the top of his game in Wisconsin, and when we came back home and had him tested, we found out why," Tomassoni said.

Freshman backup Oliver Jonas suited up for the Crimson in Presto's absence and delivered a 31-save performance that was good enough to thwart the recently surging Big Green, 4-3.

"It was my fast game at home and my first conference game so it was pretty emotional and I was a little nervous," said Jonas, whose uncle, De Raaf, was a three-time Olympic goaltender for the German national team. "Once the puck dropped and I made the first save, the nervousness was pretty much over."

After a first period that ended with the score even at 1-1, the Crimson gave Jonas a little breathing room in the second stanza. Freshman Graham Morrell picked up the puck in neutral ice and broke down the right wing. Driving deep beyond the goal line, Morrell dropped a pass off for a trailing Chris Bala, who knocked home a one-timer at the 1:22 mark.

Dartmouth would retaliate four minutes later, and it was no surprise that junior Scott Peach was the one to inflict the damage. After scoring two power-play goals in a span of 24 seconds against Providence, Peach displayed his scoring touch once again. A rising slapshot by Peach from just over the Harvard blue line surprised Jonas and sailed over his outstretched glove hand to knot the game at 2-2.

"I wasn't too happy with that one," Jonas said. "It took a bounce there and I wasn't ready for it. Those things happen, though."

The Big Green struck again for a 3-2 lead, but two unanswered Crimson goals in that same period spelled certain doom for the band of green men from Hanover.