The Harvard men's ice hockey team can capture its first Beanpot title since 1993 with a win over Boston University Monday night. The honor and prestige of the tournament would easily make it Harvard's most significant victory in that timespan and bring back some old time glory to the program.

Right now, that does not matter one bit.

Inserted between the two rounds of the Beanpot are two tough divisional games against Union on Friday night and Rensselaer Saturday afternoon. It is almost more imperative for the Crimson to prevail against these two squads than over the Terriers, as Harvard desperately needs every point in a tight ECAC race.

"These are two big ECAC games that we need in order to start our second half," said senior forward Henry Higdon.

Though the Beanpot tournament is a prestigious event, it has no direct effect on Harvard's place in the standings. The game against Union marks the beginning of the critical stretch drive which finds Harvard tied for fourth place along with Cornell and RPI, Saturday's opponent.

With the enormous amount of parity in the ECAC this year, the Crimson has little room for error. A mere four points separate Harvard from second place, but it leads the eighth place teams by the same margin.

"The Beanpot is secondary right now," said sophomore forward Trevor Allman. "The next games are league games which mean more, and they have our focus."

Still, the prospect of a letdown after a big victory cannot be discounted.

The Skating Dutchmen (4-15-3 over-all, 2-8-2 ECAC) enter this contest in the basement of the ECAC, one of the only teams left out of the division's parity. Union has a mere six points in twelve conference games.

Union just recently snapped an eight game winless streak with a modest 6-3 win over Army.

The Skating Dutchmen boast no significant scoring threat, with forward Brent Ozarowski's six game point scoring streak (2 goals, 7 assists) making him the only offensive figure of note.

Rather, Union likes to play a physical style and try to wear teams down with punishing checks. They take a workman's attitude into each game and try to scrap together wins.

"Union is a hardworking, physical team," Allman said. "We will have to be prepared to respond in kind and then exploit that."

The Union game will also feature the return of sophomore goaltender J.R. Prestifilippo. He has been out for over a month with mononucleosis. His illness forced freshman backup Oliver Jonas to start at the Beanpot.

"I am really excited to get back into a game," Prestifilippo said. "I hope to keep things basic and technically sound, and I will do alright."