The Crimson disposed of Colgate for the second time on its home ice three months later. This time, in a much more convincing manner, the Crimson unleashed six goals on the Red Raiders en route to a 6-1 victory.

"We had a wild one up at their place in just the second game of the year, and then we had a much easier time down here at our place when they were going through a tough time," said Harvard Coach Ronn Tomassoni. "But like every coaching staff in America, once the season ends, you start to hype the playoffs as an entirely new season. I am sure that they are pumping that into their kids right now."

As its early season ranking indicated, Colgate possesses numerous weapons, the foremost being its explosive forwards, led by junior Jed Whitchurch and sophomore Andy McDonald, who have tallied 34 and 30 points respectively.

For most of the season, the Red Raiders led the league in overall scoring, but after a recent drought which has seen the team score only 11 goals in the last six games, Colgate has dropped to the level of the league's worst.

To make matters worse for Dan Frigden and his corps, its defense has been as porous as the offense has been ineffective.

Playing in front of senior Dan Brenzavich, who owns a 3.16 goals against average, the Red Raiders have allowed 33 goal in its final six games.

Those facts alone make it easy to understand how Colgate fell from fourth to sixth place in a matter of two games.

"We feel really confident against Colgate since it is a team that we feel we can beat," Morrell said. "They have some great forwards who have a lot of speed and firepower up front, but sometimes they play a little undisciplined; they play pond hockey out there."

On the other side of the spectrum, the Crimson is coming off a weekend in which it enjoyed its most successful offensive output of the entire season.

Scoring 13 goals in the two games, Harvard was led by the freshman duo of Chris Bala and Steve Moore. Undoubtably the two leading candidates for the ECAC Rookie of the Year award, Moore and Bala collected a combined 11 points on the weekend.

Bala, in particular, erupted for four goals in just the first period of the Vermont game to earn him Player of the Week accolades.

"They have been tremendous. They have led our team in scoring all season long, and they have had to do everything for us from playing on the power play to being on the short-handed unit," said Tomassoni about his two freshmen forwards.

"They have handled the challenge very well, and they have only gotten better and better as the season has gone along. That's a great sign for us heading into the playoffs."

Taking over the full reigns in net will be sophomore goaltender J.R. Prestifilppo. After splitting time between the pipes last weekend with freshman Oliver Jonas, Prestifilippo's 37-save performance against Dartmouth on Saturday assured him of the staring job tonight.

"Obviously [Prestifilippo] played very well last weekend, and that's a big boost for us going into the playoffs," Tomassoni said. "When it comes to tournament time, goaltending becomes that much more important, and like I have always said, we have one of the best."