After have dropping four of its last five games, the Harvard men's hockey team hopes to regain early-season form this weekend. The Crimson travels to Hanover, N.H., tonight to take on Dartmouth, and will meet cross-town rival Northeastern at the Bright Hockey Center on Sunday.

The Crimson (5-5, 5-3 ECAC), entering the weekend tied for first in the ECAC with Yale and Colgate, defeated Dartmouth (2-5-2, 1-2-2) 7-2 in Cambridge in its second game of the season. Sunday's game will be Harvard's first this season against Northeastern (7-6-2, 4-4-2 America East).

In both teams' most recent action, Northeastern beat Dartmouth 2-1 in Boston last Saturday on a pair of goals from senior forward Bobby Davis.

Although the Crimson cruised past the Big Green at the start of the season on its way to a 4-1 start, the past couple of weeks have not been so smooth.

Its slide began with a 4-2 loss to lowly Brown at the end of last month and was punctuated by a 3-0 blanking at the hands of No. 6 B.C. last weekend.

The difference between the first and second half of this young season can clearly be seen in the Crimson's offensive production. In the first five games of the season, Harvard registered 20 goals, but has managed only 10 in the last five contests.

"We've been playing solid defense over the last few games, and we're hoping we can carry that into this weekend," senior goaltender J.R. Prestifilippo said. "If we can keep it tight in the defensive zone, create a few more scoring chances and generate some more goals, we should be all right."

Goal production has also been on the mind of Harvard coach Mark Mazzoleni, who has been pressing his offense to convert its chances.