There are still three days left in February but, for the No. 1 Harvard women's hockey team, March Madness begins tomorrow when No. 6 Dartmouth skates into the Bright Hockey Center at 2 p.m.

By extending the nation's longest winning streak to 21 games with wins at Cornell and St. Lawrence last weekend, Harvard (24-1-0, 20-1-1 ECAC) clinched the ECAC regular season title. That earned the Crimson an invitation to the American Women's College Hockey Alliance National Championship Tournament at the University of Minnesota March 26 and 27.

In the meantime, however, the Crimson still has four regular season games left to play, including Dartmouth (14-6-4, 13-5-4) and Boston College (8-18-2, 4-16-2) at Bright this weekend.

"We know we're going to the tournament but we aren't going to think about Minnesota this weekend," said senior forward Jen Gerometta. "We don't want to look back at the end of the year knowing we lost our last four games of the regular season. We've earned a trip to Minnesota, but we still want to win the Ivies and the ECACs, so we need to win these games."

The hottest team in the ECAC behind Harvard, however, might be Dartmouth. The Big Green is coming off a 4-3 upset of No. 3 New Hampshire last Sunday and has won its last six games. Since suffering a 4-2 loss to Harvard in Hanover Dec. 19, Dartmouth has compiled a 9-1-2 ECAC record.

Dartmouth is currently in fifth place in the conference with 30 points, and an upset over the Crimson would put the Big Green into the race for one of the last three home playoff games in the first round of the ECAC Tournament.

The Dartmouth offense is led by senior forward Kathleen O'Keefe (8 g, 22 a) and sophomore forward Jennifer Wiehn (16, 12). The Big Green also has a threat from the blue line in Correne Bredin (5, 21), who scored the game-winner against New Hampshire and is second amongst ECAC freshmen defensemen in scoring.

Dartmouth is also fifth in the ECAC in both offense (4.08 goals a game) and defense (2.04 goals per contest). Sophomore goaltender Meaghan Cahill has a 2.24 goals against average (GAA) and a .906 save percentage.

Cahill will face the nation's most explosive offense at Bright. The Crimson top forward line boasts the three highest scorers in the country in co-captain A.J. Mleczko (24, 61), freshman Jen Botterill (30, 40) and sophomore Tammy Shewchuk (33, 36). Harvard also has freshman Angela Ruggiero (17, 30), who leads all defensemen in the nation in scoring.