TROY, N.Y.--Almost nothing has gone right for the Harvard men's hockey team this season.

It started the year 0-8-1 in its division. Several key players missed time with injuries, including junior goaltender J.R. Prestifilippo just this past week.

But after all the Crimson setbacks, the ECAC quarterfinal series stood tied at two points apiece with a 2-2 score heading into the third period last night.

The trip to Lake Placid was in reach, but No. 3 Rensselaer scored two third period goals to elevate it to a 4-2 victory.

The win sets up a Friday night semi-final game for RPI, which won this weekend's series four points to two. No. 8 Harvard won Friday night's game 2-1 but dropped the next two, losing 4-0 on Saturday.

"We showed a lot of character out there tonight," captain Craig Adams said. "After our horrible start, we found ourselves and we damn near well beat one of the best teams in the league."

Sophomore goaltender Oliver Jonas played three magnificent games filling in for Prestifilippo, nearly pulling off an all-time classic Harvard playoff performance.

Jonas, whose last victory had come on Jan. 3, stopped 86 of 93 RPI shots. RPI had entered the series with the ECAC's best offense, with five players scoring over 35 points.

As a team, Harvard played its best defensive hockey of the season, slowing down the RPI attack throughout the entire series up until the final period.

In the end, Harvard could not solve junior goaltender Joel Laing, who made 93 saves of his own, and RPI's potent power play, which connected four times on 15 chances.

"I thought both goalies were outstanding this series," Harvard Coach Ronn Tomassoni said. "We couldn't have asked more from Ollie."

The loss perhaps comes in an especially disappointing way for the Crimson. Through all the turmoil this year, Harvard had established itself as a tough third period team.

The Crimson faced adversity in various forms this season and battled back each time. This weekend, it fell just a little short.

"After the God-awful start we had this year, our team showed a lot of heart," Tomassoni said. "Not many teams would have come-back like we did. The way we finished leaves a lot of hope for next year."

RPI 4, Harvard 2

The series game plan was defense, and with the score tied 2-2 at the start of the third period, the Crimson defenders had executed the game plan to near perfection.

As the puck dropped to start the frame, however, the defense dissipated and Harvard's Lake Placid hopes disappeared as well.

The Engineers broke the deadlock at 6:57 when three Crimson defensemen collapsed on RPI forward Pete Gardiner. The puck somehow slipped through the pile, and forward Doug Sheperd took it for a mini-breakaway, which he finished off with a shot over Jonas' glove.

A final miscue put the game out of reach. Sheperd knocked the puck off a Harvard stick in the defensive zone, and the puck came to sophomore forward Brad Tapper, who buried it inside the far post.

"We weren't good with the puck tonight," Tomassoni said. "Throughout the series we were excellent, but tonight it hurt us."

Junior goaltender Joel Laing, who stopped 39 shots, made sure the Crimson never came back and stopped a flurry of Harvard shots in the final four minutes, including a couple bombs on a Crimson power play awarded with just over two minutes remaining.

"We were right there in the game up until the last minutes," Jonas said. "RPI was more focused at the end, and we ran into the best goaltender in the league."

Junior defenseman Matt Scorsune bagged Harvard's last goal of the season at 16:07 of the second period.

With both teams skating four apiece, sophomore forward Harry Schwefel fought through an RPI hold to keep control of the puck and hit Scorsune at the top of the right faceoff circle. Scorsune blasted it through Laing.

"After getting the tying goal late in the second, we all felt really good about ourselves," Adams said. "We kept waiting for the breaks to come, but it didn't come."

About halfway through the second period, Laing made two incredible saves on an amazing rush by the Crimson. Sophomore forward Chris Bala flew to a loose puck at the left circle. Off-balance, he slid a pass to a cutting Schwefel. Schwefel spun around his defender for one shot and then tried to stuff in the rebound.

Senior forward Rob Millar staked the Crimson to a 1-0 lead just 22 seconds into the game. Sophomore forward Steve Moore threaded a pass to a cutting Millar right at the top of the crease for an easy knock-in to give Harvard a 1-0 lead.

RPI matched Harvard just 3:04 later when senior forward Mark Murphy tipped a point shot on its potent power play. After that goal, Harvard finally shut down the RPI power play, but it was too late.

Key turnovers cost this game for the Crimson. Its first mistake of the game came on a weak clear attempt.

The Engineer point man quickly sent it down for a 2-on-1 through the slot. Forward Steve Caley forced freshman defenseman Peter Capouch to drop down and then fed it to forward Eric James to make it 2-1.

"I was impressed with the way we played our system," Adams said. "This was the best three games in a row we've played all year. I'm very proud of this team."

RPI 4, Harvard 0

Trailing 1-0 in the third period, Harvard pressed for the tying goal in a tense third period at Houston Field House.

Like any good official in the playoffs, referee Drew Taylor swallowed his whistle in the final set to allow the teams to determine whether there would be a third game.

Unfortunately for the Crimson, Taylor never told linesman Bob Ritchie, who made his presence felt, nailing sophomore forward Steve Moore at 15:53 for an extremely dubious holding penalty behind the play.

Five seconds into the man advantage, leading ECAC Rookie of the Year candidate Matt Murley deflected senior forward Danny Riva's shot for RPI's second goal and the back-breaker.

"Obviously, it's a disappointing loss, especially with the way the game finished," Tomassoni said. "We have to consider this a 1-0 loss, because that's what it really was."

Taylor gave Harvard a make-up power play right afterwards, but the damage was already done, and RPI cruised to victory.

After a sluggish start, a non-call on a Crimson hit that sent an RPI player flying into Jonas roused the Engineers for a spirited last five minutes of the first period.

Rensselaer's emotion carried into the second period, and it received its first of three strong power plays at 1:04. The Engineers pressured Jonas for nearly the full two minutes and sent four shots on net--several more just missed.

Captain Alain St. Hilaire missed a golden opportunity when he one-timed a cross-ice pass through the goal area with the entire left side of the net open.

The Engineers finally broke the ice on their second man-up. A soft shot from the left point deflected to a patient Murley. The freshman tucked it just inside the right post at 7:19.

"We knew all along that they had a dangerous power play," Tomassoni said. "We have to work on not giving them too many chances."

The Crimson had its chance to tie up the game on the power play. A slashing call to Gardiner gave Harvard a 55-second five-on-three advantage.

The Engineers killed it perfectly, holding the Crimson to outside bombs by senior defenseman Ben Storey and Scorsune. Laing never allowed a rebound and stopped all 35 Crimson shots for the shutout.

Despite Harvard's high shot total, the Engineers did an excellent job all game of keeping the Crimson to the outside in the offensive zone and swept away the rare second chances Laing gave.

"[Laing] was coverng his angles on rebounds well," Moore said. "He played very well, but I thought we could have gotten a quicker jump on the puck."

On a night when the Crimson attempted 73 shots, but found the net on less than half, Harvard's best chance to tie it up may have been a whiff.

Junior forward Brett Chodorow slid a sweet pass to classmate Trevor Allman at the top of the goal crease that just missed as it slid through.

Jonas certainly did his part to allow for a Crimson comeback. He made saves all night long akin to the goaltender whose style mask he shares--Dominik Hasek.

Among his best came with just under a minute left in the second period. St. Hilaire received the puck at the bottom of the left face-off circle for a mini-breakaway. Jonas came out of his crease to challenge him and kick the puck away.

"[RPI] played much better tonight with their backs to the wall," Moore said. "We had a few more defensive lapses."

The Crimson opened the game with a hustle and energy of a team that had midterms on Monday and wanted the extra day to study.

The Engineers fearsome attack managed just four shots through the first 15 minutes of the game.

Riva scored an empty-net power play goal at 18:34, and senior forward Mark Murphy popped one into the vacant goal with 39.4 seconds left to give the Engineers their seemingly wide margin of victory.

The game had an extremely chippy finish with five penalties called over the last three minutes, including a major penalty on senior forward Rob Millar for slashing.

All Harvard needed was a tie to stamp its ticket to Lake Placid.

Harvard 2, RPI 1

Jonas needed nine full minutes to prove he could rise to the occasion for playoff hockey.

It took him nine minutes to make his first save--a harmless wave of a shot into the corner with his blocker--because it took the Engineers that long to send a shot on goal.

The shots would get harder for Jonas, but the netminder stopped 32 of 33 shots, and the Crimson defense prevented the high-octane Engineers from ever shifting into gear. The 2-1 win was a dream opening to the series for Harvard.

"This was a really good win," Tomassoni said. "Our team was really smart out on the ice tonight."

With the score knotted at 1-1 midway through the third period, sophomore forward Steve Moore collected the puck in the neutral zone and raced in on Laing, catching all RPI players on the wrong side of the ice. Harvard's leading scorer wound up all the way to blast the puck over Laing's glove.

RPI would never break that tie as the Crimson defense played its most technically sound game of the season. Harvard denied the speedy Engineers space on the ice and played smart, physical hockey.

"We had excellent positional play," Tomassoni said. "Our high guy didn't give in on rushes and they didn't have any room to create out there."

Jonas compensated for the rare defensive lapse. The sophomore surprised all but his teammates with his exceptional play substituting for the Prestifilippo.

Over the final ten minutes, he made a few spectacular saves, including one on an RPI power play with just under five minutes remaining. Jonas stopped a slapshot from the left point, but the rebound popped right to the waiting stick of junior Steve Caley on the other side of the net.

Caley hesitated for one moment, allowing Jonas to dive and just glove the puck away from the open net

The only RPI goal--a wrist shot from the top of the goal crease by junior forward Keith Dupee at 1:23 of the third--came on a furious sequence where Jonas had already made a few great saves, including one on Dupee from point blank range.

"I was a little nervous out there, but really settled in after a couple of minutes," Jonas said. "I tried to be aggressive on my saves, and I got a little lucky too."

Harvard jumped out to its 1-0 lead early in the game. Junior forward Scott Turco pushed the puck off a face-off to the left of Laing forward. Allman fought to the puck and roofed the shot at 5:00 of the first.

The Engineers could only generate offense on the power play through the first two periods, with almost half its shots coming with the man advantage.

The Crimson held Rensselaer to just five shots in the second period.

RPI seemed to have one final golden chance to tie the score when Capouch and Murley took coincidental unsportsmanlike conduct penalties. The extra open ice invigorated its flashy talent, but two more saves by Jonas made sure the game was iced.

"After the quick goal we put them on their heels a bit," Allman said. "We played physically and really didn't allow their guys to cycle. It was an exciting game and a great win."