Last season, the Harvard men's hockey team traveled up to Dartmouth and Vermont with the possibility of finishing anywhere from third to eleventh. The Crimson swept the weekend, and a little luck vaunted Harvard into fifth place--good for home ice in an eventual first round sweep of Colgate.

This year, the Crimson host Vermont and Dartmouth for the final weekend, but no home ice jackpot awaits. The best it can finish is eighth and, at worst, 11th.

With those playoffs just a week away, it's time to take a close look at the annual conundrum of postseason seedings. The Eastern Collegiate Athletic Conference does not have quite the parity it had last year. Rather there are three distinct groups battling for slots.

The only team not in the post-season party is Union. With just four points, the perpetual cellar dwellers bowed out a long time ago.

Harvard is battling in a group with Dartmouth, Vermont and Brown to determine which squad will join the Skating Dutchmen. All four teams will square off against each other this weekend, and only the Catamounts have clinched a playoff berth.

The prize for this group is eighth place--currently occupied by Vermont with 16 points.

Whoever grabs that slot avoids traveling up to the North Country for the first round, greatly increasing their chances of advancing to Lake Placid.

"We're not afraid of Clarkson or St. Lawrence," freshman forward Kyle Clark said. "We certainly don't want to have to play a couple after being on the road for six to eight hours."

Despite sitting in ninth, the Crimson controls its own destiny. Trailing Vermont by just two points, a sweep puts Harvard in eighth place.

Under that scenario, the Crimson would at worst tie the Catamounts. However, having already beaten Vermont 7-6 earlier this year, Harvard would own the tie breaker.

A tie with the Catamounts and a win over Dartmouth also nixes the seven hour bus ride for next Friday.

A Crimson split clinches a playoff berth, but guarantees it one of the two bottom seeds, depending on how Brown finishes.

Most permutations have Harvard in ninth for a probable first round match-up with St. Lawrence.

Harvard will miss the playoffs for the first time since the 1980-81 season if it drops the deuce and Brown either wins one game or deadlocks both.

The Bears own the head-to-head tiebreaker with the Crimson, and both teams would finish with 14 points.