Confidence abounds, and with good reason.

The Harvard women's hockey team (26-1) enters the weekend with two Ivy League obstacles in its path to the ECAC playoffs: nationally-ranked Princeton (15-11-1) and Yale (5-19-3).

The Crimson roll into New Jersey Saturday riding a 23-win tidal wave. Having dropped only one Ivy League game on the season, Harvard looks to better its record even more by Sunday's end.

Saturday's game with Princeton comes nearly two months after Harvard's 6-0 drubbing of the Tigers at Bright Hockey Center. Princeton stumbles back home after dropping three of its last four to non-league opponents.

For Harvard, the task of twice shutting down the ECAC's seventh leading scorer, freshman Andrea Kilbourne, looms ahead. Kilbourne's killer instinct has seated her third in the league in game-winning goals.

In perhaps the most encouraging news, senior goalie Crystal Springer-the same goalie who shut out Princeton two months ago-returns from a broken collarbone to take the net duties once again.

Springer will start in place of undefeated Allison Kuusisto, who just notched her second career shutout against Boston College. After a long layoff, Springer is more than anxious to get back into the groove.

"Anxious wouldn't begin to describe how I feel," Springer said. "I feel strong and I've got good movement in my shoulder. Like any injury, it's never as strong as it was before, but it's going to be strong enough to do what I need to do."

As focused as ever on doing her job between the pipes, Springer looks forward not only to finishing her senior Ivy League season in style, but also preparing for the ECAC Championships.

"I think the team hopes that this will be a good warm-up for me," Springer said. "I hope that I'm able to get a good feel for having another team shoot on me other than just our own team in practice. I really just want to go out there and play well and end the season well."

With a menacing defense that rarely puts its goalie in jeopardy, Springer appears poised to do just that, but not only against Princeton.

In another version of The Game, Harvard faces Yale with enough weapons to make the match-up look lopsided before the first puck is dropped. Senior captain A.J. Mleczko enters the game as Harvard's single-season scoring record holder.

As if that weren't enough, sophomore forward Tammy Shewchuk has momentum to burn after lighting up Boston College for five goals and four assists to set Harvard and ECAC records for scoring in a single game.

"I don't know if nine points could be done again this weekend, but it's really easy when you've got your teammates setting you up all week," Shewchuk said. "Hopefully we'll just finish up the season with two wins."

"The Princeton game was one of the best games this year," Shewchuk added. "They're a good team, but we came out strong and played a strong, united game as a team. It was definitely one of the most fast-paced games all year and just a lot of fun to watch."