Before Saturday's contest, the Yale band offered the following warm salutation to the Harvard men's hockey team: "Welcome to the Whale. Prepare to Die."

Over the years, that's just what Harvard has done at Yale--died. It seemed that every time the Crimson strolled into town, the Bulldogs had the old Forum ghosts on loan from Montreal. Harvard last won at Ingalls Rink back in 1993, and even the 1989 team lost there.

But this time, Harvard brought in a special group of exorcists--family. With the large number of players from the Greater New York Area, relatives flocked in higher than usual numbers to watch their sons and nephews play.

No one was louder than junior winger Chris Bala's uncle, Jam. Before each match this past weekend, the good man met the team at the rink and fired it up with some crazed cheers that punctuated the usual pregame din.

Buttressed with this karma, the Crimson performed some black magic, casting aside demons of the past in knocking off Princeton and Yale, 4-1 and 5-2, respectively--executing its first road sweep since Jan. 2-3, 1999 and its first ECAC victory since Jan. 7 of this year.

"Uncle Jam set the tone for us," junior defenseman Tim Stay said.

Winning would have been trick enough, but the team also looked like an entirely different squad in the process. Suddenly, everything that Harvard Coach Mark Mazzoleni has preached all year manifested itself on the ice.

This Crimson team played aggressively, rushing through the neutral zone with speed, generating numerous shots on net while giving senior goaltender J.R. Prestifilippo virtually the weekend off.