Bala, with a little morale boost from his uncle, impressed with his finesse and speed, clicking with Steve's younger brother, freshman center Dominic Moore.

The pair connected for the goal of the weekend when Moore slid a pass to Bala on a two-on-one rush and Bala deked Yale goalie Trevor Hanger to the ground, pulling the puck across the net on the backhand and putting it home to give Harvard a 3-1 lead.

"Things are starting to go our way, myself included," Bala said. "We did what we had to do for the win."

While Harvard's stars posted most of the numbers, the supporting cast sustained the momentum. Mazzoleni singled out the all-sophomore fourth line of center Jeff Stonehouse and wingers Kyle Clark and Derek Nowak after the Yale game for their unsung, gritty play.

It was needed because as the Crimson turned up its jets offensively, both Yale and Princeton responded by increasing their physical play. In earlier games, this has proven to be sound strategy as the clutching and grabbing have taken Harvard out of its game.

But this was a different Crimson team.

Senior defenseman Matt Scorsune took Princeton goon Benoit Morin's best shots and pushed right back. Sophomore defenseman Leif Ericson responded to Yale player Paul Lawson's extra shoving by dropping the gloves with him in an almost-fight.

If further evidence was needed that the powers that be were finally blessing the Crimson, on both nights Harvard benefited from a soft goal--Bala's roll-in against the Tigers and sophomore defenseman Peter Capouch's relatively weak slapshot that fooled Hanger.