"Our power play has been our Achilles' heel all season," Mazzoleni said. "We've struggled on the power play. It bit us in the ass tonight."

Senior winger Matt Macleod was literally inches away from knotting the score at one with 7:00 left in the final period. Wide open in front of the crease, Macleod's one-timer forced Laing to scramble and make a toe save, effectively closing the door on the Harvard offense for the rest of the night.

Doug Shepherd's empty net goal with 34 seconds left on the clock padded RPI's victory and secured home ice for the first round against eighth-place Dartmouth.

For their troubles, the Crimson finished in seventh place and came away with a best-of-three series six hours away at Cornell next weekend, a situation that Harvard has found itself in three times in the past ten years.

Playing host to the Big Red, the Crimson prevailed in 1994 with a sweep of Cornell in the first round. However, both times Harvard has trekked to Cornell for the quarterfinals have resulted in a pair of early post-season exits, first during the 1989-90 season, and again in 1997.

During the regular season, Cornell is without a doubt one of the most inhospitable places to play in the league. Year after year, hoards of Cornell-crazies pour into a sold-out Lynah Rink to haze the visiting team.

The rivalry with Harvard zalways turns the fans' intensity up yet anothr notch, and has given rise to the time-honored tradition of flogging the Crimson with smelly fish and balled-up copies of local Ithaca newspapers, including the Cornell Daily Sun.