The Harvard men's hockey team hopes to continue its winning ways this weekend when it skates into Princeton (5-9-3, 4-4-2) tonight and Yale (6-8-0, 4-6-0) tomorrow night for two important ECAC games.

The No. 14 Crimson (8-7-1, 7-3-1) swept a pair of conference games a week ago, handing Union a 5-2 loss last Friday before breezing past then No. 12 RPI by the same score.

Should the Crimson squad duplicate its efforts from last year, it will at least maintain its four-point lead atop the ECAC standings. Harvard beat both Princeton and Yale in the teams' last match-ups of the '99-'00 season.

As if a two-game winning streak, a return to the national rankings, and a

favorable history against its opponents were not enough reasons to be confident, the Tigers and Elis are struggling.

Although Princeton's tough times are largely due to the caliber of the teams it has played recently, the Tigers have dropped games to ECAC foes Cornell and RPI, both teams the Crimson have defeated this year. Princeton is 2-7 since December 1, but is still third in the conference standings.

Yale is sixth and has not fared as well as Princeton against conference foes. The Elis were blanked twice by No. 1 Michigan State in their last two games. Unlike the Princeton squad, however, who was able to offset national setbacks with local success, Yale has not been as consistent against middle-of-the-pack ECAC teams.

The Elis have dropped games to RPI, Cornell, Colgate, and Princeton, and have only mustered one win since November 25.