Last weekend, the Harvard men's hockey team finally hit bottom after giving away a two-goal lead in a 5-4 loss to Clarkson on Friday. But in a dramatic turn of events, the Crimson turned in one of its gutsiest effort of the season against No. 15 St. Lawrence the next day.

Harvard snapped a five-game losing streak by handing the current league leader a 4-1 loss, its first victory over the Saints since the 1997-98 season.

The win marks a turning point in the Crimson's season and puts struggling squad back in the hunt for home ice and the hunt for top honors in the ECAC. Harvard (11-13-1, 10-7-1 ECAC) is only four points out of the top slot, behind St. Lawrence (14-10-4, 11-4-3 ECAC), Clarkson, and Cornell, and only 10 points separates the first and tenth teams, making it one of the tightest playoff races in recent conference history.

"We needed this win very badly," freshman winger Tim Pettit said. "We were at the top of the league just a couple of weeks ago, and now we're fighting just for home ice. It's a battle--there's 10 teams and they're all within seven points. Anything can happen so we needed to start winning again."

Harvard 4, St. Lawrence 1

If nothing else, the tough loss to Clarkson on Friday was a wake-up call that the Crimson heard loud and clear. Realizing that the fate of its season hung precariously in the balance, Harvard reversed its downward spiral and propelled itself past ECAC favorite St. Lawrence.

"You don't call many games over the course of the year a "must" game, but you can go to the well once too often on that," Harvard coach Mark Mazzoleni said. "They were challenged today and they knew we had to win tonight. If we wanted to get home ice, we had to win."

Not only did the Crimson end its five-game drought, it snapped the Saints' stranglehold on victories at Bright Hockey Center. In front of a sellout crowd, Harvard picked up its first win over St. Lawrence at home since its 8-3 triumph during the 1994-95 season.