For six years, the Harvard men's hockey team has been mired in mediocrity. This weekend, the Crimson has its best chance to finally break out.

Harvard can advance to the NCAA tournament for the first time since 1994 with a pair of victories in this weekend's ECAC Championship in Lake Placid, beginning with this afternoon's 4 p.m. contest against Cornell.

A Crimson victory today would put Harvard in tomorrow night's championship game against either St. Lawrence, Dartmouth, or Vermont, with the winner gaining an automatic berth in the 12-team NCAA tournament. Harvard would play in the tournament consolation game earlier tomorrow with a loss. All games will be televised on NESN.

Despite being the second seed in the tournament, most observers do not expect the Crimson to leave victorious, pointing to its lackluster 2-5-1 record against the other four teams remaining.

Still, Harvard enters this game peaking, having gone 5-1-1 over its last seven games.

"We're playing our best hockey of the season," said Coach Mark Mazzoleni. "We've started to really develop some continuity over the last three or four weeks."

Cornell, on the other hand, struggled late in the season, losing five of its last eight regular season games before winning two close games against Princeton last weekend.

But the Big Red has always upped its play in the postseason. Cornell has won a league-high nine ECAC titles, despite only five regular season titles, and none since 1972.