Earlier this year, very few people expected to see Harvard finish near the top of the conference standings.

But the ECAC is always a roller-coaster ride straight to the end, and this season has been no exception.

Thanks to a solid performance in its last regular season homestand and a little help from around the league, the Crimson achieved its two most important goals heading into the playoffs.

Not surprisingly, Harvard clinched home ice for the first time since the 1997-98 season on Friday night. Needing only a point in the matchup to guarantee its position as host in the ECAC quarterfinals, the Crimson stole a pair from Yale in an exciting 6-4 victory.

"It was a hard-fought game right down to the end," Harvard captain Steve Moore said. "They're gonna battle. They are well-coached and they're a skilled team."

Dartmouth posted an upset over St. Lawrence, last year's regular season champion, to keep pace with Harvard, but Cornell gave the Crimson a much-needed boost, falling to Rennsalaer.

Harvard's win and Cornell's loss left the Crimson in sole possession of third place, the highest Harvard could advance in the standings given that Clarkson and the Saints had run away with the gold and silver.

A hard-fought 2-2 tie with Princeton on Saturday left the Crimson's spot unchanged, but a little shuffling around the ECAC kept Harvard in third place, a feat remarkably predicted by the ECAC Media Preseason Poll back in September.

"I think the only people who believed we could finish in third were the team and the coaches," Harvard coach Mark Mazzoleni said. "I give credit to the kids because they've been resilient and continue to get better over the past three weeks."

With the dust finally settling around the league and the regular season standings in the books, the pairings for the ECAC Quarterfinals are official: the Crimson plays host to the Elis for the second straight week, as Yale returns to Cambridge for its first-round matchup against Harvard.

"I think it's nice for us to be in the driver's seat a little bit," Moore said. "It's difficult to win the playoffs but it's extremely difficult to win on the road. We went to R.P.I. my sophomore year and played extremely well, but ended up losing. We played really well last year at Cornell but we still ended up losing. Hopefully having it at home this year will make a difference for us."

Since the conference's inception back in the 1960s, the Crimson has never drawn Yale in the quarterfinals. However, the Ivy foes have gone head-to-head in later playoff rounds, including most recently a 4-1 Crimson victory in the 1997-98 ECAC consolation game.

Few post-season pairings would leave Harvard in a better position heading into the quarterfinals. Most of Harvard's realistic playoff possibilities, including Princeton and Union, are well-known for playing physically and disrupting fast-paced teams.

Even though Princeton could not pull out a win over Harvard, the Tigers battled back both physically and mentally from a 2-0 deficit early in the game to pull within striking distance by equalizing the score in the final frame.

"Hitting is the trademark of our team," Princeton Coach Len Quesnelle said. "Hitting people and playing in their faces is our best chance to compete. Tonight was a very physical game from both sides."

The Crimson's 3-2 loss to Union on the road two weekends ago was a perfect example of Harvard's trouble with physical play. The Skating Dutchmen executed their game plan flawlessly by taking away Harvard's ability to play an open-ice game and forcing the Crimson to adopt a dump-and-chase style to compensate.

Facing a fast-skating team who favors open ice, like St. Lawrence or Yale, is Harvard's best bet for the playoffs. And having just posted a decisive victory over the beleaguered Elis, the Crimson wouldn't have it any other way.

In Friday night's matchup, Harvard netted three consecutive goals in the first half of the first period alone.

Of course, it wouldn't be a Harvard game--or an ECAC game for that matter--if things didn't get a little more interesting.

Yale's Luke Earl, who has put up excellent numbers for the Elis as of late, converted on the team's first power play opportunity of the night by banging home his own rebound in front of the net at 14:40 in the first.

A bizarre sequence at 18:11 then saw the puck bounce off of Adam Sauve's skate and trickle across the goal line before anyone could react, inching Yale within one at the end of the first.

Sauve popped another tally at 6:39 in the second in a four-on-four situation, and Evan Wax netted the Eli's second power play goal of the night at 10:58 in the third.

"I'm not taking anything away from them, but when you look at Yale's goals, there are a lot of jumpy goals around the net," Mazzoleni said. "I was extremely proud of our kids. We did the things we wanted to do."

By contrast, the Crimson only picked up one power play tally on the night, a tip-in by sophomore center Dom Moore on the doorstep after a pass from assistant captain Chris Bala. An empty-netter by rookie winger Tim Pettit sealed the deal.

Harvard's other four goals came from superior playing and hard work during even strength play.

Sophomore winger Brett Nowak, who has really found his niche on a line flanked by rookie winger Kenny Turano and senior center Harry Schwefel, lit the lamp at 16:12 in the second period to pick up the game-winner for the Crimson. Turano passed to Nowak in the slot, allowing Nowak to wrist the puck past Yale's rookie netminder Pete Dobrowolski short side.

"There's a real high end to Brett Nowak, and he stepped his game up tonight," Mazzoleni said. "And of our freshman, no one has come further than Kenny Turano. I think he's the most improved freshman. And I thought Harry Schwefel can distribute the puck. They're starting to develop some chemistry."

With the success of the Nowak-Schwefel-Turano line this weekend, the Crimson has finally found a three-line rotation that can put up some numbers.

While Yale has one of the best individual talents in Jeff Hamilton and one of the most dynamic pairings in Hamilton and Ben Stafford, the Elis lack an important quality--depth.

Yale's dearth of front lines combined with what Yale coach Tim Taylor called a "no-name defense" in the preseason and a big question mark between the pipes with netminder Dan Lombard out with a punctured lung, will leave the squad very vulnerable to a rejuvenated Crimson offense.

Harvard gains the advantage on the intangibles as well. Everyone talks about how intimidating it is to travel to Ingalls Rink, Yale's home barn. But it's just as disconcerting for the Elis to journey back to Bright. Yale's record here is just as dismal as the Crimson's record at the Whale--the Elis are 1-18-3 on the Crimson's home ice.

Still, Harvard needs to beef up its consistency. To advance to Lake Placid, the Crimson needs to string together a pair of victories, something Harvard accomplished only once all season.

"We have not shown we can put two games together," Mazzoleni said. "So if we make it to Lake Placid, we deserve it."