Can a single period revive an entire season?

The Harvard men’s hockey team certainly hopes so, as it hosts RPI tonight and Union tomorrow night at Bright Hockey Center. It may be the Crimson’s last chance to break out of its post-exam funk and still earn a high seed in the ECAC playoffs.

For the second-straight year, Harvard (10-11-4, 9-6-3 ECAC) has wasted a fast conference start by struggling after its three-week exam break. The Crimson is only 1-5-1 since exams this season, a streak that includes ugly losses to Colgate and Boston College.

“It’s a reflection of us not getting into the mentality of being consistent,” sophomore forward Rob Fried said. “It takes us getting close to the playoffs for us to bring back a sense of urgency.”

After a lackluster 4-1 loss at Clarkson last Friday, Harvard appeared to finally break out of its slump against St. Lawrence the following night. Trailing 3-0 entering the third period, Harvard played perhaps its best hockey since early January, scoring three straight goals to skate away with a 3-3 tie that felt more like a win.

“That third period really taught us that hard work and urgency shows up in the win column,” Fried said. “We learned during that period that it’s going to take a lot more sweat than we’ve been showing the past few weeks.”

What is less clear is whether Harvard’s quality of play in that period will carry over to this weekend. Many people thought that the Crimson’s convincing 6-0 home win over Vermont on February 8 marked the end of the team’s slump—yet the team followed that promising performance with a disappointing 4-0 loss to Boston College just three days later.

At this point, a regular season championship—one of the team’s preseason goals—is out of reach for the Crimson, as Cornell has all but mathematically locked up the title for the first time since 1973. However, the Crimson is still in a tight race for playoff positioning with just three points separating second-place Dartmouth from RPI in sixth.

As it wraps up the regular season , Harvard’s goal is to finish at least third in the conference. With that rank, the Crimson would have home ice for the best-of-three opening playoff round in two weeks and a more favorable matchup should Harvard advance to the ECAC Championship in Lake Placid. There, the fourth- and fifth-place teams must compete in a separate play-in game. The winner faces the daunting task of beating a well-rested Cornell the following day.

Fortunately, Harvard has an easy final stretch of games—RPI is the only remaining opponent with a winning conference record. Yet the Crimson might need all the help it can get—the team has not beaten an opponent that entered the game with a winning record since mid-November.

Harvard opens the weekend against a blistering RPI team that is unbeaten in February and has gone 7-1-2 in its last ten games. After a disappointing start to the season, the Engineers have risen from the league basement into the thick of the playoff race.

The Engineers’ offense revolves around its two star forwards, Marc Cavosie (19goals, 23 assists) and Matt Murley (18g, 16a). The duo ranks one-two in the ECAC in goals and total points, and Cavosie also leads the league in assists. Each player will be a frontrunner for conference Player-of-the-Year honors if RPI finishes the season strong—they might be hurt most by playing on the same team.

Harvard has demonstrated its ability to cope with the pair, as the Crimson beat RPI 5-2 in January.

Fried said the Crimson has no special defensive plans for containing Cavosie and Murley.

“Some teams will shadow [star forwards], but that’s not our style,” Fried said. “We want to make sure it’s the other teams that are adjusting to us out there.”