Crothers and Grumet-Morris each appeared in 16 games during the regular season. Grumet-Morris was at his best in league play, posting a 2.68 goals per game average through the conference schedule and going 6-5-0 against ECAC competition.

While the Crimson’s goaltending has been in a state of flux through much of the year, stability between the pipes has become the hallmark of its opponent.

After backing up senior Brian Eklund for the early stages of this season, Brown sophomore goaltender Yann Danis seized the starting spot immediately after the Bears’ 5-2 loss to Harvard on Dec. 8, and he has not relinquished it.

Danis has taken both the ECAC and college hockey by storm. He backstopped huge non-conference wins over No. 4 St. Cloud State and No. 13 UMass-Lowell and racked up a six-game ECAC win streak during which he allowed just over one goal per game. In short, he has been the main reason that Brown has gone 10-5-0 since Jan. 12 and could finish with its first winning season since 1994-95.

The good news for the Crimson faithful, though, is that Danis slipped a bit last weekend, allowing three goals against Princeton and four the next night against Yale, as the Bears—like Harvard—were swept by their Ivy League rivals to end the regular season.

“Prior to last weekend, Brown had been the best team in the ECAC since Christmas,” Mazzoleni said. “They’ve been very, very good, and I can attribute that to one thing—Yann Danis.”

Moore knows that his team will have to work hard for each goal.

“We haven’t played against [Danis], but we’ve watched some tape, so we know what his tendencies are,” Moore said. “We’ll try to watch him early in the first game to see if we can exploit some weaknesses, but we have to get to the net and create some chances.”

Getting quality shots off will be tough, as the Bears defense demonstrated in their 4-2 win over Harvard to begin the season.

The Bears are less effective in the offensive zone, as they are ranked tenth in the ECAC in scoring offense (2.36 goals per game).

The last time Harvard and Brown met in the ECAC playoffs was the semifinal round of the 1994 tournament. The Crimson won that game, 5-1, and went on to defeat RPI in the championship game. The team would advance to the Frozen Four that year, losing in overtime to eventual champion Lake Superior State.

Harvard has not won an ECAC title since.