Another boon for Brown has been the emergence of freshman forward Brian Ihnacak, who chose the Bears over traditional hockey powers BU and Colorado College and leads the team with seven points, including four in the Princeton win alone.

But despite Brown’s early success, it remains one of the nation’s most underrated teams. The Bears snuck into last week’s USCHO.com poll at No. 15, but that was two slots behind Harvard—a team they beat convincingly, and one that has a worse record than they do. It seems the underdog role—theirs for much of Grillo’s increasingly successful tenure—may stick with them this season, no matter how successful they become.

“We’ve been the underdog ever since I got here, and we’ll always be the underdog in our minds,” said assistant captain Brent Robinson. “We’re out to prove everyone wrong, every single game.”

Difficult Docket

Harvard players will admit their record isn’t what they expected it would be at this point of the season. Now the Crimson will have to prove its mettle under historically unfriendly circumstances.

After the upcoming home series with Clarkson and St. Lawrence, Harvard plays at Colgate and No. 13 Cornell – two teams it hasn’t swept in a road weekend since 1993.

A short trip to No. 2 Boston College and home date with No. 7 Massachusetts follow, and Harvard hasn’t had a two-game winning streak against Hockey East since the 2000 season.

How impressive would it be for Harvard to beat BC and UMass in succession? In nine attempts, including once in each of the last six seasons, the Crimson has never played and defeated Hockey East schools in back-to-back games since the league’s inception in 1984.

—Staff writer Jon Paul Morosi can be reached at morosi@fas.harvard.edu.