They have won six straight, including last weekend’s home-and-home sweep of Cornell, which vaulted them into the national rankings at No. 15. Yet, the Crimson owns a five-game win streak over the Raiders, outscoring them, 29-5, over that span.

That goes to show you that hockey games are—excepting outstanding goaltending performances—won and lost based on whose style of play prevails.

Harvard, which seems to need more time and space than most to establish its offensive sets, has played well in recent years against Colgate, Dartmouth, Yale—skating teams that, generally speaking, do not have an overabundance of size and are less defensive-minded. The Crimson’s record against those teams this year is 3-0-1. Last year, it was 8-0-0.

But Harvard has struggled against teams like Brown, Cornell, and Princeton—clubs that play strong on the wall, sometimes trap in the neutral zone, and collapse around their own net quickly. The Crimson’s record against those teams this year is 0-6-0. Last year, it was 2-5-0.

In other words, keep close attention to the ECAC standings during the last month, knowing that Harvard’s playoff future hinges less on where it finishes and more on who it plays.

If the season ended today, the Crimson, in eighth place, would play a first-round series at home against ninth-place St. Lawrence. If Harvard won that, it would earn a trip to Brown’s Meehan Auditorium, a place where it hasn’t won in two years.

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