I need to start off with a small confession: I’m back to enjoying hockey games.

For a while there, specifically since spending almost six hours of my life slogging through New York and New Jersey traffic to watch Harvard sleepwalk through a 2-1 loss (and a season sweep!) at Princeton, my mood on entering an arena varied from ambivalence to resignation.

Watching Harvard hockey had gone from being the highlight of my weekend to being an often frustrating diversion from school work.

Not anymore.

Despite a dearth of fans (Harvard coach Mark Mazzoleni joked at the postgame press conference on Friday night that there were more reporters gathered around him than were people actually lining the benches of Bright Hockey Center) the hockey this weekend was exciting, both teams’ physical play was rousing and the small crowd that was present was emotionally invested in the on-ice outcome.

In short, it was not your typical 2003-2004 Harvard hockey game. It was, in the words of junior netminder Dov Grumet-Morris, a “good playoff atmosphere,” the type of arena ambiance often found only when Cornell or BU (and their sizable fan followings) come to Bright.

What follows then, in no particular order, is a list of three reasons why I’m back to enjoying hockey games. And, not coincidentally at all, it doubles as the list of reasons why I’ve already booked a hotel room in Albany (site of the ECAC championships) on the firm belief that the Crimson can defeat the Bears next weekend at Meehan Auditorium.

CONSISTENCY IN NET

Grumet-Morris is playing well, not the best hockey of his career, but certainly close to it.

He has cut down on juicy rebounds, often directing the puck via his pads to a defenseman waiting to clear the zone.

And he has turned in consistently strong performances in net, eliminating some of the inconsistency that plagued him (and many other aspects of Harvard’s play) this season.

Although Grumet-Morris’ scoreless streak—measured at 184:23 and extending through consecutive shutouts of Dartmouth and Vermont (the first back-to-back blankings in 17 years for a man in a carmine sweater)—ended early in the third period on Saturday night, Dov has consistently kept Harvard in a position to win its last three games.

That ability to keep Harvard close in all its remaining games is essential, especially against Brown and all-world goaltender Yann Danis.

Danis has struggled of late, with the Bears losing four of their last five games; nevertheless, he is second in the nation in save percentage and fourth in goals-against average.

Danis still has the ability to shutdown teams practically at will, and the Crimson will need Grumet-Morris to equal Danis’s strength in net if it hopes to advance to Albany.