After its disappointment against Boston’s best, the No. 9 Harvard men’s hockey team must now set its sights on something far more important, and now, far more difficult: achieving an NCAA tournament berth.

The puck drops on the team’s final five games tonight when the No. 9 Crimson hosts a struggling Clarkson team. Tomorrow, the men will seek vengeance on a St. Lawrence squad that edged the Crimson, 4-2, in November.

Harvard’s normally potent offense fell off pace during its Beanpot bust. The Crimson (15-7-2, 12-4-1 ECAC) put up one run-of-the-mill goal per game in losses to Northeastern and Boston College.

The stall is uncharacteristic of a Crimson offense that was held to only one goal four times in non-tournament competition this season. Harvard’s losses during these offensive aberrations came at the hands of league rivals—No. 12 Colgate and No. 4 Cornell (18-4-3, 14-2-2), the only two teams that sit above Harvard in the ECAC standings.

The Raiders (20-8-2, 12-4-2) remain the only squad that has beaten the Crimson twice this season, and if Harvard doesn’t kick into gear come face-off tomorrow, St. Lawrence (13-15-2, 7-10-1) could validate its place among teams with Harvard’s number.

ECAC foes Dartmouth, Vermont, and Brown are not out of the picture either—three points separate the Crimson from the first two teams, against which Harvard will close out regular-season play next weekend. The Bears, meanwhile, will skate into Bright Hockey Center on Tuesday.

Needless to say, losing simply isn’t an option for a Harvard squad that badly wants one of the four, first-round byes.

“It’s important,” said assistant captain Ryan Lannon of this weekend. “Not just for the standing and the rankings and all that stuff, but as a team, to rebound from the loss on Monday.

“Nobody likes to lose,” he added, “and that feeling is magnified in the Beanpot.”

Even if the Crimson falters in its efforts to win the ECAC tournament, an NCAA berth in the form of an at-large bid is still attainable.

That is, of course, assuming the team gets back on track after two Beanpot losses in the span of seven days.

“It’s good to be playing at home against two competitve teams that have given us trouble in the past,” Lannon said.

“We just have to learn from Monday night. I don’t think we had the effort that we wanted or played the game we had hoped to for 60 minutes.”

With pressure mounting in the late season, though, Harvard must try to bounce back against a Clarkson squad with a road record of 2-1-0 and an overall record of 4-1-0 in its last five games.

The Harvard offense may find respite in the fact that in conference games, the Golden Knights have given up 28 goals as compared to the 18 it has scored.