“We’re excited about the way we played offensively; [we] created some good chances, but we gave up far too many chances to think that consistently we’ll be able to have success,” Donato said. “Hopefully, we’ll be a little bit better defensively and still create the same amount offensively.”

Biega, who tallied two assists versus Bentley, is expected to command the blueline in his final year with Crimson, but the ECAC player of the year runner-up and Carolina Hurricane third-round draft pick will receive plenty of support from junior Dan Ford and sophomore Patrick McNally. Biega ranked second among NCAA defenders in scoring last year with 1.03 points per game.

Donato is approaching these first ECAC tests with end-of-season objectives in mind.

“Both teams, I think, have goals of winning the league [or] at least getting home ice in the first round of the playoffs, so it’ll be a good challenge,” Donato said.

Girard looks forward to this challenge as the Crimson hopes to pick up its first points in the league standings.

“We’ve really got to make sure we’re on top of everything right now,” he said.