Sophomore forward Sydney Daniels, seen here on Feb. 10 in the Beanpot final against Boston College, has scored three goals in the past five games. Her second period goal last Friday against St. Lawrence knotted the game at one and ensured that the Crimson would tally at least a point on the weekend.

Some call it the second season. Technically, it’s called the ECAC Quarterfinals. But for the No. 4/4 Harvard women’s ice hockey team, this weekend’s series matchup is a chance to get one step closer to its ultimate goal of a national championship.

The Crimson (21-5-3, 16-4-2 ECAC) will face off against Yale (15-13-1, 12-10-0) at the Bright-Landry Hockey Center in a best-of-three series that will decide which team gets the opportunity to move on to the ECAC semifinals next weekend.

Harvard is coming into the series after finishing up its regular season campaign last Saturday with a 1-0 loss to ECAC rival Clarksont. The loss pushed the Crimson out of the top seed in the conference standings and allowed the Golden Knights to stake a claim in a share of the ECAC title.

“This series is a fresh start for us in a way,” senior forward Lyndsey Fry said. “If we get too wrapped up in the thought that we ended the regular season on a loss…we’ll end up gripping our sticks a little too tightly and getting a little too nervous. We just need to play our game and we’ll be fine.”

The loss to Clarkson was the first time that Harvard had been shut out since its 1-0 loss to Princeton on Jan. 31. Since then, the team has averaged over four goals per game in the month of February, heading into this weekend’s matchup with a 6-1-1 record over the past eight games.

The Bulldogs have been riding a similar win streak coming into this weekend’s series. Yale has won five in a row, the longest win streak for the team since the 2004-2005 season. The streak includes wins over Quinnipiac and Princeton, teams that are both ranked higher than Yale in the ECAC standings.

“We always watch video of our opponents so we can look at their tendencies and see their specialties, but other than that we are just going to play our game,” junior forward Miye D’Oench said. “It doesn’t really matter who comes to play us, as long as we play our game and play for each other we’ll be okay.”

Harvard is throwing its best defensive effort at the Bulldogs. During the month of February, the Crimson has surrendered one goal a game on average, and over the course of the season, that number is only slightly larger at 1.58 goals allowed per contest.

In the net, Harvard has mostly relied on the skills of junior goaltender Emerance Maschmeyer, who has been solid for the Crimson all season, tallying a .937 save percentage over her 19 games between the posts. Her save percentage lands her in second place among all goaltenders in the ECAC, just a few ticks behind Clarkson’s Shea Tiley.

“Last weekend Emerance played really well in both games, and we’re confident that she’s going to make the saves we need her to make,” D’Oench said. “Everything is a little bit easier when you know your goalies will come through on the ice.”

D’Oench and sophomore forward Sydney Daniels have been leading the offensive pack for Harvard as of late, each tallying three goals over the past five games. D’Oench was responsible for the power play goal that lifted the Crimson over Boston College in the Beanpot championship game Feb. 10, and Daniels tallied the goal that kept Harvard in contention for the tie against St. Lawrence last weekend.

For the Crimson, this series marks the beginning of a new phase of play in which maximum effort must be given on every line and no opponent can be taken for granted.

“In the back of your mind I think everyone feels a little different during the playoffs,” Fry said. “When it comes down to it we need to remember to stay true to our game. Every team we play from now on is going to be good, every game is going to be a great game, and we need to play start to finish.”

—Staff writer Ariel Smolik-Valles can be reached at asmolikvalles@college.harvard.edu.