Since then, however, things have changed. While the Tigers have continued to languish at the bottom of the standings, the Bobcats have not dropped a single conference contest since their 5-2 loss on home ice. Meanwhile, Quinnipiac coach Rand Pecknold and the five other USCHO.com voters who ranked Harvard No.1 that week have since changed their minds.

“We’ve had to deal with a little bit of adversity,” Everson said. “But I think that [weekend] gives us confidence going into this weekend, because as good as Quinnipiac has been, we all know that when we’re playing well and we’re playing our game, we can beat them.”

On Friday, the Bobcats will offer four deep scoring lines, headed by sophomore Sam Anas and captain Matthew Peca. Quinnipiac clinched the first seed in the conference tournament and a share of its second ECAC regular season championship with ties against Yale and Brown last weekend. A tie at Harvard would allow the Bobcats to clinch the Cleary Cup outright.

Princeton, meanwhile, has won only two conference games but has a habit of giving better teams fits. The Tigers nearly bested Harvard in their last meeting on the strength of a career-high 51 saves from sophomore goaltender Colton Phinney. Just two weeks ago, Princeton forced a 1-1 tie against St. Lawrence, the same team that routed the Crimson, 5-1, last Friday.

“We’re definitely not looking past Princeton,” Vesey said. “Both games are equally important.”

Everson considers this weekend a matter of execution—nothing more, nothing less. He is not worried about how many games he has left to lead his teammates, who have impressed him with their work ethic throughout the year. At the moment, he is focused on the job at hand.

“It’s a real privilege to work with this group of guys,” Everson said. “It’s a phenomenal group.”

—Crimson staff writer Michael D. Ledecky can be reached at michael.ledecky@thecrimson.com. Follow him on Twitter @mdledecky.