M. Hockey Feeling "The Big Mo"

Coming off its strongest weekend yet with road wins over Princeton(10-13-3, 8-3-3 ECAC) and Yale (9-12-5, 6-9-4), the Harvard men's hockey team is peaking at just the right time--the end of the season. If it can sustain that momentum this weekend at the Bright Hockey center against Union and Rensselaer, it would be looking at a better treat than wins. A sweep would mean home-ice advantage in the first round of the Eastern College Athletic Conference (ECAC) playoffs.

Just a few short days ago, the Crimson (10-14-2, 8-9-2) sat in ninth place and the chance it might be the lone ECAC team to miss the post-season was high on the players' minds. Going to New Haven and New Jersey was not exactly what they wanted, considering the Crimson hadn't swept a road trip since last year, and hadn't won at Yale since 1993-94.

Instead of succumbing to history, Harvard pulled off easy wins, defeating the Elis 5-2 and the Tigers 4-1. Junior center Steve Moore and younger brother, freshman center Dominic each had two goals and three assists and were joined with stellar play from junior center Chris Bala. Those victories put the Crimson in its current position of seventh place.

Friday's game against Union represents a potentially easy win for the Crimson. The traditionally weak Skating Dutchmen (7-21-1, 5-13-1) once again have a poor ECAC record along with their quirky nickname. Harvard had no problem knocking out Union in December, winning 5-1 at Achilles Rink.

The RPI(17-12-2, 9-9-1) game on Saturday represents a bit more of a risk. The Engineers defeated the Crimson 3-2 in December and are in a four-way tie for third place with a 9-9-1 ECAC record. There is an upside for Harvard, however. RPI, nationally ranked until recently, has self-destructed over the last three weeks, losing five straight conference games, including last week's thrashings at the hands of St. Lawrence (20-7-2, 15-3-1) and Clarkson (14-13-3, 8-3-3).

With Harvard peaking and RPI falling fast, a win is a good possibility.

Complicating the playoff picture this year is the unusual system for determining seeding.

Usually, the standings are determined by a point system, allotted for wins and ties. But after the hazing scandal scrapped Vermont's season, the ECAC decided to determine rank based on winning percentage--adding the number of wins plus a half for each tie and dividing by total games played.

What this means is that there are a glut of equally-ranked teams above the Crimson. This confusing system also means that, for Harvard, there are (apologies to "The Three Amigos") a plethora of playoff possibilities.

There is good news, though, for Harvard Coach Mark Mazzoleni. The logjam means that the Crimson still controls its own destiny to get home-ice advantage in the first round, despite being in seventh with two games to play.

Without getting bogged down in an NFL-playoff style description of each and every nuance, several situations will let Harvard get the coveted home ice. A weekend sweep puts the Crimson at 10-9-2 for a winning percentage of .524. The win over RPI would place the Engineers at best with a .500 percentage, giving Harvard at least sixth place.

The results of other ECAC action, including Dartmouth's (9-13-4, 8-8-3) weekend at St. Lawrence and Clarkson and Princeton's games against Cornell (11-12-2,8-9-1) and Colgate (20-7-1,13-4-1), ensure that some teams ahead of Harvard must lose and therefore move backwards in the standings.

The Crimson, then, would move up at least one more place, to fifth, good for home ice for the best-of-three first round series against the sixth-place team.

The key for the Crimson is sweeping the weekend, as losses could send Harvard as low ninth place. Finishing in eighth or ninth would potentially mean a long road trip to upstate New York, significantly decreasing the team's chances of advancing to Lake Placid for the next round.

Not too long ago, things weren't looking that good for the Crimson. A spectacular weekend against Yale and Princeton, along with a possible weekend sweep, has given Harvard the kind of momentum that Bill Bradley can only pray for.