The Harvard men's hockey team wrapped up the regular season ECAC title and the first seed in the league tournament with a 7-3 victory over Vermont Friday.

Tickets for the Crimson's first ECAC playoff games--against either Colgate, St. Lawrence or Vermont on March 7 and 8 at Bright Center--went on sale yesterday. And despite a line that started forming as early as 7 a.m., at least a few hundred seats remain for student purchase today.

And tickets for the NCAA quarterfinals two weeks later have already begun rolling off the presses, according the Director of the Harvard Ticket Office Gordon Page.

According to Page, the last time that Harvard printed tickets for the NCAAs was three years ago when the Crimson ended up hosting Michigan St. in the quarters at Bright.

Invitations to the eight-team tournament--which features four teams from the West and four teams from the East--don't go out until the Sunday following the ECAC finals, but apparently some people have faith that Harvard--ranked fourth in the latest NCAA poll--will be one of the those eight squads, and one of the four to host opening round games.

To earn home ice in the NCAA festival, Harvard (18-5-1 overall, 17-2 ECAC) would have to win the ECAC Tournament.

And while the Crimson has dominated its league opponents this year, losing only at Yale in the first game of the season and at Vermont after the winter break. Harvard has played with mixed results at Boston Garden, where the final rounds of the 25th annual ECAC tournament will be held on March 14 and 15.

The Crimson dropped its first game in the Garden this year to Boston College--a 4-2 loss in the opening round of the Beanpot after earning a 4-4 draw with the Eagles at Bright earlier in the year.

But in its second stint at the Garden, the Crimson pummeled Northeastern, 7-1.

The Harvard ticket office is not the only hockey authority that thinks the Crimson has a good chance of hosting one of the opening round games of the NCAA tourney.

RPI Coach Mike Addesa, whose Engineers fell, 11-0, to Harvard at Bright Saturday, thinks the Crimson will be the team to beat in both the ECAC and the NCAA tournaments.

"I think Harvard has the most talented team in the country," Addesa said. "A lot of people are going to find that out."

But will the Crimson be able to play well in the Garden?

"Harvard's team is very strong," Addesa said. "I felt bad for them after they played Boston College. I think that game reflected poorly on the Harvard program."

Before Harvard looks ahead to either tournament, however, it must travel to upstate New York this weekend to battle eighth-place St. Lawrence (15-12 overall, 9-10 ECAC) and fifth-place Clarkson (13-10-3 overall, 10-6-3 ECAC).