Princeton closed the gap with seven minutes left in the game, when Messuri fed a pretty pass to Polaski on the left. Polaski shoved a shot past McEvoy and the crowd--lulled by the slow action for most of the game--grew attentive.

With just over a minute left, Higgins removed goalie Dave Shea (31 saves) in favor of a sixth skater. At that Juncture, Young took a feed from Lane MacDonald on the left, skated the length of the ice and tossed a shot into the empty Princeton net to finish the scoring and seal the win for Harvard.

"We were too lax out there," Chiarelli said. "Everyone was on cruise control. We've been on break for a long time and it's hard to get the crispness back."

"We showed moments but we're still not back to where I want to see us," Cleary said. "What we're striving for is to peak later on. In any season, you're not going to be at a peak all the time--you're going to hit somevalleys."

One team's valley is another's mountain,however. Princeton, in seventh place in the ECAC,will be scrambling over the next month for a spotin the league's eight-team playoffs.

There's a chance that Harvard, which is a surebet to be the top seed in the ECAC Tournament, andPrinceton, a possible number eight seed, will meetagain. What would Higgins do to beat Harvard then?

"Don't ask me," he said. "We haven't beatenthem so I just don't know.