Junior forward Craig Adams, Harvard's only remaining significant injury, is still classified as day-to-day and probably will miss the weekend's games.
The Skating Dutchmen have had some success against the Crimson this year. In Harvard's last game before its much-ballyhooed layoff, the Crimson had to scramble to force the game into overtime before it pulled out the win with a goal by junior Rob Millar.
The close game can probably be blamed more on Harvard's lack of intensity and poor play throughout most of the game.
"We let Union play with us the last time and we sunk to their level," said freshman defenseman Graham Morrell. "If we just come out and play our game, we can really stick it to them."
Playing with intensity for a full 60 minutes will be the key for Harvard. It still has yet to produce such an effort. Even in the magnificent Beanpot win, a decided lack of intensity in the first period and opening of the second allowed BC to build its 3-0 lead and necessitated a heroic comeback.
The Crimson got away with it against BC and may even get away with it again against Union, but it will not survive against RPI and No. 3 Boston University with such performances.
Harvard will face a very different team in RPI (11-8-3 overall, 5-4-3 ECAC) on Saturday. RPI has achieved its fourth place position through primarily an offense-oriented system.
The Engineers boast four of the top seven scorers in the conference. The Crimson defense will have to stop Eric Healy, Matthew Garver--the top two point getters in the ECAC--Mark Murphy and Alain St. Hilaire. All four players average almost two points per game.
However, with Hobey Baker candidate Chris Drury coming up Monday and having already stopped another favorite, Marty Reasoner, last Monday, these four Engineers do not worry the Crimson at all.
"We are confident with our goaltending and our defense," Allman said. "We are not worried about their big guns, we just have to play our game."
Jonas will start Saturday afternoon to maximize Head Coach Ronn Tommasoni's options in the Beanpot. Jonas came through in a very tight spot with stellar play last Monday against the Eagles.
However, RPI took advantage of its superior offensive skills in the last meeting, defeating the Crimson 6-4.
"We know as a team that their offense is really good," said Jonas. "We will just have to play more together to stop them."
The Crimson also will have an opportunity to score themselves, since RPI has given up the third most goals in the conference during league games.
"We just have to go out and play 60 minutes of hockey with the same intensity," Higdon said. "The rest will take care of itself."
Harvard knows this can be the critical weekend of the season. A weekend sweep, something it has yet to accomplish this year, would carry the Crimson into the championship game against BU with some momentum.
"This is it. We have three games in four days," Morrell said. "We just want to keep the roll going and have momentum into Monday night and beyond."
However, before any momentum develops, before Harvard can move up in the conference, or dream of any Beanpot trophy, it first has to win Friday night against Union.
Right now, it is the most significant game of the year.