Between the Beanpot and this weekend, the Harvard men's hockey team found all the ingredients it was lacking over the past month. It played tight defense, generated scoring chances, and even moved the puck well at times on the power play.

The only thing missing was a victory.

Harvard extended its ECAC winless to seven games getting swept by No. 9 St. Lawrence, 4-2, on Friday night and by Clarkson, 5-4, on Saturday at Bright Hockey Center.

"To be the type of team we want to be sometimes you have to experience failure," Harvard Coach Mark Mazzoleni said. "I couldn't have asked the team to play any harder than they did."

The biggest boon came from the newly formed line of captain Trevor Allman, junior Chris Bala, and freshman Brett Nowak. The trio combined for three goals--two for Allman and one for Bala. Nowak, with an assist on Allman's goal against the Golden Knights, notched his first point since Nov. 27 against Brown.

For the weekend, the defense held sophomore center Brandon Dietrich of the Saints and Clarkson junior winger Eric Cole--each team's top gun--to one point, a secondary assist for Cole on Clarkson's fourth goal. Earlier this season, both players victimized the Crimson in the North Country.

"We had a much better week of practice, and were well prepared," Bala said. "We were committed to our defensive zone coverage."

Despite the vastly improved effort, the losses sink the Crimson to ninth place in the conference, with a .412 winning percentage. This sets up a critical road trip to Princeton and Yale next weekend.