Offensively, Harvard will hope that either its trio of seniors—Marshall Everson, Alex Fallstrom, and Danny Biega—or its freshmen threesome of Jimmy Vesey, Kyle Criscuolo, and Brian Hart can step up.

“[We have to] get the puck down low behind their defense and then just keep generating pressure and momentum in their zone,” Fallstrom said. “If we do that, I think we’ll be able to get them to crack defensively.”

Vesey and Everson tied for the team lead with 11 goals this year. The former highlighted a highly-rated group of recruits that largely lived up to expectations, but the latter paced a senior class that failed to perform at the same level it had a year ago.

“We had really high expectations of ourselves, and people had high expectations of us [going into the season],” Girard said. “Recently [people have] seen why they had these expectations. Now we’re really connecting as a team on the ice and as individuals.... [And] we’ve seen in this league that when a team is hot, [it’s] pretty hard to beat.”

Indeed, teams in Harvard’s position have made noise in the tournament before. In 2010, 11th-seeded Brown reached the semis, and two years ago, the 10th-seeded Crimson made the quarterfinals before being eliminated by the Big Green. Girard thus believes the series this weekend could generate a similar run—and some retribution in the process.

“We’re definitely confident about playing Dartmouth,” the goalie said. “I think we can create some surprise in the playoffs.”

—Staff writer Scott A. Sherman can be reached at ssherman13@college.harvard.edu.