Just two points separate Harvard and seventh-place St. Lawrence, and the four teams right behind the Crimson in the standings all have at least one conference game in hand.

Perhaps the biggest surprise of the ECAC season has been the rise of the Quinnipiac program, currently sitting in a three-way tie for fourth.

The Bobcats have never made the conference playoffs since they joined the league in the 2005-06 season, but they are receiving votes in the national polls for the first time in history.

But equally surprising as Quinnipiac’s rise is the fall of the Dartmouth program. After winning the conference tournament and advancing to NCAAs a year ago, the Big Green is now fighting with Yale and Colgate for the eighth playoff spot.

For a team that has enjoyed sustained success in the ECAC over the last decade—and returned four of its top six scorers from a year ago—Dartmouth’s struggles are difficult to explain. Perhaps the hole graduated goaltender Carli Clemis left behind was too large to fill, but more likely, with so many teams on the rise, some program had to fall.

Harvard pays a visit to Hanover this Friday, and a win would help right the ship after the Crimson lost at home to Rensselaer, 4-2, last Saturday. Harvard’s league schedule the rest of the way is mostly favorable, with games remaining against four of the bottom five teams in the conference, but three road contests—at Renssealer on Feb. 12 and a brutal road trip to Clarkson and St. Lawrence in the regular season’s final weekend—will prove crucial to the Crimson’s quest for home-ice advantage.

Harvard is still a young team with a lot to prove, but with a lot of confidence and a little bit of luck, it has the talent to make noise in the conference playoffs. Will the Crimson have the legs to make it back to the NCAA Tournament after a year’s absence? It’s too soon to say, and the competition will be stiff.

But in a league where the power balance is so much in flux, be sure of this—it’s certainly possible.

—Staff writer Kate Leist can be reached at kleist@fas.harvard.edu.