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Harvard builds its momentum
By Brandan Blom
Globe Correspondent

It was a weekend to remember for the Harvard men’s hockey team. The Crimson won their second straight Ivy League title, finished the regular season on a 10-game win streak, and earned a share of the ECAC regular-season crown for the first time since 1994.

But they didn’t do it alone. Longtime rival Cornell gave the Crimson a hand by tying Union in the season finale Saturday, making the first-place tie possible. Harvard then took care of the rest by defeating St. Lawrence, 6-3.

“It was special with all of our families around the ice out there when we heard the news, so that was pretty cool,’’ cocaptain Devin Tringale told the Harvard Crimson. “It made for a special senior night.’’

Harvard (22-5-2, 16-4-2) also was promoted to the No. 2 ranking in the US College Hockey Online poll, and with a tiebreaker in hand, the Crimson will enter the ECAC tournament as the No. 1 seed.

“It’s something our guys really had a focus on,’’ coach Ted Donato told the Crimson. “Oddly enough, I think that the group [at preseason meetings] actually put 34 points on the board and said, ‘That’s what it’s going to take to win the league.’ They hit the nail right on the head.’’

8 and 9 seeds face off In the first round of the ECAC tournament, ninth-seeded Dartmouth is at eighth-seeded Yale in what may be the most evenly matched series of the weekend. Dartmouth proved it can put the puck in the net with a quality 8-4 win over Harvard in January. But the Big Green didn’t bring that same intensity to their regular-season games against Yale, both shutout losses. If Dartmouth can bring the intensity, this will be an entertaining matchup . . . The Atlantic Hockey Conference tournament also gets under way this weekend, and the most intriguing matchup is also between the eighth and ninth seeds. No. 8 Bentley hosts No. 9 Sacred Heart in a rematch of last season’s first-round matchup in which Bentley won in three games. The schools played two home-and-home series this season and split them. In three postseason meetings, two have gone to the third game.

Heating up on iceThe Hockey East women’s tournament is entering championship weekend, with the semifinal matchups — Boston College vs. Vermont and Boston University vs. Northeastern — slated for Saturday, followed by the final Sunday. Megan Keller has the hot hand for the Eagles, scoring a goal in BC’s 4-0 win over Merrimack in Game 1, then notching the only goal in a 1-0 win in Game 2 to clinch that series. For Northeastern, it’s Kasidy Anderson entering the semifinals with some momentum. Anderson scored three goals in the two quarterfinal games against Connecticut. BC and NU have looked like the top teams in the conference all season and seem to be on a collision course to meet in the final — but they’ll have to take care of business Saturday first.

Brandan Blom can be reached at blom.brandan@globe.com