The Brown Bears are the team to beat for the ECAC League Title. Undefeated
Bruno has swept all challengers aside.  Their biggest task will be to
maintain their form for the second half of the season.  An important match
against travel partner PC will be on January 25th.  Brown appears to be
the favorite to do the double and win the League Title and play-off
Championship.
 
Providence College is currently second in the league and has a strong team
up the middle.  I expect them to be one of the top four teams and get home
ice for the play-offs.  UNH is third right now and has some of the best
teamwork in the league.  There is no doubt that they could win both honors
this season.  Northeastern will probably be the other team with home ice
for the play-offs.  When they get their young forwards moving they can
take it to any team.
 
Princeton is currently in fifth and is one of the hottest teams in the
league.  They have been collecting points rapidly, but face Brown and
Providence after their exams..  The Tigers also look like Brown's main
contender in the Ivy League race.  Dartmouth has had a mixed bag this
season.  This weekend they host Cornell and SLU and they need maximum
points.  Cornell is starting to turn it on.  They will be playing Ivy foes
DC (twice) and Princeton in the upcoming schedule and need to continue
their current style.  Colby has been missing one of its players to
national team duty and their results have not been good.  Their next few
matches are not going to be easy ones, but I expect Colby to make the
play-offs.
 
Boston College has put on a mini-charge of its own.  They have been coming
real close to winning some big games.  Right now they are out of the
play-offs, but it looks like they could let it rip and and make the
fortunate eight.  Harvard has scored a fair amount of goals, but they have
given up the most in the league.  With player development always on the
back burner, I don't know when the Crimson may rise.  St. Lawrence has had
a tough time of it with a number of coaching changes.  They look to be a
season or so away from making the play-offs.  Yale continues to have
problems.  Like Harvard they need major work on their skating.
 
The wildcard in the title race and the ECAC Women's League Championship
play-offs will be if some teams loose a player or two to the Team USA
Women's training camp.  That camp for WWC '97 will take place in March and
could drastically change a team's chances.  Brown, Providence and Colby
look like the teams most likely to face a bad situation.  Hopefully
something will be done so no team faces a huge disadvantage.
 
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 good shooting
 hungerf
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