Scores from Division III, mostly involving the ECAC West:
Friday, 2/22:
Mercyhurst 5, Elmira 3
SUNYAC Tournament (at Geneseo State):
Semifinals:
Geneseo State 8, Cortland State 4
Oswego State 3, Fredonia State 2
Saturday, 2/23:
Curry 6, Nichols 3
Kent State 14, St. Bonaventure 2
Mercyhurst 6, Hobart 2
Wesleyan 5, Amherst 2
Williams 7, American International 6
SUNYAC Tournament:
Final:
Oswego State 6, Geneseo State 2
ECAC West standings (these are final except for the result of Sunday night's
game between St. Bonaventure and Kent State):
ECAC East-West Overall
Team W L T Pct. W L T
----------------------------------------------------
Elmira 23 3 0 0.885 23 3 0
Geneseo State 21 3 3 0.833 22 3 3
Mercyhurst 15 3 0 0.833 15 11 1
Union 17 4 3 0.771 18 5 3
Plattsburgh State 18 7 0 0.720 19 7 1
RIT 14 5 2 0.714 15 9 2
Fredonia State 13 9 1 0.587 14 9 1
Oswego State 14 12 1 0.537 14 12 1
Cortland State 10 12 1 0.457 12 12 1
Hamilton 8 13 2 0.391 8 13 2
Hobart 9 15 2 0.385 9 15 2
Canisius 8 16 0 0.333 9 18 0
Brockport State 6 16 0 0.273 8 16 0
Potsdam State 4 20 0 0.167 5 20 0
Binghamton State 3 18 0 0.143 4 19 0
St. Bonaventure 1 21 2 0.083 2 23 2
Notes on a couple games:
Oswego State 6, Geneseo State 2
No details on the game itself, although it is a surprising upset.
However, with this victory, Oswego State clinches a berth in the NCAA
Division III postseason tournament, as the SUNYAC champion gets an
automatic bid.
Mercyhurst 5, Elmira 3
The Lakers defeated the Soaring Eagles for the second time this season,
and once again, Elmira proved to be unable to handle Scott Burfoot, who
reached the 40-goal mark for the season with a hat trick in this game,
and who has tallied five goals and two assists in Mercyhurst's two
games against Elmira. Bob Holmes got the Soaring Eagles started with a
goal just 1:13 into the game, but Burfoot answered at the 12:51 mark of
the first period. Burfoot then made a big play at 2:13 of the second,
stealing the puck at center ice and feeding a pass to Micky Keen, who
beat Elmira goalie Tom O'Brien from in close for a short-handed goal.
Bernie Cassell tied it up again for the Soaring Eagles off a 3-on-2
break at 9:40 of the second. Seconds later, Elmira's Joey Spinelli
skated into the Mercyhurst zone on a breakaway, but Laker goalie Gary
Bowles stonewalled him and took a little of the air out of the Soaring
Eagles' sails. Burfoot struck again with less than two minutes re-
maining in the second, notching a power-play goal.
Holmes punched in his second goal at 1:08 of the third to tie the score
at 3-3, but that would be all for the Soaring Eagles. With 10:53 left
in the game, Mercyhurst's Scott Patterson tallied the game-winner,
taking a pass from Micky Keen on a 2-on-1 break and bouncing a shot
into the net off O'Brien's left pad. Burfoot completed his hat trick
with a breakaway goal a little over two minutes later. O'Brien
recorded 26 saves in suffering only his second loss of the season,
while Bowles stopped 28 shots. Elmira's power play continued to
struggle, going 1 for 8 in the game.
Jim Teresco writes:
>Although Union finished with a better league record than RIT, they will be
>forced to travel to Rochester on Tuesday to face the Tigers. Even more
>surprising is that the ECAC seeded Mercyhurst #1, even though they finished
>3rd
>in the league standings, behind Elmira and Geneseo, who were 1-2 in the last
>NCAA poll. The ECAC has a seven-step formula to determine the seedings in the
>tournament. If anyone knows what these seven steps are, I'd be interested in
>hearing.
I don't know what the seven steps are, but the selection committee obviously
put a lot of stock in Mercyhurst's two victories against the Soaring Eagles
this season. The Lakers also had a slightly stronger schedule, taking on
some Division I competition while Elmira did not, and this may have been a
factor as well (even though the Lakers did not actually beat any Division I
teams). This seeding may not matter, since it turns out that even if Mercy-
hurst defeats Cortland State in the first round of the playoffs on Tuesday
night, they will not be able to host the ECAC West semifinals and finals
this weekend (the top-remaining seed generally does). Mercyhurst shares its
home arena, the Erie (PA) Civic Center, with the East Coast Hockey League's
Erie Panthers, and the Panthers are playing at home this weekend. (They are
also playing at home on Tuesday night, which is why the Mercyhurst-Cortland
game starts at 2:30 rather than 7:30) Thus, if Elmira gets past Oswego
State, the Soaring Eagles will likely host the tournament games this weekend
anyway.
As for RIT hosting Union, that one's harder to figure. Not only did Union
finish higher in the standings than RIT, they also fared better against the
playoff teams than RIT did (5-5-3 vs. 3-5-2). They played to a 5-5 tie in
their only meeting of the season.
Incidentally, the ECAC committee had a rule requiring all of its playoff
teams to have at least a .500 league record, which means that since Platts-
burgh State is on NCAA probation, there would have been only seven teams in
the tournament. Rather than give Mercyhurst a first-round bye, the
selection committee decided to waive the requirement and allow Cortland
State to participate. Wouldn't it be poetic justice or something if
Cortland were to win it all?
Bill Fenwick
Cornell '86
LET'S GO RED!!
"I want to know one thing about those wanted posters in the post office: why
didn't they hold onto the guy when they were taking his picture?"
-- Jerry Seinfeld
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