Well it seemed that it was a good weekend for me to be out of town and out of
touch with what was going on in the ECAC.  It's pretty sad when the top 3 teams
only managed 3 of 12 possible points for the weekend.
 
Before the weekend I had been talking to some friends, we were all worried
about Clarkson being the last team to face Dartmouth.  Clarkson never seems to
have an easy time at Dartmouth and we expected them to be really gunning for a
win and Clarkson to be down, already having clinched home ice and seemingly
unable to catch Cornell or losing the tie breaker.
 
On Clarkson's fall in TCHR: Hey! What do you expect!  We lost to Harvard who
had lost all HE games and only tied Dartmouth, a team in the basement.  Even
if we beat Dartmouth we probably would have dropped because of the decrease
in the strength os schedule.  Cornell and SLU also fell, but you don't hear
any of them complaining.  The ECAC is hindered in TCHR by the fact that the
league does not play many non-league games (mostly due to the Ivy League's
restrictions).
 
Thoughts on the up-coming play-off games.  (I'll assume that Bill Fenwick is
correct with his predictions.)
 
Clarkson vs. Brown:  I'm just thankful that Clarkson has no chance of facing
any of the teams which have been on a roll lately: UVM and Colgate.  If you
look back at Colgate's losses, there have been many one point games.  Well
Clarkson shoild be able to advance to Boston.  They are 14-0-1 at home.  The
games might not be very pretty.  The win against Brown definitely wasn't.  So
I expect some high scoring games.
 
Cornell vs. Colgate:  Colgate beat Cornell twice this season, once at the SIT
and I believe at Lynah.  So Cornell has a good deal to worry about.  I expect
that Ratushny will be back for the weekend, even if he is not 100%.  This
should give the Cornell defense the stability which it appeared to lack this
past weekend.  Cornell is a championship calibre team and I expect them to
play that way when it 'really' counts and make it to Boston.
 
SLU vs. UVM:  SLU is in the same boat as Cornell, they lost to Vermont at home.
SLU blew a several goal lead in the first period and lost.  They failed to 
score in the last two periods of that game.  UVM is playing well with LeClair
back and healthy.  However, SLU has a tendency of NOT losing those games which
they should.  They got 2 of those 3 points last weekend.  SLU does have a high
octane offense that should be more effective than UVM and Kuntar has played
almost every minute this season and is steady and reliable in goal.  (I can't
believe that I, a Clarkson fan, am saying this about SLU.)
 
Harvard vs. RPI:  You pick 'em.  I really don't have a foggy notion what will
happen.  Why are the RPI fans complaining about losing home ice?  Their team
plays a lot better on the road.  However Harvard is close to perfect at home.
I personally would rather see Clarkson face RPI than Harvard in Boston.
 
I hope that Bill Fenwick and the other ECAC sooth-sayers will enlighten us with
 their thoughts as the week progresses.
 
Mike Zak
Clarkson '87, '90,... (Finally ECAC Champs after waiting since '83-'84)