Since Mike and John have gotten the ball rolling, I'll weigh in with a few
random thoughts on the 1993-94 ECAC race.
 
(from Mike's post)
>First Tier:
>HARVARD.  Probably the toughest 1-2 goaltending in the East in Tracy
> and Israel, maybe the best in the nation.
 
I keep thinking back to when the Crimson won the NC$$ title four years ago
with another freshman tandem, Chuckie Hughes and Allain Roy, who were also
hailed as a top-notch goaltending duo.  At the time, although Hughes had the
better stats, Roy was considered by quite a few observers to be a somewhat
better goaltender -- and indeed, Hughes wound up going into what amounted to
a two-year slump before rebounding in his senior season.  Admittedly, I
haven't seen a whole lot of Israel or Tracy, but I was more impressed with
Israel's performance, though Tracy's numbers were a bit better.  And I really
don't know why, but I have the feeling that Tracy is likely to slide some this
season.
 
>                                            Three of top 4 scorers
> (Drury, Mallgrave, Flomenhoft) are gone, but Crimson had balanced
> scoring and a number of players like Steve Martins who showed they're
> ready to play at a higher level to plug the holes.
 
As far as I know, those are the only three players who have left, but Drury is
a big loss.  He was the main difference between the Harvard squad of 1991-92,
which backed into the regular-season title and promptly exited the playoffs at
the hands of #10 seed RPI, and last year's bunch, which ran away from the pack
early and copped an NC$$ bid.  His playmaking skills (almost in the Lane Mac-
Donald mold) will be sorely missed.
 
>RPI.  I believe only D Allen Kummu is gone from last year's team that
> nearly earned an NC$$ tourney bid.  G Neil Little is one of the best
> around.  If goal-scoring emerges, Engineers will make a run at
> everything
 
Kummu is the Engineers' only loss.  I don't know what that means in the
leadership department, but the team that Buddy Powers puts out there will have
plenty of experience and talent.  It would be nice if the offense could step
up a bit, but with the long-awaited emergence of the defense, RPI isn't going
to have to worry much about winning 9-8 shootouts.  As for goaltending, what
more can you say about Neil Little?  Despite the presence of luminaries like
Tracy, Israel, Clarkson's Chris Rogles, and Vermont's Christian Soucy, Little
was tops in the ECAC with a sterling 0.917 save percentage (0.906 overall),
which is even more amazing when you consider that his 1152 ECAC minutes were
more than any goalie except Soucy.
 
Based on their returning virtually the whole team intact, RPI looks like a
pretty good bet to take the ECAC regular-season title or the tournament (if
not both) and thus finally get that elusive NC$$ bid.  A bit of a caveat,
though... the same thing was said about Cornell back in '90 and Clarkson in
'91, and neither of those teams won anything.  A priority for Powers will be
keeping his team from getting too full of itself.
 
>Second Tier:
>CLARKSON.  Several key losses, but still a lot of experience and some
> blue-chippers.  Golden Knights were led in scoring by three
> sophomores.  G Jason Currie performed almost as well as the departed
> Chris Rogles though getting fewer accolades.
 
You can never count Clarkson out.  Despite Rogles' numbers (which were darn
good), I've always thought Currie was the technically better goaltender.  The
problem is, he's been in head coach Mark Morris' doghouse at least twice in
his career.  Is there maybe a maturity issue there?  We'll see.
 
One note, for what it's worth:  If, as some say, a team's record in one-goal
games is a good measure of how tough they are under pressure, then Clarkson is
in trouble.  They achieved a distinction that no other Division I team can
claim, going winless (0-7) in one-goal games.  Six of those, however, were in
the first half of the season, when the Knights were having all sorts of
problems (the other was their NC$$ tournament game against Minnesota).
 
>*Keep an eye on: ST LAWRENCE (lost 3 of top 4 scorers and G Brady
> Giroux but are reported to have recruited well)
 
A young Saints team will be helped tremendously if likely starting goaltender
Paul Spagnoletti can rebound from a forgettable year and return to his 91-92
form, when he had a GAA of 2.98 and a save percentage of 0.896.  Last season's
numbers:  4.03, 0.870 (4.32 and 0.854 in league play.  Ouch!)
 
Potential dark-horse:  Dartmouth.  Coach of the Year Roger Demment did a bang-
up job with a relatively young squad last season, taking the Big Green to its
first playoff appearance in a dozen years.  Outside of underrated goalie Vern
Guetens and maybe forward Peter Clark, this team hasn't suffered significant
losses.  And they went through a sort of baptism of fire last year, playing an
NC$$-high 17 one-goal games and winning ten of them.  The Big Green is still
a step or two down from the league's elite, but you should be hearing more
from top scorers Scott Fraser, Tony DelCarmine, Dion DelMonte, Bill Kelleher
(only a sophomore!) and Patrick Turcotte.
--
Bill Fenwick
Cornell '86 and probably '94
LET'S GO RED!!
In honor of Charles M. Schulz's induction into the US Hockey Hall of Fame:
 
"Well, we lost the first game of the season again.
 I shouldn't let it bother me, but it does.
 We always seem to lose the first game of the season and the last game of the
 season...
 AND ALL THE STUPID GAMES IN-BETWEEN!"
-- Charlie Brown, in "Peanuts"