As usual, all kinds of strange and wonderful things happened as the ECAC
closed its regular season. The Brown and Dartmouth teams were probably
pretty pleased, although they each lost on Saturday night. Thanks to a win
over St. Lawrence the night before, the Bears picked up a quarterfinal home
ice spot for the first time since 1976. That same night, Dartmouth assured
themselves of eighth place by beating Cornell at Lynah Rink, the first time
that had happened since 1980. That was also the last year that the Big
Green hosted a playoff game, but they will do so Tuesday night when they
face off against preliminary round opponent Colgate. Meanwhile, the Prince-
ton Tigers put together a weekend sweep to assure themselves tenth place and
a spot in the playoffs. The Tigers will be participating in the ECAC's pre-
liminary round for the fourth time in that round's four-year existence.
Clarkson keeps purring along, as they have gained home ice in the quarter-
finals for the fifth straight year, the longest current home-ice streak in
the ECAC. The Golden Knights have made the playoffs 31 times in the 32-year
history of the ECAC tournament, and should they advance to the Phinal Phour
next weekend, they will move ahead of Cornell and become the team with the
most ECAC semifinal appearances (the two are currently tied with 21 each).
On the down side, both Harvard and Yale are reeling. This is the second
straight year that the Crimson's regular season ended with a thud, as they
suffered their first home loss of the year against St. Lawrence. At least
Harvard picked up a point against Clarkson, so the Crimson had a better
final weekend than they did last year when they lost both games. But head
coach Ronn Tomassoni needs to bring back more of the intensity his team
showed when they raced out to that huge lead in the ECAC standings earlier
in the year. As for Yale, Tim Taylor has an even bigger job to do to get
his charges ready for the playoffs. The Elis have been in free fall for a
month, dropping out of home ice contention and putting up a seven-game
record of 1-5-1 before ending the season with a victory over Union -- and
Yale struggled in that one as well.
One other note: Saturday's schedule produced three games that were totally
meaningless as far as the ECAC final standings were concerned (Dartmouth-
Colgate, RPI-Princeton, and Vermont-Cornell). Perhaps it's no coincidence
that the home underdogs won each one of them.
Scores from the league's final weekend:
Friday, March 5, 1993:
Clarkson 4, HARVARD 4 (OT)
Dartmouth 5, CORNELL 3
Rpi 3, YALE 2
BROWN 5, St. Lawrence 2
PRINCETON 3, Union 1
COLGATE 5, Vermont 2
Saturday, March 6:
Clarkson 8, BROWN 6
COLGATE 7, Dartmouth 6 (OT)
PRINCETON 5, Rpi 4
St. Lawrence 3, HARVARD 1
YALE 5, Union 3
CORNELL 5, Vermont 2
Final ECAC regular-season standings:
League Overall
Team W L T Pts GF GA W L T Pts GF GA
------------------------------------------------------------------------
# Harvard 16 3 3 35 95 61 19 4 3 41 114 74
# RPI 15 6 1 31 96 61 18 8 4 40 127 87
# Clarkson 12 6 4 28 103 64 16 9 5 37 140 85
# Brown 13 7 2 28 102 78 14 10 2 30 119 106
@ Yale 12 7 3 27 97 86 15 11 3 33 126 114
@ St. Lawrence 12 8 2 26 89 77 17 10 3 37 129 108
$ Vermont 10 11 1 21 71 68 12 15 3 27 94 99
$ Dartmouth 9 13 0 18 82 96 11 15 0 22 95 117
$ Colgate 9 13 0 18 81 101 11 16 3 25 121 131
$ Princeton 6 13 3 15 70 98 8 15 3 19 85 109
Cornell 5 16 1 11 61 94 6 19 1 13 75 114
Union 3 19 0 6 44 107 3 22 0 6 53 120
$ - Clinched playoff berth
@ - Clinched preliminary round bye
# - Clinched home ice
Clarkson clinched third place over Brown due to their 1-0-1 record head-to-
head with the Bears.
Dartmouth finished eighth ahead of Colgate because of a better record
against the ECAC's top four teams (2-6 vs. 1-7).
Final Ivy League standings:
Team W L T Pts GF GA
-------------------------------------------
Harvard 7 1 2 16 46 30
Yale 6 3 1 13 43 37
Brown 6 4 0 12 48 35
Dartmouth 5 5 0 10 39 44
Princeton 2 7 1 5 34 51
Cornell 2 8 0 4 29 42
The Crimson capture the Ivy League title for the first time in three years.
This marks the nineteenth time that Harvard has won or shared the Ivy title
since the league began in 1955. At the other end (sorry, Big Red fans, here
we go again), Cornell finished last in the Ivies for the first time in 33
years.
The playoffs get under way Tuesday night with the preliminary round, in
which #7 Vermont hosts #10 Princeton and #9 Colgate travels to #8 Dartmouth.
The survivors of this round will be seeded seventh and eighth for the quar-
terfinals, which begin this Friday. Previews and predictions (yes, folks,
he's doing it again!) are below:
Princeton at Vermont:
SEASON SERIES: Vermont won 7-1 at home, and the two teams skated to a
1-1 tie at Princeton.
OUTLOOK: Two weeks ago, the Catamounts were looking like they had a
pretty good shot at home ice for the quarterfinals, as they were
sitting just one point out of fourth place. But Vermont lost its last
four games to wind up with home ice for the preliminary round for the
second straight year. Both of these teams have been inconsistent all
year (they each have beaten second-place RPI and lost to twelfth-place
Union, for example), and neither of them have done much lighting up of
opposing scoreboards. Among ECAC playoff teams, Princeton (70 goals)
and Vermont (71) have by far the worst offenses, so this game figures
to come down to defense and goaltending. The edge has to go to the
Catamounts there, with the superb Christian Soucy in goal. Playing in
front of the Gutterson crazies will help Vermont as well -- the Tigers
are a dreadful road team (2-9-2, 0.231).
PREDICTION: Vermont.
Colgate at Dartmouth:
SEASON SERIES: Dartmouth defeated Colgate at home, 5-4. Colgate beat
Dartmouth at home, 7-6 in overtime.
OUTLOOK: About what you would expect from two teams tied in the
standings. The Big Green and the Red Raiders have similar styles on
offense, and although they're not totally together yet, both teams have
some good speed up front. However, each of them has shown they can
scrap the finesse and become a hard-checking team as well. This is
another one that will likely come down to goaltending, which is Col-
gate's major weakness. The Red Raiders spent the season looking for a
starting goalie, and while Jason Gates emerged in January to take the
job, he hasn't been terribly consistent. Dartmouth's Vern Guetens,
Tuesday's likely starter, is not going to get many All-American votes
either, but he has done a good job between the pipes for the Big Green.
PREDICTION: Dartmouth. A real close one, though.
--
Bill Fenwick | Send your HOCKEY-L poll responses to:
Cornell '86 and probably '94 | [log in to unmask]
LET'S GO RED!!
"There is no use saying that honesty is the best policy to someone who has
charmingly admitted, 'I know I know you, but I just can't quite place you,'
if the reply is 'I was your first husband.'"
-- Miss Manners (Judith Martin)
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