ECAC preliminary round results (again!) from Tuesday night:
 
     Princeton 5, COLGATE 4 (2 OT)
     Rpi 5, VERMONT 1
 
Notes on Princeton's first ever playoff win:
 
Princeton 5, Colgate 4 (2 OT)
     To say that the Tigers got off to a quick start in this one would be an
     understatement -- Princeton had a 2-0 lead in the first minute of play.
     Jeff Kampersal opened the scoring at 20 seconds of the first period,
     and the fans at Starr Rink hardly had time to digest that before David
     Scowby netted one 21 seconds later.  Both times, the shot bounced into
     the net off a Colgate defender.  To their credit, though, the Red
     Raiders didn't lose their poise, as Jason Greyerbiehl and Chris
     MacKenzie both scored later in the first to send the two teams off the
     ice tied after one period.  Princeton's Mervin Kopeck would get the
     only goal of the second period, at the five minute mark, but Colgate
     would once again even things up early in the third.  Then Brian Bigelow
     put the Tigers up 4-3 at 13:21 of the third, and Princeton looked like
     they had won it right there, as they frustrated Colgate almost the
     whole rest of the way.  However, a late penalty on Princeton would
     prove costly, as Colgate's Andrew Dickson tied the score on the power
     play with just 57 seconds remaining in regulation.  Sverre Sears
     finally put the Red Raiders away when he beat goalie Shawn Murray with
     2:59 gone in the second overtime.  Murray finished with 30 saves, while
     Princeton goaltender Craig Fiander stopped 41 shots.
 
The ECAC quarterfinal pairings are now set, and here is who will be
participating in the games Saturday night:
 
     RPI (10) at Harvard (1)
     Princeton (9) at St. Lawrence (2)
     Brown (6) at Clarkson (3)
     Cornell (5) at Yale (4)
 
I'm off to my usual less-than-great start in playoff-game prognosticating,
but I'll still be in there plugging away.  Here's a preview of the ECAC's
quarterfinal matchups:
 
RPI at Harvard:
     SEASON SERIES:  Harvard won both games, 6-0 at RPI and 5-1 at home.
     OUTLOOK:  This is a rematch of last year's quarterfinal series, which
     Harvard won 1-0-1.  Three weeks ago, the Engineers hosted Clarkson and
     St. Lawrence, defeating them both in overtime, and it looked like RPI
     was ready to make a big move.  They went 0-3-1 after that before
     rebounding to shock Vermont in the preliminary round.  RPI has
     alternated between playing quite well and quite awful the whole season,
     but when they're on, their hard-hitting style can cause no end of
     problems for the opposition.  I thought Tony Hejna's account of the
     strategy RPI used against Vermont was very interesting; however, I
     doubt that the same thing would work well against Harvard.  The Crimson
     defensemen don't mind handling the puck.  Harvard does not have as
     high-powered an offense as they have had in the past (they were fifth
     in the league in goals scored, and they play a fair amount of dump and
     chase now), but the goaltending tandem of Allain Roy and Chuckie Hughes
     has been phenomenal.
     PREDICTION:  Harvard, probably in a low-scoring affair.
 
Princeton at St. Lawrence:
     SEASON SERIES:  St. Lawrence defeated Princeton at home, 9-4.  Prince-
     ton beat St. Lawrence at home, 5-1.
     OUTLOOK:  You know Joe Marsh is harping on his Saints team about what
     happened at Baker Rink when these two met a few weeks ago.  St. Law-
     rence's loss to the Tigers, combined with their defeat by Yale the
     night before, cost the Saints a shot at the ECAC regular-season crown.
     Princeton is likely to be pretty tired after their game against Colgate
     Tuesday night and after the long trip up to Appleton, and that does not
     bode well for them against the high-flying Saints.  The Tigers are
     capable of shutting down offensive powerhouses with their slow style
     (Colgate's offense is as good as St. Lawrence's), but they have to play
     a near-perfect game to do so.  They did it a few weeks ago at home, but
     asking them to do it again at the ECAC's toughest arena to get any
     points in (St. Lawrence is 10-0-1 at home) is probably too much.
     PREDICTION:  St. Lawrence.
 
Brown at Clarkson:
     SEASON SERIES:  Brown won both games, 5-4 at home and 4-3 at Clarkson.
     OUTLOOK:  The Bears' victory over Clarkson at Cheel last weekend
     ensured that these two would meet once again in the quarterfinals.
     Clarkson has recently been a tough team to figure.  Picked as the con-
     sensus #1 team in the league at the beginning of the season, Clarkson
     rolled to an 8-1 record by the end of 1991, but the new year was not as
     kind to the Golden Knights, as they slumped a bit to a 7-5-1 finish.
     Perhaps Clarkson was more concerned with playing Brown's travel partner
     Harvard than with Brown itself the two times they met this season.
     Whatever happened, the Knights are going to have to come out focused
     against the Bears on Saturday night, or their defense of their ECAC
     tournament championship is going to be very short.  Brown is one of the
     most improved teams in the ECAC this season, but they've recently had
     big problems with their goaltending.
     PREDICTION:  I'm very tempted to go with the upset here, but I'll stick
     with Clarkson.
 
Cornell at Yale:
     SEASON SERIES:  Yale won 3-2 at home, and Cornell won 4-3 at Lynah.
     OUTLOOK:  It's been obvious for about a month that these two would meet
     in the quarterfinals.  This is a matchup of strength against strength:
     Yale's explosive offense against the Big Red's best-in-the-league
     defense.  However, the game may come down to whether or not Cornell's
     offense can mount any threats.  When these two played last January, the
     Big Red's offense was able to keep the pressure on the whole game, and
     the team emerged with a hard-fought victory, but since then, Cornell
     has gone 2-5-2 and the offense put up an average of only 2.56 goals per
     game during that time.  Cornell is capable of shutting Yale down, but
     if they can't score some goals of their own, the defense will even-
     tually crack and the Elis will blow them right out of the building.
     PREDICTION:  Yale.
--
Bill Fenwick                        |  Send your HOCKEY-L poll responses to:
Cornell '86 and probably '94        |  [log in to unmask]
LET'S GO RED!!
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