The other final I heard was Princetion tied Harvard this afternoon,
3-3.
 
 
   Colgate defeated Clarkson tonight 5-2, leading the whole way.
This, however, is a bit misleading because Clarkson generally outplayed
Colgate, leading in shots 40-something to 30-something.  This was
partly due to a lopsided penalty margin in Clarkson's favor, though I
must say Colgate deserved most of the penalties they got. (the officiating
was fairish, definitely an above-average night for the ECAC.)
 
   Colgate scored first on a power-play about 5 minutes in, but after that
Clarkson got about 5 breakaways in a row.  Three of them came on a neat
little trick where during a line change their goalie would pass it the
length of the ice where a player would be waiting to take it in all alone
(the benches are on opposite sides of the ice).  It took a while before
Colgate wised up.  Fortunately, though, Colgate goalie Jason Gates had
a terrific game, stopping all of the breakaways and many other scoring
chances.  The first period ended 1-0.  Colgate scored first in the second
on a rebound, but Clarkson came back shortly thereafteon a powerplay
to cut the lead back to one.  It remained this way for a while, but
Colgate scored on a scramble in front of the net to take a 3-1 lead
into the third.   The Golden Knights had a goal disallowed early in the
third due to the net coming off the hinges.  I didn't see who pushed it
off, but Colgate got a penalty on the play for interference.  Clarkson
quickly scored on the ensuing advantage to again cut the lead to one.
They had chances to tie it, but on a defensive breakdown left a
Colgate player all alone in front of the net, who took his time in
putting the puck in the top right corner for the two-goal lead.
It was pretty even for the last ten minutes, with both teams getting
chances but unable to score on the opposing goalie.  Colgate got
an empty-netter with 3 seconds left to end the scoring.
 
  Colgate, for once, scored on a decent percentage of their chances,
and also got a great game from a goalie, which has been an erratic area
all year.  Both goalies played well (Chris Rogles for Clarkson) - none of
the goals being their fault - but Gates just played better. There was
some poetic justice in that after a few games of outplaying the other
team but losing (SLU and RPI being the more recent ones) they were
outplayed and won.
 
  Two somewhat interesting notes - during the second period, a Colgate
player while penalty-killing attempted to slap the puck down the ice from
a few feet behind his own blue line.  He got a bit of air under it though,
and barely dipping at all it sailed well above the glass, hit the far
wall of the arena, annd dropped into the broadcasting box.  Don't think
I've seen that before.
  Second, Colgate has a little contest where two people try to shoot the
puck in one of three slightly-larger-than-puck-size holes in a piece of
wood covering the net.  One of the two contestants got it in one of the
side holes and won $100 (the center is a cruise).  The last time I've
seen that happen was three years ago when a nine-year-old kid won a set
of four tires.
 
  Anyways, it was a well-played game and fun to watch.  I hope Colgate
can keep it up next week when Brown and Harvard come to Hamilton.
 
GO 'GATE!
 
Carl Lindberg
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