{It seems there were a number of messages over the weekend that didn't make it here -- apologies in advance if there are a bunch of repetitions in this. Hope this makes it!} Last year, the ECAC's first weekend featured a rash of upsets. This year, however, there were very few surprises, most notably RPI getting off to an 0-2 start and Army forging a tie with defending league champion Colgate. Before I forget -- I've been asked by some people who sat near me at last weekend's games to post a question to the list. We were talking about hockey fundraisers (bake sales, shoot-the-puck-through-the-tiny-hole, and so forth), and somebody came up with the idea of Zamboni rides. So what do people think? Would you buy a raffle ticket for a Zamboni ride? Or has this been done, and if so, how successful was it? Just curious. Me, I'd be interested in DRIVING the thing, but I imagine you need a Zamboni license or some such... ECAC scores from last weekend (home team in CAPS): Friday, 11/9: Clarkson 5, RPI 4 (OT) COLGATE 6, Princeton 5 CORNELL 5, Army 0 HARVARD 11, Brown 2 St. Lawrence 1, VERMONT 0 Yale 3, DARTMOUTH 2 Saturday, 11/10: Army 3, COLGATE 3 (OT) Brown 3, DARTMOUTH 3 (OT) Clarkson 7, VERMONT 4 CORNELL 4, Princeton 3 HARVARD 7, Yale 1 St. Lawrence 5, RPI 3 ECAC Standings as of 11/12/90: League Overall Team W L T Pts GF GA W L T Pts GF GA ----------------------------------------------------------------------- Harvard 2 0 0 4 18 3 2 0 0 4 18 3 Cornell 2 0 0 4 9 3 2 0 0 4 9 3 Clarkson 2 0 0 4 12 8 5 0 0 10 40 18 St. Lawrence 2 0 0 4 6 3 4 1 0 8 23 12 Colgate 1 0 1 3 9 8 4 0 1 9 28 20 Yale 1 1 0 2 4 9 1 1 0 2 4 9 Dartmouth 0 1 1 1 5 6 0 1 1 1 5 6 Army 0 1 1 1 3 8 0 2 2 2 8 16 Brown 0 1 1 1 5 14 0 1 1 1 5 14 Princeton 0 2 0 0 8 10 0 2 0 0 8 10 RPI 0 2 0 0 7 10 1 4 0 2 25 28 Vermont 0 2 0 0 4 8 0 5 0 0 12 25 Division III scores from the weekend: Friday, 11/9: Cortland State 6, St. Bonaventure 1 Oswego State 10, SUNY-Binghamton 3 Saturday, 11/10: Connecticut 3, New England College 0 Curry 8, Framingham State 4 Elmira 13, Oswego State 1 Hobart 7, St. Bonaventure 0 Union NY 5, Babson 1 Some notes on last weekend's games: Oswego State 10, SUNY-Binghamton 3 Consecutive loss number 55 for the Colonials. Binghamton stayed close for the first two periods -- the score was 2-2 after one and 5-3 Oswego after the second. However, the Lakers blew the game open with five goals in the third. Elmira 13, Oswego State 1 Elmira has beaten the Lakers ten straight times, and the Soaring Eagles put this game away with the help of *seven* power-play goals. Elmira was led by freshman winger Pete Romeo's four goals. The Soaring Eagles started the scoring barrage just 17 seconds into the game and led 4-0 after ten minutes. They didn't let up, scoring seven times in the third, and outshot the Lakers by a 55-22 margin. Clarkson 5, RPI 4 (OT) This one was apparently as wide open as expected, and I wish I had more details on it. The Golden Knights were paced by ECAC Player of the Week Dave Trombley's three goals and one assist, while Hugo Belanger came up with five assists of his own. For RPI, unheralded Derek DeCosty had a hat trick, while Joe Juneau, last year's ECAC scoring leader, contributed three assists. Freshman goaltender Neil Little had 36 saves for the Engineers in a losing cause. Little was in net for RPI's Sean Kennedy, who sat out the weekend with a strained ankle. Yale 3, Dartmouth 2 Yale's Martin Leroux scored what proved to be the game-winner midway through the second period, and the Bulldogs allowed Dartmouth only four shots on goal in the third period. Dartmouth threatened with a late breakaway, but Yale goalie Ray LeTourneau smothered the shot. Brown 3, Dartmouth 3 (OT) Quite a finish to this one. Dartmouth led 2-1 late in the third period, but Brown tied it 2-2 on Steve King's goal with 2:02 left in regulation. With 45 seconds remaining, the Bruins' Mike Ross scored to put Brown ahead. But Dartmouth sent the game into overtime with only three seconds left in regulation on Tony DelCarmine's goal. Colgate 6, Princeton 5 The Princeton Tigers threw a scare into the Red Raiders, nearly coming back from a four-goal deficit. Princeton drew first blood in this game with an early goal, but Colgate's Steve Poapst tied the score at 1 with 5:25 gone in the first. Ten minutes later, Jamie Cooke scored the first of his two goals when he skated down the left side of the rink and flipped the puck over goalie Ron High and into the upper corner of the net. Cooke then scored a power-play goal from in front of the net at 1:47 of the second. Highly touted freshman winger Clayton Fahey blasted a shot that deflected in off High for his first collegiate goal to give the Red Raiders a 4-1 lead. Only 19 seconds later, Princeton's Brian Bigelow cut the deficit to two when he beat Colgate goalie Ken Baker. Bigelow's goal was the first even-strength goal that Baker had allowed this season, although his only other action was in the North- eastern game back on October 27. Dale Band put one into the right side of the net halfway through the second period, and 46 seconds later, Fahey beat High again for his second goal. With a 6-2 lead, Colgate seemed all set to cruise to the victory, but Princeton exploded for three goals in the first 4:17 of the third period to close the gap. However, although the Tigers kept the pressure on, Baker made several key saves later in the third, and the Red Raiders escaped with the victory. Army 3, Colgate 3 (OT) The physical Army team has recently been giving Colgate a lot of trouble. Last season, Colgate won the first game 2-0 on a late empty- net goal, then later played the Cadets to a 2-2 tie. In this game, Army forced the tie on the strength of their power play, which scored twice. Eric Kindgren gave the Cadets a 1-0 lead early in the first, but Colgate struck back with two goals 30 seconds apart. Marc Dupere converted on a scramble in front of the net, and then Jamie Cooke came in on a breakaway and beat Army goalie Brooks Chretien to the glove side. The Cadets tied the score with just five seconds left in the first on the power play, when Dupere fanned on an attempt to clear the puck and Brad Hamacher picked it up and scored unassisted. Colgate's Sam Raffoul put the Red Raiders ahead 3-2 in the second period on a fluke goal, when his shot hit the crossbar and bounced off Chretien into the net. However, with 7:13 remaining in regulation, Army's Todd Tamburino knotted the score again with a power-play goal. Center Rick Randazzo fed Tamburino with a perfect pass, and he beat Colgate goalie Greg Menges with a shot inside the post. Cornell 5, Army 0 Though Cornell dominated the action on the ice, the game was tight through the first two periods before the Big Red broke away with a three-goal outburst in the third. Army's offense, frankly, was dismal (no surprise, considering they were shut out). The Cornell players were consistently able to take the puck away fron the Army forwards, and the Cadets never really mounted much of a threat. They played their usual physical game, though, which was a big factor in keeping the score close and keeping referee Mike St. Louis's whistle busy. There were 24 penalties called in the game, and several were alternated between teams one right after another. If I didn't know better, I'd swear St. Louis was trying hard to keep the teams skating four-on-four. Actually, that benefitted Cornell's high-tempo game. Still, this guy fell for some obvious Army dives, and he missed a spearing call on the Cadets' Paul Haggerty at the end of the second period. The Big Red had a lot of trouble solving Army goalie Brooks Chretien, and it wasn't until there were 51 seconds left in the first period that Cornell finally got on the board -- a shorthanded goal, no less. With Army on the power play, Cornell's Dan Ratushny picked up a loose puck and cleared it out of the Cornell zone. Kent Manderville raced down the ice, beat the Army players to the puck, and wristed it past Chretien on a mini-breakaway. Cornell goalie Jim Crozier was credited with an assist on the play -- his first career point. Chretien came up big in the net several times for Army in the second period, denying Cornell on several scoring chances. However, Karl Williams was able to convert off a goalmouth scramble at the 16:25 mark, and Cornell took control of the game early in the third. On a very nice give-and-go with Jason Vogel, Bruce Frauley put the Big Red up 3-0. Less than two minutes later, Cornell's Alex Nikolic knocked down an Army pass at center ice, bulled his way into the Cadet zone (Nikolic has been described as "aggressive", which is something like referring to a tornado as "windy"), and put a slapshot between Chretien's legs for an unassisted goal. Doug Derraugh closed the scoring with 3:20 left in the game, as he wristed the puck in from the slot just as a penalty to Cornell's Paul Dukovac expired. Chretien finished with 32 saves for the Cadets. Crozier stopped 20 shots in earning his second career shutout, but even he admitted his toughest challenge during the game was staying alert, since Army didn't test him with very many quality shots. The Big Red's balanced attack produced eleven players who each had one point in the game. Both teams went 0 for 9 in man-up situations -- a misleading statistic, since many of the power plays were of the 15-second variety. In a scary moment for Cornell, Manderville was hit in the face with the puck while on the bench early in the third period, but he was okay after taking a few stitches. Cornell 4, Princeton 3 It appeared that Cornell was going to have an easy time of it when Doug Derraugh scored just eight seconds into the game, but Princeton recovered and gave the Big Red a tough fight the rest of the way. The officiating crew, led by referee Tim MacConaghy, seemed bound and determined to set some sort of record for longest faceoff, and I think they got it. Cornell could not add to their lead in the first, and in the second period, the Tigers struck for two goals in less than a minute. Princeton freshman Rob LaFerriere was knocked down in the Cornell zone, and while he was sliding along the ice, he swatted the puck toward the Cornell goal, and it bounced in at the 1:42 mark. Then Tom Shimabukuro took a centering pass from Sverre Sears and one-timed a shot over goalie Corrie D'Alessio's glove. Midway through the period, though, Cornell tied the score on Trent Andison's power-play goal off a scramble in front of the net. With just over six minutes left in the second, the Big Red took a 3-2 lead when Dan Ratushny blasted one that got by Princeton goalie Ron High, who was screened on the play. D'Alessio was playing the puck in this game a lot more than he usually does, and eight minutes into the third period, it cost him. With Cornell on the power play, the Tigers' Sean Murphy cleared the puck, and Andre Faust chased it down the ice. D'Alessio came way out of the net to sweep the puck away, but Faust caught up to it first, skated around the Cornell goalie, and flipped the puck into the empty net. The game-winning goal came with less than five minutes remaining in the third. High blocked a shot from Bruce Frauley and tried to cover up, but Andison poked the puck free. It rolled behind the Princeton goalie, and Alex Nikolic was able to tap it into the net. After the red light went on, High corraled the referee and apparently argued that he had stopped the puck long enough for a faceoff to be called, but the goal stood. The final few minutes of the game were hectic, as Princeton threw everything they had at the Big Red in an effort to tie the game up, but the Tigers were unable to get any good scoring chances. High's 34 saves were what kept Princeton in the game; D'Alessio faced only 21 shots, stopping 18 of them. Next week's ECAC games: Nov. 16 Colgate at Clarkson Cornell at St. Lawrence Dartmouth at Army Harvard at Princeton RPI at Brown Vermont at Yale Nov. 17 Colgate at St. Lawrence Cornell at Clarkson Dartmouth at Princeton Harvard at Army RPI at Yale Vermont at Brown Games to watch include: RPI at Yale The red lightbulb salesmen will probably love this one if these two put together games like they did last year. In 1989-90, RPI was the worst defensive team in the league, and Yale was the second-worst. As you might expect, both games between these two were shootouts, with RPI winning 9-7 and 8-6. Now that I've said that, let's watch as the game ends in a scoreless tie. Colgate at Clarkson Cornell at Clarkson Clarkson's Walker Arena has traditionally been one of the toughest rinks in the country for an opposing team to get a victory in. In fact, over the last three seasons, Clarkson has beaten every other ECAC team at least once at Walker -- except for two. Would you believe Colgate and Cornell? Yup, Colgate is 2-0-2 at Clarkson since 1986, and Cornell is 3-0-2 since 1987, including the 1989 ECAC quarterfinals. This season, the Colgate-Clarkson matchup pits two teams with similar strengths and problems against each other. Both the Red Raiders and the Golden Knights appear to be pretty strong on offense (despite Colgate's loss of seven forwards), while both lost "franchise" goalies from last season (Gagnon and Fletcher). Both teams are undefeated in five games, so the replacement goalies haven't done too badly. Clarkson's defense may be the difference in this one. As for Cornell-Clarkson, this is probably the marquee matchup of the ECAC's first half-season, and not just because both teams are being pushed as possible league champions. This rivalry is one of the best in college hockey and should be much bigger and more well-known than it is. You want close? Well, as Mike Zak has pointed out, these two have tied the last three times they have played each other.