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)