PREVIEW OF ECAC QUARTERFINAL MATCHUP: CLARKSON GOLDEN KNIGHTS VS ST LAWRENCE SKATING SAINTS SITE: Cheel Arena, Potsdam NY TIMES: Friday night at 7:30, Saturday night at 7, Sunday night at 7 (if nec.) FORMAT: Best of 3, no overtime in Games 1 or 2 CLARKSON'S RECORD: 16-9-5 overall 12-6-4 in ECAC, Tied 3rd place ST LAWRENCE'S RECORD: 17-10-3 overall 12-8-2 in ECAC, 6th place SERIES HISTORY IN ECAC PLAYOFFS: Clarkson leads 6-4 EARLIER MEETINGS THIS YEAR: Clarkson won 6-0 in Canton and 4-1 in Potsdam. CLARKSON Clarkson has surged since going 0-1-1 at #1 Maine. Since then Tech has gone 10-1-1. They have been clicking on all cylinders. Hugo Belanger has rebounded from his midseason slump to surpass 200 pts for his career while Marko Tuomainen scored at least 1 goal in the last 13 regular season games. The offense has been well-balanced and consistent of late. The defense may need to shore up a bit for the playoff run but did play well at times down the stretch. With the exception of the finale at Brown, senior goalie Chris Rogles has been on fire and was a stabilizing factor in the Knights stretch run. Clarkson still needs to learn how to play 60 minutes of hockey, which it did against RPI in February, if it wants to win the ECAC title. If it does play 60 minutes, it can beat literally anybody. ST LAWRENCE St Lawrence has played well since a disastrous January. In February, the Saints lost only 1 game, to RPI. Although they blow an 8-3 3rd period lead to Yale in their home finale to tie the Bulldogs at 8. This cost the Saints 5th place and may have let the air out of their balloon as they lost their next game at Brown. SLU could come into the game with momentum as they played quite well in the season ending win over league champion Harvard. SLU has a very solid first line of Burke Murphy, Greg Carvel and Lee Albert. Their 2nd and 3rd lines are playing better than in January, when the Saints lost twice to Clarkson. Gerard Verbeek and Spencer Meany are playing well. The big hole in the Saints lineup is their defense. They are just not very deep at the blueline. That fact has often left goalies Paul Spagnoletti and Brady Giroux to the proverbial wolves. Despite that, Giroux has remained one of the ECAC's goaltending leaders; he is probably the best goalie behind one of the worst defenses with the possible exception of UVM's Christian Soucy. Giroux is the Saints great equalizer and will probably keep them in the series. THOUGHTS (yes, I do have coherent thoughts once in a while) Clarkson should win this series. They are playing the best hockey down the stretch of any ECAC team. They are also tons better in Potsdam, having only lost 4 home games in the last 3 seasons. However, they should not take SLU lightly (the Saints inflicted 1 of those 4 losses). If Giroux gets hot and the 2nd and 3rd lines continue clicking for SLU, they could pull off the upset. Clarkson needs to score first and rattle Giroux (although not scoring first didn't hurt CU in their last 4 games when they went 3-0-1). SLU needs to get an early lead and take the crowd out of the game. PREDICTION SLU will play well but Clarkson is too deep. TONIGHT: Clarkson 5 SLU 3 (1 empty net goal) TOMMOROW: Clarkson 6 SLU 2 -------------------------------------------------------------------------- BRI FARENELL [log in to unmask] CLARKSON '95 AHL and ECAC contact for rec.sport.hockey Support USA Hockey Adirondack Red Wings, Calder Cup Champs: '81 '86 '89 '92 JOIN THE AHL MAILING LIST: EMAIL ME FOR DETAILS LET'S GO TECH!!! ------------------------------------------------------------------------- [this space is temporarily for rent]