There must be something wrong with first place in the ECAC and the bid to the NC$$ tournament that goes along with it, because neither Brown nor Clarkson seem terribly interested in hanging on to it. After taking over the top spot Friday night with a tie against Union while Clarkson lost to Vermont, Brown gave it right back by losing to RPI while Clarkson finally won a home game, against Dartmouth. Whichever of these two does eventually take first will finish with 31 points or less, the lowest point total for an ECAC regular-season champion since at least the formation of Hockey East in 1984. Creeping parity in the ECAC has ensured that no team is out of the playoffs yet. Even Dartmouth stays alive, though for the Big Green to have a chance, Colgate must finish in the top four. Results from the ECAC's penultimate weekend: Friday, February 24: Brown 2, UNION 2 (OT) Colgate 6, YALE 3 Harvard 5, RPI 3 PRINCETON 4, Cornell 3 (OT) ST. LAWRENCE 5, Dartmouth 4 Vermont 3, CLARKSON 2 Saturday, February 25: CLARKSON 6, Dartmouth 1 Cornell 4, YALE 2 PRINCETON 7, Colgate 3 ST. LAWRENCE 5, Vermont 4 RPI 6, Brown 1 Big Red Freakout UNION 5, Harvard 3 ECAC standings as of 2/27/95: League Overall Team W L T Pts GF GA W L T Pts GF GA ------------------------------------------------------------------------- # Clarkson 12 5 3 27 101 64 18 8 4 40 152 103 # Brown 12 6 2 26 68 64 13 9 3 29 88 84 $ Harvard 11 8 1 23 67 60 13 12 1 27 92 86 $ RPI 10 8 2 22 73 73 16 12 2 34 120 112 $ Princeton 9 8 3 21 79 79 14 9 4 32 104 97 $ Colgate 10 9 1 21 88 73 16 13 1 33 134 111 $ St. Lawrence 10 10 0 20 78 94 15 14 1 31 108 128 $ Vermont 9 9 2 20 81 59 16 12 2 34 125 96 Cornell 7 10 3 17 62 72 9 13 3 21 85 96 Union 6 10 4 16 63 72 9 13 4 22 91 96 Yale 6 11 3 15 59 74 8 15 3 19 85 105 Dartmouth 5 13 2 12 70 105 7 16 2 16 85 130 $ - Clinched playoff berth @ - Clinched preliminary round bye # - Clinched home ice Ivy League standings as of 2/27/95: Team W L T Pts GF GA ------------------------------------------- * Brown 7 2 1 15 37 26 Harvard 6 4 0 12 33 27 Princeton 5 3 1 11 32 29 Yale 3 4 2 8 24 26 Cornell 2 6 2 6 32 39 Dartmouth 1 5 2 4 25 36 * - Clinched Ivy League title The schedule for the ECAC's final regular-season weekend: Friday, March 3: Clarkson at Brown Princeton at Vermont RPI at Cornell St. Lawrence at Harvard Union at Colgate Yale at Dartmouth Saturday, March 4: Clarkson at Harvard Princeton at Dartmouth RPI at Colgate St. Lawrence at Brown Union at Cornell Yale at Vermont -- Disclaimer -- Unless otherwise noted, all opinions expressed above are strictly those of: Bill Fenwick | Send your HOCKEY-L poll responses to: Cornell '86 and '94.5 | [log in to unmask] LET'S GO RED!! DJF 5/27/94 "Come to think of it, there are already a million monkeys on a million type- writers, and Usenet is NOTHING like Shakespeare." -- Blair Houghton