Colgate and Cornell Move Up With Weekend Wins
Dartmouth's non-league victory captures Commish Cup outright
ALBANY, N.Y. -- Colgate took over the top spot in the ECAC Hockey League standings over the weekend after earning wins over both Union and Rensselaer. Cornell also swept the Capital District to move up to third place in the standings. Travel partner/rival games also saw St. Lawrence down Clarkson to take the season series, and Dartmouth beat Vermont for a split in that yearly matchup.
Along with the league action, the Big Green took a big game from then-No. 6 New Hampshire in a wild 9-8 contest. Dartmouth's win solidified the ECACHL's sole claim to the inaugural Commissioners' Cup. Brown also won out of league, defeating American International 5-2, while Yale lost a hard-fought 1-0 game to Boston College.
Colgate earned its No. 1 spot this week after a 4-2, 1-0 weekend in the Capital District. It was the team's seventh sweep of the year and fourth in league play. The Raiders are now riding a five-game win streak, its longest of the season and will look to match last year's longest streak of six games this weekend when they take on Vermont and Dartmouth.
Cornell picked up its third shutout of the season with its 5-0 win over RPI. Sophomore David McKee was named the Goaltender of the Week after stopping 40 of 41 shots on the weekend. Friday's game vs. Union was the more exciting contest of the two contests, as the Big Red won it in overtime with a short-handed goal by senior Mike Iggulden. Cornell hadn't scored a short-handed marker all of last season and now has four this year.
In the North Country, Route 11 rivals St. Lawrence and Clarkson battled it out with the Saints earning a 7-2 victory to take the series, as SLU also won the earlier season meeting. St. Lawrence, like Colgate, has also won five in a row. The Saints are making a statement in the process, as they have been averaging five goals per game while allowing just 2.40. They'll look to continue the streak, and those numbers, this weekend against the Engineers and Dutchmen.
Dartmouth's win over Vermont on Saturday night not only split the league series between the two rivals, it gave the Big Green a 2-1 advantage on the year, as they two had also met in a non-conference matchup over the holidays. Even though every league game is important, Dartmouth's big win came out of conference, as it upended New Hampshire in a pulse-racing 9-8 come-from-behind victory. The Big Green's win over UNH also denied Hockey East a chance of tying the ECACHL for first place in the Commissioners' Cup Series. Dartmouth was flying on all cylinders in the third, scoring four unanswered goals to earn the win. Nick Johnson, this week's Rookie of the Week, netted the winner with less than two minutes to go in the contest.
Johnson also had an earlier goal and an assist in the game and matched those numbers in the win over UVM. Teammate Mike Ouellette took Player of the Week honors after posting four points (1-3) against UNH and three more (2-1) against Vermont, for a seven-point week.
In other non-conference action, despite the end-results, Yale's Matt Modelski deserves recognition for his efforts against Boston College last week. In a hard-fought contest, the sophomore netminder faced 50 shots and stood his ground, making 49 saves.
As mentioned earlier, Colgate and Cornell are home this weekend and will welcome Dartmouth and Vermont, while Rensselaer and Union travel to Clarkson and St. Lawrence. In non-league games, Brown plays UMass-Lowell Tuesday night and Providence on Saturday. The game vs. the Friars is the 19th annual Mayor's Cup contest and 84th overall meeting between the two teams. Yale is also in action this week and will entertain Connecticut Saturday evening.
Follow the action with live stats from all the games along with postgame stories and box scores from all the contests online at http://www.ecachockeyleague.com/.
