Five Teams Have Four-Point Weekends in ECACHL Play
ALBANY, N.Y. -- Three home teams and two visitors swept their games over the weekend in the ECAC Hockey League. Vermont, Dartmouth and Cornell all earned four points in front of their hometown crowds, while Brown and Harvard did the same on the road. Colgate and Clarkson also picked up points, as the two teams split their weekend games.
Cornell's sweep of Clarkson and St. Lawrence and Colgate's split gave the Big Red a one-point lead over the Raiders and first place in the league standings. Cornell got it done with a 4-2 victory over the Golden Knights in a CSTV nationally televised game and a 1-0 nail-biter with St. Lawrence. Senior captain Mike Knoepfli led the Big Red in the win over Clarkson with a goal and an assist, while rookie Doug Krantz netted the game winner. Junior forward Matt Moulson had the winning goal vs. the Saints.
Dartmouth's two victories were also beneficial to its place in the standings, as the Big Green moved up two places with its four points. The team entered the weekend seventh in the standings and moved to fifth after downing Union and Rensselaer. It was Dartmouth's first league weekend sweep since Feb. 2003. Dartmouth's top line of Mike Ouellette, Lee Stempniak and Nick Johnson accounted for 10 points in the wins. With two victories, Dartmouth head coach Bob Gaudet is now just two shy of 200 for his career.
Brown also saw a two-spot jump in the standings, going from eighth to sixth after its weekend sweep. The Bears earned a 5-3 victory over Princeton and a 4-2 win over Yale, with rookie netminder Adam D'Alba earning both Ws. Senior Mike Meech notched his first career hat trick, and Brown's first since January 10, 2003, with two power-play goals and the game winner vs. Yale. The Bears' power-play played a huge part in both wins, as the team finished 7-for-15 on the man-advantage.
Harvard returned to action after taking a few weeks off from competition for exams and was on fire, scoring 12 goals total in its two victories. A total of 15 players picked up at least one point each in the win. Against Yale, five players accounted for the Crimson's goals in the 5-3 victory. Noah Welch, Tom Cavanagh and Jon Pelle all had two points in the contest with a goal and an assist each. Dov Grumet-Morris earned his ninth and 10th wins of the year, including the 7-0 shut out of Princeton.
The Catamounts earned their two wins over the Dutchmen and Engineers. The two wins at home gave Vermont season sweeps of the two teams for the first time since the 1995-96 season, the year the Catamounts advanced to the Frozen Four. Senior assistant captain Scott Mifsud became the 38th player in Vermont history to record 100 or more points with a five-point weekend, recording a goal and four assists.
Colgate earned it win with a 3-1 decision over St. Lawrence, while Clarkson got its W over the Raiders by a 3-1 score.
There is a mid-week ECACHL game this week, with Harvard traveling to Union for a Tuesday night contest. That allows the Crimson to play just one game (vs. Dartmouth) this weekend before starting Beanpot action next Monday.
Other league action has Yale and Princeton at Clarkson and St. Lawrence; Brown welcomes Vermont and Dartmouth; and travel partners Cornell and Colgate will play their home-and-home series. In non-league action, Union and Rensselaer will each play Holy Cross.
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/.
