Two Teams Sweep; Conference Race Clearing Up a Bit
ALBANY, N.Y. -- Cornell and Dartmouth continued playing well in the ECAC Hockey League over the weekend, as both teams picked up four points against league opponents. The sweep earned the Big Red home ice and a first-round bye in the upcoming playoffs, while the Big Green will also be home for either the first or second round.
While the headline states that things are clearing up in the league race, it's still a little murky too. After the weekend games, five teams have earned home ice in the playoffs, yet Cornell is the only first-round bye to surface. Colgate, Harvard, Dartmouth and Vermont are the others already guaranteed a top eight finish in the regular season. Everyone else can still finish between second and 12th.
Cornell earned its first-round by after picking up its sixth shutout of the year against Princeton and following that up with a win over Yale. Sophomore netminder David McKee earned his 11th career blanking -- two shy of Ken Dryden's school record -- with 19 saves against the Tigers. Senior forward Mike Iggulden was also a factor in the two wins, with a short-handed goal in each contest. The Big Red has the nation's longest unbeaten streak at 10 games (9-0-1).
Dartmouth earned it sweep with the help of Garret Overlock, this week's Player of the Week. The junior blue liner had four points over the weekend with two goals and two assists. His two goals came on the power play and one was the winner vs. St. Lawrence on Saturday night. Head coach Bob Gaudet reached a milestone on Friday night, earning his 200th career victory.
Colgate and Yale posted one for the record books on Friday, as the two teams skated to a 0-0 draw. It was the first such tie in Colgate's 75-year history and was the 100th tie overall in Yale's program history. Netminder Steve Silverthorn earned Goaltender of the Week honors after making 19 saves for the Raiders in the tie and then 23 against Princeton the next night in a win. He finished the weekend with a 0.48 goals against average and a .977 save percentage. His team earned home ice with the tie on Friday.
Yale's Matt Modelski had 26 saves in the tie for the Bulldogs first shutout since 2001.
Harvard also claimed home ice with its victory over Rensselaer on Friday. Dov Grumet-Morris earned his third blanking of the year with the 3-0 victory. The senior netminder also made 34 stops in a grueling double-overtime game (82:01) earlier in the week at the Beanpot Tournament vs. Northeastern.
Vermont also split on the weekend, and in doing so, earned a top eight finish and home ice for the playoffs. It will be the Catamounts first home playoff series since the 1996-97 season. Jeff Corey played a big role in his team's weekend success with a goal and an assist in each game. On Saturday, his goal proved to be the game winner vs. St. Lawrence.
Brian McNary earned Rookie of the Week honors after his Brown Bears split on the road. The frosh led his team with three points on the weekend with a goal and two assists and also had a +3 rating against Union and Rensselaer.
Also earning points over the weekend were Rensselaer and Clarkson. The Engineers won its 28th annual Freakout! game when Kirk MacDonald netted the winner with just 8.3 seconds left on the game clock. The Golden Knights earned their win on Friday with a come from behind effort. Freshman Nick Dodge netted the winner for Clarkson.
In games this week, Harvard plays No. 1 Boston College in this evening's Beanpot consolation before playing host to Clarkson and St. Lawrence this weekend, as will Brown. Rensselaer and Union will head to Central New York for games at Cornell and Colgate, while Dartmouth and Vermont are at Princeton and Yale.
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/.
