Cornell Claims Regular Season Crown; Playoffs Begin This Weekend
ALBANY, N.Y. - Cornell entered last weekend needing just one point to earn the No. 1 seed for the ECAC Hockey League playoffs and the Big Red didn't disappoint, sweeping its opponents to win the William J. Cleary Cup outright. With the last first-round bye spot up for grabs, Vermont worked for three points to claim the No. 4 spot and along with the Big Red, Harvard and Colgate, the Catamounts will rest for a week.
The rest of the playoff field has been set and eight teams will see action this weekend.
Cornell earned its third regular-season crown in four year after battling St. Lawrence in overtime and then blanking Clarkson the next night. Goaltender of the Week, David McKee stopped 53 of the 55 shots (.964) he faced over the weekend, while posting a 0.98 goals against average and picking up his eighth shutout of the season. It was also the 13th blanking of his career, tying him with former Big Red and NHL great Ken Dryden for Cornell's career record. Senior captain Mike Knoepfli provided the offense for the Big Red, with a hand in five of the team's six goals, including the OT game winner vs. the Saints.
Dartmouth also swept its weekend games, taking games from Harvard and Brown. The win on Friday snapped a 10-game unbeaten streak over the Crimson and allowed the Big Green seniors to experience their first-ever win over Harvard. Mike Ouellette scored both goals to lead his team to that win. Lee Stempniak assisted on both markers and added a third assist in the win over Brown on Saturday.
Scott Mifsud earned Player of the Week honors after scoring three times and adding an assist over the weekend. He provided the heroics on Friday, scoring the game-winning goal over Brown with just one second left on the clock.
Rookie of the Week, Tyler Burton continued to put in a solid effort for his Colgate Raiders. He had two goals in Friday's tie with Clarkson and then added a goal and an assist vs. St. Lawrence for four points on the weekend. This weekend has Dartmouth, Brown, St. Lawrence and Union all playing host to first round playoff games. The Big Green takes on Yale, while Brown welcomes Rensselaer, Princeton heads to the North Country to take on the Saints and Clarkson visits the Dutchmen.
The weekend series are best-of-three matchups, with a third game played Sunday if necessary. Because of women's playoff games also taking place at Dartmouth and St. Lawrence, Friday's games at those venues will start at 7 p.m. Otherwise, all playoff games will start at 7.
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/.
