Colgate Looks to Maintain League Lead This Weekend in CNY

Ten League Games on Tap

ALBANY, N.Y. - Harvard returns to action this weekend with the same two teams it last faced before its exam break when Rensselaer and Union arrive at Bright this weekend. Dartmouth will also face the Engineers and Dutchmen, though the Big Green has stayed active with non-league games these past two weeks. Other league games have Yale and Brown at Colgate and Cornell, while Clarkson and St. Lawrence battle in their annual home-and-home series.

Quinnipiac has the lone non-league games of the weekend, taking on Niagara Friday and Saturday nights. Princeton remains idle, as the team wraps up its semester exams.

This weekend's games in Hanover will have extra meaning for the Big Green, as the program will be celebrating 100 years of Dartmouth Hockey and over 300 former players, coaches, friends and family members will take part in the celebration.

Dartmouth took three points on the road when it played Union and Rensselaer just a few weeks ago. When the Big Green and Dutchmen last played they skated to a 2-2 draw. The last 10 meetings between the two squads have all been tightly contested with Dartmouth holding a slight 4-3-3 advantage in those games. The Big Green took the earlier game vs. the Engineers by a 4-1 margin, with four different players scoring goals. It was the fifth straight win for Dartmouth over RPI

The Crimson will look to get back in the swing of things when it hits the ice this weekend. The team's last time out was in the Capital District with Rensselaer earning a 3-2 win and Union tying it at 1-all. Despite the earlier season win in Troy, the Engineers trail the all-time series with the Crimson, 31-40-2. Rensselaer's win three weeks ago snapped a two-game losing streak to Harvard. Union's tie vs. Harvard ended the Crimson's eight-game winning streak in the series, but the Crimson remains unbeaten in the last nine outings vs. the Dutchmen.

In Central New York this weekend, Cornell and Colgate will take on Brown and Yale for the second time this season. The teams last met in the opening weekend of league play, Nov. 4-5. Colgate currently sits in first place in the league standings and Cornell is close behind, so both will be looking for big points this weekend. Yale has been hot of late, with a 6-0-1 unbeaten streak in its last seven league games and currently sits in a three-way tie for fifth place with Rensselaer and Yale, while Brown is looking to move out of 12th place.

The CNY teams could prove to be tough foes for the visiting travel partners. Brown has not won at Cornell since Feb. 11, 1995 (a 5-4 victory), but did get a tie during the 2003-04 season. Hamilton hasn't been very friendly either, as the Bear's haven't won there since 1993. The Raiders have also won the last three meetings with Yale and hold a 22-12-1 advantage in games played at home. The Big Red has beaten the Bulldogs in the last eight games played a Lynah Rink.

Two fierce battles will be the talk of the town(s) in the North Country this weekend, as the Saints and Golden Knights meet in back-to-back regular season games for the first time in the 81 year history of their hockey rivalry. While the two foes have played on consecutive nights five times in playoff series, this is the first time they have done it in the regular season. They did play consecutive regular season games, but a full week apart in the early 1990s.

Friday's game will be the second meeting of the new year between the two teams. Clarkson snapped a three-game losing streak at the hands of the Saints when it posted a 6-2 non-league win in a game in Ottawa on Jan. 7. The Saints have won five of the last seven meetings between the arch-rivals, and while Clarkson now leads the overall series 104-56-7, the Saints have won at least one of the regular season games each year since 1998-99 and are 8-3-1 in the regular season against Clarkson since the 1999-2000 season.

Quinnipiac will debut its new third jersey - a gold sweater - this weekend when it takes on Niagara at the Northford Ice Pavilion. It will be the fifth and sixth meetings between the two programs and second straight year the teams have faced each other. Last year, the Bobcats traveled to Western New York and hold a 4-0-0 advantage in the series. This weekend marks Quinnipiac's final non-league games of the season.