No. 1 Colgate takes on No. 2 Cornell This Weekend
Rensselaer and Union also playing home-and-home series
ALBANY, N.Y. - All but one game over the weekend is a league contest for the ECAC Hockey League teams. Travel partner matchups between Colgate and Cornell and Rensselaer and Union highlight this weekend's festivities. Clarkson and St. Lawrence will also make the trek to Quinnipiac and Dartmouth, while Brown plays host to Harvard and Brown. Yale has just one league game this weekend, taking on the Crimson Friday night.
In non-league play, the Bulldogs will face in-state foe Connecticut on Sunday afternoon in a game that will be televised regionally on CN8. Saturday nights Cornell at Colgate game will also be televised - regionally in central New York on Time Warner Cable and nationally via ESPNU.
The home-and-home series between Colgate and Cornell is this weekend's key matchup. The Raiders currently sit in first place in the league standing with 23 points and Cornell sits right behind with 20 points. The Big Red holds a 62-53-9 advantage in the all-time series and is 31-19-5 when playing the Raiders at Lynah Rink. The series is a bit hotter in games played in Hamilton, as the two teams are tied at 24-24-3, after Cornell earned a last-second 1-0 win last season. Colgate is unbeaten in its last two games at Lynah Rink, including a 2-2 tie last year, and the Raiders have allowed the Big Red just two wins in the last six games between the two teams. Cornell is asking its fans to wear red to Friday's game at Lynah for a "Sea of Red," while Colgate is looking for a "White Out" at Starr Rink on Saturday by asking its fans to wear white to the game.
The Rensselaer-Union series is just as highly contested, as these two foes live less then 20 miles apart in New York's Capital District. The Engineers hold the upper hand in this series (which started in 1904) with a 41-12-6 record vs. the Dutchmen. However, last season, Union won both games in the series with a 5-4 win in Troy and a 3-2 victory in Schenectady - sweeping RPI for the first time in school history. With just four weeks left in the regular season, this weekend's games become even more important, as the two rivals enter the weekend as part of a three-way tie (with Clarkson) for seventh place in the league standings with identical 5-6-3 ECACHL records. All three teams are one point behind Yale for sixth place and four points behind Dartmouth and Harvard for fourth
Clarkson will also look to climb in the standings this weekend at Princeton and Quinnipiac. St. Lawrence will also look to make a move, as it sits in third place in the standings, two points from second and five from first. The two North Country teams swept their eastern opponents earlier this year.
The Golden Knights and Bobcats will be meting for just the fourth time, and Clarkson has won all three previous meetings. The series with the Tigers is much longer, having gone 90 games now since the two teams first met in 1928. Clarkson leads he all-time series 65-20-5 and has a 17-game unbeaten streak vs. the Tigers, including 10 straight victories. The last five games have been close affairs with the Knights pulling out four one-goal victories and a 3-1 win, which included an empty-net score. Princeton's last win over Clarkson at Hobey Baker Rink was a 3-2 victory on November 8, 1997.
The Saints start their weekend at Princeton and has a 52-13-6 mark vs. the Tigers in the overall series. The Saints won earlier this season and, including four meetings last year (regular season and playoffs), hold a 4-0-1 mark in the last five games. Quinnipiac is meeting SLU for just the third time and the first-ever outside of Canton, N.Y. The two teams have gone into overtime in each of the two previous meetings, tying 1-1 in 2000 and with the Saints winning 5-4 in overtime earlier this year.
Brown starts its weekend off against Harvard oldest active rivalry in college hockey. The Crimson's earlier season win was its 100th all-time over the Bears, giving Harvard a 100-36-9 lead in its oldest series. Harvard is currently tied with Dartmouth for fourth place in the league standings with 17 points, while the Bears are 12th with seven. Brown will look to even up its all-time series with Dartmouth this weekend, as the Big Green earned a one-game lead in the all-time series with a 3-2 win earlier this season. The series currently sits with Dartmouth ahead 62-61-2. Dartmouth has claimed the past seven meetings and holds an 8-2-0 lead over the past 10 games.
Dartmouth's first game of the weekend is against Yale, and it's also the Bulldogs lone league contest of the week. The two teams have been meeting since Jan. 16, 1907 when the Big Green earned a 4-2 win in New York. Yale holds the 91-83-12 lead in the series, but Dartmouth has come on strong as of late holding a 9-1-0 advantage in the last 10 games between the two squads.
Yale's second game of the weekend will take place Sunday afternoon against Connecticut, and it's a key Commissioners' Cup contest. The two teams reside not far from one another, yet this will be just the fifth meeting between the two schools since first playing during the 1971-72 season. The Bulldogs have won all four previous games, most recently a 6-2 win last season.
Following this weekend's action, Harvard will open up the 2006 Beanpot on Monday night (Feb. 6) against Boston University at 8 p.m. Follow this year's Beanpot action on line at www.beanpothockey.com
