Dartmouth and Colgate Share ECACHL Regular Season Title
Playoff Schedule Now Set
The regular season has wrapped up in the ECAC Hockey League with Dartmouth and Colgate sharing the William J. Cleary Cup as the co-champions. The two teams swept their final league games and finished the season race with 30 points each. The playoff field is now set, and along with the Big Green and Raiders, Cornell and Harvard, who also finished in the top four, will have byes for the first-round of the playoffs.
Dartmouth won its first-ever ECACHL crown, while Colgate claimed its third in school history. The Big Green won the tiebreaker vs. the Raiders and will be the No. 1 seed heading into the playoffs. Colgate is No. 2, while Cornell is No. 3 and Harvard is No. 4.
St. Lawrence, Union, Rensselaer and Clarkson take the next four berths and will play host to Brown, Yale, Quinnipiac and Princeton, respectively, in the first-round, which takes place next weekend.
Dartmouth earned its top seed by downing Clarkson and St. Lawrence at home. Sophomore forward David Jones had his first collegiate hat trick in the win over the Golden Knights and added an assist in the win over SLU to earn Player of the Week honors. Sophomore goalie Mike Devine earned both wins, including the 3-0 shutout vs. the Saints. He stopped 43 shots over the two games while recording a 1.00 goals against average and a .956 save percentage for the weekend. Senior Eric Przepiorka recorded two assists in the win on Saturday giving him his 100th career point, the 33rd player in Dartmouth history to reach the century mark.
Colgate also swept its competition over the weekend, winning its two games on the road. Sophomore netminder Mark Dekanich, this week's Goaltender of the Week, was outstanding, making 64 stops and allowing just one goal over the weekend. That lone goal was a 5-on-3 power-play marker. Senior Jon Smyth had a goal in each game and was a key component to the Raiders' penalty kill, helping stop 12 of 13 on the weekend.
Harvard entered the weekend needing four points to guarantee a first-round bye and the Crimson got the job done with wins over St. Lawrence and Clarkson. Dan Murphy led the way, with two goals, including the winner on Friday, and two assists on the weekend, giving him a hand in four of the team's five goals on the weekend.
Rensselaer pulled off the upset of the weekend when it downed then-No. 7 Cornell 2-0 on Friday. Freshman Mathias Lange earned the shutout between the pipes, stopping 34 shots. He followed that with 16 saves against Colgate, giving him 50 on the weekend. His blanking of the Big Red, along with his weekend GAA of 1.01 and save percentage of .962, earned him Rookie of the Week honors.
The Big Red rebounded the next night with a 2-1 win at Union on Saturday. Senior Cam Abbott had a short-handed goal in the game, while classmate Matt Moulson netted the winner. Junior goaltender David McKee became the most active Cornell netminder, as Saturday's game was his 95th night of action for the Big Red.
Brown and Princeton each picked up three points on the weekend. The two teams tied each other to start the weekend and then went on to win their respective Saturday night games. The Bears downed Quinnipiac 5-3, with sophomore Jeff Prough having a hand in four of the goals. He scored twice and assisted on two others. For Princeton, Kevin Westgarth led the way in the 4-2 win at Yale with a goal and an assist.
Quinnipiac also claimed a victory on the weekend with a 6-2 W over the bulldogs. David Marshall, one of the league's freshman scoring leaders, had two goals and an assist in the game.
This weekend's first-round games are best-of-three series taking place at the home campuses of the higher seeds. The winners advance to the quarterfinals, taking on the top four teams in the league.
