Three ECACHL Teams Pick Up Four Points
ALBANY, N.Y. -- Four men's teams in the ECAC Hockey League picked up four points over the weekend with Princeton, Quinnipiac and St. Lawrence all earning two wins. The Saints and Bobcats swept their weekend competition, while the Tigers won last Tuesday and again on Saturday. Union, Rensselaer and Yale also earned points with one win each, while Clarkson, Colgate and Cornell earned ties for its weekend scoring.
The Saints earned their points with their four points with wins over Colgate and Cornell, the teams first four-point series vs. the two CNY foes since February 2001. Kyle Rank had five points in the sweep with three goals and two assists and earned Player of the Week honors. Special teams played a key role in the wins as the power-play unit scored five extra-man goals and the penalty killers stopped all 20 opposition chances, allowing just 13 shots on goal in those 20 tries. Freshman Alex Petizian was also a factor on defense, as the netminder made 47 saves. The Goaltender of the Week made 19 saves against Colgate, 13 of them in the second period, to earn his second career shutout.
Quinnipiac's Brandon Wong continues to lead the Bobcats, registering six points in the team's two weekend victories. The Rookie of the Week had two goals and an assist in the win over Brown and then had two goals and an assist in the win vs. Yale. Greg Holt was second in scoring for the Bobcats over the weekend with four assists.
While Quinnipiac earned the weekend sweep, things didn't start out on a high note, as Princeton claimed a 4-2 win over the Bobcats. The Tigers had four different players score in the game, with Mark Magnowski netting the game winner. The Orange and Black followed that win with a loss to Yale, but rebounded against Brown, earning its third-straight overtime win and the third-straight overtime game in the Princeton/Brown series.
Yale's one-goal win over the Tigers came via Sean Backman's goal late in the second period. His marker gave the Bulldogs a 3-1 lead and a strong effort by goalie Alec Richards and the defense held on for the win.
Union and Rensselaer played their annual home-and-home series and each team won on the road. Justin Mrazek earned the 5-0 shutout on Friday for the Dutchmen, stopping all 24 shots he faced. On Saturday, the Engineers went ahead 3-0 before Union came back to score two. RPI stood its ground, and Kirk McDonald's second period goal held up as the game winner.
Clarkson was at the center of two ties over the weekend, matching both Colgate and Cornell by identical 1-1 scores. Steve Zalewski and Chris D'Alvise scored the Golden Knights goals. Jason Williams tied it up for the Raiders and Mitch Carefoot evened it up for the Big Red.
The only other game of the weekend had Dartmouth playing New Hampshire in the annual "Battle for the RiverStone" and lost 4-2. Kevin Swallow and Tanner Glass scored for the Big Green.
ECACHL Player of the Week
KYLE RANK -- St. Lawrence
Sr., Center * Elmira, Ont.
Rank had a five point weekend with three goals and two assists and
figured in both game winners as the Saints downed Cornell and
Colgate. He was a big part of a PK which saw the Saints kill off 20
opponent power plays.
ECACHL Goalie of the Week
ALEX PETIZIAN -- St. Lawrence
Fr., Goaltender * Kirkland, Que.
Petizian made 28 saves vs. Cornell and then earned his second
career shutout with 19 saves over Colgate to earn the weekend
sweep.
ECACHL Rookie of the Week
BRANDON WONG -- Quinnipiac
Fr., Forward * Victoria, B.C.
Wong registered a six-point weekend with four goals and two assists
in wins over Brown and Yale. He now has 25 total points on the
year.
TEAM NOTES
Brown: After not losing back-to-back games during the first half of the year, the Bears have dropped three straight games, all on the road ... Ryan Garbutt scored his 3rd goal of the year at Quinnipiac, passing his total from all of last season ... Matt Vokes scored his seventh goal of the year at Princeton, giving him 13 points and surpassing his point total from all of last season ... Leading scorer Jeff Prough figured in both goals at Princeton, scoring the game-tying goal and assisting Vokes' goal ... Brown dominated the face-off circle against Quinnipiac, winning 38 of 66, including Matt Vokes, who won 12 of 17.
Clarkson: The Golden Knights own the longest current unbeaten streak in the country at nine games (7-0-2) ... Clarkson's last loss was 7-2 defeat at St. Cloud on Nov. 18 ... David Leggio has allowed just 11 goals during the current streak ... Leggio owns the best goals against average (1.84) and save percentage (.939) in ECACHL play ... Despite going 0-of-11 with the man advantage over the weekend, the Knights still own the second-best power play in the nation, at (23.3%) 31-133 ... Clarkson's has posted three consecutive 3,000+ crowds at 3,000-seat Cheel Arena.
Colgate: A bizarre bounce 17 seconds into the game was all that kept Colgate and goaltender Mark Dekanich from earning a 1-0 shutout at No. 9 Clarkson. The Golden Knights scored their only goal after the puck ricocheted off the end boards and came out in front of the net after Dekanich had gone behind to play it. The Raiders were able to tie the score late in the third period ... Jason Williams netted his third goal of the season to tie the game against Clarkson. All three of Williams' goals this year have come during league play, and all nine of his assists have come during non-conference action.
Cornell: Cornell salvaged a point out of its annual trip to the North Country with a tie at Clarkson, preventing the Big Red's first road sweep at the hands of Clarkson and St. Lawrence since 2000-01. Cornell also scored one point a year ago in the trip north, tying SLU and falling to Clarkson ... Byron Bitz missed Saturday's game against Clarkson, the first game he missed since the consolation game of the Florida College Classic on 12/29/04 against Maine. In between, Bitz had been marked into the lineup for 73 consecutive games.
Dartmouth: The Big Green dropped a 4-2 decision to UNH on Saturday giving the Wildcats the sixth annual RiverStone Cup ... David Jones continues to come through for the Big Green. With an assist against UNH the junior now has 22 points on the season. The assistant captain has notched at least a point in 13 of Dartmouth's 15 games, scoring multiple times in six of those contests ... The Big Green recorded a season-high 45 shots on goal against New Hampshire. Dartmouth last had that many on March 17, 2006 vs. Harvard ... Dartmouth wraps up the non-conference portion of its schedule with three non-league games this week.
Harvard: Harvard was idle this past weekend and resumes play Jan. 26-27 at St. Lawrence and Clarkson.
Princeton: Princeton split its home-and-home series with Quinnipiac with a win on Tuesday ... Princeton's 3-2 win over Brown was the Tigers' third-straight OT win and marked the third-straight overtime game in the Princeton/Brown series ... Brett Wilson has seven points in his last five games ... Wilson and Grant Goeckner-Zoeller had three points in three games last week ... Daryl Marcoux snapped a 57-game goalless streak by scoring in Princeton's win over Brown ... The Tigers take the next two weekends off during Princeton's final exam period. Princeton returns to the ice on Jan. 29 against Robert Morris.
Quinnipiac: Defenseman Reid Cashman joined the 100 assist club on Friday night with two helpers in a 5-1 win over Brown. He now has 101 assists in his career and is 13 from breaking Brian Herbert's school record of 113 ... With a marker in the win over Yale on Saturday, David Marshall now has four goals in three career games against the Bulldogs ... The line of Jean-Marc Beaudoin, Brandon Wong and Greg Holt combined for 12 points (six goals, six assists) in the games against Brown and Yale.
Rensselaer: The Engineers conclude a stretch of six straight games in the Capital Region by hosting Clarkson and St. Lawrence this weekend ... Rensselaer has played Clarkson (123 times), Friday night's opponent, and St. Lawrence (122) more than any other in school history ... Saturday's game against the Saints is the 30th Annual Big Red Freakout! The Engineers are unbeaten in their last 16 Freakouts! (12-0-4). The last loss came in 1990, a 5-4 defeat at the hands of St. Lawrence.
St. Lawrence: Special teams were the name of the game for the Saints in their first sweep of the Cornell and Colgate series since February of 2001. The Saint power play scored on five-of-13 opportunities in the two games while the Saint penalty killers killed off all 20 opposition chances ... Goaltender Alex Petizian lowered his goals against average to 2.08 and improved his save percentage to .926 as he won both games in the weekend sweep. Petizian has now played in four straight for the Saints and is 3-1 with a 1.72 goals against average and a .936 save percentage in those four games.
Union: Union's 5-0 win over Rensselaer on Friday marked the first league shutout and the largest margin of victory over the Engineers in the modern era ... Justin Mrazek recorded his first league shutout and freshman Mario Valery-Trabucco recorded a career-high four points with two goals and two assists in the win ... It was the first four-point game for a Union player since 10/28/05 when Josh Coyle had a goal and three assists against Bentley ... The loss to the Engineers on Saturday marked the first since 2004.
Yale: Yale's streak of games without a loss ended at 3 with the home loss to Quinnipiac ... Michael Karwoski had been a healthy scratch the last three games before tallying twice on Jan. 13 ... Freshmen accounted for all three goals in the win at Princeton on Jan. 12.
