St. Lawrence is the New Leader in the ECACHL
Clarkson and Quinnipiac on Saints' heels
ALBANY, N.Y. -- St. Lawrence knew it could claim the top spot in the ECAC Hockey League standings with solid play over the weekend and the Saints did it, by sweeping their opponents. Two others also swept - Rensselaer and Union - to move up in the standings, and Clarkson is now second after claiming three-of-four points on the weekend. Colgate and Cornell split their annual home-and home series, while Quinnipiac opened its new home - the TD Banknorth Sports Center - with a shutout vs. a non-league opponent.
The Saints needed just two points to tie for first place in the league standings, and made sure to capture the top spot outright with wins over both Harvard and Dartmouth. The wins also gave St. Lawrence season sweeps over the two teams - the first over the Crimson in over six seasons and the first over the Big Green in five. Drew Bagnall assisted on both game winners and also had a goal vs. the Crimson to lead SLU offensively. Alex Petizian earned the wins in net, stopping 43 shots on the weekend.
Clarkson actually took five-of-six possible points last week, as the Golden Knights started things off last Tuesday with a win over St. Lawrence. The Knights then tied Dartmouth (4-4) on Friday before downing Harvard 4-2 on Saturday. Matt Beca earned Rookie of the Week honors after scoring three goals last week. Two of his goals game against the Saints, which marked the first win in Canton in six seasons. Sophomore Chris D'Alvise was the team's offensive leader with a goal in all three games and an assist vs. Harvard. David Leggio was in goal for all three games and stopped a total of 83 shots.
The N.Y. Capital District duo of Rensselaer and Union earned their sweeps on the road at Yale and Brown.
The Dutchmen downed the Bears by two goals on Friday before beating the Bulldogs in overtime on Saturday. Olivier Bouchard was named Player of the Week after netting three of Union's goals in those games, including the game winner against Yale. Justin Mrazek earned both wins after stopping a total of 70 saves. The sweep was the first for the Dutchmen since the 2004-05 season.
Rensselaer's wins over the Bulldogs and Bears were both by one goal. Matt Angers-Goulet tallied each night, including the game winner vs. Brown. Goaltender Jordan Alford earned the win vs. Yale.
The annual home-and-home series between Colgate and Cornell saw the home team win each night. The Raiders won 4-2 at Starr Rink, while the Big Red won 2-1 at Lynah Rink. Colgate's Mark Dekanich earned Goaltender of the Week honors after making 73 total saves against the Big Red. Thirty-nine of them came at home, where he faced a firing squad, as Cornell out-shot Colgate 41-14. Cornell's Topher Scott had three assists in the series and won 21 faceoffs to lead the Big Red.
With great fanfare, Quinnipiac opened its new arena with a 7-0 shutout vs. Holy Cross. With Gordie Howe on hand and a sellout crowd of 3286 in the stands, seven different players scored to earn the win. Matt Sorteberg's name goes down in the history book though, as he had the first goal, a power-play marker in the second period. The Bobcats will play their first ECACHL opponent - Harvard -- in its new arena tomorrow (Jan. 30) night. A win would put the Bobcats in a tie for first place in the league standings.
Princeton has been away from action for a few weeks now due to semester exams, but returns to the ice tonight (Jan. 29) in a non-league game vs. Robert Morris. The Tigers have won seven of their last 10 games and look to make it eight out of 11 on Monday. Princeton and Robert Morris met for the first time last season, with the Colonials skating to a 5-2 win at home. Like this season, the game came immediately following Princeton's exam break. Robert Morris enters the game having lost its last three games.
ECACHL Player of the Week
OLIVIER BOUCHARD -- Union
Sr., Forward * Quebec City, Que.
Bouchard lifted the Dutchmen to their first league road weekend
sweep since the 2004-05 season with a goal at 4:28 into overtime at
Yale Saturday. He had a total of three goals on the weekend.
ECACHL Goalie of the Week
MARK DEKANICH -- Colgate
Jr., Goaltender * No. Vancouver, B.C.
Dekanich stopped 77 Cornell shots over the weekend to earn a split
with the Big Red. 39 of his saves came in the win.
ECACHL Rookie of the Week
MATT BECA -- Clarkson
Fr., Right Wing * Mississauga, Ont.
Beca helped Clarkson gain five of a possible six points in ECACHL
play last week. He had three goals, including the winner vs.
Harvard.
TEAM NOTES
Brown: Freshman Jeremy Russell had his first career multi-point game with a goal and an assist against Union ... Junior Sean Hurley has posted 1-4-5 numbers in Brown's past four games with at least one point in each of them ... Brown's centers were dominant against RPI, winning 43 of 69 faceoffs, including Antonin Roux (10 of 13), Sean Dersch (7 of 8), and Eric Slais (7 of 9) ... Brown scored its 60th goal of the season against RPI (in its 21st game). Last season Brown didn't score 60 goals until the last regular season game of the season against Quinnipiac ... Five Bears had multiple points over the weekend with defensemen David Robertson, Russell, and Hurley, and forwards Jeff Prough and Brian McNary all posting a goal and an assist.
Clarkson: Clarkson moved into a tied for second place in the ECACHL by gaining five of a possible six points last week ... Clarkson out scored its opponents 10-2 in the third period in three games last week . The Knights swept the regular-season series against St. Lawrence for the first time since the 1997-98 campaign and took both ECACHL games from Harvard for the first time since the 1999-2000 season . Six Clarkson players are recording 20 points or more, led by junior captain Nick Dodge with 29 points (14-15).
Colgate: Colgate hadn't scored a power-play goal on its last 28 chances when it got back on track by converting 4-of-6 opportunities in Thursday's 4-2 win against Cornell ... Marc Fulton recorded his league-leading fifth game-winning goal on Thursday ... Colgate is hosting a Make-A-Wish Weekend at their home games against St. Lawrence and Clarkson, Feb. 2-3. In an effort organized by freshman forward Ethan Cox, the Raiders will raise money for the Make-A-Wish Foundation in honor of 8-year-old Miranda Hadlock, a Colgate hockey fan, cancer patient, and "wish kid". Miranda will oversee a ceremonial puck drop prior to Saturday's game against Clarkson.
Cornell: Cornell's win over Colgate gave head coach Mike Schafer the 231st of his career, making him the winningest coach in Cornell history. Schafer surpassed Dick Bertrand's total of 230 career victories, which was also accomplished in a 12-year career ... Beginning from the second period of the season's first meeting with St. Lawrence on Jan. 12, the Cornell PK unit has begun to revert to its traditional form. Over that span, Cornell has killed off 32-of-37 opponents' power plays over that span for 86.5 percent ... Cornell juniors Raymond Sawada and Topher Scott are just two of the eight players this season who have appeared in all 21 of Cornell's games.
Dartmouth: Two Big Green rookies notched collegiate firsts last weekend. Josh Gillam had his first goal against Clarkson, followed by another the next night against St. Lawrence. Joe Gaudet had his first assist on Gillam's goal against the Golden Knights ... Dartmouth gave up four PPGs to Clarkson and St. Lawrence. It was the first time in four games an opponent had scored more than one power play goal ... Junior J.T. Wyman had his first multiple-point game of the season against Clarkson. Wyman had a goal and an assist in the contest.
Harvard: Third-year head coach Ted Donato seeks his 50th career win when the Crimson visits Quinnipiac Tuesday ... The game will be Harvard's fifth straight on the road and the third of six games in 11 nights ... The Crimson's loss to Clarkson was its first since 2004 when leading at the second intermission ... Alex Meintel has scored goals in four of the last five games, while Ryan Maki and Jon Pelle have scored in three of the last four.
Princeton: Semester exams have wrapped up for the Tigers and they resume action tonight, Jan. 29, in a non-league home game vs. Robert Morris.
Quinnipiac: Junior defenseman Matt Sorteberg scored the first Quinnipiac goal at the new TD Banknorth Sports Center, a power play marker 6:27 into the second period ... The Bobcats scored two short-handed goals 34 seconds apart against Holy Cross. Eric Lampe netted the first, with Dan LeFort following shortly thereafter ... Lampe leads the ECACHL with three short-handed goals this season.
Rensselaer: Freshman Erik Burgdoerfer earned his first career point (an assist) in RPI's 4-3 win at Brown. All of Rensselaer's skaters now have at least one point this season ... With its two one-goal wins last weekend, the Engineers improved to 7-2 in such contests. Seventeen of RPI's 26 games have been decided by one goal or less ... Rensselaer is unbeaten in three straight games (2-0-1) and is 3-1-1 in its last five contests ... The Engineers are 4-4-2 on the road, including 3-2-2 in ECAC Hockey League road games.
St. Lawrence: With seven points in a stretch of five games in seven days, the Saint are off to their best ECACHL start since the 1999-2000 team went 11-2-1 in its first 14 league games en route the league regular season and tournament titles ... The Saints swept Harvard in the regular season series for the first time since that 1999-2000 season and also swept Dartmouth in the regular season, the first sweep of the Big Green since 2000-01 ... Freshman goalie Alex Petizian had another big weekend with 43 saves on 47 shots as he made his eighth and ninth consecutive starts ... In those same nine games, the line of Kevin DeVergilio, Brock McBride and Max Taylor has scored 11 of 31 Saints goals and accounted for 29 points.
Union: ECACHL leading scorer T.J. Fox netted his 50th career point with a third-period assist at Brown. He has 31 points on the season and is on pace to break the Union single-season points record of 37, set in the 2002-03 season by sophomores Joel Beal (17-20-37) and Jordan Webb (8-29-37) ... Union's league road sweep over the weekend marked the first for the Dutchmen since the 2004-05 campaign when Union defeated Princeton and Brown on the road in mid-November... Defenseman Michael Beynon registered his second goal of the season with the game-winner at Brown Friday.
Yale: Yale's streak of games without a forward scoring ended at three against Union when Will Engasser tipped home Robert Page's shot in the second period ... Yale outshot both RPI and Union last weekend but lost a pair of one-goal games ... The power play continues to struggle with a 1/11 weekend ... Yale and Union played its third consecutive OT game.
