Saints Hold onto Lead; Harvard and Brown Make Biggest Jumps in Standings
ALBANY, N.Y. -- St. Lawrence continues to lead the ECACHL standings again this week after picking up two points in a weekend split. Harvard and Dartmouth earned the only sweeps of the weekend, and both teams benefited from their four-point gains. The Crimson made the biggest jump of the week, moving from a 10th-place tie to a sixth-place tie. The Big Green moved up one spot in this week's standings and is now tied for fourth place. Brown also jumped up a couple of spots in the standings and is now tied for ninth place after earning a win and a tie over the weekend. There are three weeks left to the regular season before the playoffs begin.
The Saints and travel partner Clarkson both split their games with Colgate and Cornell. SLU, the Golden Knights (2nd) and Big Red (t-4th) helped their positions in the standings, while Colgate dropped one (6th).
Friday night in Central New York started off with the home teams winning, as Cornell downed Clarkson 5-1 and Colgate beat St. Lawrence 6-2. Saturday saw the visitors take the points, with the Saints and Golden Knights earning identical 2-1 victories over Colgate and Cornell, respectively.
Jesse Winchester led Colgate to its victory, as he scored his first career hat trick and added an assist in the win. All four of his points came in the third period, as the Raiders rebounded from a 2-1 second period deficit to win the game. Cornell got three points (1goal, 2 assists) from senior Mitch Carefoot on Friday, and freshman Ben Scrivens earned the win after making a career-high 26 saves. For the Saints, Jordan Hack scored a goal each night and was key to the team's first season sweep of Cornell since 2001. Clarkson's Steve Zalewski netted the winning goal vs. Colgate and set up the Knights' lone goal at Cornell.
Harvard and Dartmouth earned their weekend sweeps at home. The Crimson started its week off with a tie at Quinnipiac on Tuesday and then followed up with victories over Union (5-2) and Rensselaer (3-1). The Big Green earned also swept the Engineers and Dutchmen, 5-2 and 3-2, respectively. The Crimson's Kyle Richter was named Co-Goaltender of the Week after going 2-0-1 for the week. He made 66 total saves and posted a 1.62 goals against average over the three contests. Teammate Alex Meintel was a top performer for Harvard on offense, as he had four goals over the weekend, including a hat trick against Union. Dartmouth's leaders were J.T. Wyman, who had four points over the two wins (three goals, one assist), and Mike Devine, who had 53 saves in net. The weekend sweep was the Big Green's first of the season over league opponents.
Brown went 1-0-1 on the weekend behind the effort of freshman netminder Dan Rosen. Rosen, who was named Co-Goaltender of the Week, posted a 1.92 goals against average after seeing 85 shots and making 81 saves against Princeton and Quinnipiac. Another top performance came from sophomore Ryan Garbutt, who had three goals on just four shots against the Bobcats along with an assist. It was his first career hat trick.
Yale also faced Princeton and Quinnipiac and earned a win over the Tigers and took a loss against the Bobcats. Freshman Sean Backman earned both Rookie of the Week and Player of the Week honors after leading his team and the league in goals and points for the weekend. He had five goals, including a hat trick vs. Quinnipiac, and an assist on the weekend. One of his goals against the Bobcats was a short-handed effort. Mark Arcobello also provided offense for the Bulldogs, with two goals (both against Princeton) and an assist on the weekend.
Quinnipiac started its week with the tie vs. Harvard and then surged ahead of the Bulldogs on Friday for a 6-4 victory. Ben Nelson and Reid Cashman each picked up five points over the weekend for Quinnipiac. Nelson had three goals and two assists, while Cashman had five helpers.
A full slate of league games take up next weekend's schedule, but there are two non-league games earlier in the week. Harvard plays Boston College tonight (Feb. 5) in the first round of the Beanpot, while Quinnipiac takes on Bentley tomorrow (Feb. 6).
Harvard is seeking its 11th Beanpot and first since 1993. The opening-round games, as well as next week's (Feb. 12) championship game are being televised on NESN.
ECACHL Player of the Week
ECACHL Rookie of the Week
SEAN BACKMAN -- Yale
Fr., Forward * Cos Cob, Conn.
Backman led the ECACHL over the weekend in both points and goals
scored. He had three goals vs. Quinnipiac (including a SHG), and
had two goals and an assist in the win over Princeton.
ECACHL Co-Goalie of the Week
KYLE RICHTER -- Harvard
Fr., Goaltender * Calgary, Alb.
Richter went 2-0-1 for the week, totaling 66 saves and five goals
for a .930 save percentage and a 1.62 goals against average.
ECACHL Co-Goalie of the Week
DAN ROSEN -- Brown
Fr., Goaltender * Syosset, N.Y.
Rosen stopped 81 total shots in a tie vs. Princeton (1-1) and a win
over Quinnipiac (6-3). He posted a 1.92 gaa and a .953 save pct.
TEAM NOTES
Brown: Sean Hurley, Jeff Prough and Ryan Garbutt all had four points on the weekend ... Freshman Sean McMonagle picked up his first career point with an assist on classmate Jeremy Russell's goal ... With his 16th and 17th career goals, Hurley now ranks ninth all time at Brown for career goals scored by a defenseman ... The Bears scored three power-play goals on Saturday against Quinnipiac, matching a season-high ... Brown's penalty-kill was also strong, going 8-8 against Princeton and 9-11 against Quinnipiac, including scoring a SHG.
Clarkson: Clarkson lost for only the second time since mid-November with Friday's 5-1 defeat at Cornell ... The Knights bounced back nicely the following night with a 2-1 win at Colgate, snapping a four-game winless stretch against the Raiders ... Steve Zalewski, who tallied the game-winner at Colgate, has a five-game point-scoring streak (1-5-6) ... Clarkson has 12 players with double digits in the point column, including six players with 23-or-more points.
Colgate: Colgate's 6-2 come-from-behind win against No. 17 St. Lawrence was its first win this season when entering the third period without a lead ... Colgate's top line of Marc Fulton, Tyler Burton and Jesse Winchester combined for five goals and 12 points in the win. Each of them contributed four points: Fulton posted a career-high four assists, Winchester netted his first career hat trick and added a helper, and Burton had two goals and two assists ... Freshman Ethan Cox, who organized the team's Make-A-Wish Weekend, netted his first two collegiate goals with one in each game. The collection that Cox organized brought in more than $750 for the Make-A-Wish Foundation.
Cornell: Since the first of the year, senior Mitch Carefoot has shouldered much of the load for the Cornell offense, scoring eight points in the eight games he has played. Carefoot scored his first career three-point game on Friday in the win over Clarkson (1g, 2a) ... Jared Seminoff missed the first two games of his Cornell career over the weekend after being diagnosed with mononucleosis ... Since coming on in relief of starter Troy Davenport on Jan. 25 at Colgate, Ben Scrivens has posted a .939 save percentage and a 1.44 GAA.
Dartmouth: Dartmouth swept its first league weekend of the season. The Big Green defeated RPI 5-1 completing its season sweep of the Engineers and then exacted revenge over the Dutchmen with a 3-2 victory ... Six Big Green players had multiple-points on the weekend, led by J.T. Wyman with four points and Kevin Swallow with three ... Goalie Mike Devine made 53 saves in the two games picking up his fourth career win over RPI and his second against Union ... Dartmouth is now 11-1-3 when scoring first, is 8-0-2 when leading after the first period and 9-0-1 when ahead after two.
Harvard: Harvard went 3-for-6 on the power play in both weekend games ... Friday's win against Union was Ted Donato's 50th as Harvard's coach, and Saturday's was the 1,250th in program history ... The Crimson opens play in the 55th Beanpot Monday night against Boston College ... Harvard is undefeated in its last three games and 6-3-1 in its last 10 . Jon Pelle has registered points in four straight . Alex Meintel has scored eight goals in the last eight games.
Princeton: Princeton was winless in three games last week (0-2-1). It's Princeton's first such streak since mid-November ... Princeton's 1-1 tie at Brown on Friday was the Tigers and Bears' fourth-straight overtime game ... Princeton garnered 47 shots at Brown, its second-highest shot total of the season. Princeton is 0-1-1 in the two games it has taken the most shots in this season ... Lee Jubinville had points in all three games last week, scoring goals against Robert Morris and Yale, and having an assist at Brown ...Freshman Kevin Crane notched his first career point at Yale, giving each of Princeton's nine freshmen a point this season.
Quinnipiac: Defenseman Reid Cashman handed out five assists last week to boost his career total to 108 assists. He now needs just six helpers the rest of the way to set the program record for assists ... Quinnipiac capped its first-ever season sweep of Yale with a 6-4 win on Friday. The Bobcats have swept Yale and Union in league play so far this year ... David Marshall, who scored twice on Friday against Yale, has six goals in four career games against the Bulldogs.
Rensselaer: Friday night's game against Colgate is Ned Harkness Night when the former legendary coach of the Engineers will be added to the prestigious Ring of Honor at the Houston Field House ... Kirk MacDonald will be presented with his Hockey Humanitarian Award finalist trophy during Saturday's "White Out" game vs. Cornell ... The hockey team will raffle off signed NHL jerseys at both games this weekend, with all proceeds going to the American Cancer Society. In addition, the Engineers will donate their half of the 50-50 drawing.
St. Lawrence: SLU's 2-1 win at Cornell's Lynah Rink was the first since Jan. 27, 2001 and gave the Saints their first sweep of Cornell since the 2001 season ... The Saints have now swept the season series in three of five completed series, their best since the 2000-01 team swept four league opponents ... Goalie Alex Petizian saved his third penalty shot of the season in the second period of Saturday's game at Cornell ... Jordan Hack had goals in each of the weekend games and has three goals and three assists in his last eight games since taking the place of Charlie Giffin, who is out with a concussion. Hack had one assist in 23 games coming into the current season.
Union: Union set a program record for PPGs in a season this weekend with a total of 39 through 28 games this season ... Forty-five percent of Union's goals this season have come with the man advantage ... T.J. Fox is inching closer to Union's DI season points record. He has recorded 32 points on 12 goals and 20 assists ... Union held Dartmouth 0-for-6 on the power play Saturday evening and has not given up a ppg against the Big Green in the last 20 opportunities spanning three games.
Yale: Sean Backman managed Yale's first hat trick since January 2005 despite the Bulldogs putting just 16 shots on target against Quinnipiac ... A struggling Bulldog power play broke out with five PPGs last weekend, including a season-high three against the Tigers ... Matt Modelski, who needed 20 saves in the third period, stopped 32 shots and beat Princeton in his first start since November 2005.
