St. Lawrence First Team to Claim First-Round Bye in ECACHL Men's Race
ALBANY, N.Y. -- By sweeping its ECAC Hockey League opponents over the weekend, St. Lawrence guaranteed itself at least a fourth place finish in the league standings, guaranteeing the team a first-round bye in the upcoming playoffs. Clarkson also swept, and in doing, the Golden Knights will host a playoff round -- though it isn't sure yet if it will get one of the byes. No other position has been solidified, though Cornell helped its cause with a three-point weekend, as did five other teams which picked up two points each.
St. Lawrence and Clarkson earned their wins over Brown and Yale, and players from both North Country teams were recognized by the league with weekly honors.
The Golden Knights' Shawn Weller was named Player of the Week after posting three goals over the weekend. He had a short-handed goal against Yale and also netted the game winner. Weller was helped by Grant Clitsome, who had the winning goal vs. the Bears and added two helpers against the Bulldogs.
The Saints' Alex Petizian earned Goaltender of the Week honors after allowing just one goal each night and stopping a total of 45 shots for a weekend goals against average of 0.98 and a save percentage of .957. Petizian got some extra help with Saturday's win over Brown, as Drew Bagnall scored the winning goal in overtime to earn the victory for the Saints.
Blake Gallagher earned Rookie of the Week honors after helping his Cornell squad to a three-point weekend with a tie against Union and a win over Rensselaer. The freshman center had a goal against the Dutchmen and then celebrated his birthday with three assists on Saturday. Freshman goalie Ben Scrivens claimed the tie, while sophomore netminder Troy Davenport earned the win.
Colgate also earned a win in the N.Y. Capital District, with a 3-1 win over Union on Saturday. Jesse Winchester and Tyler Burton each had two points in the game, with Winchester netting the game winner. Colgate was on the short end of things, as Rensselaer earned a 3-2 overtime win over the Raiders. Kirk MacDonald was the Engineers' top performer with a goal and a +2 performance for the game. Matt Angers-Goulet netted the winner.
Princeton split with Harvard and Dartmouth over the weekend, with the win coming against the Big Green. B.J. Sklapsky stopped all 33 shots Dartmouth put on net to backstop his Tigers to a 3-0 shutout. Dartmouth's win came over Quinnipiac, with Nick Johnson leading the way offensively, with two power-play goals. Harvard earned its victory over the Tigers behind the effort of Doug Rogers, who had two goals and an assist in the game.
In non-league games last week, Harvard fell to Boston College in the Beanpot, while Quinnipiac earned a 6-1 win over Bentley. The Crimson wraps up Beanpot action in tonight's (Feb. 12) consolation game against Northeastern
ECACHL Player of the Week
SHAWN WELLER -- Clarkson
Jr., Left Wing * South Glens Falls, N.Y.
Weller scored three goals to help Clarkson to its first ECACHL
weekend sweep of the season at Cheel Arena. Against Yale, he
tallied his first career short-handed goal and scored the eventual
game-winner.
ECACHL Goalie of the Week
ALEX PETIZIAN -- St. Lawrence
Fr., Goaltender * Kirkland, Que.
Petizian allowed just one goal each night, as he led the Saints to
a weekend sweep, clinching a first-round bye in the playoffs.
ECACHL Rookie of the Week
BLAKE GALLAGHER -- Cornell
Fr., Center * Dartmouth, N.S.
Gallagher had a goal and three assists over the weekend. His
assists came on Saturday, which was also his 19th birthday.
POSSIBLE FINISHES
Note that these are possible SEEDS, not necessarily places (i.e. Dartmouth can still tie for 1st but can be seeded no higher than 2nd).
* St. Lawrence has clinched a bye
* Clarkson has clinched a home playoff series of some kind
* Every team in the league is still alive for a possible bye.
* Every team (except SLU or Clarkson) could still get a bye, host the first round, or travel in the first round.
St. Lawrence 1-4
Clarkson 1-5
Quinnipiac 1-9
Cornell 1-10
Dartmouth 2-12
Harvard 3-12
Colgate 3-12
Princeton 3-12
Rensselaer 4-12
Union 4-12
Brown 4-12
Yale 4-12
TEAM NOTES
Brown: Sean McMonagle now has points in three straight games after scoring his first career goal against St. Lawrence ... Brian McNary had two assists over the weekend, stretching his consecutive game point streak to three games ... Dan Rosen had another busy weekend in net with 79 saves in the two games, including 46 against SLU ... Sean Hurley scored his ninth goal of the year on Friday to move into 10th all-time at Brown for goals scored by a defenseman in a season and eighth all-time for goals scored by a D-man in a career (18) ... Jeremy Russell had an assist against Clarkson, earning his 10th point of the season and is the 10th player to hit double digits this season.
Clarkson: Clarkson posted its first weekend sweep in ECACHL play this season at Cheel Arena with the wins over Brown and Yale ... Eight different Knights accounted for Clarkson's 10 goals, led by Shawn Weller's three tallies ... Six Knights are scoring 24-or-more points, including Nick Dodge (31), Weller (30) and Steve Zalewski (30) with at least 30 ... Jeremiah Crowe scored his first collegiate point with Clarkson's fourth goal against Yale.
Colgate: Union broke a 219:23 scoreless streak against Colgate at Messa Rink when it found the back of the net with 38 seconds remaining in the second period. The Raiders had shut the Dutchmen out in the teams' three previous meetings in Schenectady ... Colgate's top line has been productive recently. All three members of the line -- Marc Fulton, Tyler Burton and Jesse Winchester -- recorded three points in the weekend split ... In Colgate's last eight games, Mark Dekanich has allowed two or fewer goals in all but one game, and he owns a 1.85 GAA, .941 save pct., and 4-3-1 record during that stretch.
Cornell: Despite all the claims of inconsistent goaltending among the Big Red's pair of Ben Scrivens and Troy Davenport, the duo has posted outstanding numbers over the last few weeks. Since the Jan. 25 contest at Colgate, a span of six games, Cornell's pair has posted a .921 save pct. and a 1.97 GAA ... Before being injured on Friday, Mitch Carefoot had scored at least one point in seven of the team's last nine games ... Cornell's PK unit is again picking up steam, allowing just two PPGs over the last five games. The Big Red penalty killers held both Union and RPI scoreless with a man advantage over the weekend, holding the Dutchmen to 0-for-7 and the Engineers to 0-for-5.
Dartmouth: The top line of Tanner Glass, David Jones and Nick Johnson accounted for four of Dartmouth's five goals vs. Quinnipiac ... Glass, Jones and Johnson potted nine points in Friday's victory while Peter Boldt, Kevin Swallow, J.T. Wyman and Grant Lewis each had one point ... The Big Green welcomed back defenseman Peter Boldt on Friday after the freshman was sidelined on Nov. 17th with a broken ankle. Boldt recorded his second assist of the season against the Bobcats ... Dartmouth was shutout on Saturday against Princeton for just the second time this season.
Harvard: Harvard takes on Northeastern Monday in the 55th Beanpot consolation game ... The Crimson has won its last three league games and is unbeaten in its last four ECACHL contests ... The forward line of Doug Rogers, Ryan Maki and Mike Taylor accounted for three of Harvard's four goals in Friday's win at Princeton ... Harvard has held 10 of its last 13 opponents to two or fewer non-empty-net goals ... Kyle Richter has allowed two goals or fewer in each of the last five games and has gone 3-1-1 with a 1.78 GAA .929 save pct. in that span.
Princeton: Princeton has gone 4-1-1 in its last six games against Dartmouth ... Princeton's win over Dartmouth was its 10th of the season, matching the Tigers' win total of last season with at least six games remaining on the schedule ... Lee Jubinville, who missed Friday's game with an injury, had an assist in Saturday's game and now has a four-game point scoring streak ... Mark Magnowski scored goals in both games over the weekend. Jody Pederson had assists in both games ... Goaltender B.J. Sklapsky earned his second career shutout on Saturday. Both have come against Dartmouth.
Quinnipiac: Quinnipiac scored three short-handed goals in the win over Bentley on Tuesday. The last time that a team had scored three shorties in a contest was Air Force in its game against Alabama-Huntsville on 11/1/03 ... The Bobcats are tied with Michigan for the national lead in short-handed goals with 13 ... Cashman has tallied 11 points, all on assists, in the five games that the Bobcats have had at the TD Banknorth Sports Center.
Rensselaer: The Engineers raised more than $1900 in its weekend signed NHL items raffle, a fundraiser organized by senior captain Kirk MacDonald. All the proceeds will be given to the American Cancer Society ... With its overtime win over Colgate on Friday, Rensselaer is now 8-2 in one-goal games and 2-0-7 in overtime contests ... Junior forward Tyler Eaves returned to the lineup on Saturday after missing the previous 17 games due to injury ... Jake Luthi and Kevin Broad are both one game shy of the 100-game plateau for their careers.
St. Lawrence: The Saints improved to 8-1-0 at home in ECACHL play with their weekend sweep. The Saints swept their fourth season series of the year with their win over Yale, the most sweeps since the 2000-01 season ... Alex Petizian won his third straight game by allowing just one goal in each game. He has a 0.99 GAA and .957 save pct. in wins over Cornell, Yale and Brown ... The line of Kevin DeVergilio, Brock McBride and Max Taylor accounted for three of six Saint goals in the weekend sweep and totaled eight points. The Saints had another perfect weekend on the PK, allowing just nine shots on 12 opponent power plays. SLU has killed 33-of-35 (94.5 pct) in its last six games.
Union: T.J. Fox registered his first career short-handed tally Friday vs. Cornell ... The shorty marked the third for the Dutchmen this season and the most by Union in a season since 2003-04... The Dutchmen were held scoreless on the power play in the weekend series for the first time since last season's Cornell-Colgate series in late February ... Senior captain Sean Streich picked up his first goal of the season against Colgate Saturday ... With two goals on the weekend, Josh Coyle became the 22nd player in Union's DI history to register 55 career points.
Yale: Yale, which can finish anywhere from 4th to 12th, had a rough North Country weekend and managed just two goals ... Greg Beller and Michael Karwoski had the goals while Matt Modelski and Alec Richards had the decisions in goal ... Yale completes its home slate this weekend and finishes at Union and Rensselaer.
