Clarkson and Colgate Earn Four League Points with Wins
Cornell moves into first with three-point weekend
ALBANY, N.Y. -- Clarkson and Colgate swept their ECAC Hockey League opponents over the weekend to pick up four points in the standings. Cornell also had a solid weekend with a win and a tie to move into first place. Brown and St. Lawrence also had success on the weekend, as they split their games. Princeton, while playing non-league games, also brought home points, as the Tigers earned a win in the Commissioners' Cup series.
Clarkson picked up its two wins on the road, sweeping Yale and Brown. The Golden Knights' posted three straight goals in the second period en route to victory over the Bulldogs. Player of the Week David Cayer netted the game winner and assisted on the other three goals to lead his team to victory. Junior classmate Nick Dodge also had a hand in the team's four goals, scoring one and also posting three assists. Teammate and Goaltender of the Week David Leggio stopped 35 shots in the win. The next night against the Bears, Cayer netted the game winner again, with Leggio making 28 saves.
Colgate earned its four points in the comfort of home, downing Union and Rensselaer at Starr Rink. Jesse Winchester had an outstanding weekend for the Raiders, as he posted six points on two goals and four assists. Two of his helpers came on the weekend winners. Tyler Burton scored early in the second period to win the game against the Dutchmen, while Marc Fulton scored at 13:45 in the second on Saturday to beat the Engineers. Mark Dekanich was in goal for both victories and stopped a total of 45 shots on goal
Cornell was also at home and fought back from a three-goal deficit to tie the Engineers at 3-all on Friday before blanking Union 6-0 on Saturday. Rensselaer jumped out to a 3-0 start in the first period on goals by Seth Klerer (two) and Kurt Colling. The Big Red started its come back early in the second and scored two more in the third, including Raymond Sawada's tying marker at 18:16. Both teams put two shots on net in the extra period, but neither were able to get the go-ahead score. Saturday night was all Cornell, as the Big Red posted at least one goal in each period to earn the win. Taylor Davenport's game winner came less than a minute into the game and was scored on a delayed penalty. Goaltender Ben Scrivens earned his first collegiate victory in the game, making 22 saves.
The three points on the weekend moved the Big Red into first place in the league standings (11 points), just one point ahead of St. Lawrence, Quinnipiac and Dartmouth.
Brown started off its weekend on a high note, earning a three-goal, 4-1 win over St. Lawrence. The Bears had a 3-0 lead after two periods of play, and Matt Vokes tally early in the second held up as the game winner. Sean Dersch, Antonin Roux and Brian Ihnacak all had multiple points in the game to lead the team. The next night against Clarkson was a hard-fought 2-1 battle with the Bears finding themselves on the losing end. Netminder Dan Rosen turned in solid performances both nights and earned Rookie of the Week honors. He had 24 saves in the win vs. the Saints and stopped 33 shots against Clarkson for a total of 57 stops.
St. Lawrence bounced back on Saturday to earn a 5-2 victory over Yale. Solid goaltending by Kain Tisi (with 28 saves) and goals from four different players led to the victory. Mike McKenzie led the way offensively with two goals, including the game winner.
In non-league action, Princeton traveled South for a two-game series with Alabama-Huntsville. The Tigers earned a split, with the 4-2 win counting toward the Commissioners' Cup Series. Brandan Kushniruk had the winner early in the second period on Friday with assists going to Lee Jubinville and Darroll Powe. Powe also had a goal in the game along with another assist to lead the team with three points. Zane Kalemba earned the win between the pipes with 20 saves. Saturday's game had Princeton goals from Mike Moore and Max Cousins, but the Chargers were able to hold off the Tigers for the win.
Earlier in the week, Harvard faced Vermont at the Bright Center with the Catamounts winning in overtime. Alex Biega had the Crimson's lone goal in the game.
Taking a quick look at an early week league matchup, Clarkson and St. Lawrence will battle each other tomorrow (Tuesday, Dec. 5) evening in Potsdam. While the Golden Knights lead the all-time series between the two North Country rivals 105-57-7, the Saints have won at least one of the regular season games each year since 1998-99 and are 9-4-1 in the regular season against Clarkson since the 1999-2000 season. St. Lawrence has won five straight at Appleton Arena, all one-goal decisions. Clarkson won in Potsdam last year 3-2. The Saints last won in Potsdam in January of 2005, taking a 7-2 decision. SLU is 3-3-1 in Potsdam since 1999-2000.
ECACHL Player of the Week
DAVID CAYER -- Clarkson
Jr., Right Wing * Longueuil, Que.
Cayer had a hand in five of Clarkson's six goals over the weekend
and netted both game winners. He finished the weekend with two
goals and three assists for five points, as the Golden Knights
extended their winning streak.
ECACHL Goalie of the Week
DAVID LEGGIO -- Clarkson
Jr. * Williamsville, N.Y.
Leggio earned two wins and stopped 63 shots on the weekend. He
posted a 1.00 gaa and a .969 save pct. in the victories.
ECACHL Rookie of the Week
DAN ROSEN -- Brown
Fr., Goaltender * Syosset, N.Y.
Rosen earned the weekend split for the Bears, stopping 57 of the 60
shots he faced. He posted a 1.52 gaa and a .950 save pct.
TEAM NOTES
Brown: The Bears handed St. Lawrence its first ECACHL loss of the year on Friday. With the win, Brown has equaled its win total from all of last season ... Sean Dersch posted three assists in the win, matching a career-high ... Sean Muncy scored a goal for the third straight game (vs. SLU), making Brown 4-0-0 when he scores ... With 12 points on the year, Antonin Roux needs just one more point to equal his total from last season, which is also a career-high.
Clarkson: Since suffering two losses at St. Cloud by a combined 11-2 score, the Knights have out scored their opponents 15-4 during their current four-game winning streak, equaling their longest winning stretch during head coach George Roll's four-year tenure at Clarkson ... The Knights' 2-1 win at Brown was their first victory this season when scoring three or fewer goals (1-5-1) ... Clarkson has killed off 24 straight opponent power plays, including 22 in the weekend sweep ... Five of the Knights' six weekend goals came on the power play.
Colgate: Nine of Colgate's 12 goals came during power-play situations, including all five against Rensselaer ... All but one of Jesse Winchester's six points on the weekend came on the power play, and both of his goals came when CU's opponents were skating with just three men (4-on-3 versus Union, 5-on-3 versus Rensselaer). The Raiders finished the weekend 6-for-23 on the power play (26.1%).
Cornell: Cornell's six-goal output against Union was the most goals the Big Red has scored since defeating Quinnipiac by the same score last January ... Cornell's shutout, the second of the season, marked just the third time this season the Big Red did not allow a PPG ... Jared Seminoff tallied three assists on Saturday, giving him 12 for the season and ranking him fifth in the nation in points by a defenseman.
Dartmouth: The Dartmouth men's hockey team will participate in the tenth annual Skate with the Big Green on Dec. 10. While spending the afternoon skating with members of the community the Big Green will also host its second Toy Drive of the season. Toys can be brought to Thompson Arena as the team plans on taking well over 10 bags to the Children's Hospital at Dartmouth (CHaD) over the holiday break.
Harvard: Alex Biega ranks third nationally among freshmen defensemen with 0.75 points per game ... Harvard is off for 18 days before returning to action Dec. 16 against Dartmouth ... Freshmen Alex Biega (4-5-9) and Doug Rogers (2-7-9) lead the Crimson in scoring ... Biega has scored a goal in three of the last four games and has seven points (3-4) in the last six games.
Princeton: Princeton split its second non-league series of the season, a pair of games at Alabama-Huntsville ... Princeton is 1-2-1 this season in non-league games with scheduled games remaining against Nebraska-Omaha, Minnesota State and Robert Morris ... Princeton extended its season-long unbeaten streak to three games with a win on Friday. The streak was snapped on Saturday night ... Darroll Powe had a four game-goal scoring streak and a seven-game point-scoring streak snapped Saturday night.
Quinnipiac: The Bobcats were away from action over the weekend, but will return to the ice this coming weekend with home games against Union and Rensselaer.
Rensselaer: Rensselaer was shorthanded 26 times in its two weekend games, including numerous extended 5x3 instances. The Engineers were awarded 13 power plays in the two games and scored four extra-man goals ... Jake Morissette had his career-best seven-game point streak (5g, 5a) snapped on Saturday night ... With its tie at No. 13 Cornell, Rensselaer is now 1-1-2 against nationally-ranked opponents.
St. Lawrence: St. Lawrence bounced back from its loss at Brown Friday with its fifth straight victory at Yale. Casey Parenteau snapped a 1-1 tie at 15:01, Mike McKenzie scored the eventual game winner at 16:09 and Kyle Rank gave the Saints a 4-1 lead at 16:30 to complete the flurry of goals ... The weekend split is the start of a five-game road trip for the Saints which includes five games in a 10 day period.
Union: T.J. Fox's seven-game point streak came to an end Saturday. He registered 12 points on three goals and nine assists and had four multiple-point games during the streak ... The Dutchmen spent 19:56 minutes on the power play against Colgate, a season-high in league games ... Union's first goal against Colgate, which came 4:47 into the third period, broke a 205:11 scoreless streak for the Dutchmen against the Raiders.
Yale: Alec Richards had played every minute for Yale until being pulled after the second period on Dec. 2 . This is the first time Yale has lost three consecutive games since last winter. The Yale-Clarkson game had 77 minutes in penalties, but the 13 power-play chances may be the most in Yale history ... The four PPG allowed were a season-high; both SLU and Dartmouth tallied four PPGs against Yale in 2005-06.
