Weekend Update: Tournament Play Underway

ALBANY, N.Y. -- Strong goaltending sparked first-round wins in the opening night of ECAC Hockey postseason play. The winning teams combined to surrender an average of one goal each. Fast and timely scoring ignited the winning teams’ offenses on the evening.

At No. 5 Rensselaer 4, No. 12 Colgate 2:  Rensselaer scored a, 4-2, victory over Colgate, in the opening round of the ECAC Hockey playoffs at the Houston Field House. With the win, the Engineers improve to 20-10-5 overall and take game 1 of the best-of-three series, while the Raiders fall to 7-25-3. Rensselaer (20-10-5) saw Brock Higgs score two goals, while Nick Bailen and Tyler Helfrich were credited with two assists apiece. Chase Polacek posted a goal and an assist for two points and Marty O'Grady also put the puck in the net for the Engineers. Colgate got two points from Austin Smith and Kurtis Bartliff as Smith had a goal and an assist, while Bartliff tallied a pair of helpers. Allen York (18-8-4) made 24 saves, including 11 in the second period to earn the victory for Rensselaer, while Eric Mihalik finished with 23 stops at the other end of the ice. Both teams are back in action tomorrow night for game 2 of the series at the Houston Field House (7 p.m.). A Raiders win tonight would force a third game Sunday (7 p.m.).

At No. 6 Princeton 4, No. 11 St. Lawrence 1:  Princeton team opened the postseason with a 4-1 win over St. Lawrence in the first game of a best-of-three ECAC Hockey first-round series Friday night at Hobey Baker Rink. Andrew Calof opened the scoring 1:40 into the win and Matt Arhontas had the game winner six minutes into the second. Calof and Kevin Lohry led Princeton with two points apiece in the win and Michael Sdao and Rob Kleebaum had Princeton's third and fourth goals. Sean Bonar made 22 saves for the win. Robby Moss and Matt Weninger combined for 32 saves as Princeton outshot St. Lawrence 36-22. The Saints, who were outshot 36-23, will try to keep their season alive with Saturday's game and to extend a streak of three straight post-season series wins. The last time the Saints advanced on the road in the first-round was as 10th seed in 2004, beating Yale twice in overtime, both by 4-3 scores.

No. 10 Harvard 2 at No. 7 Clarkson 1:  Brothers Danny and Michael Biega scored goals and Ryan Carroll made 32 saves to lead Harvard to a 2-1 win at Clarkson Friday night in the opening game of the teams' ECAC Hockey Championship first-round series at Cheel Arena. Only three penalties were called in the game. Clarkson was 0-for-2 on the power-play, while Harvard was 0-for-1. Junior Paul Karpowich faced a season low in shots for Clarkson, making 16 saves.

At No. 8 Quinnipiac 4, No. 9 Brown 0 :  Jeremy Langlois scored the second fastest goal in Quinnipiac and ECAC Hockey Tournament history just 15 seconds into the Bobcats' 4-0 shutout of Brown in the first game of their best-of-three ECAC Hockey Tournament First-Round series at the TD Bank Sports Center in Hamden, Conn. Quinnipiac junior goalie Dan Clarke stopped 22 shots for the shutout, the fourth all-time for Quinnipiac in the ECAC Hockey tournament. Four different Bobcats scored as Yuri Bouharevich, Zach Hansen and Kellen Jones  joined Langlois in lighting the lamp. Brown failed to generate much of anything all night, being limited to just 23 shots. A bright spot for the Bears was the play of sophomore Anthony Borelli, who came in relief of junior Mike Clemente and stopped all 15 shots he faced over 34-plus minutes.

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