It's Crimson vs. Big Red in Quarterfinals
_Photos/Harvard/Harvard_Lineup.gif?max_width=360)
CAMBRIDGE, Mass.-The Harvard men's hockey team will travel to
Ithaca, N.Y., to face Ivy League rival Cornell for a best-of-three
ECAC Hockey quarterfinal series Friday-Sunday at Lynah Rink.
The Crimson, the ninth seed in the league tournament, is coming
off a first-round sweep at Princeton and will go on the road for a
second straight week. Harvard and Cornell, seeded second in the
league and ranked ninth nationally, will meet Friday and Saturday
nights at 7 p.m., with a deciding third game occurring Sunday at 7,
if necessary.
In the other quarterfinal series, No. 11 seed Brown travels to
top-seeded Yale, seventh-seeded Quinnipiac visits No. 3 seed Union
and No. 5 seed St. Lawrence heads to No. 4 seed Colgate. The series
winners will advance to the ECAC Hockey championship weekend March
19-20 in Albany, N.Y.
The Harvard-Cornell series pits ECAC Hockey's two top-performing
programs in the playoffs. The Big Red has the best tournament
winning percentage (.674, 87-41-4) among league members and has won
a league-high 11 playoff titles. The Crimson ranks second in both
categories, with an 85-44-4 (.654) all-time playoff record and
eight championships.
The Crimson and Big Red are meeting for the eighth time in the
last 11 ECAC tournaments but are facing off before the semifinals
for the first time in a decade. The teams were matched up in four
of the last eight league championship games, with each side winning
twice, and alternated league titles from 2002 to '06. Harvard has
won the last two playoff matchups. Cornell has won three of the
squads' four previous quarterfinal meetings, most recently with
back-to-back 4-3 home victories in 2000.
Harvard and Cornell first met Jan. 8, 1910, a 5-0 Crimson win in
New York City. Cornell owns a 67-58-9 all-time series lead and won
both regular-season matchups in 2009-10. The Big Red rallied for a
6-3 win Nov. 7 at Lynah and scored two quick second-period goals
and added an empty-netter for a 3-0 victory Feb. 19 at Harvard's
Bright Hockey Center.
