Harvard and Dartmouth Tied Heading Into Final Weekend
Playoff teams set -- Seedings TBD
ALBANY, N.Y. -- With one weekend to go in ECAC Hockey League regular season play, the eight playoff teams have been determined. There are still plenty of possibilities for the final standings, however, including the top spot, as Harvard and Dartmouth are tied for first place. St. Lawrence joins the two as the third team guaranteed home ice for the first round of tournament action.
The fight for the last spot will be a dog fight, as four teams are still mathematically able to grab it. Yale, Princeton, Brown and Colgate can all finish 4-7 in the standings. The only matchup between these teams happens in the lone mid-week game on the schedule, when the Tigers head to New Haven for a Wednesday night contest vs. the Bulldogs.
The big matchup of the coming weekend happens Friday night, as Dartmouth travels to Harvard for a 7 p.m. contest. With both tied at 32 points apiece, this game could very well determine the winner of the regular season and No. 1 seed for the tournament. Both teams are also nationally ranked, which will add extra attention from around the country.
In games played this past weekend, Colgate and the Big Green were the only teams to earn four points, while the Crimson took three.
Colgate earned its two wins on the road, sweeping Union in Schenectady. Amanda Barre led the way with five points in the two Ws, picking up two goals (including the game-winning goal on Saturday) and three assists. Rookie teammate Kara Leene had Friday's game winner.
The Big Green netted one-goal wins over Yale and Princeton last week with junior netminder Kate Lane earning Goaltender of the Week honors for her stellar efforts. She stood tall this past weekend by making 44 saves in the two contests and has now won her last three with a 1.67 goals against average and a .936 save percentage.
Harvard and St. Lawrence saw their game end in a 4-all draw last week. Chelsea Grills' game-tying goal was a short-handed effort at 13:27 in the third and neither team was able to score the rest of the way.
The Crimson also earned a 5-0 win on Friday night over Clarkson. Two athletes were instrumental in Harvard's three-point weekend and were awarded for their efforts. Junior Julie Chu, who was named Player of the Week, had two goals and an assist vs. the Golden Knights to record her 200th career point. She picked up another goal and two assists vs. St. Lawrence.
The Rookie of the Week also turned in multiple points, as Sarah Vaillancourt had four assists against Clarkson and added two goals in the draw with SLU. The duo also picked up points earlier in the week against Boston College in the Beanpot, with Chu scoring a goal and getting two assists, while Vaillancourt picked up four point with a goal and three assists.
Brown and Clarkson also earned victories over the weekend, and they were important ones. The Bears upended St. Lawrence Friday night by a score of 4-2 behind the two-goal effort of Jessica Link. The next night, Clarkson earned a 3-2 win over the Bears to earn enough points to secure the final spot in the upcoming playoffs. That's noteworthy for a couple of reasons: 1. It is the Golden Knights' first year in ECACHL play, and it is the program's second year playing NCAA hockey.
Princeton and Yale round out the list of teams with Ws under their belts last week. The Tigers and Bulldogs both shut out Vermont for their two weekend points.
Along with the Princeton-Yale and Dartmouth-Harvard games this week, Union closes out its year at Princeton in two games; Vermont will play Brown and Harvard; Dartmouth also faces Brown; and Clarkson and St. Lawrence travel to Central New York for games at Cornell and Colgate.
Follow all the action with live stats from most games and postgame stories from all the contests online at http://www.ecachockeyleague.com/.
