Harvard Claims ECACHL Regular Season Title
Quarterfinal action opens up this weekend
ALBANY, N.Y. - The ECAC Hockey League wrapped up the regular season over the weekend and the Harvard Crimson claimed its third straight league title after finishing with 36 points. The Crimson open up the playoffs as the No. 1 seed and will play host to a quarterfinal series, as will No. 2 Dartmouth, No. 3 St. Lawrence and No. 4 Yale. The Crimson, Big Green and Saints were all top seeds last year as well, while the Bulldogs' finish is the best-ever in program history.
It was a down-to-the wire finish for Harvard, as it entered the weekend tied with Dartmouth for the top spot in the league standings. To make for an even more exciting finish, the two squads squared off against each other on Friday, with the Crimson coming out on top 4-3 after 60 minutes of battle. Sophomore blue liner Lindsay Weaver scored what proved to be the game winner at 18:56 in the second period. The Crimson claimed the crown outright after downing Vermont on Saturday.
Yale claimed its fourth-place finish last Wednesday when it downed Princeton 4-2 at Ingalls Rink. This weekend's games mark the first time the Bulldogs have hosted a playoff series, as the team's previous best finish was sixth. They enter the series looking for their first-ever playoff victory.
St. Lawrence picked up three points over the weekend in its final road games of the year. Emilie Berlinguette led the Saints with five points in the games vs. Colgate and Cornell and earned Player of the Week honors or her efforts. She has now scored at least one point in 19 straight games. Brown's O'Hara Shipe claimed Goaltender of the Week honors after earning her first career shutout in a 3-0 win over Vermont and in leading the Bears to a 3-1 victory over the nationally ranked Big Green.
Princeton won two of its three games last week to earn the No. 5 seed in the tournament. Rookie of the Week Marykate Oakley helped her Tigers with three goals and three assists in the two wins over Union.
This week's quarterfinals feature best-of-three series at four campus sites. No. 1 Harvard will play host to No. 8 Clarkson, while No. 2 Dartmouth entertains No. 7 Colgate. The No. 3 St. Lawrence Saints welcome No. 6 Brown to Appleton Arena, and No. 4 Yale faces a familiar foe in No. 5 Princeton. Game times at the Bright Center and Ingalls Rink are set for 7 p.m. on Friday and 4 p.m. on Saturday and Sunday (if necessary). Due to men's playoff games also taking place at Dartmouth and St. Lawrence, game times for contests played at Thompson and Appleton arenas will be a bit earlier. The Big Green will play at 4 p.m on Friday and then 2 p.m. Saturday and Sunday (if necessary), while the Saints will play at 3:30 Friday and 4 p.m. the rest of their series.
Follow all the action with live stats from all the games and postgame stories from all the contests online at http://www.ecachockeyleague.com/.
