College Hockey:

This Week in the ECAC: January 29, 1999

How about some good old-fashioned ECAC hockey?

That’s what we’re going to get for the next six weekends. There are only five non-conference games remaining for ECAC teams, and aside from that it’s a battle to see who gets in, who stays home and who will take home the Scotty M. Whitelaw Trophy this season at Lake Placid.

A scant few ECAC games were played last weekend, but some teams made statements.

Clarkson blitzed North Country rival St. Lawrence in the second period, showing the ECAC that the Knights will be a major factor in the six weeks ahead.

Cornell made the same statement against its travel partner Colgate, taking three points in the home-and-home series.

And Dartmouth is refusing to be left at home during the second week of March, defeating travel partner Vermont.

On the nonconference side, Rensselaer continued its hot streak with a sweep of Western Michigan. Union got a monkey off of its back with a win over Army, as did Yale and Princeton. And Brown tied Northeastern on Sunday.

Still, there was a little movement in the standings last week.

ECAC Standings

The weekly honors went to:

ECAC Player of the Week — Ryan Chaytors, Dartmouth ECAC Rookie of the Week — Denis Ladouceur, Cornell ECAC Goaltender of the Week — Matt Underhill, Cornell

This week the fun heats up. Everyone will be even-up on league games after this weekend, with the exceptions of Rensselaer and Harvard, and it should be a real dogfight. And did we mention a little thing called the Beanpot on Monday?

Last Week: 6-4 Season To Date: 79-54, .594

St. Lawrence (12-9-1, 7-2-1 ECAC, T-2nd) and Clarkson (10-9- 1, 7-3-0 ECAC, 4th) at No. 8 Rensselaer (15-5-1, 8-2-1 ECAC, 1st) Friday – Saturday, 7:30 pm – 7:00 pm, Houston Fieldhouse, Troy, NY Clarkson (10-9-1, 7-3-0 ECAC, 4th) and St. Lawrence (12-9-1, 7-2-1 ECAC, T-2nd) at Union (3-15-2, 1-8-1 ECAC, 12th) Friday – Saturday, 7:30 pm – 7:00 pm, Achilles Rink, Schenectady, NY

With apologies to Coolio and "Weird Al" Yankovic, this weekend should be a "Goaltender’s Paradise" in the Capital District. You have Joel Laing of Rensselaer, leading the league in GAA with a 1.48 mark and sporting a .951 save percentage.

Then there’s Eric Heffler of St. Lawrence, with a 1.99 GAA and .934 save percentage. Don’t forget Golden Knight Shawn Grant’s 2.01 GAA and .928 save percentage, or Brandon Snee of Union, who earned his first collegiate win — a shutout — last weekend.

This is shaping up to be weekend of spectacular ECAC play: three of the four aforementioned teams are in the top four of the conference. A pivotal weekend, eh?

The back end of the annual battle of the North Country saw St. Lawrence come out on the wrong end when the Golden Knights of Clarkson exploded for five goals in the second period to win 5-4.

"From a fan standpoint, it had to be an exciting game, but from our side of things, it was a frustrating experience," said Saint coach Joe Marsh. "You can look back and see some chances and some plays which might have made for a different outcome, but you have to give Clarkson credit, they didn’t panic when we went up 3-0 and then really got it rolling in the second period.

"We contributed to our own demise in that second-period stretch, but Clarkson really fed off the crowd’s emotion and took their game up a notch or two."

The Saints were up 3-0 in the game, but penalties and an unusual breakdown by Heffler helped contribute to the loss.

"The important thing for us is to come back strong in our road games this weekend and it certainly isn’t going to be any easy task playing at Rensselaer on Friday night," said Marsh.

"There is a lot of hockey to go and we are going to try to take things one game at a time. We let a couple of points slip away on Saturday night, but there are a lot of points left to get."

Those points that the Saints let slip went to Clarkson. The Golden Knights took advantage of the Saints in the second period with goals by five different players — two on the power play. The home crowd at Cheel Arena, a sold-out bunch of 3,865, also helped the Knights.

"The crowd was awesome — they made the hair on the back of my neck stand up," said Clarkson coach Mark Morris. "I’ve never had that feeling [in Cheel]…ever. I remember what it was like in Walker [Arena] and this was the closest this place has ever gotten to that.

"I was very pleased with our effort, we showed a lot of grit."

It was a good experience for the youthful Golden Knights. The youth on the team has led to some moments that have made fans anxious, but a game like that can do wonders for your team.

"Consistency is always the factor when you have the youth that we do," said Morris. "We have a small group of seniors so we’ve had to rely on the underclassmen to come along very quickly."

Willie Mitchell is one of the young Golden Knights. He returned to action last weekend and promptly scored the game-winning goal in the second period. Another is freshman goaltender Shawn Grant, who has put up some impressive numbers thus far.

"He’s won the spot from the onset of the season," said Morris. "It took a little time for him to adjust because most freshman goaltenders just have to experience the pace of Division I hockey."

The last eight games for Rensselaer must seem like dj vu each time out. With a sweep of Western Michigan, the Engineers have run their winning streak to nine straight games. In the last eight, they have allowed just five goals, including four shutouts by goaltender Laing.

"Not at all," said head coach Dan Fridgen when asked if dominance was getting old. "Again, we’re building our offense off of our defensive situations. At times there are breakdowns but our goaltenders are there to make the saves for us. They’re playing real well, real well. I think we’re playing solid defensively, everyone’s committed to it and we’re getting timely scoring from the offense.

"We’re not getting too excited, we’re not getting too flat, we’re just keeping an even keel, which you have to do."

Defense is the key, something that wasn’t present too much in the first 12 games of Rensselaer’s season. But it looks like the Engineers have bought into playing the defensive game.

"I think defense is an attitude," said Fridgen. "You can go over your defensive coverage in practice until you are blue in the face. Everybody knows how to play defense and it’s just a matter of attitude. Right now that attitude has spread throughout the team, everyone’s on the same page with it. You preach it as a coach but that’s not the way it always funnels through and that’s where your leaders come in. The captains are doing a good job of reiterating what I am saying and when you have success it’s not a hard sell."

With a nine-game winning streak on the line this weekend against two big North Country rivals and a 11-1-1 record in the last 13 games, the Capital District is abuzz for the eighth-ranked Engineers.

"The guys in there are not paying a lot of attention to the streak," said Fridgen. "They are taking it game by game. We’ve been concentrating on our game and playing our game, playing our systems and sticking to it. We’ve been doing a good job on the forecheck and forcing turnovers and getting success on our transition."

Talk about monkeys on backs — in Union’s case it was King Kong. The Dutchmen got the big beast away last weekend with a 2-0 victory over Army, snapping a winless streak that dated back to Nov. 20 and covered 12 games. The win was only the third of the season for the Dutchmen.

"I’m happy for our players," said head coach Kevin Sneddon. "They’ve played well for the last few games and it was satisfying to see some end results.

"This game is all about confidence and hopefully we got some of that back."

Another King Kong that went back to Monster Island was the location of the win. The Dutchmen captured their first victory of the season at Achilles against Army and s