College Hockey:

This Week in the ECACHL: Jan. 26, 2006

The biggest series last weekend fizzled out somewhat as both Cornell and Colgate held serve and protected their home ice from Clarkson and St. Lawrence. The four games had ramifications both on the run up to the ECACHL regular season title and on the PairWise Rankings.

This weekend will feature another string of games with PairWise implications for ECACHL teams (see below), as Clarkson and St. Lawrence engage in a home-and-home series and Harvard returns to action after a two-week break for exams by hosting Rensselaer and Union.

Dartmouth and Rensselaer are both on the bubble of being Teams Under Consideration (anyone with an RPI at or above .500), so a pair of losses by either team could have implications on the fates of those ECACHL teams with PairWise positions within the top 14 teams — Harvard, Cornell, and St. Lawrence, primarily.

Cornell and Colgate, fresh off their big wins last weekend, will host Brown and ever-improving Yale. The Bulldogs are undefeated over their last seven conference games and have gone 6-2-2 since the start of December.

Meanwhile, Princeton has another weekend off before returning to action on Tuesday at Robert Morris, and its travel partner Quinnipiac will play host to CHA foe Niagara for a pair of games.

A Passion for Service + a Pinch of Time-Management

Last Friday the Hockey Humanitarian Foundation announced the seven finalists that have been selected for the 2006 Hockey Humanitarian Award. The foundation gives the award annually to recognize a college hockey player whose volunteer efforts have had a positive impact on the community. Princeton senior goaltender Eric Leroux is one of two ECACHL athletes, along with Clarkson women’s forward Lindsay Williams, to be selected as a finalist.

Eric Leroux is a finalist for the Hockey Humanitarian Award (photo: Princeton sports information).

Leroux, who has been enjoying his best season statistically during his last year at Princeton, has a range of volunteer activities that have enriched the lives of those he has served. Of his many efforts, the most broad-ranging is the work he has undertaken each of the past two summers with the Foundation for Sustainable Development. In Kenya this past summer Leroux devoted his time to working with school-age children and helped to educate them about sexually transmitted diseases. The previous summer Leroux worked in Ecuador at a malaria clinic.

On the less global stage of New Jersey, Leroux has also worked to improve the lives of needy children in Princeton and the surrounding communities by serving as a Big Brother, organizing donations of medical supplies to the needy, and organizing his teammates on a project to direct used hockey equipment to youth hockey programs. The team effort is named PUCK — Providing Underprivileged Communities and Kids — and last year it helped to coordinate the donations of more than $5,000 worth of equipment to a youth hockey program in the city of Baltimore.

Leroux’s passion for service work has impressed Princeton coach Guy Gadowsky, who was demonstrably excited, even over the phone, about the subject of Leroux’s nomination.

“I love that award,” said Gadowsky. “It’s a tremendous accolade. It’s what college athletics are about — its being a whole person, not just an athlete.”

“It sounds like a clich, but he really does help out humanity,” Gadowsky said. “He’s an amazing guy.”

Just as impressive as the quality of Leroux’s efforts, though, is the sheer quantity of his projects, both local and international — and the way he’s able to balance his dedication to serving the less fortunate with playing college hockey at a high level and being a solid student at one of the country’s most competitive universities.

“His time-management skills are absolutely tremendous,” said Gadowsky. “He’s very goal-oriented — he knows what he wants to do and he gets it done.”

ECACHL Honor Roll

Colgate, Yale and Quinnipiac all swept their opponents last weekend, thanks in large part to contributions from the members of this week’s Honor Roll. Colgate’s Marc Fulton provided five points in wins over Clarkson and St. Lawrence, a pair of performances which earned him recognition as the ECACHL’s Player of the Week.

In what has become a recurring event, Yale freshman netminder Alec Richards was honored as the league’s Goaltender of the Week for his role in a pair of Bulldog wins, especially a 5-0 shutout of Rensselaer on Saturday night. And Quinnipiac freshman forward David Marshall was named Rookie of the Week after a four-point weekend against RIT.

Player of the Week

For the second time this season Colgate’s Marc Fulton was named POTW, and his five-point showing against Clarkson and St. Lawrence helped propel Colgate to a home sweep against the North Country pair.

On Friday night against Clarkson, Fulton assisted on his team’s first goal of the game early in the second period and then tallied the game-winner himself less than four minutes into the third. The next night against St. Lawrence Fulton was even better; again he assisted on his team’s first goal, and he was credited for an assist on a power-play goal off the stick of Peter Bogdanich near the end of the second period.

Fulton saved his best for overtime, though, when he wristed a hard shot past St. Lawrence netminder Justin Pesony less than a minute into overtime to give Colgate a 4-3 win.

“Marc Fulton is a pretty dangerous player,” said Colgate coach Don Vaughan. “Obviously his goal in overtime this weekend [against St. Lawrence] was great, but he also helped to set up two other goals that night and one the night before.”

“He was working the boards really effectively, making crisp passes, really doing everything,” Vaughan continued. “And when your team sees their best shooter working hard in all the other areas, it really gives everyone a boost.”

Fulton is tied with Tyler Burton for the team lead in points with 28; through two dozen games this season he has nine goals and 19 assists. Already Fulton has improved on his sophomore season where he scored 14 points, including five power-play goals. And over the past two seasons he has become an increasingly important part of the Colgate power-play unit.

“Marc Fulton has got a great shot — a pro shot — and we try to put him in a position [on the power play] to use that,” said Vaughan.

Goaltender of the Week

Through six games this season, the Yale Bulldogs stood 0-6-0. But since the start of December Yale has gone 6-2-2 and has notched a series of wins over conference opponents. At least part of the credit is due to the markedly improved play in net by freshman netminder Alec Richards.

“Obviously he’s playing very well for us,” said Yale coach Tim Taylor. “He’s getting big saves, he keeps us in every game, and there haven’t been many soft goals.”

Over the past few weeks Richards has become a semi-permanent part of the Honor Roll as he helped the Bulldogs to weekend sweeps of Princeton and Quinnipiac two weeks ago and of Union and RPI this past weekend.

Richards best performance of the season came on Saturday night against Rensselaer when he stopped 29 shots en route to the first shutout of his career and Yale’s first shutout of the season.

Though it has taken time to develop, Taylor feels that Richards’ improvements in net and the increasingly strong play of the Bulldogs in their own defensive zone has built up a cycle of confidence in both goaltender and defense.

“The confidence in himself that he’s developing in net leads to more confidence from the guys playing in front of him,” Taylor said. “And so our team is playing well in front of him, too.”

Rookie of the Week

Currently second on his team in points, Quinnipiac freshman forward David Mars