It took seven tries, but the crowd at Boardwalk Hall finally saw an interesting game.

Last year’s games were decided fairly early- and Friday’s opening games lacked any drama, for the most part.

But Saturday’s championship was a different story, as Union and Harvard stood scoreless entering the final frame.

The Crimson’s top-ranked power play whiffed on all three of their chances in the opening period, and then Harvard didn’t muster a shot on Union goalie Troy Grosenick for the first seventeen minutes of the second.

Union’s aggressive forecheck kept Harvard pinned in their own zone for most of the period, but give credit to sophomore Raphael Girard. The Crimson goalie displayed excellent lateral quickness, sliding across the net to save all 27 shots he saw in the first two periods.

Still, the Dutchmen kept with it, and Daniel Carr’s goal at 9:34 prove to be the game winner. Josh Jooris added an empty-netter to seal it at 19:38.

Union, winner of two straight Cleary Cups, now has the program’s first ECAC Championship, and will be the No. 1 seed at Bridgeport. They’ll look for the program’s first win in the NCAAA Division I tournament Friday at 3 p.m., taking on fourth-seeded Michigan State.

The Dutchmen are playing well in virtually every aspect of the game right now, and should be a formidable opponent this weekend. (Barry Melrose predicts a Union-Boston College final, for whatever that’s worth).

“They have a good blend of special teams and goaltending and they seem to be pretty healthy, which is not that easy to do at this time of year,” Harvard coach Ted Donato said of Union. “We’ll be pulling hard for them and I think they can do some damage.”

Cornell rebounds

Harvard’s 6-1 shelling of the Big Red Friday was just as bad as the score looks. Still, give the Big Red credit, as they were able to execute a quick turnaround and earn an NCAA tournament bid with a 3-0 win over Colgate in the consolation game, a game Cornell head coach Mike Schafer expressed his disdain for following Friday’s loss.

That game wound up being the most important of they season for Cornell, and they answered, although Colgate seemed to struggle getting up for what was ultimately a meaningless game to close their season.

Standout senior Austin Smith was held to a lone assist on the weekend, and the lack of TV coverage coupled with Colgate’s elimination means he won’t get a chance to be seen on the national stage.

What that means for his Hobey Baker candidacy has yet to be seen, but count head coach Don Vaughan in his corner.

“The statistics speak volumes,”  Vaughan said of Smith’s nation-best 36 goals. “These aren’t secondary assists. People sometimes lose sight of the fact that the award is more than on-ice talent and I think Austin Smith embodies all of the other qualities that the Hobey Baker Award stands for. Great player, and I hope that the committee gives him consideration because he deserves it.”

Final Thoughts

Speaking of TV, it really was a shame this weekend wasn’t on the air. Credit to the hard working RPI TV crew who traveled for the weekend.   These guys were at the rink hours before each day’s game, and were still there once the place emptied out.

Still, you’d hope the league can hammer something out for next year regarding a broadcast deal.  As several coaches said last week in pre-tournament conference call, it’s really a shame the league dropped the ball on this one.

Attendance. I’ve never been to a non-Atlantic City championship, so I can’t speak to the crowds at other locations.  But Boardwalk Hall was far from full for all four games this weekend. Brian and I were bombarded with a ton of questions on the live blog about potential tournament locations, although note that there’s still one year left on the deal between the league and Atlantic City.  Figures for the day were announced after the conclusion of the second game, with Friday drawing 3,462, and Saturday 4,131.

It seems tough to find a suitable location that combines the best of all worlds, so why not rotate between on-campus sites each year on the current deal expires?  That might not be the most ideal situation, but then again, none of the other scenarios are exactly a home run.

Edit: If you missed anything from this weekend, head over to rpitv.org for the archives of all four games.Thanks to Kyle Mackenzie for passing the link along. Also check back this weekend, as I’ll be in Bridgeport for coverage of Friday and Saturday’s games.

Well now, Friday wasn’t quite as competitive as we were expecting, was it? Union and Harvard each put a woodshed whuppin’ to Colgate and Cornell, respectively, and the result is the first Dutchmen-Crimson finale in league history.

No. 1 Union vs. No. 3 Harvard

The offenses were prolific, the goaltending solid and timely, and we are left with a very intriguing championship bout in which season-long favorite Union barely edged Harvard, 1-0-1 in the season series, with the only decisive result being a 2-0 Dutch victory at Frozen Fenway in January.

The Daniel Carr-Jeremy Welsh-Josh Jooris line has been outstanding for Union of late, but Harvard can counter with an equally lethal combo of Marshall Everson, Alex Killorn and Alex Fallstrom. The Crimson have found their goalie in sophomore Raphael Girard, who has a .948 save rate this postseason, while UC’s Troy Grosenick continues to be Troy Grosenick – and Ken Dryden (since he won the league’s Dryden Award as goaltender of the year).

Special teams will, of course, be pivotal in this one. Each side scored on the power play yesterday and held its opponent punchless on the kill. The Crimson power play is still the best in the country (27.9 percent effective, 3.5 percentage points – and three spots – ahead of Union). The Crimson PK, however, ranks a distasteful 47th (79 percent) to Union’s 13th (84.4).

Harvard has started slow most of the year, allowing 26 first-period goals in league play – the most of any team in the league in the opening period. Meanwhile, Union scored 35 first-period goals against conference opponents, far and away the highest total in the ECAC. Might this, too, be a tipping point?

When this one’s all said and done, the focus probably won’t fall on the goaltending battle, or even necessarily the special teams. This is likely to be a very tight, cautious, perimeter battle between two teams who would much rather rush up the gut every time. This game may well turn on a shot blocked, or not blocked… a puck cleared, or failed to clear. The players and coaches all know this, and it will be fascinating to watch the drama unfold in each and every player’s decision-making processes at every moment he is on the ice.

I like Union, and the Dutchmen seem like the good bet. I like Harvard, for how the Crimson have been able to overcome obstacles that recent Crimson teams simply couldn’t. And I really like how these two teams could make a complete fool of me, and are capable of playing extremely up-tempo and frenetically paced hockey any time at all.

My pick? Union, 3-2… but I wouldn’t put money on it if you held a gun to my head.

Big Red on the bubble

As noted in yesterday’s Game 2 feature and notebook, Cornell head coach Mike Schafer is experiencing a full-blown case of what psychologists call “cognitive dissonance”: He hates the consolation game for its all-too-frequent pointlessness, but here he is, needing a consolation victory to boost his team into the NCAA’s thanks to the vagaries of the PairWise Rankings.

It appears that with a win or tie, the Big Red can spare their goodbyes and postseason exit interviews for at least another week. A loss, however, likely boots Cornell from contention.

As many fans have noted since last night’s 6-1 train wreck against Harvard began to look inevitable, does this Cornell team really have the stones to refocus and get the job done? The Big Red beat Union on the final Friday of the regular season, giving the Ithacans a shot at the Cleary Cup and even, perhaps, the No. 1 seed entering the league playoffs. Instead, the Red sleep-walked through their Senior Night finale against Rensselaer while Union blasted Colgate to claim the regular-season title outright.

It’s a fair question, and one that must certainly be asked. Colgate may not be playing for much this afternoon – any boost they can get senior superstar Austin Smith in his Hobey Baker candidacy, and a final 60 minutes on the ice together – but to knock travel partner and rival (at least in the Raiders’ eyes) Cornell straight into golf season would be a special kind of schadenfreude.

Late with the picks, so you know they’re gonna be good.

Right?

No. 1 Union vs. No. 4 Colgate

Friday’s matinee – 4:30 start time – pits the Cleary Cup champs against the redemption-minded Raiders. The Dutchmen took both games from ‘Gate this year, though it is worth pointing out that those contests were within four weeks of each other, bookending the month of February. Quinnipiac took the Raiders to the rubber match last weekend before Colgate’s top line and goalie Eric Mihalik closed the deal, while Union swept cross-town rival Rensselaer to make it to Atlantic City for the first time.

Union has only lost twice in 2012 – a 3-2 stunner at Brown in mid-January, and a 3-2 loss at Cornell in the last week of the regular season. The Dutchmen are 13-2-2 this (calendar) year, and have shown no signs of slowing down. Colgate, meanwhile, has its first-half performance to thank for its first-round bye, as the Raiders dragged themselves through a 7-11-1 2012 thus far and are only 2-5-0 in their last seven.

That said, both of these teams are clearly explosive, and though it seems clear that Union has greater depth at its disposal, the sheer quality of Colgate’s top line – Joe Wilson, Chris Wagner, and Austin Smith – could be strong enough to win on any given night. Union goalie Troy Grosenick is among ten finalists for the Hobey Baker Award; Colgate’s Smith is clearly a frontrunner. I don’t care if I’m right with this pick or not: It’s sure to be fascinating, watching these experts stare each other down all evening.

I’m taking consistency and depth over front-loaded power: Union, 4-2.

No. 2 Cornell vs. No. 3 Harvard

Cornell took the season series, 1-0-1, and though the teams were only separated by one seed, the Big Red edged the Crimson by a significant margin (five points) in the standings. Cornell downed Dartmouth in a deuce last weekend, while Harvard slugged it out with defending Whitelaw Cup champs Yale in a three-game thriller.

So why does Harvard have any realistic chance at all? Two words: Killorn, and Girard.

Senior center Alex Killorn planted two goals and four assists on Yale last weekend despite being held scoreless on Friday. His line (centering Marshall Everson and Alex Fallstrom) posted 14 points in the final two games of the series (both Harvard wins), including 10 – four goals, six helpers – in Sunday’s series-clinching rout. Sophomore goalie Raphael Girard stopped 42, 48 and 39 shots in the quarterfinal contests, allowing seven goals on 136 shots for a save rate of .949 against a very potent Yale attack.

Obviously, Cornell has been rock-solid all year long, backstopped by the exceptionally reliable sophomore Andy Iles (.920, 2.08 overall; his league numbers are slightly better) and bolstered by a typically stalwart defensive corps, led by aggressive junior Nick D’Agostino (8-12–20 in 30 games). The offense has been tenable if not terrifying (fourth in the league with 3.00 goals per game), but has been significantly hobbled in its efficacy with the loss of Rookie of the Year Brian Ferlin, who was shelved for the year with season-ending surgery last month. This puts the burden even more squarely on Iles and the defense, but if there’s anyone that knows how to play shut-down hockey, it’s Mike Schafer and Cornell.

I believe that this is the end of the line for this year’s Crimson, who made great improvements this season and look to be on the right page for the future… but I don’t feel they have the temerity or experience to take the best of what Cornell has to give – and they will give it, for at least part of the game – and still find a way to eke out the win.

Big Red, 2-1.

No. 1 Union vs. No. 2 Cornell

For all the beans… a rematch of another, very significant contest that took place just three weeks ago. (Geez, has it already been three weeks?) In that tilt, the then-first-place Dutchmen hit Ithaca with an opportunity to claim the Cleary Cup on enemy ice: All they needed to do was tie.

And they couldn’t. In a dramatic reversal of so much of Cornell’s 2011-12 campaign, it was the Big Red who rolled heavy in the third period with two goals to Union’s one and extending the regular-season title chase for one more night.

Of course, the Red proceeded to lay a stinker on Senior Night against RPI, while Union pasted five on Colgate in Hamilton to claim its second consecutive (and, again, second ever) Cleary Cup.

I believe that the lessons from that Friday night will resonate louder than the Big Red band on Saturday, but which team will internalize those lessons best is the team that will triumph. Cornell: Can the Big Red play 60 minutes again, a test they have repeatedly failed this year? Union: Can the U finally win one on the big stage, a postseason stage, erasing memories of last year’s home quarterfinals loss and NCAA first-round exit?

It is the last in a season of very tough, ridiculously meaningless predictions. I rarely bet against the Big Red, but this year, this game…

Union, 4-2.

Don’t change that channel, ECAC Hockey fans!

In fact, don’t even bother turning on the TV, for the league’s championship weekend will not be televised this year. The league confirmed today that it could not find a suitable carrier for its flagship event, to be held for the second time at Boardwalk Hall in Atlantic City, N.J.

“We were on CBS Sports last year, and they opted for another route, for lack of a better word,” said ECAC Hockey commissioner Steve Hagwell in a telephone interview Monday morning. “NBC is doing the Hockey East games, and we explored some regional outlets and looked at producing games on our own… and there were just some obstacles that presented themselves.”

Hagwell explained that the league was effectively left without a dance partner when all was said and done, as national and regional outlets all seemed to have pre-existing commitments for next weekend’s airtime.

“We’ve produced games in the past on our own, but (when you’re doing that) you’re looking for an outlet nationally. NBC and CBS opted for other issues, then you’re still looking at regional outlets: NESN has Hockey East; Comcast Sports New England has a commitment to the Celtics; MSG has the Rangers, Knicks, etcetera, so you’ve got to find a viable outlet to put it on.

“[Carriers] have their decisions to make from their own business standpoint, and we have ours. Even locally, Time Warner Albany as an example – just as an example – is doing the New York state high school basketball tournament. Networks have their own commitments. We wanna be on, and we’d love to have somebody want us on.”

Hagwell confessed true disappointment that the final weekend of the league’s season would go un-broadcast, leaving ECAC Hockey as the only Division I league without a TV partnership for its title game.

The games will be streamed live via the internet. Union plays Colgate at 4:30 on Friday, followed by Cornell versus Harvard. The losers play a consolation contest on Saturday afternoon, followed by the championship game that night.

Nate Update: Click here for more information about the online broadcast, which is being handled by RPI TV. The league reached out to the student-run organization, according to Reilly Hamilton, the station’s executive producer.

Nate: Update: Here’s the reaction of the coaches from this afternoon’s teleconference held in preparation of the tournament.

Mike Schafer, Cornell:  “It’s really disappointing for our fans and alumni base that depends on those TV games. It’s a big failure of our league not to have those games on TV. [The league] needs to look at why this happened and make sure it doesn’t happen again.” Edit: The original quote from Schafer made mention of going to Atlantic City as a guarantee for TV slots. That’s something I  misinterpreted from my notes, when in fact he was talking along the lines of guaranteed money for the league. Apologies for any confusion.

Don Vaughan, Colgate:  “It’s extremely disappointing [that there were issues with the network]. I didn’t find out about it until a couple weeks ago. I find it hard to believe that a network would not want to pick up the championships, especially with the quality of the opponents in the games.”

Ted Donato, Harvard: “It’s always nice to be on TV; I think it’s a great exposure for the student-athletes involved. They’re certainly deserving of [it].”

Donato added that with the top four seeds advancing to the weekend and an NCAA tournament berth on the line, those games are ones you’d certainly like televised.  Union’s Rick Bennett declined to elaborate on the issue, saying that was a question for the league office.

Well, we have our final foursome: Union, Cornell, Harvard and Colgate. Look familiar? They were the top four teams in the regular season, too. That, ladies and gentlemen, is why byes are important.

Time and a half

Surprisingly, only three of the weekend’s 10 games went to overtime, and two of those games were between Harvard and Yale. There were five overtime sessions in all, but the grand prize for most-overworked rink crew has to go to the gang at Lynah Rink.

The crew took in 3:50 (actual game time) of playoff hockey on Friday night, when Cornell edged Dartmouth 4-3 in double-OT on the game’s 98th shot. It was the longest game ever played at Lynah, going 97:40 by the game clock. The staff did a bang-up job setting the facility up for Saturday afternoon’s NCAA quarterfinal match between Boston University and the Big Red, but that game didn’t go quite as planned either: Not 20 hours following the conclusion of the men’s game, the women played a marathon 3OT contest that ended in an 8-7 Cornell victory a full 4:31 after it had started. Game 2 of the men’s series was delayed about half an hour as a result, and I’m sure there was nobody happier to see the Cornell men complete the sweep – in regulation – than Lynah’s exhausted facilities staff.

Kudos to all those who had a hand in the Big Red’s Wild Weekend Ride. You earned your Sunday off, and then some.

Drama-free Sunday

Harvard and Colgate each concluded their home seasons with a bang in a pair of decisive Game 3 victories. The Raiders slowly pulled away from punchless Quinnipiac, downing the Bobcats 4-0 thanks to six points from the loaded first line of Joe Wilson, Chris Wagner and Austin Smith. Meanwhile, the Crimson pumped six unanswered goals by previously solid Nick Maricic and the Yale Bulldogs to run away with an 8-2 decision in that rubber match. Junior David Valek had a hat trick, scoring once against each of Yale’s goalies, but wasn’t even the first star thanks to a four-point performance by first-line center Alex Killorn.

The fact that Colgate and Harvard won is not quite as interesting to me as how they won – each game was pretty much in the bag by the start of the third period after two days of ultra-tight playoff hockey. I have no particular insight or analysis to explain it, but it’s always been funny to me how often decisive games like those end up as blowouts despite all signs pointing to one final knock-down, drag-out thriller. Food for thought.

There are no sure things in A.C.

As befits a gambling haven, there will be no safe bets for ECAC Hockey teams next weekend. Despite strong seasons and good positions in the PairWise, Union and Cornell will have to earn their bids to the NCAA tournament or hope for a little help elsewhere around the country.

This is to say that there are scenarios out there (play with them yourself!) that have the Dutchmen and Big Red on the wrong side of the bubble, should either fail to win the Whitelaw Cup. That may seem remarkable given Union’s current status as D-I’s sixth-ranked team in the PWR, but such is the case.

Not surprisingly, Harvard and Colgate – each ranking in the low 20′s – will probably need to win the title in order to gain entry to the national tourney. For PairWise neophytes, the standard rule of thumb is to presume that at the end of next weekend, the top 15 teams in the PWR standings (which uses a mathematical formula to rank all D-I programs by winning percentage, strength-of-schedule, and success against other contenders) will be invited to the Big Dance. (Even though 16 teams complete the field, Atlantic Hockey has not – to date – been strong enough to place a team in the top 16 in the PairWise, hence the 15-team generalization.) Complications arise if another, lower-ranked team scores an automatic bid by winning its league tournament – as would be the case with Bowling Green in the CCHA, for example. Then the pool for at-large bids would shrink to 14, and so forth.

Long story short: No one from ECAC Hockey has a lock on a top-15 finish at this point, so there is still some very meaningful hockey to be played from every Jersey-bound corner.

Final regular reason record: 66-65

Playoff record (series): 2-2

As the numbers show, I’ve been downright mediocre with my picks (including a 6-6 mark on the final weekend of the regular season). So take these for whatever they’re worth.

All series are best-of-three and start at 7 p.m. The four remaining teams will move on to Atlantic City for the ECAC Championship next weekend. I’ll  keep it brief here;  check Brian’s column  for a more detailed look at the quarterfinals.

Brian: I’m updating before Friday’s puck drop, so I’m keeping my picks brief so as not to miss the initial few moments of the Yale at Harvard series. Sorry for the lack of insight… but then, I doubt any of you really expect that of me anymore anyway.

No. 10 Rensselaer at No. 1 Union

Both Union and RPI fell victim to Colgate’s playoff run last season, yet each team still made the NCAA tournament thanks to an at-large bid. There’s no way the Engineers get in this year without winning the Whitelaw trophy, and they’ll have to go through a Dutchmen team that’s gone 3-0 against them this season, outscoring them by an aggregate of 15-4.

Interesting to note that RPI is staying at a hotel, according to Ken Schott of the Schenectady Daily Gazette, despite the fact that Union is their closest league rival.  By doing so, they’ll look to avoid any distractions and focus solely on their play on the ice, something that’s helped RPI turn it around in the second half. But they’ll need more than that to take down a tough Union squad.  Union in 3. ( 4-2, 1-2 (OT), 4-1).

Brian: Can’t count out the Engineers, especially with so much on the line in this rivalry round. I feel this one going three… shocker, right? Union, two games to one.

No. 9 Dartmouth at No. 2 Cornell

Nothing the Big Green did at any point in the season’s final month suggested they’d be here, never mind be the only ECAC team to get a clean sweep in the first round. Their sweep of St. Lawrence also marked their first playoff series on the road.  Can they strike for the second time in as many weekend? I see the Big Red being too tough here. Cornell in 2. (4-1, 6-2)

Brian: Dartmouth has underwhelmed all year. Correction: Dartmouth had underwhelmed all year, right up until the last two weeks, when the Big Green came to life and discovered the fine-tuned connections that make penalty-killing situations tenable. Cornell has been, somehow, a little less “Cornell” than I’ve been accustomed to seeing in Februaries (and now, Marches) past, but I think this weekend marks the end of the line for the current edition of the Big Green. Red in a sweep.

No. 6 Yale at No. 3 Harvard

Feel comfortable picking a winner here? Me neither. The Crimson took a narrow 4-3 win at home in January, while Yale glided to a 7-1 win at Ingalls Feb. 18, starting a 5-1-1 stretch, including last weekend’s series win against Princeton.  Twelve of Harvard’s 29 games have gone to overtime this year.  There’s no ties in the postseason, so they’re going to have finish off those draws if they want to get to Atlantic City. Yale in 3  (4-2, 3-4, 5-4 (OT).

Brian: Man, this one’s got three-gamer written all over it. Harvard has been good (not great, but good) at home, Yale has been pretty not good on the road, and overall these squads feel as though they’ve sort of traded statuses this season: The Crimson are solid and relatively consistent; the Bulldogs, inconsistent to a maddening degree. Look to goaltending as the crapshoot difference-maker this weekend. My pick? Harvard wins Sunday.

No. 5 Quinnipiac at No. 4 Colgate

The Raiders are making their third-straight trip to the conference quarterfinals, including the second time in three years through a bye. They didn’t get a weekend off last year, but still wound up becoming the first No. 12 seed in league history to make it to the championship weekend.

Meanwhile, Quinnipiac has won a playoff series ever season since joining the league in 2005-06, but  has only gotten past the quarterfinals once, in the 2006-07 season. Current assistant coach Reid Cashman was on that team, which lost to Clarkson in the league championship.

The Bobcats rebounded from a dud in the opener against Brown Friday, where they were outworked by the Bears in every facet. Leading goal-scorer Jeremy Langlois returned for the last two games of that series, and gives the Bobcats another threat outside of the Kellen/Connor Jones and Matthew Peca line.

Colgate’s top line of Joe Wilson-Chris Wagner-Austin Smith has been outstanding, and they’ve gotten solid secondary scoring from Robbie Bourdon and Austin Mayer.

Quinnipiac is incredibly sound in their own end, but I think Colgate has just a touch more scoring and should move on the Boardwalk for the second year in a row. Colgate in 3 (3-1, 3-4, 5-3).

Brian: As much as it pains me to say, I fear that Colgate may have run out of gas at the end of the regular season. Austin Smith and Chris Wagner can only carry the load for so long, and against only so decent a defense. QU rolls deep, and – if goalie Eric Hartzell and his accompanying blueliners can contain the Smith-Wagner combo – looks like a likely “upset” pick for the weekend. Not that I’m obliged to make one – I clearly didn’t last week, and look where that got me – but I just don’t think that the Raiders have easy access to the next gear necessary to make a deeper run. Q-Cats sweep.

The opening weekend of the ECAC playoffs is in the books.  Here’s  a look at the matchups in the best-of-three quarterfinals next weekend:

No. 10 Rensselaer at No. 1 Union

No. 9 Dartmouth at No. 2 Cornell

No. 6 Yale at No. 3 Harvard

No.5 Quinnipiac at No. 4 Colgate

Extra time needed

Three of the four series this weekend went to three games…and then some. RPI and Clarkson went to triple overtime Saturday night before Ben Sexton’s goal at 113:48 into the contest gave the Golden Knights the win in the sixth-longest game in NCAA history.

It was a little less dramatic Sunday, as the Engineers used three three period goals to take a 4-1 win and move on to face Capital Region rival Union this weekend.

Saturday’s Princeton and Yale matchup was the only other overtime game this weekend. This one was slightly less dramatic, as the Tigers’ Andrew Calof scored his second of the night just 33 seconds into the extra time.

Calof added two more  Sunday, but a short-handed Princeton squad couldn’t overcome a hat trick by Antoine Laganiere, who finished with five goals in the series.

Give credit to a young Tigers team, who only skated 11 forwards and five defenseman all weekend.  Two late goals by Yale, including a beautiful  empty-netter by Brian O’Neill, made the final score of 7-3 seem more lopsided than it really was. There were a combined twenty two penalties between the teams.

“We were a couple guys short and had a couple forwards on ‘D,’ but at the end of the days it’s hockey,” Tigers head coach Bob Prier said. “It’s not an excuse in any way. I’m proud of the way our guys played. They were out of their comfort zone a little bit, but they did a good job.”

Quinnipiac rebounds

Bobcats head coach Rand Pecknold was in shock of how poorly his team played in 4-1 loss to Brown Friday night in Hamden.

The win was the first in five tries in the playoffs against Quinnipiac for the Bears, who closed the season with a ten game winless streak.  It certainly didn’t look it Friday night, as  Brown protected the puck and simply outworked the Bobcats most of the game.

But Quinnipiac came back with a 3-0 win Saturday, and held off a third period rally to advance to the quarterfinals with a 4-2 win Sunday. Leading goal-scorer Jeremy Langlois returned for the Bobcats Saturday after being out since Feb. 17.

Just one sweep

Darmouth scored ten goals and Jody O’Neill turned away 68 shots in two games as the Big Green recorded the only sweep of the weekend on the road against St. Lawrence.  Darmouth joined RPI as the two lower-seeded teams to advance  this weekend.

The Big Green were among several team that entered the postseason with goalie time-shares. However, the only change in net in the opening round was Sunday at Yale, where Bulldogs head coach Keith Allain opted to start Jeff Malcolm for the first time since Feb. 11

Allain,  who is stranger to rotating goaltenders,  said postgame it was a tall task playing three games in one weekend, and that he has faith in either Malcolm or Nick Marcic to get the job done.

No time for dawdling; it’s playoff hockey. Nate compiled some brief notes on the matchups in his weekly column, and I’ll try not to be redundant.

Let’s cut to the chase.

Dartmouth at St. Lawrence

This series pits a hobbled underachiever against a Johnny-come-lately in what has got to be the toughest pick of the week.

The Dustin Walsh-less Big Green only won consecutive league games thrice all year – once in November, once in January, and once in February. November’s double-W’s was the only four-point weekend that Dartmouth was able to manufacture all year. That doesn’t bode well for the ninth seed this weekend. The Big Green attack has had no pop, only scoring three goals or more in four of its last nine games (2-5-2).

In Canton, the Saints were about as streaky as they come: 0-5 out of the gate, then 5-1, then 0-4, followed by a 3-1-3 stretch across the holiday break. SLU then slumped to another 0-4 run, then back up to 5-0, then two losses and a win to end the regular season. Every time the Saints bottom out, we write them off; every time they soar, we presume that the team and its interim coaching staff are finally on the same page. Where are they now? Statistical analysis is almost meaningless with a team as streaky as this, but one set of figures that does stand out is that over the past eight games, the Saints are 10 for 34 on the power play while holding opponents to only 3/37.

My take: St. Lawrence has been anything but consistent this year, but Dartmouth has been anything but… well… good. The Big Green have utterly failed to capitalize on a skilled and experienced stable this season, and it goes beyond key injuries at bad times. That’s a young team’s excuse. Playoff hockey is a bit of a different animal of course, and Dartmouth rode that beast all the way to Atlantic City last year. They could do it again. But I don’t like their chances, given an utterly lackluster regular season. Saints in a sweep.

Rensselaer at Clarkson

As Nate wrote on Wednesday, the Knights must be bummed to have to play this round after sitting in fourth place at this time last week. Fortunately, it’s still a home series, and ‘Tech is nearly golden at Cheel Arena this season: 10-3-2 at home overall, 6-3-2 against league competition. The team hasn’t fared so well in recent weeks, but it’s not the worst slump of the year for the Green & Gold: That would be the little five-game hiccup bridging the holiday break in which Clarkson went 0-4-1. Returning Knights (players, fans, and otherwise) are hoping to erase recent playoff scars, as Clarkson hasn’t won a playoff series since 2006-07 (0-4, including 0-2 in Potsdam).

It’s the season from hell for RPI, but hope springs eternal as the Trojan icers slowly turn around a catastrophic first half. The Engineers are 7-5-3 in their last 15 outings and 6-4-2 in their last dozen league games; though the offense still struggles, almost any production at all is an improvement over the way RPI started the year. The defense and goaltending have been good, if not great – the ‘Tute was torched for 19 combined goals in three games against Union, Colgate and Princeton in the last six weeks – but the team as a whole finally seems to be demonstrating an understanding for the way head coach Seth Appert said it needs to play in order to win. Score a couple, grind out a dirty W.

My take: The Knights swept the regular-season series with the Engineers, and will certainly enjoy the home-ice advantage. Goalie Paul Karpowich has had good nights and bad, but he is reliable and has the capability to keep Clarkson in tight games. I absolutely believe that RPI can go to Potsdam and steal a game, but I wouldn’t bet on the visitors taking two of three. Clarkson in the rubber match, two games to one.

Princeton at Yale

The Tigers limped to the finish line, 1-4-1 in their last six under first-year head coach Bob Prier. The young team was understandably led by young players (sophomores Andrew Calof and Jack Berger led Princeton in scoring), the goaltending tandem was serviceable if not impressive, and – once again – the Tigers were adjusting to life under a new regime. Those factors made for a challenging, though not outright disappointing year in the Garden State.

Meanwhile in what was repeatedly declared a “rebuilding year” in New Haven, the Bulldogs finished the regular season on a 3-0-1 run and now hope to lean on considerable postseason experience to make another run at the Whitelaw Cup and a third-straight NCAA berth. As has been the case in recent years, the offense has been good-to-great, while defense and goaltending have been sub-par. (As a New Orleans Saints fan, I can tell you that I’ve seen this phenomenon before.) Yale scored four goals or more 14 times (in 29 games), including in three of its last four contests. Unfortunately, the Elis also allowed four or more 10 times… though not once in the last four games. Perhaps Yale is rounding into form at just the right time.

My take: There’s not much to like about Princeton’s chances this weekend: The Tigers have been dreadful on the road (3-8-0 in league play) and are stumbling into the playoffs, while Yale is on a tear and has enjoyed considerable success at Ingalls in recent history. That said, keep an eye on Princeton’s goaltending tandem of Sean Bonar and Mike Condon… if they can get inside Yale’s heads and steal a few big saves, the Tigers may be able to rally against the risk-happy Bulldogs. Nonetheless, I’ll take Yale in two.

Brown at Quinnipiac

It has not been a storybook year for Bruno. A midseason hot streak sputtered out just in time for the ECAC stretch run, and the Bears flopped into an 0-8-2 slump from which they have yet to break free. Brown’s last win was a shocking 3-2 home upset of Union on January 21, but injuries and inconsistencies took their toll as Bruno has mustered only 22 goals in its last 10 games (including six in a gut-wrenching 7-6 loss at Colgate). It’s no wonder, given Brown’s massive struggles, that head coach Brendan Whittet lost his cool at Quinnipiac last weekend when yet another variable failed to break in his team’s favor. The odds are heavily stacked against the visitors, but it’s not insignificant to note that at at this point, every team is 0-0 again.

Brown is a familiar opponent for the Bobcats: Not only did the teams tilt against one another last Friday (QU won 4-1), but this will be the third playoff series between the ‘Cats and Bears since 2007-08. All were played in Hamden, and all were won by the Bobcats. Rand Pecknold’s team has a lot going for it, including home ice, a flat-lining opponent, a warm streak (3-1-1 in its last five), and some modest consistency that – if it can be translated to the playoffs – should spark a successful run over the next few weeks. To wit, Quinnipiac hasn’t lost consecutive games since before Thanksgiving (10-5-4 overall since then). If QU can maintain that pattern and open with a win, the Bobcats will be on to the next round.

My take: Brown is nothing if not tenacious – and I mean that in an almost literal sense. If the Bears aren’t aggressive, assertive and the hardest working team on the ice, they may as well not show up. Whittet’s teams have gone upset-happy before, and anything can happen in the playoffs… but given their magnificent inability to scratch out a W in the last two months, and QU’s dominance at home, I don’t foresee a very long series. Last year’s Brown-QU series went 4-0, 4-0. I’m not seeing that again, but it may not be far off. Quinnipiac sweeps.

Nate Owen’s picks are available in abbreviated Twitter form, right here. Let us know what you think… he’s @Nate_Owen41, I’m @SullivanHockey.

Well that’s it, folks: Another ECAC Hockey regular season in the books. I’m not breaking any news tonight – all the important stuff was available for your eager digestion last night – but here are a few things that caught my eye about the weekend, and the weeks ahead.

Big Red buckling?

Cornell topped Union in a thriller at Lynah on Friday… but almost inexplicably laid a dud against a more energetic Rensselaer squad on Saturday. The 2-1 overtime loss to the Engineers – coupled with Union’s win at Colgate – blew the Big Red’s bid for their first Cleary Cup since the 2004-05 season.

Many Cornell fans will assert that the Cleary means little to them, given the Big Red’s rich tradition of postseason and NCAA success. To which I reply: Perhaps it’s time to reconsider.

I assure you that the title would’ve meant something to the players and coaches, as would the top seed; to take even the most pragmatic perspective, should Cornell make the finals against Union in Atlantic City, the Dutchmen would get the advantage of making the last change thanks to being a higher seed. Beyond that, Cornell hasn’t claimed the No. 1 seed in seven years, and have only won one Whitelaw Cup (awarded to the league tournament champ) once since then. Cornell is 2-3 in the NCAA’s since its last Cleary, with no Frozen Four appearances.

And perhaps the most troubling aspect of the Red’s performance this weekend? They won a big game, but couldn’t follow through with a sound performance… in front of the home crowd… on Senior Night… the following evening.

That, to me, would be troubling.

Raiders belly-flop into a bye

Perhaps the most fortunate team of the weekend wasn’t the Dutchmen, who won their second consecutive (and indeed, second ever) regular-season title outright despite failing a gut-check game at Lynah. No, instead it is likely that the loudest sigh of incredulous relief was emitted by the players in the other locker room Saturday night… by the team that Union had just beaten on its own ice, 5-3.

Colgate backed about as hard into a bye as any team could, dropping four straight games by a 14-8 aggregate but finishing fourth thanks to holding the league-wins tiebreaker against Quinnipiac. This is only the second losing streak of the year for the Raiders (the other also being a four-game skid in early January) and the offensive production has been almost as dismal over this stretch as it had been a month and a half ago.

On the positive side, Colgate will obviously take the time off to recuperate and refocus. Hobey front-runner Austin Smith finished the regular season with 52 points, being held scoreless in only three games, and tied alumni Andy McDonald and Tyler Burton for 16th on the program’s career scoring list with 155 points. Next up on that list? Chris DeProfio, with 159 career points.

No “home” road series this year

Unless RPI survives the first round as the lowest remaining seed, there will be no “pseudo”-road series in this year’s playoffs.

That is to say, it is very unlikely that any underdog will enjoy a night’s rest in its own bed between games: St. Lawrence can’t play Clarkson, Yale can’t play Quinnipiac, Colgate can’t play Cornell, and Brown can’t even play Harvard in the first two rounds. The only practically-home road trip possibility over the next two weeks will be if Union draws RPI in the quarterfinals.

That’s good news for the home teams. Bad news for the underdogs… and their fans.

Bonus note: SLU stifles Dartmouth for home ice

The Saints were pretty bummed to leave Boston without a point on Friday, but they turned the tables on the Big Green in Hanover on Saturday in grabbing the final home-ice spot right out of the home team’s hands.

Dartmouth was coming off a coronary-inducing 6-4 circus of a win over Clarkson, but couldn’t maintain the productive pace against SLU goalie Matt Weninger and a very clean, determined Saints team. The visitors took only one penalty all night (even though Dartmouth didn’t take any) which led to Dartmouth’s only goal, but otherwise the gate was shut and locked for the frustrated Ivy icers.

As an additional benefit on top of the already valuable home-ice slot, the Saints grasped a big wad of confidence with regards to their first-round guests: Dartmouth finished ninth, and will make the trip over the Adirondacks to Appleton next weekend.

It’s 1am, so this is going to be quick and dirty.

• Cornell now holds the tiebreaker with Union. If they finish tied atop the standings, Cornell get the No. 1 seed, and the teams will share the Cleary Cup. Each school has secured a first-round bye.
• Colgate, Harvard, Clarkson and Quinnipiac each have a shot at a bye as well. Colgate and Harvard control their own destinies: win, and they get a week off.
• Yale, Dartmouth and St. Lawrence are fighting for the two remaining home-ice spots. Yale has the leg up (21 points), and the Big Green and Saints go head to head in Hanover tomorrow. Dartmouth holds the tiebreaker should the teams draw, leaving SLU the odd man out.
• Princeton, RPI and Brown are each awaiting their draws: all three will be on the road next weekend.

That’s all for now. Good night – or morning – and we’ll be sure to keep you updated as quickly and frequently as possible. Be sure to check SullivanHockey and Nate_Owen41 for all the news that’s fit to tweet.