There’s one weekend left in the ECAC regular season but still plenty of unanswered questions. Like Brian, I’ll skip the number crunching here and link to burgie12’s post on the fan forum.
1. Cornell and Union clinch top spots: The Big Red broke one streak to keep another alive. Sean Collins’ overtime goal at St. Lawrence gave Cornell their first win at Appleton Arena since Feb. 25, 2005, and assured them of a top-two seed in the playoffs. Collins’ score, a nifty backhander between his feet helped Cornell extend their streak of a first-round bye to four seasons.
Meanwhile, the Dutchmen extended their unbeaten streak to six games and can clinch their second straight Cleary Cup with a win or tie against Cornell Friday night at Messa Rink.
2. Another newcomer to the top: The revolving door otherwise known as the final first-round bye spot has another newcomer: Clarkson. The Golden Knights find themselves there thanks to a 1-1 draw with Cornell Friday and a 2-1 win over Colgate Saturday.
Those decisions propelled them past Harvard, who fell to fifth thanks to a one point weekend. The teams close the regular season Saturday night in Boston, a game that has the potential to decide who gets that final top spot. Note that both Colgate and Clarkson can either clinch a bye or fall as far as seventh and eighth, respectively.
3. Milestone weekend: There were a few notable achievements this weekend. Harvard’s 3-3 tie with Brown Friday was the Crimson’s 11th of the season, an NCAA Division I record. With 27 games to date, that means 38 percent (and 45 percent in ECAC play) of Harvard’s decisions have ended in a draw. Harvard was drubbed 7-1 at Yale Saturday, where the Bulldogs drew 11 power plays and scored on three of them.
On Friday, Yale killed all seven Dartmouth power plays to take a 5-3 win but Big Green senior Doug Jones was able to break a scoring slump while reaching a personal milestone. His third-period goal was his first point since Jan. 28 and made him the 36th player in Dartmouth history to hit the 100-point milestone. Yale center Andrew Miller tied Denny Kearney for fourth on the school’s career assist list with 86.
Edit: It was brought to my attention that another ECAC skater joined the 100-point club this weekend. Brown senior Jack Maclellan had a goal and an assist Friday against Harvard to become the first Bears player since 2008 to reach that milestone.
