A look at first round of ECAC Tournament
By Marty Joseph & Mark Spillane, QBSN Staff Writers
11. Princeton Tigers At 6. Yale Bulldogs:
The defending ECAC Champion Yale Bulldogs head into this year’s tournament as the sixth overall seed and will play host to the Princeton Tigers in the first round of the ECAC playoffs at Ingalls Rink. The teams met three times in the regular season. The teams skated to a 2-2 tie in October in the Ivy Shootout before Yale took the final two games by scores of 6-2 and 5-2.
The Tigers struggled in February, only notching one victory and crawl into the playoffs with a 1-4-2 record over their final seven games. Princeton was only 3-9-0 on the road this season, but played arguably its strongest game of the season in its final road game with a 6-2 win at RPI. However, it will take a strong team effort for the Tigers led by sophomore standouts Jack Berger and Andrew Calof to advance to the ECAC Quarterfinals.
The Bulldogs struggled this season after losing eight prominent seniors from last year’s ECAC Championship squad but head into the second season as one of the hottest teams in the conference. Yale heads into postseason play with a four game unbeaten streak outscoring opponents 19-8 and posting a 3-0-1 record. Even with the significant losses from last year’s team, the Bulldogs are loaded with talent and are one of the top offensive teams in the nation, led by senior captain and leading scorer Brian O’Neill. With a lot less pressure on the team to win this season, the Bulldogs could be a sleeper in this year’s tournament.
Prediction:
Though it is tough to have the best of a team for an entire season, Princeton’s young offensive firepower doesn’t compare to Yale’s experienced cast of veteran talent. The Bulldogs will be pumped up in front of a home crowd and take the series in two games.
10. Rensselaer Engineers at 7. Clarkson Golden Knights:
The Engineers will travel way up North to Potsdam, N.Y. to face the Clarkson Golden Knights this weekend. While the Clarkson may hold the higher seed, it backed its way into the playoffs and out of a first round bye with two losses last weekend to Dartmouth and Harvard. Despite the poor play of late, the Golden Knights will be on their home ice, on which they have a 10-3-2 record this season.
On the other side, RPI comes into the playoffs on an upswing after winning both of its contests last weekend. Nine different players tallied a point against the Colgate Raiders and Cornell Big Red to earn the wins.
Before jumping to the conclusion that Cornell was not ready to play, consider that the men from Ithaca still had a chance to clinch the number one seed with a win on Saturday. The Engineers are playing solid all around hockey and are poised for a strong series.
Prediction:
With all that said, Clarkson will be too much at home, and the Golden Knights will win the series in three games.
The Big Green of Dartmouth will head to Canton, N.Y. to take on the St. Lawrence Saints this weekend. Each team is coming off of a split last weekend, but the real key is that the Saints won the tilt between the two just last Saturday.
On Friday night, St. Lawrence lost to Harvard, while Dartmouth defeated Clarkson, but in Saturday’s battle, the Saints came away with a victory that ultimately placed this series in Canton, instead of Dartmouth’s home in Hanover, N.H.
During the month of February, the Saints were hot as they notched a 6-2 record by killing off nearly 89 percent of their penalties, including an incredible 95.6 percent on their home ice. The Big Green, however, won just two games during February and have converted on just over 11 percent of power plays. To put it simply, if these special teams trends continue, the Saints will score an easy win in this series.
Prediction:
However, Dartmouth will come ready to play and notch one victory before St. Lawrence wins the series two games to one.
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