ECAC Hockey Report, Week of 1997 December 15

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Recent Action

(scores are linked to box scores and recaps on US College Hockey Online, which is not affiliated with The Big Red What? or Joe Schlobotnik)

Brown visited Harvard Tuesday night in the final conference game of 1997 for the ECAC. The teams traded goals for two periods, despite the Crimson holding a 30-17 shooting edge. But the third period was all Harvard, and three unanswered goals gave the Crimson a 5-2 win.

There were also a couple of non-league contests, with two Ivy League teams going to overtime against Hockey East's UMass-Amherst. Princeton pulled out a 4-3 victory in dramatic fashion Friday night, as Jeff Halpern scored the tying goal 6-on-5 with only 11 seconds left in regulation, and then Robbie Sinclair netted the gamewinner with just over a minute to go in sudden death. In a Sunday matinee in Amherst, Dartmouth and UMass skated to a 0-0 tie, the second scoreless tie of the year in college hockey, but the first involving an ECAC team since November 1995.

Standings

Despite only one conference game having been played this week, it led to a significant change in the standings, with Harvard moving into a fourth-place tie with Cornell, just three points behind Yale and Colgate.

                          ECAC                    Ivy
                   W-L-T  PF-PA   Pct     W-L-T  PF-PA   Pct  
 1  Yale           6-1-0  12-2   .857     3-1-0   6-2   .750
 2  Colgate        6-2-0  12-4   .750
 3  Clarkson       4-2-1   9-5   .643
 4  Cornell        4-3-1   9-7   .563     4-1-0   8-2   .800
    Harvard        4-3-1   9-7   .563     2-2-1   5-5   .500
 6  RPI            3-3-0   6-6   .500
 7  Princeton      2-3-2   6-8   .429     1-2-1   3-5   .375
 8  Union          2-3-1   5-7   .417
 9  St. Lawrence   2-4-1   5-9   .357
10  Dartmouth      1-3-1   3-7   .300     0-1-0   0-2   .000
11  Brown          2-6-0   4-12  .250     1-4-0   2-8   .200
12  Vermont        0-3-2   2-8   .200

Looking again at the inter-conference results, the ECAC's 1-0-1 performance against Mass-Amherst moves its overall record to within two games of .500, but is just a drop in the bucket in the season series with Hockey East.

               Hockey             Major Minor non- Total
          ECAC  East  CCHA  WHCA  Indy  Indy  DivI  N/C
Brown           0-2                                 0-2
Clarkson        1-2  2-1-1  0-1                    3-4-1(*)
Colgate         1-0   1-1         1-0               3-1
Cornell         1-0                     1-0         2-0
Dartmouth      0-0-1              1-0              1-0-1
Harvard         0-2                                 0-2
Princeton      2-0-1              3-0              5-0-1
RPI       1-0   1-2               1-0   1-0         4-2
SLU             0-2   0-2   0-1               1-0   1-5
Union     0-1   0-4               1-1               1-6
Vermont         2-3   1-1                           3-4
Yale            1-1               1-0               2-1
          ECAC  HE    CCHA  WHCA  Major Minor Non-I Total
Totals   [1-1] 9-18-2 4-5-1 0-2   8-1   2-0   1-0  25-27-3

(*)Clarkson's losses to Wisconsin and BU in the Ice Breaker tournament
may be considered exhibitions

"Major Indy" refers to Division I Independents who play 20 games or
more against other division I teams, namely Air Force, Army, Mankato
State and Nebraska-Omaha.  "Minor Indy" teams are the remaining D1
independents, games against whom do not count towards NCAA tournament
selection criteria.

The National Scene

With the Division I schedule slowing down for finals, things stay pretty steady in the US College Hockey Online Poll. Yale remain the only ranked ECAC team, at #9, while Colgate were the only others to garner votes.

Upcoming Games

Between now and the holidays, only two non-conference games remain for ECAC teams, in addition to Princeton's exhibitions on their European Tour. Harvard travel across town Thursday night to face Northeastern, while Dartmouth host Merrimack Saturday afternoon.

Last Modified: 2019 July 24

Joe Schlobotnik / joe@amurgsval.org