Last Modified: 2019 July 24
Joe Schlobotnik / joe@amurgsval.org
URL for this frameset: http://elynah.com/tbrw/tbrw.cgi?1999/ecac.981118.shtml
(scores are linked to boxes on ECAC HockeyNet, which is not affiliated with The Big Red What? or Joe Schlobotnik)
The Clarkson-St. Lawrence road trip was recently named the toughest in all of Eastern college hockey. The Princeton Tigers, having lost All-ECAC-Tournament Goalie Erasmo Saltarelli to graduation, surrendered 11 goals in an exhibition against New Brunswick and 9 more in their non-conference opener at BU. So the last thing anyone expected to see from the ECAC's first full set of games was a four-point weekend in the North Country from the Tigers. Princeton put senior Nick Rankin in the net against SLU phenom Eric Heffler Friday night. Heffler was good, stopping 26 of Princeton's 28 shots, but Rankin was better, turning aside all 28 Saint shots for the 2-0 shutout win. Saturday it was freshman Dave Stathos's turn between the pipes, and he made 30 saves while giving up three power play goals, but the Tigers were able to net four of their 16 shots against the tandem of Andrew Gibson and Shawn Grant, with Jeff Halpern scoring the gamewinner along with another goal and an assist. When it was all over, Princeton left Potsdam with a 4-3 win and the first North Country road sweep in the ECAC since February 1997. Yale had the opposite experience on their North Country trip, falling to Clarkson and SLU by identical 3-1 scores.
It was also a good weekend on the road for the Central New York travel partnership, as Cornell and Colgate both swept in Southern New England. The Big Red started their ECAC and Ivy schedules with a 7-2 thrashing of Harvard. Freshman David Kozier had a hat trick in his second college game and was named the ECAC Rookie of the Week, the second consecutive week that title has been held by a Cornellian. Saturday night in Providence Cornell converted three of nine power plays, while allowing only one goal on 13 Brown man-up opportunities in a 3-1 victory over Brown. Big Red netminder Ian Burt had a .941 save percentage on the weekend, earning him ECAC Goaltender of the Week honors. Colgate's Andy McDonald was chosen as Player of the Week, with two assists in a 3-2 win over Brown and four more points, including two goals, in a 6-3 victory at Harvard.
Also beginning their ECAC slate with a sweep were the Vermont Catamounts. Union's Leeor Shtrom turned away all fourteen UVM shots in the first period, as the Dutchmen took a 1-0 lead into intermission, but four unanswered Vermont goals resulted in a 4-1 Catamount victory. Sophomore Andrew Allen was hardly tested as the Cats outshot Union 32-13. Saturday against RPI the total was 37-24, and Allen's platoonmate Marty Phillips posted a 2-0 shutout. Over in Hanover, Dartmouth posted a split, falling 8-5 to Rensselaer and downing Union 5-1. Junior defenseman Ryan Poulton had a hat trick for the Green in Saturday's contest.
Four weekend sweeps, and a four-way tie for first place, although upcoming series look to change that.
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ECAC Ivy
W-L-T PF-PA-PR Pct W-L-T PF-PA-PR Pct
1 Princeton 2-0-0 4- 0-40 1.000 0-0-0 0- 0-20 .---
Vermont 2-0-0 4- 0-40 1.000
Cornell 2-0-0 4- 0-40 1.000 2-0-0 4- 0-16 1.000
Colgate 2-0-0 4- 0-40 1.000
5 RPI 1-1-0 2- 2-40 .500
Dartmouth 1-1-0 2- 2-40 .500 0-0-0 0- 0-20 .---
Clarkson 1-1-0 2- 2-40 .500
St. Lawrence 1-1-0 2- 2-40 .500
9 Brown 1-2-0 2- 4-38 .333 1-1-0 2- 2-16 .500
10 Yale 0-2-0 0- 4-40 .000 0-0-0 0- 0-20 .---
Union 0-2-0 0- 4-40 .000
12 Harvard 0-3-0 0- 6-38 .000 0-2-0 0- 4-16 .000
With their weekend split, St. Lawrence dropped out of the top ten in the US College Hockey Online Poll, being displaced by Denver, as they were in last week's USA Today/American Hockey Magazine poll. So at the moment there are no ECAC teams in either poll, although three of the four top also-rans in the USCHO poll are from the ECAC. Princeton topped that list but didn't appear on any USA Today ballots, while SLU were mentioned by both sets of voters, as were Cornell, the only unbeaten, un-tied team in all of Division I. Vermont also received a single vote in each poll.
Each team's name is linked to information on RealAudio transmissions of its radio broadcasts. A summary of ECAC webcasts can be found on Joe Schlobotnik's Sports Machine, while a page with direct links to each of the weekend's webcasts is made available by Eric Carlson.
The third weekend of the ECAC season will be not quite a complete one, although all twelve teams will see league action. One or more teams will fall from the ranks of the unbeaten (or at least untied) as Vermont and Dartmouth visit Colgate and Cornell, while four more Ivy Leaue contests will take place with Yale and Princeton hosting Brown and Harvard. In addition, there are two contests between travel partners, with Union visiting RPI Friday and Clarkson travelling to St. Lawrence Saturday.
In interconference action, Union travel to Amherst to face UMass Saturday night. On Tuesday, the ECAC-Hockey East matchups continue, with UVM hosting Mass-Amherst, while Cornell visit Northeastern and Harvard are at Boston University.