ECAC Tournament Set to Get Under Way
Union VS. RPI First-Round Game to be Televised Friday Night
With the regular season finished, the ECAC kicks off its 42nd annual championship
this weekend with four best-of-three first round series.
The top four seeds, Cornell, Harvard, Dartmouth, and Yale have received a
first-round bye and will host a best-of-three quarterfinal, starting Friday, March 14,
against winners of this weekend's first-round series.
The first round match-ups, to be played this Friday, Saturday, and Sunday (if
necessary) are as follows. Fifth-seeded Brown hosts the 12th seed, Princeton; sixth
seeded Union hosts 11th-seeded Rensselaer; the seven seed, Clarkson, will host 10thseeded
Vermont; and the eighth seed, Colgate, hosts ninth-seeded St. Lawrence.
The remaining teams will be re-seeded after the first round then re-seeded again
after the quarterfinal round. The winners of the four quarterfinal series will move on
to the semifinals at the Pepsi Arena on Friday, March 21.
The second of seven games to be broadcast as part of ECAC Hockey's television
package goes on air Friday night at 7 p.m. when Union hosts its firstever Division I
playoff game against Capital District rival Rensselaer in game one of the best-ofthree
series to be played at Achilles Rink.
The Engineers got the better of the Dutchmen during the regular season, winning
4-2 at home and earning the 3-3 draw at Achilles. The Engineers lead the alltime
series between the schools 37-10-6.
Union comes into the series after splitting over the weekend at home against
Vermont (5-3 win Friday night) and Dartmouth (2-1 loss Saturday night). RPI lost
to Dartmouth, 7-1 on Friday night and bounced back to defeat Vermont, 4-2, on
Saturday.
Brown will face Princeton in the tournament for the first time since the 1997-
98 season. The Tigers went on to win the ECAC Championship that year after
finishing the regular season in seventh place. The Bears won both regular-season
games against the Tigers this season, 5-2 on the road and 4-0 at home. Brown leads
the all-time series between the two schools 72-51-4.
Brown skated to two ties at home over the weekend against Clarkson and St.
Lawrence. The Tigers, who were also home this past weekend, lost to No. 2 Cornell,
2-1, on Friday night and tied Colgate, 2-2, on Saturday.
Vermont travels across Lake Champlain to take on Clarkson in the first round.
This is a rematch from two years ago when the 10th-seeded Catamounts upset topseeded
Clarkson, 3-2, in overtime of the third game to advance to the semifinals in
Lake Placid. The Golden Knights lead the all-time series against the Cats 50-21-1,
but Vermont has won four of the last seven.
The Catamounts are coming off two loses at RPI and Union while Clarkson is
coming into the series following two 3-3 draws at Harvard and Brown. The home
team won both regular-season meetings this year, Clarkson winning the first, 1-0,
and Vermont taking the second game 6-3.
Colgate hosts their first playoff game since 1999-2000 when St. Lawrence visits
Starr Rink this weekend. St. Lawrence leads the all-time series between the teams,
54-48-3. Colgate is 25-20-2 at home all-time against the Saints.
Nothing was settled between the teams during the regular season as both games
ended in a tie (3-3 at St. Lawrence and 4-4 at Colgate). The Raiders have won fivestraight
at home, a streak that began with a 2-1 overtime upset over Cornell, and are
11-4-1 in Hamilton this season.
Colgate comes into the game following a 4-2 win at Yale and a 2-2 tie at
Princeton. St. Lawrence picked up a point in a 4-4 tie at Brown on Friday before
falling to Harvard, 5-0, on Saturday.
Cornell, which wrapped up its second-straight regular season title over the weekend,
heads into the bye week following a sweep of Princeton (2-1) and Yale (3-0) on
the road. Goaltender David LeNeveu broke Ken Dryden's school shutout record
with his seventh blanking of the season.
No. 12/13 Harvard picked up a win and a draw at home against Clarkson (3-3)
and St. Lawrence (5-0). Dartmouth swept RPI (7-1) and Union (2-1) on the road
while Yale was swept by Colgate (4-2) and Cornell (3-0) at home.