ECAC Hockey Report, 1996 January 8

Going into this weekend, a mere two points seperated the top four teams in the ECAC, and with four games scheduled among those teams, a big shakeup in the standings seemed imminent. When the dust had settled, the big winners were the Skating Saints of St. Lawrence University, who grabbed first place with a pair of wins on the road, clipping Cornell 5-4 on Derek Ladouceur's powerplay goal halfway into the overtime period, and edging Colgate 6-5 on Saturday. The Golden Knights of Clarkson, who entered the weekend in first place, ended up with the short end of the stick after losing 6-4 to Colgate and 6-3 to Cornell. In other action of note, Vermont were the only team to remain undefeated in the ECAC with a 4-3 overtime win at Harvard followed by a 5-2 victory over Brown to post a road sweep of their own. Meanwhile, the Crimson's woes continued Saturday, as they fell victim to Dartmouth's first win of the season, 2-1. The Big Green had been 4-2 losers to Brown the night before. In the lower division, RPI managed a three-point weekend on the road, tying Princeton at 1 and downing Yale 6-1, while their travel partner Union split, being shut out 4-0 by the Elis and beating the Tigers 6-1.

The standings after this momentous weekend are as follows: St. Lawrence has grabbed the lead with 15 points in nine games, followed by Colgate with 14 in ten. Three schools hold 13 points each: Vermont, Clarkson and Cornell, but the Catamounts have only played seven games, giving them two games in hand over the Knights and three over the Big Red. The Harvard Crimson have slid all the way to .500 and sixth place with only 11 points in eleven games. It's still a four-point drop to the lower division, where Renssalaer and Brown hold seventh place with 7 points in eight and nine games, respectively. The Yale Elis are in ninth with 6 points, followed by Union and Princeton with 4 and Dartmouth, who gain their first two points of the season, but remain in last place.

Next week in the ECAC, with the rest of the leaders seeing non-conference action, Vermont look to convert some of their games in hand, as they and Dartmouth play host to Princeton and Yale, while Harvard try to get their act together in the Capital District, travelling, along with Brown, to play Union and RPI. In non-conference play, Colgate visits Mass-Lowell on Tuesday, and then they and Cornell visit former ECAC member Army for a game each over the weekend. Finally, there are four non-league contests up in the North Country, as Clarkson and St. Lawrence entertain Hockey East foes Maine and Providence.

With the ECAC hockey report, this is Joe P------k, Mr. Squishy sports.

Last Modified: 1996 January 8

Joe Schlobotnik / squishy@physics.ucsb.edu