The top three teams in the conference all locked up a first-round bye this weekend.
The top two teams in the conference – Union and Harvard – each swept his weekend. The Dutchmen defeated Quinnipiac 4-1 and Princeton this weekend. The Crimson meanwhile defeated Yale 4-2 on Friday and Brown 6-0 on Saturday.
The tie against the Bulldogs in January is looking critical for Harvard as they have 30 points, one point behind Union heading into the final weekend.
Harvard has Clarkson and St. Lawrence this weekend while Union travels to Colgate and Cornell.
Speaking of the Big Red, they are the third team to lock up a by as they accumulated three points this weekend with a 4-2 win over St. Lawrence Friday and a 3-3 tie with Clarkson.
All three teams – Union, Harvard and Cornell – can win the regular season title.
The Saints are in the drivers seat for fourth and final first round bye as they just need one point next weekend as they face Dartmouth and Harvard. Quinnipiac could sneak in if St. Lawrence gets swept but the Bobcats need a sweep themselves.
A tight middle pack
Two things for sure once you get past the top four, Quinnipiac/St. Lawrence and Clarkson are hosting a first-round playoff series. The Bobcats have Yale and Brown while Clarkson goes up to the two Northern New England schools.
The Golden Knights defeated Colgate 3-0 and earned a 1-1 tie with the Saints.
The Princeton Tigers had themselves a costly loss against Rensselaer on Friday. A win would have put them seventh in the standings, but head into the final weekend in tenth place. Dartmouth benefited from the loss as their win over Brown propelled them into eighth. Colgate’s tie with St. Larence moved them into ninth.
Still a battle for 11th place
In the bottom of the standings, nothing has been settled just yet. The Engineers hold a three point advantage over Brown with the win over Princeton. RPI just needs a point to clinch 11th place. The Engineers have been playing some decent hockey the past three and half weeks as they are 3-3 in that stretch.
Brown faces Quinnipiac and Princeton. They only lost 1-0 to the Bobcats and tied the Tigers 3-3 this season.
Those were home games though, now they need to get four points on the road.
Players heating up
A couple players are heating up after having a cold streak.
Cornell’s leading scorer Mitch Vanderlaan has scored five points in his past three games including three this weekend with two goals in a assist. He only had an assist in his previous seven games.
Troy Joseph’s of Clarkson has five points in his past four games including two goals against the Big Red on Saturday and an assist against Colgate He went scoreless in his previous five games.
