There were plenty of impressive individual performances in ECAC Hockey over the weekend, starting Friday with a pair of Dartmouth sophomores in the Big Green’s 7-3 win over Rensselaer.
Will Graber had a natural hat trick and also added two assists, while Shane Sellar had two goals and four assists. Dartmouth hadn’t had a player record a five-point night since Matt Reber accomplished the feat against Brown on Jan. 8, 2010. Sellar became the first Big Green player to have a six-point night since 1978.
Both Sellar and Graber tied for the national lead in scoring last weekend, as Graber added another assist Saturday against Union.
Princeton’s David Hallisey and St. Lawrence’s Carson Gicewicz also had good nights on Friday. Hallisey finished with a goal and four assists against Brown, while Gicewicz had four assists in a 5-2 win over St. Lawrence.
But on Saturday, Hallisey and the Tigers were on the other end of several big performances. Yale teammates Evan Smith (four goals) and Joe Snively (three goals, one assist) became the first Bulldogs to have a hat trick in the same game since Broc Little and Kenny Agostino accomplished the feat against Holy Cross in 2011.
Freshmen Liam Morgan also had a big weekend for Union. The forward entered Friday’s game against Harvard with one career goal, but scored twice against the Crimson and then added the game-winning goal the next night against Dartmouth.
Morgan has had a knack of coming up with timely scores this year; three of his four goals are game winners.
Cornell inching closer to the Cleary Cup
Scoring one goal on a league road trip typically isn’t an indicator of success, but Cornell returned home with three points thanks to two more shutouts by goalie Matthew Galajda. The freshmen leads Division I in shutouts (eight), goals-against-average, and is fourth in save percentage.
The Big Red tied Clarkson 0-0 Friday and then beat St. Lawrence 1-0 on Saturday on Jared Fiegl’s third-period goal. The three-point weekend ensured Cornell will get a first-round bye in the conference tournament, and it also gives the Big Red a four-point lead over Clarkson and Union, who are tied for second place.
Yale heating up as the season winds down
Yale’s win over Quinnipiac in the 2013 national title game is the biggest win in program history, but the Bulldogs have had trouble with the Bobcats since then.
Quinnipiac was 7-0-3 against Yale since the championship game, but Yale stopped that streak with a 3-2 win Friday. The Bulldogs then jumped all over Princeton Saturday, beating the Tigers 7-2.
The wins extended Yale’s winning streak to four games, and moved them into a three-way tie with Dartmouth and Princeton for sixth place in the conference. All three teams are only one point behind fifth-place Colgate. Two of the Bulldog’s four remaining games are against Colgate and Dartmouth. Yale travels to Colgate Friday and then hosts Harvard in the final regular season game on Feb. 24.
