The “top two seeds” in the first round of the ECAC playoffs needed all three games to move onto the second round.
Dartmouth, the No. 5 seed overall dispatched St. Lawrence as the Big Green jumped out to a 1-0 lead Friday night with a 2-1 victory with Shane Sellar and Kevan Kilistoff picking up the goals. Saturday night the Saints lived another day with a 4-2 victory as four different players scored. The Big Green took Sunday’s game with another 2-1 game with Will Graber and Cory Kalk finding the back of the net.
No. 6 Colgate started the weekend with a 3-1 victory over Rensselaer with Trevor Cosgrove, Hunter Racine and Mike Panowyk scoring. It was a goalie showdown Saturday night as Linden Marshall made 29 saves for a 1-0 shutout for RPI. Colton Point made 25 saves in the loss. On Sunday, Point earned a 2-0 shutout on his 20th birthday, a little synergy, eh? Josh McKechney and Evan Tschumi were the goal scorers.
For both teams to be taken to three games doesn’t surprise me as both teams struggle to muster offense consistently. The Big Green were better the past month with a seven goal goal game and a six goal game.
Dartmouth is 56th in the nation in goals while the Raiders are 49th in the nation.
Véronneau and Kuffner dominate Brown
Max Véronneau and Ryan Kuffner were once again the catalyst for the Princeton Tigers in the opening round of the ECAC playoffs.
Kuffner had three goals on the weekend including two on Friday night in the 8-2 victory over the Bears. He also had four assists on the weekend, two in each game. He now leads the ECAC in goal scoring among conference games with 19 and has 28 overall which puts him third in the nation.
He’s also third in points in the nation.
Véronneau was equally impressive for the Tigers as had a goal and two assists in the 8-2 and 7-1 victory. His 37 points in conference games leads the ECAC. His 50 points is second in the nation as he trails Adam Gaudette of Northeastern by six as he sits second in the nation.
It will be hard to put up 13 points against Union next weekend, but if Princeton wants to go to Lake Placid, these two will need to be on their game.
Petruzzelli leads the Bobcats past the Bulldogs
Who will Rand Pecknold start in goal next week versus the top seeded Cornell Big Red. Does he go to the “veteran” in sophomore Andrew Shortridge or does he go to hot hand in freshman Keith Petruzzelli who only allowed two goals versus Yale on the weekend?
The highly touted netminder who was drafted by the Detroit Red Wings this past summer has really settled down the past month after a rough first half to his college career. Since Feb. 2 he has only allowed nine goals in six games, five of those games were starts.
Quinnipiac is 4-1 when he started.
Shortridge played both regular season games against Cornell only allowing three goals in those two games.
If you are Pecknold, you two good options in net for the second round series. It will be interesting to see what happens in the Bobcats’ crease.
