{"id":28072,"date":"2006-02-23T19:00:58","date_gmt":"2006-02-24T01:00:58","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.uscho.com\/2006\/02\/23\/this-week-in-the-ecachl-feb-23-2006\/"},"modified":"2010-08-17T19:56:30","modified_gmt":"2010-08-18T00:56:30","slug":"this-week-in-the-ecachl-feb-23-2006","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.uscho.com\/2006\/02\/23\/this-week-in-the-ecachl-feb-23-2006\/","title":{"rendered":"This Week in the ECACHL: Feb. 23, 2006"},"content":{"rendered":"
Last weekend was an eventful one in the ECACHL, with a number of exciting games and a few surprise outcomes. Clarkson and St. Lawrence both recorded much needed sweeps of Brown and Yale. And among the quartet of league leaders — Colgate, Cornell, Dartmouth, and Harvard — that faced off, each came away with two points to show for its efforts. <\/p>\n
Princeton played very well but had surprisingly little to show for it, as the Tigers were again taken to overtime twice (that’s the fourth time in two weeks) and managed only a point. Quinnipiac acquitted itself well in taking three points from Union and Rensselaer. While the Engineers might have been disappointed with a pair of ties on the road, the Dutchmen and coach Nate Leaman must have been happy with a three-point weekend that kept them in contention for a high playoff seed.<\/p>\n
While the outcomes of the games were interesting, though, the results did little to resolve the impressively murky playoff picture in the ECACHL. Some things have become clear:<\/p>\n
\u2022 Cornell has clinched a bye in the first round.
\n\u2022 Brown will be stuck with the No. 12 seed regardless of this weekend’s results.
\n\u2022 Quinnipiac, Princeton and Yale will be on the road for the first round of the playoffs, although where each team will be headed is not yet known.
\n\u2022 Rensselaer and Clarkson are currently tied for seventh in the league, and regardless of the outcomes this weekend they will each host a first-round playoff series.<\/p>\n
(For a more complete examination of possible finishes based on this weekend’s results, see the table at the end of the column.)<\/p>\n
With the exception of Cornell, no team has clinched a bye in the first round of the league playoffs. Colgate and Dartmouth have the inside position to land a bye, but St. Lawrence, Harvard, and Union all still have a chance to finish as one of the top four seeds. To claim a top-four seed and the accompanying first round bye, the Raiders and the Big Green each need at least two points. St. Lawrence needs three points to clinch a bye, while the Crimson needs four points, and Union needs a sweep (of Colgate and Cornell, no less) plus stumbles from some of the teams above it.<\/p>\n
The most exciting game last weekend was likely the Harvard-Cornell game that was broadcast on CSTV on Saturday afternoon. Although I was there in person, I made a point of watching the game tape on Sunday evening and was still entertained by both the exciting plays and by the quality of the coverage on CSTV.<\/p>\n
I made the trip up to Colgate and Cornell, and was as impressed as ever by the fans at those two schools. But while Starr Rink is an enjoyable place to see a game, the atmosphere at Lynah Rink — especially when Cornell hosts the Crimson — is something to behold.<\/p>\n
From the fans who were already in their seats almost an hour before faceoff, to the Cornell band on hand to stir up the crowd and intimidate the opposition during warmups, the experience of seeing a rivalry game at Lynah is unique.<\/p>\n
While the game was exciting over the first two periods, it was incredible for the last 20 minutes. The turning point of the game came when Cornell’s Cam Abbott was assessed a five-minute major penalty for an ugly hit from behind that busted open the nose and brow of Harvard captain Peter Hafner. <\/p>\n
On the extended power play that followed, Harvard broke the 2-2 tie after less than a minute when sophomore forward Jon Pelle scored his ninth goal of the season (and managed to get a measure of revenge on the Cornell fans whose chant of “UGLY-UGLY” could be clearly heard on national television when Pelle was interviewed by CSTV during the first intermission).<\/p>\n
The Crimson had several opportunities to score over the next two-plus minutes, but the team’s man-advantage ended early when forward Ryan Maki was sent to the box for slashing. <\/p>\n
“I think the turning point was obviously in the third, five-minute hitting-from-behind, power-play goal,” said Cornell coach Mike Schafer. <\/p>\n
Skating four-on-four, though, Harvard broke into transition and took advantage of a Cornell miscue by starting a two-on-one break. The Crimson’s Charlie Johnson made a nice spin-move on the break to bypass his defender and then passed the puck across the ice to the trailing Hafner for the game-winning goal. <\/p>\n
“Charlie made a nice play, he kinda slipped there, and just gave me the feed,” said Hafner. “I just tried to jam it as hard as I could. I certainly wasn’t picking a corner, and luckily, it went in.”<\/p>\n
“Unfortunately, on the four-on-four, we fell down, and they took advantage of it,” said Schafer. “So it’s a frustrating loss from our standpoint… not much you can do.”<\/p>\n
“I was proud of the way we played,” said Harvard coach Ted Donato. “It was a big win.”<\/p>\n
“At the end of the day, I was proud of our seniors,” he continued. “I wanted so badly for them to be Ivy League champions and to finally get a win here at Lynah Rink.<\/p>\n
“Our seniors had never won here, Ivy title on the line, senior night, national TV-it was a big setup, and I’m proud of the way our guys responded,” he added.<\/p>\n
While the Harvard-Cornell game was definitely entertaining, it was somewhat marred by the quality of the officiating. I was not really bothered by the third Cornell goal, even though it was controversial, both at the time of the play and afterwards.<\/p>\n
With the benefit of replay, it appeared clear that the puck did not cross the line and go into the net. But the officials — referee Frank Murphy, and linesmen Joe Ross and Scott Whittemore — did not have the advantage of replay. They did, however, confer before the referee made his decision, and then Murphy went and explained it to both Donato and Schafer. <\/p>\n
“[The third goal] ended up being a tough call because the puck didn’t go in on TV,” said Donato after the game. “But nonetheless, I don’t doubt anybody’s intentions. I just … my own deep-down feeling is that I’d like the ref to really be 100% sure in that situation. That’s what I asked him, he said he was, and we can live with that.”<\/p>\n
What was more difficult to live with, for both coaches and for the majority of fans, myself included, was the manner in which the refereeing (particularly in the third period) led to a more violent and penalty-filled game. It all started with Abbott’s hit on Hafner, which may not have been malevolent but was certainly illegal and deserving of a major penalty and a game misconduct.<\/p>\n
Over the remainder of the third, three more game misconducts were assessed, to Harvard defensemen Tom Walsh and Dylan Reese and Cornell’s Byron Bitz. In all, the two teams accumulated 21 penalties for 77 minutes.<\/p>\n
Schafer, who has occasionally grown frustrated with the league’s officiating, would not directly address it.<\/p>\n
“No comment,” he said. “If I comment on the officials, I’m just going to get myself in trouble.”<\/p>\n
But Schafer did go on to articulate — and I think most fans would agree — that the major issue in the game was the lack of balance in the calls. From my perspective, the overall level of calls for the entire game was probably balanced, but it seemed to fluctuate to the point where almost every call in one stretch went against Cornell and later on some questionable penalties were assessed to the Crimson.<\/p>\n
That lack of equity, or at least the appearance of it, changed both teams’ actions and made it very rough out on the ice.<\/p>\n
“There’s no question that our kid [Cam Abbott] deserved a five-minute major,” Schafer said. “I didn’t even see it, but if it’s even questionable, it has to be called.<\/p>\n
“Cam got what he deserved,” he said later. “I gotta believe, and I didn’t even see it.<\/p>\n
“I just thought that we should be reciprocated on the same thing when our kid got drilled head-first [into] the boards in the corner,” Schafer continued. “There’s just no place for it in hockey … It doesn’t matter what time of game, what the circumstances are, it has to be called.”<\/p>\n
With Harvard’s 4-3 win at Cornell on Saturday evening, the Crimson clinched the Ivy League title. Harvard compiled a 7-3-0 record against its fellow Ivy League schools, while Cornell at 6-3-1 and Dartmouth at 6-4-0 finished close behind.<\/p>\n
The great television coverage of the ECACHL that fans have enjoyed this year will continue again this weekend with a pair of games airing on local cable outlets and via webcasts. This season it has become almost commonplace for the league to have two games on TV each weekend, giving fans in New York or New England the opportunity to see matchups that they might not normally witness.<\/p>\n
This weekend, Quinnipiac and Yale will reprise their budding rivalry on Friday night at 7 p.m. in a game that will be aired on NESN. The previous clash between the two schools was a Sunday afternoon game in early January that was aired on NESN, and I put my feet up and enjoyed the spectacle.<\/p>\n
The quality of the hockey was very good, but moreover the quality of the coverage on NESN (which was led by members of Quinnipiac’s School of Communications) was excellent, with a number of interesting interviews between and during periods.<\/p>\n
The second of two games that will be televised this weekend is Saturday night’s regular-season finale, when the Union Dutchmen host the Cornell Big Red. Fans in the Albany region can see the game on Time Warner Channel 3, and those in Central and Northern New York will find the game on Time Warner Sports Channel 26.<\/p>\n