{"id":31043,"date":"2010-02-18T16:53:43","date_gmt":"2010-02-18T22:53:43","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.uscho.com\/2010\/02\/18\/this-week-in-ecac-hockey-feb-18-2010\/"},"modified":"2010-08-17T19:57:53","modified_gmt":"2010-08-18T00:57:53","slug":"this-week-in-ecac-hockey-feb-18-2010","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.uscho.com\/2010\/02\/18\/this-week-in-ecac-hockey-feb-18-2010\/","title":{"rendered":"This Week in ECAC Hockey: Feb. 18, 2010"},"content":{"rendered":"
I don’t usually like devoting column space to talk about games that are already in the books, but last week’s Yale-Cornell tilt was clearly a matchup worthy of some apres-buzzer analysis.<\/p>\n
As Union was busy losing to Harvard in an uninspired performance, the Bulldogs and Big Red battled it out for sole possession of first place at James Lynah Rink on Saturday night. Each squad had won four of its last five, the Elis were on a three-game winning streak, and — just for a little national flavor — each team was ranked in the top 10. <\/p>\n
Cornell scored first, with newly returned center Riley Nash feeding Colin Greening for the goal in the game’s seventh minute. After that, however, it was all Blue & White.<\/p>\n
Yale proceeded to outshoot the hosts 41-8 after the first period, and the only reason the game wasn’t handily decided in regulation was Cornell’s super-sharp netminder, Ben Scrivens. The league’s most consistent goaltender stopped 52 of the first 53 shots he saw, while his colleagues mustered only 20 shots on goal in the same amount of time (63:17). <\/p>\n
In fact, following a 25-shot first period in which the Bulldogs tallied 13 shots on net, the remaining frames’ shot count read 20-4, 13-4, 8-0. This was Yale’s game … but nobody had informed Scrivens.<\/p>\n
Mark Arcobello knotted the game at 13:48 of the second period, rocketing a one-timer over Scrivens from the smack-dab middle of the slot. Taking the pass from Denny Kearney, who was behind the Cornell goal line, the score was Arcobello’s ninth of the season — still only good for fourth on the sizzling Yale roster.<\/p>\n
The overtime winner developed as Brian O’Neill hit Sean Backman on the fly, streaking in on Scrivens. The senior forward shot it between Scrivens’ pads, and the puck trickled over the goal line as Yale formally claimed a game it had owned all night long.<\/p>\n
The decision was Yale’s fifth straight over national power Cornell, and put the Bulldogs on a season-high four-game winning streak. With the season sweep, Yale also claimed the head-to-head tiebreaker against the Big Red — critical, as Cornell went on to defeat Colgate 6-2 on Tuesday to draw even with Yale in the standings. In taking over the starting job late in the season, senior Billy Blase is now 5-0-0 between the Elis’ iron.<\/p>\n
“They expose tendencies and weakness you can’t get away with from good teams … they move pucks and we didn’t stick close with our checks and they made plays,” Cornell coach Mike Schafer told the Cornell Daily Sun<\/i> after the contest.<\/p>\n
“I can’t imagine a better college hockey game,” Yale counterpart Keith Allain told the Yale Daily News<\/i>. “That was as good as we have played this year.” <\/p>\n
If there is any justice in the world, we’ll see a rematch in Albany.<\/p>\n
Regular readers and other such ECAC Hockey folk are, by now, well aware of the talent playing in the greater Albany area. Union and RPI are programs on the rise, led by sharp young coaches and an ever-increasing handful of nationally overlooked talent. Engineers junior Chase Polacek and Union senior Mario Valery-Trabucco shine brightest among a burgeoning constellation of Capital District stars.<\/p>\n
‘Cek it out<\/b><\/p>\n
Out in Troy, Polacek is merely leading the nation in scoring with 46 points, and is tied for the D-I lead in goals with 23. He’s sixth in the country in points per game (1.44). He’s gone only seven games without scoring a point this season, and four of those came in his first six games. His longest pointless drought was two games — once — and has 14 multi-point games, including seven three-point nights. <\/p>\n