One of the more popular pastimes among college hockey watchers even before the conference shuffle of last season has always been the speculation on new programs. In the last ten seasons, we've seen just three new programs come along - Robert Morris started from scratch, RIT moved up from D-III, and now Penn State is elevating its club program.
Penn State was, of course, one of the most common rumors in this psuedoscientific field. We constantly hear rumors of new programs at Navy, Syracuse, and Rhode Island. We hear of interest that later comes to nothing at Lindenwood, Kennesaw State, Liberty, and Missouri-St. Louis. That's not to say that there aren't possible new programs just on the horizon - in fact, with all the changes taking place, we may well see new programs. Here are the five schools with the most buzz at the moment.
MSU-Moorhead: The hottest item out there right now is one of seven four-year institutions in the Minnesota State Colleges and Universities system (MnSCU), six of whom compete in Division II athletics in the Northern Sun Intercollegiate Conference. Of those six, three - Bemidji State, Minnesota State, and St. Cloud State - already compete in D-I hockey. The Dragons have been making noise in recent years about seeking to join their MnSCU brethren as Fargo-Moorhead's college team, but it wasn't until this summer that things started to get serious. The school is putting together a funding drive and has an active goal of starting a program in 2013 when the new alignments begin. With Bemidji and Mankato as part of the new WCHA's core and the new league in need of a 10th member, the Dragons would be a solid fit - the major question is whether they can secure the funding in time for the first season of the new and not-so-improved WCHA.
Illinois: With the advent of the Big Ten, there are suddenly six new schools with a custom made conference to join if they start a varsity hockey program and, much like Columbia and Penn to the Ivy League, you can expect non-stop speculation on which one will be the next one on board. It's not a great deal to go on, but Let's Play Hockey, a noteworthy publication on high school, junior, and college hockey in Minnesota tweeted in December that the founder of Jimmy John's (the sub shop chain) is considering funding a transition from club hockey to D-I. The Fighting Illini (uh oh) won national club championships in 2005 and 2008 and were runners-up in 2009. With six-time champions Penn State making the plunge starting next season (and they should add a 7th this year), Illinois does become the most successful remaining Big Ten club program out there and a possibly logical seventh member.
Wisconsin-Green Bay: The Phoenix have an interesting position in the UW system. The system has two research universities, the flagship in Madison and the school in Milwaukee. Then there are 11 other comprehensive universities around the state - 9 of which are Division III schools (5 with hockey), and 1 of which is Division II. Green Bay stands alone in D-I. As we saw last year, there's a vibrant enough hockey community in Green Bay for the move to work and a built in place to play at the Resch Center. The WCHA is reportedly hoping to lure the Phoenix into the D-I ranks, a move that would place the league back in the familiar territory of the Badger State and help link the Minnesota teams more to the new batch of programs joining from the Great Lakes region.
Iowa State: The Cyclones, much like Illinois, are a top-end athletic school (they make their home in the Big 12) with a better than average club program. ISU won the national club championship in 1992 and reached the national championship in 1990, 1996, 1997, and 2010. Iowa is a unique place to explore expansion of college hockey, especially since the state makes up the heart of the NCAA's top feeder system, the USHL (five teams call the Hawkeye State home). The WCHA is rumored to be interested in ISU just as they are apparently interested in Green Bay, but ISU could well draw attention from the NCHC as well if they start making strides toward D-I hockey. They would be one of only two D-I level schools in the WCHA, while they would at least be with two other FBS schools in the higher-profile NCHC.
Buffalo: The Bulls make a third FBS school on this listing, which could bode well for future expansion of college hockey (although adding a bunch of big names could spell trouble for the smaller schools). UB, you will recall, was the wet dream of The Buffalo News' Bucky Gleason a couple of years back, and while we ripped on his overenthusiastic approach, we agreed with the basic premise that the Buffalo area was ripe for college hockey expansion. UB was primarily mentioned this past summer as a possible player in the talks to save the CCHA from extinction. With that possibility now off the table, it's hard to see where Buffalo fits in unless they help take the lead on the formation of a new league, possibly comprised of the Atlantic Hockey schools of western New York and Pennsylvania. Rumor had it that Terry Pegula, owner of the Buffalo Sabres and Penn State's benefactor, was willing to front the money at UB as well to give the Sabres a new practice facility and the Bulls a program of their own.
Wednesday, February 8, 2012
Monday, February 6, 2012
Men's Hockey - Cornell & Colgate (3/4 Feb)
It only takes one game sometimes for progress to be washed away, and for the second time in three years, the Big Red Freakout game certainly fit that mold. Just one night after RPI produced a gutsy performance against a typically stingy Cornell squad, coming from behind to nab a 2-2 tie (and almost producing an overtime winner), the Engineers fell to a complete collapse at Freakout against Colgate, falling by an embarassing 8-3 score.
Cornell
Lee/McGowan/O'Grady
Rogic/Malchuk/Angers-Goulet
Cullen/Neal/Haggerty
Tinordi/Higgs/Burgdoerfer
Leonard/Bergin
Leboeuf/Bailen
Leboeuf/Bailen
Koudys/Dolan
Merriam
Not too many changes from the previous home weekend into Friday, as the only changes were Matt Neal returning in place of Jacob Laliberte, who missed the weekend's games due to a death in the family, and Greg Burgdoerfer replacing Zach Schroeder, who missed his first game as an Engineer.
Cornell took the early lead late in their first power play of the game six-and-a-half minutes after the opening puck drop. With Patrick Cullen off on a tripping call, the Big Red scored on a scrum in front with less than 10 seconds left in the man advantage to go up 1-0. RPI would pick up a subsequent two power plays in the first period, but could not get anything going, mustering only four shots in the first period.
The Big Red controlled the puck well for much of the first two periods, which limited RPI's opportunities significantly. The Engineers' power play certainly didn't do any favors either, going 0-for-4 in the first four periods. Cornell took advantage of another power play late in the second period, scoring with five minutes left in middle frame to take a 2-0 lead.
If there's one thing Cornell has had a problem with lately, however, it's keeping a lead in the third period, and RPI pounced early to turn things around. About three minutes into the third period, C.J. Lee scored on a wraparound attempt for his fifth goal of the season to make it 2-1, and a minute and a half later, Ryan Haggerty notched his first even-strength goal of the year on a rebound. His sixth of the season tied the game up at two.
From there, the Engineers dominated the third period in search of the go ahead goal, but couldn't find a third one despite a total of 12 shots on goal in the final stanza, the most of any team in one period on the night. They continued to come close in the overtime period, ringing one off the post on one shot and missing the net by inches on another, but ultimately had to settle for the tie.
Bryce Merriam picked up 23 saves in his first tie of the season, just the second tie of his career.
Colgate
Lee/McGowan/O'Grady
Cullen/Higgs/Haggerty
Tinordi/Rogic/Schroeder
Angers-Goulet/Malchuk/Burgdoerfer
Leonard/Bergin
Leboeuf/Bailen
Leboeuf/Bailen
Koudys/Dolan
Merriam
Schroeder returned to the lineup on Saturday, replacing Matt Neal and requiring a bit of shuffling to the lines since Schroeder isn't a center.
The 35th annual Big Red Freakout got off to a promising start as the Engineers generally traded blows fairly well with the Raiders in the first meeting with Colgate since last year's playoff upset at the Field House.
RPI picked up the game's first penalty seven minutes into the contest, a hit from behind against Johnny Rogic that the Engineers successfully killed off, but as the Engineers returned to full strength, C.J. Lee was called for slashing essentially because he was playing to the whistle while the teams waited for the referee to signal a stoppage after a cover by Bryce Merriam. Ten seconds later, Hobey Baker candidate Austin Smith put Colgate on top 1-0.
The game's turning point likely came with about three minutes left to play in the first period as the Engineers, whose play in their own zone became much sloppier after falling behind, gave the Raiders a freebie. Curtis Leonard tried to sweep away a puck in front of the net following a neutral-zone transition, but the deflection instead went on net and past Merriam, essentially what would be called a "own goal" in soccer, putting Colgate up 2-0.
Marty O'Grady was called for a hit from behind almost immediately to begin the second period, but a successful kill and a goal by Guy Leboeuf (his third of the year) on a shot from the point cut Colgate's lead in half and appeared to be the start of yet another comeback by the Engineers.
The comeback was squelched just about a minute and a half later on an oddly developing play. What appeared to be an icing call against Colgate was waved off at absolutely the last moment by the referees, and then a pass to the slot facilitated by a high hit was put home by Smith for his second of the game, making it 3-1.
Two power play opportunities for RPI fell by the wayside during the middle of the second period, and then a very soft Colgate goal made it 4-1 and chased Merriam from the net in favor of Scott Diebold. The change in net certainly didn't change the Engineers' luck to any great degree, as Diebold's first play on the puck two minutes later took an odd carom off the zamboni door, leaving a wide open net for Smith to score his third goal of the game into, making it 5-1.
The problems continued into the third period as the Raiders picked up two more goals 1:29 apart early in the period - the second of which was Smith's fourth of the game, and 30th of the season (as opposed to the 47 that RPI had as an entire team at that point), making it 7-1. That goal also chased Diebold from the net, and Bryce Merriam returned to the pipes.
By this point, it was essentially garbage time, with both teams playing out the remainder of the contest. Colgate picked up another one with about six minutes left to make it 8-1, and RPI picked up a pair of goals late - Zach Schroeder scoring unassisted on a 2-on-1 for his fifth of the season a minute and a half after the last Colgate goal, and Patrick Cullen picking up his third of the year on a two-man advantage with a minute left.
The loss left the Engineers with just one win in the Freakout in the last five (last year), following a 17-year unbeaten streak in the event.
Other junk - Ranked teams on the RPI schedule include #6 Ferris State (no change), #7 UMass-Lowell (up two with one first place vote), #9 Notre Dame (down one), #10 Colorado College (up one), #11 Union (no change), and #13 Cornell (up one). Falling from the rankings this week despite the lopsided victory is Colgate, falling just six votes short of #20 with 87. Also receiving votes were Quinnipiac (12) and Harvard (4).
The Freakout debacle marked the first time the Engineers have allowed 8 goals in a game since a 9-1 drubbing at home against Dartmouth on January 7, 2005. The 8 goals was the most ever given up by the Engineers in the Freakout (breaking the record of 7 from 1979, 1982, and 2010), but RPI has scored 8 or more themselves on seven different occasions in the game, last in 1999.
With Schroeder out on Friday night, only Nick Bailen, C.J. Lee, Mike Bergin, and Curtis Leonard have appeared in every RPI game this season.
Bryce Merriam made his second Freakout start, but his number in both starts are not good. Between this year and the 7-0 loss to Princeton in 2010, Merriam's Freakout numbers are 42 saves on 52 shots, giving him an .808 save percentage and 5.89 GAA in the game. That's a better figure, however, than Joe Harkenrider and Scott Diebold, who combined to make 8 saves on 13 shots for a .615 save percentage and a 20.13 GAA in his relief.
Only six games remain in the regular season, and the Engineers are back in last place, sitting five points out - and really, six points out - of a home ice position. That makes quite long odds that RPI's home schedule will extend past senior night in two weeks.
ECAC Standings
1. Union - 24 pts (10-3-4)
2. Cornell - 21 pts (8-3-5)
3. Colgate - 19 pts (9-6-1)
4. Harvard - 19 pts (6-4-7)
5. Clarkson - 17 pts (7-6-3)
2. Cornell - 21 pts (8-3-5)
3. Colgate - 19 pts (9-6-1)
4. Harvard - 19 pts (6-4-7)
5. Clarkson - 17 pts (7-6-3)
6. Quinnipiac - 16 pts (6-6-4)
7. Yale - 15 pts (7-8-1)
8. Dartmouth - 15 pts (6-7-3)
9. St. Lawrence - 13 pts (6-9-1)
10. Princeton - 13 pts (5-8-3)
11. Brown - 12 pts (5-9-2)
12. RPI - 10 pts (4-10-2)
12. RPI - 10 pts (4-10-2)
#14 Cornell at RPI
ECAC Game - Houston Field House (Troy, NY)
2/3/12- 7:00pm
RESULT: RPI 2, Cornell 2 (OT)
BOX SCORES
ECAC Game - Houston Field House (Troy, NY)
2/3/12- 7:00pm
RESULT: RPI 2, Cornell 2 (OT)
BOX SCORES
RECAPS
RECORD: 7-18-2 (4-9-2 ECAC, 10 pts)
#20 Colgate at RPI
ECAC Game - Houston Field House (Troy, NY)
2/4/12 - 7:00pm
RESULT: Colgate 8, RPI 3
BOX SCORES
ECAC Game - Houston Field House (Troy, NY)
2/4/12 - 7:00pm
RESULT: Colgate 8, RPI 3
BOX SCORES
RECAPS
RECORD: 7-19-2 (4-10-2 ECAC, 10 pts)
Upcoming games
09 Feb - at Harvard
10 Feb - at Dartmouth
16 Feb - Quinnipiac
10 Feb - at Dartmouth
16 Feb - Quinnipiac
17 Feb - Princeton (Senior Night)
24 Feb - at Colgate
Women's Hockey - at Cornell & Colgate (3/4 Feb)
With the last potentially-easy game of the season set to take place against Colgate on Saturday, the Engineers desperately needed to take two points from the weekend to maintain a good chance at capturing the final playoff spot. Instead, RPI saw a comeback bid fall short in a 3-2 loss in Hamilton, after shouldering a 3-0 loss at Cornell the night before.
Cornell
Smelker/Cox/Vandegrift
Mahoney/Harrison/Horton
Sanders/Guillemette/Mankey
Letuligasenoa/Svoboda
Marzario/Vadner
Castignetti/Le Donne
Walsh/Schilter
O'Brien
The Big Red have had an easy go of it in the ECAC this season - not quite so easy as the Harvard squad that went 22-0 in league play a few seasons ago, but rather good nonetheless. Friday's game offered one more glimpse of what the Engineers would be lucky enough to face if they take the eighth spot in the standings, and the game went fairly predictably with Cornell picking up a 3-0 victory with all three goals coming in the second period.
After a first period which saw the teams trade several penalties, the game was broken open near the middle of the second period, when Cornell notched two quick goals just 1:18 apart. Brianne Jenner deflected a shot from the point by Lauriane Rougeau at 8:31, then Chelsea Karpenko scored at 9:49 on a 2-on-1 break which developed after Catherine White blocked an RPI shot at the other end of the ice.
White would be responsible for Cornell's third goal, deflecting a long shot past RPI netminder Kelly O'Brien at 17:28 of the middle frame.
RPI managed just two shots on goal in the final period, despite three power plays, as Cornell locked down defensively and closed out the game for a 3-0 final. Total shots on goal were 37-12 in Cornell's favor, similar to many of the games they have played this year.
While Cornell's season has shown they are not invincible, they remain the clear frontrunner to win the ECAC regular season (and tournament), with a five point lead over Harvard with four games to go, including a pair against Brown and Yale. It remains to be seen how the Big Red will do on a national level, where they have stood in the top three in the polls for most of the season.
Colgate
Smelker/Cox/Vandegrift
Mahoney/Harrison/Horton
Sanders/Guillemette/Mankey
Letuligasenoa/Svoboda
Le Donne/Vadner
Castignetti/Marzario
Walsh/Schilter
O'Brien
Right on the Engineers' heels in the standings and fighting hard for that privelege of playing Cornell in the playoffs, Colgate entered Saturday's game with just as much to play for as RPI, and made the most out of the game, skating to a 3-2 victory after RPI's comback bid fell short. Coupled with a victory over Union on Friday, the Raiders picked up four points on the Engineers and now stand just a point behind - while getting to play Yale and Brown next weekend while RPI hosts much tougher teams in Harvard and Dartmouth.
The scoring on Saturday was all contained in the third period, with a first period that saw the teams with only four shots each, and a second which saw the visiting Engineers outshoot their hosts 10-5, with several power play chances thrown into the mix.
Things certainly got more interesting in a hurry in the early third period, with Colgate's Rachel Walsh opening the scoring at 2:10 before Taylor Horton tied the game just 48 seconds later. The tie would not last as Colgate regained the lead another 40 seconds after Horton's goal, with Melissa Keuber picking up her 11th goal of the season.
Keuber would go on to notch her 12th goal on the power play at 14:53, which put the Raiders up 3-1 and proved to be the eventual game-winner. Horton scored again with the net empty to draw to within 3-2, but Colgate's Kimberly Sass held the Engineers off for the final 41 seconds to help her team to victory.
RPI now plays host to Harvard and Dartmouth before traveling to Princeton and Quinnipiac to end the regular season. Making the playoffs is no longer a simple proposal for the Engineers, who are tied with Brown (but the Bears hold the tiebreaker over RPI and may see the difference come from a remaining game against Colgate while each of RPI's games are against teams ahead of them in the standings). The statistics are not in RPI's favor, as their best chance of picking up points comes against Princeton - a 23% chance of winning that game based on the numbers.
More importantly, a single win may not be enough to seal the deal; if Brown defeats Colgate, or Colgate can sweep Yale and Brown, the Engineers would need a second upset against Harvard, Dartmouth, or Quinnipiac or they will be on the outside looking in two weeks from now.
-----
RPI at Cornell
ECAC Hockey Game – Lynah Rink (Ithaca, NY)
2/3/12 – 7:00pm
Cornell 3, RPI 0
BOX SCORES:
College Hockey Stats: http://collegehockeystats.net/1112/boxes/wcorren1.f03
RECAPS:
RECORD: 8-17-4 (5-10-2 ECAC)
-----
RPI at Colgate
ECAC Hockey Game – Starr Rink (Hamilton, NY)
2/3/12 – 4:00pm
Colgate 3, RPI 2
BOX SCORES:
College Hockey Stats: http://collegehockeystats.net/1112/boxes/wclgren1.f04
RECAPS:
RECORD: 8-18-4 (5-11-2 ECAC)
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ECAC Standings (all teams have played 18 games)
Pts Conf All-----
Cornell 32 16-2 21-3
Harvard 27 13-4-1 16-7-1
Clarkson 26 12-4-2 18-7-5
Dartmouth 24 11-5-2 15-7-2
St. Lawrence 24 11-5-2 17-8-4
Quinnipiac 22 10-6-2 15-12-2
Princeton 18 8-8-2 10-11-4
Brown 12 4-10-4 7-11-7
Rensselaer 12 5-11-2 8-18-4
Colgate 11 5-12-1 10-18-1
Union 6 2-14-2 4-22-4
Yale 2 1-17 1-24
Upcoming Games
Feb. 10 - Harvard (7pm)
Feb. 11 - Dartmouth (Senior Night) (4pm)
Feb. 17 - at Princeton (7pm)
Feb. 18 - at Quinnipiac (4pm)
Feb. 24-26 - ECAC Playoff Quarterfinals (if RPI qualifies)
Saturday, February 4, 2012
Seeing Red?
RPI refuses to quit against one of the nation's top ranked teams, gets a point for its efforts... and falls back into last place because St. Lawrence pulled out an overtime winner against death spiralling Yale. Such is life.
Oh well. It's Freakout!, which means it doesn't matter if the team's in last place or first place. Have a great night tonight, everyone. Also, enjoy our one-day-a-year color scheme.
Oh well. It's Freakout!, which means it doesn't matter if the team's in last place or first place. Have a great night tonight, everyone. Also, enjoy our one-day-a-year color scheme.
Friday, February 3, 2012
Get Your Freak On
No, this isn't Missy Elliott (although if this morning's title got you wanting some, here it is). "More" pretty well explains what we're looking for this weekend. More of the elevated play we've seen from the men in the last two weeks. More national television coverage (NBC Sports Network in high definition excitement). More of the same intensity that we saw in a weekend sweep for the women last week against Union, especially tomorrow night in a crucial contest with Colgate.
More, more man!
More, more man!
Thursday, February 2, 2012
Today's Podcast: Joe Yerdon
No, you aren't reading that wrong. We're having a podcast today!
After a month of technical issues, we're confident we have the means to produce a stable podcast, and we do so this afternoon at 5:30 pm ET with our guest Joe Yerdon, who writes for NBC's Pro Hockey Talk.
Since NBC began airing college hockey on the newly christened NBC Sports Network (formerly Versus), Joe has added a bit of NCAA knowledge to his usual NHL repertoire, penning the weekly "Back to Class," recap on Mondays and providing a preview of the Friday night game of the week on Friday mornings. And look who's starring in this week's edition - it's Cornell at RPI, marking the second time in five weeks that NBC's cameras will be at Houston Field House.
We'll talk with Joe about the Cornell matchup and get his thoughts on the 35th annual Big Red Freakout! which is this coming Saturday against Colgate. Can Seth Appert, fresh off his first Freakout! victory last year against #1 Yale, make it two in a row against ranked opponents in the BRF?
To listen in, click Listen to Without a Peer in the upper right hand corner of the page at the appropriate time, or listen on demand at any time.
Glad to have Without a Peer Radio back on the air.
After a month of technical issues, we're confident we have the means to produce a stable podcast, and we do so this afternoon at 5:30 pm ET with our guest Joe Yerdon, who writes for NBC's Pro Hockey Talk.
Since NBC began airing college hockey on the newly christened NBC Sports Network (formerly Versus), Joe has added a bit of NCAA knowledge to his usual NHL repertoire, penning the weekly "Back to Class," recap on Mondays and providing a preview of the Friday night game of the week on Friday mornings. And look who's starring in this week's edition - it's Cornell at RPI, marking the second time in five weeks that NBC's cameras will be at Houston Field House.
We'll talk with Joe about the Cornell matchup and get his thoughts on the 35th annual Big Red Freakout! which is this coming Saturday against Colgate. Can Seth Appert, fresh off his first Freakout! victory last year against #1 Yale, make it two in a row against ranked opponents in the BRF?
To listen in, click Listen to Without a Peer in the upper right hand corner of the page at the appropriate time, or listen on demand at any time.
Glad to have Without a Peer Radio back on the air.
Wednesday, February 1, 2012
ECAC Power Rankings (January)
If there was ever a good season for RPI to have a rough year, this one might have actually been it when you look at the league as a whole and compare it to the rest of the country.
This time last year, the ECAC was doing very well. Yale was one of the best teams in the nation. The Capital District duo was the most feared road trip in the league, and both looked ready to end long NCAA tournament droughts.
Today? Union is the standard-bearer, which should historically be starting with the warning bells right off the bat, but the numbers paint the full picture. The Dutchmen sit 21st in KRACH, which is arguably the best mathematical method to compare teams to each other. Union, with the nation's fifth best record, ranks behind Northeastern, a team tied for seventh in Hockey East with a sub-.500 record overall.
The PairWise Rankings don't offer any better outlook. Again, Union is highest ranked in the ECAC, but sit just 15th, a position which would require them to win the ECAC championship in order to reach the national tournament if the season ended today. There are no teams sitting in position for an at-large bid. Union or Cornell could probably put themselves in position for one, but it's unlikely we'll see both, especially since they still have to play each other twice.
Last year, the league scored three NCAA bids - Yale, Union, and RPI. The first two were pretty rock solid by the time March began, and by the start of February last season, all three teams were regularly in at-large position. Additionally, there were two other teams floating on the bubble in Cornell and Dartmouth, and if you throw in Cinderella Colgate, half of the league had a reasonable likelihood of reaching the national tournament in the final week before the field was chosen. This year, unless something extreme happens in February, the four teams in Atlantic City are going to be fighting tooth and nail for what may ultimately become the league's only bid.
No, this certainly isn't the ECAC's year - which means that even if RPI had been more successful, the chances of a repeat bid would be long... then again, if RPI had been more successful, the league as a whole would be that much better, but the basic truths remain. The relative strength of the league last year helped the Engineers get into the tournament. This time around, the team that gets hot and stays hot in March is likely to be all alone on the inside looking out.
That' means everyone is in the same boat - which, depending on how you look at it, can either be a great equalizer, or it could give the top teams more incentive to look out below in the ECAC Tournament lest their season come to an abrupt end.
1. Union (15-6-6) - 21st in KRACH, 15th in the PairWise, 11th in our hearts and 1st in the ECAC. The Dutchmen plowed through January with a 6-1-1 record overall and following Cornell's slip last week against Colgate, sit in first place, in the driver's seat to add a second consecutive season to the quite unique Cleary Cup banner hanging from the Achilles Center ceiling. Union will have to prove its mettle in four games with the Big Red and the Raiders, but they've been pounding opponents lately with the curious exception of Brown, who picked up a season sweep two weekends ago.
2. Cornell (11-6-4) - One moment, you're humming along, sitting in first place, stringing together three straight 3-point weekends (the first coming at Colorado College, not technically three points but a win and tie nonetheless), and the next moment you run smack into a home-and-home weekend, get swept (including blowing a two goal lead on Saturday night on the road), and you're sitting in second place rather than first. That's Cornell - 3-0-3 in the first three weeks of the month (all three wins on Fridays, all three ties on Saturdays), and then swept last weekend by Colgate.
3. Colgate (14-9-3) - If one weekend was enough to judge, the Raiders should be ahead of the Big Red. Completing the weekend and season sweep of their rivals from Ithaca for the first time since 2004, the Raiders definitely injected themselves back into the discussion of the best teams in the ECAC, with the major exception that the rest of January was relatively putrid. The win on Friday at Lynah snapped a six-game winless streak that dated back to the beginning of the month, and the Raiders went 2-5-1 for January with some awful defensive shows during that stretch.
4. Quinnipiac (13-8-5) - Only four games for the Bobcats in January thanks to the class schedule of their travel partners down in New Jersey, but the Q's comeback from a rough November continued with a 2-1-1 record in the first two weekends of the month, picking up five points and ensuring that when the Bobcats return to action this weekend, they'll be right in the conversation for the first round bye. Their last game was an impressive 7-1 drubbing of Colgate, the most goals they've scored in a league game since an 8-3 pasting of Brown in 2010.
5. Harvard (6-6-9) - Somehow, the Crimson continue to find ways to tie. They picked up five more of them in the month of January (including last night's tie at home with Dartmouth), giving them nine for the season in just 21 games. It's technically a .500 record for the month at 2-2-5, but four of the five ties were of the comeback variety, which means Harvard is an exceptionally difficult team to finish off. That makes them a dangerous draw come March, and in a league that's struggling to produce standouts, a .500 record puts the Crimson in the mix for the bye.
6. Clarkson (12-11-5) - The Golden Knights bounced back well in January, dropping a pair of games against nationally ranked opponents in North Dakota and Union, but going undefeated in their other four games (3-0-1). Clarkson's lunchpail mentality has kept them in the majority of their games this year, and as we saw this past weekend in Troy, helps them pick up points even when they are unable to control the flow of the game. Frequently, their defense helps out with that, but on nights when the defense isn't on, the offense has been. That combination can make the Knights tough in February.
7. Dartmouth (9-9-3) - It's been up and down for the Big Green in the last month. Following the team's hold-on victory at the beginning of the month at RPI, Dartmouth lost three straight, including a 7-1 pounding at Union the next night. All told, the Big Green went 3-4-1 in January, blowing a 4-1 lead at Yale last weekend. The offense has been keeping Dartmouth in the hunt, as the defense has allowed 3 or more goals in six of the last eight games - which, as we at RPI are well aware, is typically going to lose you plenty of games, but they're hanging in there.
8. Yale (9-10-2) - The spiral in New Haven looked like it was about to continue last Saturday as the Bulldogs fell behind 4-1 after one period against Dartmouth, following four straight losses and a five-game winless streak, but Yale may well have saved their season with four unanswered goals to salvage a weekend split. That put a happy bookend on a January that started with a win against Bentley on New Year's Day, but featured a 3-5-1 record. The Bulldogs were supposed to be better than their record appears - can their defense, which was ironclad in November, reappear from its slumber?
9. Princeton (7-10-5) - The Tigers emerged from hibernation last night with a come-from-behind victory at home against UConn, not exactly a result that garners lots of confidence. It finished a technically good January at 3-1-1, but the one loss was against a Yale team that has been sputtering, and the big victory was against a suddenly porous Colgate defense just before exams. The Tigers have not been exceptionally brilliant this season, but neither have they instilled a sense of hopelessness, either. Their problem now is the schedule - just seven games left and four of the next five on the road.
10. Brown (8-10-3) - There's little question that the Bears are the most schizophrenic team in the ECAC this season. They picked up a season sweep of first place Union, but were swept by last place RPI. They beat New Hampshire and Providence in three days time, but were shut out at home by American International. In Brown's nine-game January, the 3-4-2 record is equally strange. The three goal rule was hard and fast - they won the games they scored 3, lost the ones they allowed 3, and tied the ones neither got 3. A good February can still snag them home ice.
11. RPI (7-18-1) - Still technically last in the league in KRACH (but closing fast), the Engineers may have seen the worm turn in late January - the question now is whether they have enough juice to make a run of any kind. The schedule may be prohibitive, with four games against Cornell and Colgate yet to come, but RPI has put together four consecutive solid outings, picking up a 3-1-0 record in the stretch to power an optimistic 4-3-1 record for the month. If the Engineers can keep up the momentum, home ice in the first round may not be as far-fetched as it was once thought.
12. St. Lawrence (8-15-3) - 1-5-1 in January, the Saints are in general freefall at this point. They haven't picked up an ECAC win since November 19, with a league record of 0-7-1 since. St. Lawrence was outscored 10-0 in the Capital District last weekend, and has allowed at least four goals in each of its last four games, while scoring only four goals during the stretch. Essentially, the Saints are pretty much back to where they were at the start of the season, only against weaker general competition. They endure their fourth and fifth straight road games this weekend, but they don't have an easy home schedule either.
This time last year, the ECAC was doing very well. Yale was one of the best teams in the nation. The Capital District duo was the most feared road trip in the league, and both looked ready to end long NCAA tournament droughts.
Today? Union is the standard-bearer, which should historically be starting with the warning bells right off the bat, but the numbers paint the full picture. The Dutchmen sit 21st in KRACH, which is arguably the best mathematical method to compare teams to each other. Union, with the nation's fifth best record, ranks behind Northeastern, a team tied for seventh in Hockey East with a sub-.500 record overall.
The PairWise Rankings don't offer any better outlook. Again, Union is highest ranked in the ECAC, but sit just 15th, a position which would require them to win the ECAC championship in order to reach the national tournament if the season ended today. There are no teams sitting in position for an at-large bid. Union or Cornell could probably put themselves in position for one, but it's unlikely we'll see both, especially since they still have to play each other twice.
Last year, the league scored three NCAA bids - Yale, Union, and RPI. The first two were pretty rock solid by the time March began, and by the start of February last season, all three teams were regularly in at-large position. Additionally, there were two other teams floating on the bubble in Cornell and Dartmouth, and if you throw in Cinderella Colgate, half of the league had a reasonable likelihood of reaching the national tournament in the final week before the field was chosen. This year, unless something extreme happens in February, the four teams in Atlantic City are going to be fighting tooth and nail for what may ultimately become the league's only bid.
No, this certainly isn't the ECAC's year - which means that even if RPI had been more successful, the chances of a repeat bid would be long... then again, if RPI had been more successful, the league as a whole would be that much better, but the basic truths remain. The relative strength of the league last year helped the Engineers get into the tournament. This time around, the team that gets hot and stays hot in March is likely to be all alone on the inside looking out.
That' means everyone is in the same boat - which, depending on how you look at it, can either be a great equalizer, or it could give the top teams more incentive to look out below in the ECAC Tournament lest their season come to an abrupt end.
1. Union (15-6-6) - 21st in KRACH, 15th in the PairWise, 11th in our hearts and 1st in the ECAC. The Dutchmen plowed through January with a 6-1-1 record overall and following Cornell's slip last week against Colgate, sit in first place, in the driver's seat to add a second consecutive season to the quite unique Cleary Cup banner hanging from the Achilles Center ceiling. Union will have to prove its mettle in four games with the Big Red and the Raiders, but they've been pounding opponents lately with the curious exception of Brown, who picked up a season sweep two weekends ago.
2. Cornell (11-6-4) - One moment, you're humming along, sitting in first place, stringing together three straight 3-point weekends (the first coming at Colorado College, not technically three points but a win and tie nonetheless), and the next moment you run smack into a home-and-home weekend, get swept (including blowing a two goal lead on Saturday night on the road), and you're sitting in second place rather than first. That's Cornell - 3-0-3 in the first three weeks of the month (all three wins on Fridays, all three ties on Saturdays), and then swept last weekend by Colgate.
3. Colgate (14-9-3) - If one weekend was enough to judge, the Raiders should be ahead of the Big Red. Completing the weekend and season sweep of their rivals from Ithaca for the first time since 2004, the Raiders definitely injected themselves back into the discussion of the best teams in the ECAC, with the major exception that the rest of January was relatively putrid. The win on Friday at Lynah snapped a six-game winless streak that dated back to the beginning of the month, and the Raiders went 2-5-1 for January with some awful defensive shows during that stretch.
4. Quinnipiac (13-8-5) - Only four games for the Bobcats in January thanks to the class schedule of their travel partners down in New Jersey, but the Q's comeback from a rough November continued with a 2-1-1 record in the first two weekends of the month, picking up five points and ensuring that when the Bobcats return to action this weekend, they'll be right in the conversation for the first round bye. Their last game was an impressive 7-1 drubbing of Colgate, the most goals they've scored in a league game since an 8-3 pasting of Brown in 2010.
5. Harvard (6-6-9) - Somehow, the Crimson continue to find ways to tie. They picked up five more of them in the month of January (including last night's tie at home with Dartmouth), giving them nine for the season in just 21 games. It's technically a .500 record for the month at 2-2-5, but four of the five ties were of the comeback variety, which means Harvard is an exceptionally difficult team to finish off. That makes them a dangerous draw come March, and in a league that's struggling to produce standouts, a .500 record puts the Crimson in the mix for the bye.
6. Clarkson (12-11-5) - The Golden Knights bounced back well in January, dropping a pair of games against nationally ranked opponents in North Dakota and Union, but going undefeated in their other four games (3-0-1). Clarkson's lunchpail mentality has kept them in the majority of their games this year, and as we saw this past weekend in Troy, helps them pick up points even when they are unable to control the flow of the game. Frequently, their defense helps out with that, but on nights when the defense isn't on, the offense has been. That combination can make the Knights tough in February.
7. Dartmouth (9-9-3) - It's been up and down for the Big Green in the last month. Following the team's hold-on victory at the beginning of the month at RPI, Dartmouth lost three straight, including a 7-1 pounding at Union the next night. All told, the Big Green went 3-4-1 in January, blowing a 4-1 lead at Yale last weekend. The offense has been keeping Dartmouth in the hunt, as the defense has allowed 3 or more goals in six of the last eight games - which, as we at RPI are well aware, is typically going to lose you plenty of games, but they're hanging in there.
8. Yale (9-10-2) - The spiral in New Haven looked like it was about to continue last Saturday as the Bulldogs fell behind 4-1 after one period against Dartmouth, following four straight losses and a five-game winless streak, but Yale may well have saved their season with four unanswered goals to salvage a weekend split. That put a happy bookend on a January that started with a win against Bentley on New Year's Day, but featured a 3-5-1 record. The Bulldogs were supposed to be better than their record appears - can their defense, which was ironclad in November, reappear from its slumber?
9. Princeton (7-10-5) - The Tigers emerged from hibernation last night with a come-from-behind victory at home against UConn, not exactly a result that garners lots of confidence. It finished a technically good January at 3-1-1, but the one loss was against a Yale team that has been sputtering, and the big victory was against a suddenly porous Colgate defense just before exams. The Tigers have not been exceptionally brilliant this season, but neither have they instilled a sense of hopelessness, either. Their problem now is the schedule - just seven games left and four of the next five on the road.
10. Brown (8-10-3) - There's little question that the Bears are the most schizophrenic team in the ECAC this season. They picked up a season sweep of first place Union, but were swept by last place RPI. They beat New Hampshire and Providence in three days time, but were shut out at home by American International. In Brown's nine-game January, the 3-4-2 record is equally strange. The three goal rule was hard and fast - they won the games they scored 3, lost the ones they allowed 3, and tied the ones neither got 3. A good February can still snag them home ice.
11. RPI (7-18-1) - Still technically last in the league in KRACH (but closing fast), the Engineers may have seen the worm turn in late January - the question now is whether they have enough juice to make a run of any kind. The schedule may be prohibitive, with four games against Cornell and Colgate yet to come, but RPI has put together four consecutive solid outings, picking up a 3-1-0 record in the stretch to power an optimistic 4-3-1 record for the month. If the Engineers can keep up the momentum, home ice in the first round may not be as far-fetched as it was once thought.
12. St. Lawrence (8-15-3) - 1-5-1 in January, the Saints are in general freefall at this point. They haven't picked up an ECAC win since November 19, with a league record of 0-7-1 since. St. Lawrence was outscored 10-0 in the Capital District last weekend, and has allowed at least four goals in each of its last four games, while scoring only four goals during the stretch. Essentially, the Saints are pretty much back to where they were at the start of the season, only against weaker general competition. They endure their fourth and fifth straight road games this weekend, but they don't have an easy home schedule either.
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