The Harvard men's hockey team wrapped up the regular season ECAC title and the first seed in the league tournament with a 7-3 victory over Vermont Friday.
Tickets for the Crimson's first ECAC playoff games--against either Colgate, St. Lawrence or Vermont on March 7 and 8 at Bright Center--went on sale yesterday. And despite a line that started forming as early as 7 a.m., at least a few hundred seats remain for student purchase today.
And tickets for the NCAA quarterfinals two weeks later have already begun rolling off the presses, according the Director of the Harvard Ticket Office Gordon Page.
According to Page, the last time that Harvard printed tickets for the NCAAs was three years ago when the Crimson ended up hosting Michigan St. in the quarters at Bright.
Invitations to the eight-team tournament--which features four teams from the West and four teams from the East--don't go out until the Sunday following the ECAC finals, but apparently some people have faith that Harvard--ranked fourth in the latest NCAA poll--will be one of the those eight squads, and one of the four to host opening round games.
To earn home ice in the NCAA festival, Harvard (18-5-1 overall, 17-2 ECAC) would have to win the ECAC Tournament.
And while the Crimson has dominated its league opponents this year, losing only at Yale in the first game of the season and at Vermont after the winter break. Harvard has played with mixed results at Boston Garden, where the final rounds of the 25th annual ECAC tournament will be held on March 14 and 15.
The Crimson dropped its first game in the Garden this year to Boston College--a 4-2 loss in the opening round of the Beanpot after earning a 4-4 draw with the Eagles at Bright earlier in the year.
But in its second stint at the Garden, the Crimson pummeled Northeastern, 7-1.
The Harvard ticket office is not the only hockey authority that thinks the Crimson has a good chance of hosting one of the opening round games of the NCAA tourney.
RPI Coach Mike Addesa, whose Engineers fell, 11-0, to Harvard at Bright Saturday, thinks the Crimson will be the team to beat in both the ECAC and the NCAA tournaments.
"I think Harvard has the most talented team in the country," Addesa said. "A lot of people are going to find that out."
But will the Crimson be able to play well in the Garden?
"Harvard's team is very strong," Addesa said. "I felt bad for them after they played Boston College. I think that game reflected poorly on the Harvard program."
Before Harvard looks ahead to either tournament, however, it must travel to upstate New York this weekend to battle eighth-place St. Lawrence (15-12 overall, 9-10 ECAC) and fifth-place Clarkson (13-10-3 overall, 10-6-3 ECAC).
Harvard beat both teams earlier in the season. And while not much is riding on either game for the Crimson, the Larries and Golden Knights are looking to secure good spots in the ECAC tournament.
Clarkson has an outside chance of claiming home-ice advantage for the league playoffs, while St. Lawrence, which is now in eighth place in the league, is looking to finish in sixth or seventh in order to avoid meeting the first-place Cantabs in the opening round.
The Larries also will be looking for revenge. Harvard pounded them, 7-0, earlier in the season, halting their modest two-game winning streak.
But since its loss to Harvard, St. Lawrence has been on fire, winning nine of its last 12 league games, including a 6-2 triumph over Princeton Sunday.
In the Crimson's 7-3 trouncing of Vermont, two former junior league teammates--Catamount goalie Tom Draper and Harvard wing Tim Barakett--squared off against each other for the second time this year.
Barakett, who scored two goals against Draper (the ECAC's second leading goaltender with a 3.02 goals-against average) in the Crimson's 3-2 loss to Vermont in Burlington, tallied again in Friday's contest.
Baronet leads the Crimson in goals-against-Draper with three, followed by Captain Scott Fusco with two and four others with one apiece.
How did Draper feel about battling his former teammate?
"Once I'm on the ice, I don't see him," Draper said. "I know I'm playing with a friend. But when we're on the ice we each have jobs to do."
Harvard goalie Grant Blair owns a league-leading 2.44 goals-against average (no one else is under 3.00) and is Draper's chief competition for All-American honors.
Neither Blair nor Draper enjoyed good nights Friday, but both turned in solid performances the following night. Blair held RPI scoreless for two periods, and Draper recorded 18 saves in Vermont's 3-2 overtime win over Dartmouth.
"He's number one in the league," Draper said of Blair. "And there's a reason for that. He plays the angles well and challenges the shooter. I think we're comparable."
How have individual Crimson players affected the team's record this year?
When Blair has been in net, Harvard sports a 17-4-1 overall mark. When he has recorded an assist, the Crimson is 2-0.
Dickie McEvoy, Blair's backup, won his only start this year and saw action in two other Crimson victories.
When Allen Bourbeau--who has missed the last five games with a stomach muscle pull and probably will not see action this weekend--is on the ice, Harvard is 13-3-1 overall.
His replacement, Greg Chalmers, has participated in seven Crimson wins and only one loss.
First-line wing Lane MacDonald missed the Crimson's twin 5-4 losses at Wisconsin before Christmas and its early-season victories over Cornell and Colgate. But the sophomore has skated in every other Harvard game.
THE NOTEBOOK'S NOTEBOOK: Dartmouth goalie Jeff Bower, who recorded 36 saves in the Green's 5-3 upset of RPI, is this week's ECAC Player of the Week. Fusco, who finished the weekend with two goals and six assists, was named to the ECAC Honor Roll...After its two weekend losses, RPI dropped into third-place in the league, two and a half games behind second place Yale (which became the second team to clinch home ice advantage for the ECAC playoffs.) Yale can finish no worse than third in the league...By losing to St. Lawrence, Princeton was eliminated from the ECAC playoffs. The eight teams in the tournament are Harvard, Yale, RPI, Cornell, Colgate, Clarkson, Vermont and St. Lawrence...With its 11-0 thrashing of the Engineers, the Crimson lifted its series record against RPI to 9-10...Before Saturday, RPI had not lost to Dartmouth and Harvard in the same season since 1973-'74. FINAL CCHA STANDINGS Team W L T Pts GF GA Michigan St. 23 7 2 48 177 124 Bowl. Green 23 9 0 46 179 129 W. Michigan 23 9 0 46 188 138 L. Superior 17 14 1 35 133 12 4 Ohio State 16 15 1 33 157 177 Ferris St. 13 17 2 28 152 174 Ill.-Chicago 12 20 0 24 137 FINAL WCHA STANDINGS Team W L T Pts GF GA Denver 25 9 0 50 170 115 Minnesota 24 10 0 48 179 1 16 Wisconsin 23 11 0 46 172 1 36 Duluth 21 12 1 43 153 118 N. Michigan 21 13 0 42 168 15 1 N. Dakota 19 14 1 39 156 137 Colo. Coll. 11 21 2 24 131 155 Mich. Tech 9 22 3 21 118 164 ECAC STANDINGS Team W L T GF GA Overall Harvard* 17 2 0 118 45< Tab>18-5-1 Yale 14 6 0 97 69 18-8-0 RPI 12 6 1 85 78 19 -8-1 Cornell 11 6 2 91 66 14-6- 3 Clarkson 10 6 3 86 64 13-1 0-3 Vermont 10 9 0 55 58 16-11 -0 Colgate 9 9 1 78 93 15-12- 2 SLU 9 10 0 80 80 15-12-0 Princeton 6 12 1 65 73 10- 16-2 Dartmouth 4 15 0 52 102 7- 16-0 Army 2 9 0 36 57 15-11-1 Brown 3 17 0 61 119 4-17-0 *clinched regular season title The Polling Place WMEB 1. Denver (12)(29-9) 129 2. Minnesota (28-10) 110 3. Harvard (18-5-1) 99 4. Michigan State (1)(27-8-2) 94 5. B.C. (24-10-2) 64 6. Wisconsin (25-13) 60 7. Boston University (21-12-2) 53 8. W. Michigan (28-10) 42 9. Minn.-Duluth (25-12-1) 15 10. Yale (18-8-0) 15 As voted by coaches and conducted by radio station WMEB in Maine, with first-place votes and records followed by total points. WMPL 1. Denver (9)(29-9)99 2. Minnesota (1)(28-10) 86 3. Michigan State (27-8-2) 68 4. B.C. (24-10-2) 64 5. Wisconsin (25-13) 50 6. Harvard (18-5-1) 49 7. Boston University (21-12-2) 43 8. W. Michigan (28-10) 31 9. N. Michigan (23-13-1) 18 10. Minn.-Duluth (25-12-1) 18 As voted by coaches and conducted by radio station WMPL in Michigan, with first-place votes and records followed by total points.
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