Elis For Real

O.K. Let's stop kidding ourselves.

Yale has proven in the past few weeks that its six-game winning streak pre-Winter Break was not a fluke.

This weekend, the Elis did the unthinkable. Yale tied St. Lawrence, 2-2, in Canton, N.Y. on Friday, and almost pulled off an upset the next night against Clarkson.

Heading into the final session with a 4-3 lead in Potsdam, N.Y., the Elis surrendered two goals in the first 2:04 and never recovered the lead. Clarkson pulled out a 6-5 victory to knock the Elis from first place.

Yale goalie John Hockin recorded 43 saves on both nights up North.

It was the Elis' first ECAC loss, but not its first of the season. At the Great Badger Showdown over Winter Break, Yale kept eighth-ranked Wisconsin tied, 1-1, into the final session. The Badgers, however, finally got their act together, rattling off five goals to take the contest 6-1.

Harvard Coach Ronn Tomassoni, for one, still isn't convinced that the Elis will be around come post-season action.

"They've been having some great goaltending but it's a long season," Tomassoni said.

Great Penalty

Martins can safely say he recorded the most entertaining penalty of the road trip.

Racing down the right wing on a breakaway seven minutes into the third period against Dartmouth, Martins was guided into the right side of the cage by an overzealous Big Green blue-liner.

After rocking the net from its moornings and flying with it into the wall, Martins stood up and pushed the cage away in disgust.

The net, however, careened into a visibly annoyed referee, taking him off his feet.

Martins was summarily banished to the sin-bin with a 10-minute misconduct penalty.