With the penultimate weekend of ECAC hockey in the books, the final standings and seedings for the post-season tournament are still up for grabs.
Harvard (10-16-1 overall, 9-10-1 ECAC) suffered two heart-breaking one-goal losses to two of the league's premier teams, Clarkson and St. Lawrence. These defeats were made even harder to bear in that they came over the last home stand of the season.
On Friday night, Harvard took on Clarkson (21-7-2, 15-4-1) at the Bright Hockey Center in a game that proved to be a battle of each team's goalies. Though Crimson goaltender Tripp Tracy put forth a solid effort in allowing only two goals, the Golden Knights' goalie, sophomore Dan Murphy, triumphed over his rival by holding the Crimson to a mere goal.
Murphy was able to withstand a barrage of shots from Harvard at the end of the game and made 15 saves in the final period. Clarkson's 6-4 victory at Brown the next night extended the Golden Knights' ECAC winning streak to eight games, their longest such streak since 1991.
On Saturday, St. Lawrence (19-9-2, 15-3-2) came to Bright with momentum, having beaten Brown 4-1 the night before. The Saints took an early 5-2 lead over the Crimson, but again the Crimson played solid hockey in the final period. Harvard took 36 shots in the third, but came up short as only two of those shots found their way to the back of the net.
In other league action, Vermont's wins over Yale and Princeton allowed the Catamounts (21-5-4, 15-2-3) to maintain their place atop the ECAC standings. The Catamounts' wins were made possible in part by the play of right winger Martin St. Louis, who was named the Bauer/ECAC player of the week. St. Louis had six points over the weekend and torched Princeton for three goal--two of them shorthanded.
Both Cornell and Colgate swept their opponents over the weekend to stay close behind Vermont. The Big Red (16-7-4, 13-3-4) is unbeaten in its last 10 games and the Red Raiders' two wins were partially the result of center Mikle Harder's play. Harder had two assists and two goals for the weekend.
Cellar-dweller Yale came very close to pulling out a league win--something that has proved difficult to do for the Elis this season--but Dartmouth secured a tie when sophomore forward Jon Sturgis scored with two seconds left in the third period to even the score at 3-3.
Going in to the final weekend of the regular season, the seedings for the ECAC playoffs are still undetermined. Should Vermont win both its games at home, it will hold on to first place and the highest seed. However, if Vermont falters, St. Lawrence, Clarkson, and Cornell all stand a chance to finish atop the league.
Harvard seems to have secured the sixth seed, yet should it fail to defeat either Dartmouth or Vermont, and should Brown win both of its contests against the same teams, Harvard would fall to the seventh seed. The seventh team must play an extra round in the ECAC tournament.
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