As of last Saturday night, four teams had clinched their tickets to Lake Placid for the ECAC tournament with sweeps over their respective foes.Only one series was forced to play the dreaded Sunday game in the best-of-three series.

Given the parity of the league, one would expect nothing less. In fact, some had predicted that the quarterfinals would be riddled with three-game series and upsets.

No one, however, could have anticipated this outcome.

Clarkson--the regular season champion--bowed out of the tournament in the first round to last-seeded Vermont Sunday night in an extended overtime contest.

"This shows that in our league, anything can happen," Harvard senior defenseman Tim Stay said. "Everything is so close and nothing is set in stone."

Since the league championship relocated to Lake Placid back in 1993, the Golden Knights had never failed to make an appearance. In fact, Clarkson had posted a 17-game undefeated streak in the quarterfinals at its home rink prior to this season.

But in one of the most stunning turn of events in the history of the ECAC quarterfinals, the Catamounts pulled out a 3-2 victory in extra time to permanently silence the Golden Knight faithful this season.

Vermont freshman Peter Sharp stole the season from Clarkson when he potted the game-winner at 9:04 of the 20-minute sudden-death session.