Unfortunately, ECAC teams have gotten off to a slow start. After last weekend, the league’s record stood at a paltry 9-13-6, with most of those wins coming against weak competition. The league’s finest hour thus far was Vermont’s 1-1 tie at Boston University.
Of course, with so much of the ECAC’s strength in the Ivy teams—which cannot begin play until tonight—the league’s standing could improve quickly.
The bottom line is that Harvard’s chances of making the NCAA tournament as an at-large team improve if Yale beats top-ranked New Hampshire on Jan. 2, or even if Union defeats MAAC foes such as Connecticut or Iona.
“It’s all up to the teams in the league,” said Cornell All-American defenseman Doug Murray. “You need to win games outside of the league to get respected. We noticed last year that you get a lot more credit for beating teams outside the league than you do inside the league.”
Tournament Time
Speaking of tournaments, the ECAC made an abrupt and dramatic shift in the location of its conference championship in June.
Instead of holding it at the 1980 Olympic Rink in Lake Placid, N.Y., as it has done since 1993, the ECAC packed its bags and headed down I-87 for the more spacious confines of Albany’s Pepsi Arena.
Hockey purists cringed at the thought of the league leaving Lake Placid, a hockey haven and home of the “Miracle on Ice.”
But others have applauded the move, citing the high profile of Pepsi Arena, which hosted the 2001 Frozen Four and past NCAA basketball tournament games, as a step up in prominence for the ECAC.
“The championship is now going to take place in the center of our league, which will provide easier access for more fans to attend,” said Union coach Kevin Sneddon ’92. “As the number of ticket sales increases, so does the image of our tournament. Financially, the tournament will allow our league to grow for the future and thus enhance our image when compared to other conferences.”
Clarkson coach Mark Morris, though, said the move is hard on his team’s fans, who only had to drive a couple hours to get from the Potsdam, N.Y., campus to Lake Placid.
“Lake Placid was great for our fans,” Morris said. “Our fans grew accustomed to having [the tournament] in their backyard.
“Apparently the potential for the ECAC’s growth favors the Albany situation,” he continued. “We’ll have to wait and see if Albany can put on a first-class event.”
And we’ll have to wait and see who’s playing there, too.