Last year, Quinnipiac sniper Sam Anas missed the conference final four after a lower-body injury in the previous round. Harvard took advantage in Lake Placid, opening up an early three-goal lead and not letting go despite a Bobcat surge in the second period.
Expect Anas to have better luck this time. The Bobcats arguably wound up with the toughest draw this weekend, but their speed and finesse should be too much for the hard-hitting Big Red.
Pick: Quinnipiac in two.
DARTMOUTH AT YALE
Remember when Harvard beat Dartmouth 7-0 in Hanover on Halloween? You probably don’t because you were out doing the Monster Mash in your “sexy Donald Trump” costume.
Since then, the inconceivable has become conceivable. Trump is on track to clinch the nomination, and Dartmouth has a shot at the NCAA tournament.
But just as Trump can’t risk a brokered convention, Dartmouth can’t count on an at-large bid. This Big Green team has shown resilience, but its season ends in New Haven.
Pick: Yale in three.
CLARKSON AT ST. LAWRENCE
The Clarskon Golden Knights will bus 10 miles down U.S. route 11 today to write another chapter in the greatest hockey rivalry that 300 people care about.
In all seriousness, this series is going to be a big deal in North Country, but consider this: if every resident of Canton and Potsdam, N.Y. showed up for a game at TD Garden, there would still be about 1,000 empty seats left.
Instead, the Saints and Golden Knights will meet today at St. Lawrence’s Appleton Arena, the greatest fire hazard in the ECAC. According to Clarkson’s Office of Student Life, Clarkson-SLU games usually follow university-organized “Spirit Days,” which often involve large bonfires. Thankfully, the university feeds the flames miles away from the wood-paneled, 65-year-old home of its cross-highway rival.
While all four of the weekend’s series could go either way, this one’s the most unpredictable. Clarkson needed three overtime periods over two games to dispatch of last-place Princeton last weekend, but the wins speak to the Golden Knights’ grit. Clarkson does not have one star who can take over a game like St. Lawrence has with sophomore goaltender Kyle Hayton, but the Pride of Potsdam enter this weekend with the momentum on its side.
Pick: Clarkson in three.
RENSSELAER AT HARVARD
Over his last two contests against the Crimson, RPI goaltender Jason Kasdorf has stopped 92 of 93 shots, handing Harvard a 0-0 tie and 2-1 loss in the process. In the latter game, the hosting Crimson outshot the Engineers, 50-22, forcing Kasdorf to make a career-high 49 saves. Harvard’s sole win against RPI this season, a 4-0 victory in the final of the Shillelagh Tournament in South Bend, came with Engineer freshman Cam Hackett in net.
While it might be easy to anoint Kasdorf as the Crimson Killer heading into this weekend, there’s something that feels fluky about these teams’ last two meetings. The scoreless tie came just a week after the Shillelagh. Meanwhile, the shot chart from Harvard’s losing effort suggests that game was less about Kasdorf’s brilliance than it was about a sputtering Crimson offense’s struggle to get grade-A opportunities in the slot.
In that respect, I have to give RPI’s defensive unit some credit for forcing Harvard to the outside, but as I’m sure Coach Donato would, I expect the hosts to find an extra “compete-level” around the net this weekend. The postseason always comes with an extra side-order of scrappiness. With that, the Engineers’ demonstrated puck-possession problems should come back to bite them.
Pick: Harvard in two.
Staff writer Michael D. Ledecky can be reached at michael.ledecky@thecrimson.com.