ECAC hockey power rankings (2/25/13)

by Ryan Fay

It all comes down to this. The upcoming weekend marks the end of the regular season, but much is yet to be decided. Remarkably, the only lock is Quinnipiac finishing first. Just about everything else is up for grabs with many teams having a wide range of possible finishes.

Lets take a look at how the teams stack up as the regular season is set to close:

1. QUINNIPIAC (23-4-5 overall, 16-1-3 ECAC) LAST WEEK (LW): 1
Saturday's 3-3 tie against Brown will keep the #1/1 Bobcats from being the first ECAC team with 40 points since Harvard finished with 40 during the 1988-1989 campaign. Even with two wins to close out the regular season, Quinnipiac would max out at 39 points, which would rank as the highest single year point total in the league since Cornell racked up 39 in 2002-2003.

2. RPI (15-12-5, 10-7-3) LW: 2
RPI's eight game winning streak in league play came to an end with Friday's 4-1 loss at Cornell and the four goals allowed were the most given up by RPI in a single game since surrendering four at Princeton on Jan. 12. The weekend was salvaged when Matt Neal scored with ten seconds left in overtime to propel the Engineers to a 3-2 win at Colgate on Saturday. The second place Engineers remain in possession of a first round bye.

3. ST. LAWRENCE (16-12-4, 9-7-4) LW: 3
The Saints have a first round bye to lose and going on the road to conclude the regular season isn't the worst thing. With nine road wins, the Saints have the second most victories away from home in the league (Quinnipiac has 10). Additionally, St. Lawrence is the only team in the league with more road wins (9) than home wins (7).

4. BROWN (10-11-6, 6-8-6) LW: 6
Is there a peskier team in the league than the Bears? According to Dartmouth men's hockey SID Patrick Salvas, Brown has not lost a game to the eventual regular season champ last season (Union) or this season (Qunnipiac). The Bears went 2-0 against Union a year ago and are 0-0-2 versus Quinnipiac this season. On Saturday, the Bears used two late third period goals to tie the Bobcats, 3-3.

5. YALE (14-10-3, 10-9-1) LW: 5
The best news for #13/14 Yale over the weekend was the return of netminder Jeff Malcolm, who stopped 17-of-20 shots in Saturday's 4-3 triumph against Princeton. His return couldn't have come soon enough as the team lost all five games he missed. Another encouraging sign was scoring four goals on Saturday, which was as many as Yale had in the previous four games combined.

6. CORNELL (11-13-3, 7-10-3) LW: 11

That horrific stretch from late December through early February looks like a thing of the past. The Big Red are unbeaten in their past four games (3-0-1) and look like they could be peaking at the right time. Cornell handed RPI its first league loss in six weeks on Friday and used three early goals to take Union out of Saturday's game only 10 minutes into play. Greg Miller, who leads Cornell with 14 goals, has been particularly hot lately with six tallies in the past four contests.

7. CLARKSON (9-16-7, 8-9-3) LW: 7
Which team is tied with St. Lawrence for the second highest goals per game (GPG) average in league play? Quinnipiac? Nah, they comfortably top the list at 3.40 GPG. RPI? Nope, the Engineers are seventh at 2.60. It's Clarkson at 2.90 GPG. The Golden Knights wouldn't have been my first guess, either. According to USCHO.com ECAC columnist Brian Sullivan, Clarkson can finish as high as third and as low as 11th after next weekend. The Knights travel to RPI and Union to wrap up the regular season.

8. DARTMOUTH (13-10-4, 9-8-3) LW: 8
#19/RV Dartmouth is tied with Yale for the final first round bye and return home for a chance to solidify their positioning. The good news? The Big Green protect their home as well as anyone in the league, as evidenced by a 10-3 mark in games played at Thompson Arena this season. The bad news? The clubs coming in, Princeton and Quinnipiac, are 2-0 against Dartmouth this year.

9. UNION (15-12-5, 8-8-4) LW: 4
After two home wins last weekend, there was a feeling the team had righted the ship and looked poised for a strong finish. But this past weekend erased those thoughts. On Friday, the Dutchmen lost, 4-1, to a Colgate team which entered the game on a six game winless streak. The next night, Union essentially lost the game in the first ten minutes after falling behind 3-0 at Cornell. There were some strong spurts later in the contest, but it was an inconsistent effort that left a desire for a full sixty minute effort. I don't think there are many people who know what to expect from #20 Union going forward.

10. HARVARD (8-16-3, 5-13-2) LW: 10
You want your best players to step up late in the season and that's happening for Harvard. Top scorer Alex Fallstrom has a point in six straight contests, his longest streak of the season, and Marshall Everson has scored seven of his 11 goals in the same six game run. In that span, the Crimson are 5-1.

11. COLGATE (14-14-4, 6-11-3) LW: 12
If Colgate has a run in them, it will come from their underclassmen. Five of the team's top seven point getters are either freshmen or sophomores. The top three goal scorers, Kyle Baun, Tylor Spink, and Darcy Murphy are all freshmen. Even if the rest of the season fails to yield desirable results, a nice foundation is in place in Hamilton.

12. PRINCETON (9-14-4, 7-10-3) LW: 9
The Tigers haven't had much roar lately. Princeton has lost its past four contests, and worse yet, all four losses have been at home. Before the slide, Princeton was beaten at home just two times in the first four-plus months of the season. Their regular season ends with trips to Dartmouth and Harvard.

ECAC Hockey Power Rankings (2/18/13)

by Ryan Fay

There are only two more weekends of regular season action. But there's a lot more yet to be decided. Lets see how the teams stack up right now:

1. QUINNIPIAC (22-4-4 overall, 15-1-2 ECAC) LAST WEEK (LW): 1

It finally happened. #1/1 Quinnipiac suffered its first league loss of the season after St. Lawrence held on for a 2-1 victory on Friday. There were some close calls earlier this season (i.e 1-1 ties against RPI and Brown) but it was Saints who finished the job. While the loss ruined a chance at an undefeated league season, it wasn't all that damaging. After Union knocked off Yale, the Bobcats clinched the Cleary Cup on Friday anyway. Concerns about a letdown performance on Saturday versus Clarkson were quelled with a 2-1 win.

2. RPI (14-11-5, 9-6-3) LW: 3

With all due respect to Quinnipiac, RPI may well be the ECAC team one would least want to face right now. The boys from Troy have fired off eight league wins in a row and have looked dominant in the process. RPI has allowed three goals or less in every game during the run with two shutouts mixed in. During the streak, the Engineers have outscored their opponents 30-10. You'd hate to be Colgate and Cornell this weekend.

3. ST. LAWRENCE (15-11-4, 8-6-4) LW: 4

If the Saints had any chance to beat Quinnipiac, they were going to need their best players to come up big. And that's what happened. Greg Carey, who leads the nation with 23 goals, scored both St. Lawrence goals on Friday. The junior has at least one goal in nine straight contests dating back to Jan. 19 at Clarkson. Currently tied with Union for third place, the Saints have a chance to solidify a first round bye with Dartmouth, Harvard, and Union coming up on the calendar. St. Lawrence is 3-0 against them this year.

4. UNION (15-10-5, 8-6-4) LW: 6

After starting the month on a three game winless streak, and losing grip on a first round bye, there was some concern the season may be starting to slip away from the two-time defending league champions. But the Dutchmen earned four huge points after beating #9/10 Yale 4-2 on Friday and blanking Brown 2-0 the next night. A week after getting yanked in consecutive starts, Troy Grosenick rebounded and accumulated 61 saves over the weekend. Currently tied with St. Lawerence for third place, Union once again has a first round bye to lose.

5. YALE (13-9-3, 9-8-1) LW: 2

This isn't the kind of stretch run the Bulldogs wanted to have. Yale is 1-5 over their past six games, including four straight losses. The team misses starting goaltender Jeff Malcolm, who is out for an undetermined amount of time. Backup Nick Maricic was pulled after letting up a couple soft goals against Union on Friday and third-stringer Conor Wilson allowed three goals on 21 shots in Saturday's loss at RPI. The offense isn't helping, either. Yale has scored five goals in the current four game skid. 

6. BROWN (9-11-5, 5-8-5) LW: 5

Brown's three game week began on a high note with a 1-0 blanking of Yale on Tuesday, but the weekend was a different story. A 5-1 rout at RPI preceded a 2-0 defeat at Union on Saturday. In the latter, the Bears were outhot 48-23. One concern with Brown is a lack of scoring depth. With 26 points, Matt Lorito has twice as many as any other player on the roster (Garnet Hathaway - 13). Lorito's 14 goals are more than double the next highest figure on the squad (Nick Lappin's six).

7. CLARKSON (8-15-7, 7-8-3) LW: 10

Clarkson handed Princeton just its third home loss of the season with Friday's 3-2 triumph. The next night, they hung tough with league-leading Quinnipiac, but dropped a 2-1 decision. He's no Greg Carey, but Allen McPherson has been on quite the streak himself. Of his nine goals this season, five of them have come in the past six games.

8. DARTMOUTH (12-9-4, 8-7-3) LW: 9

If you want to talk about a bad loss, #17 Dartmouth's 4-2 setback to Cornell on Friday would qualify. Not only did Cornell enter the game 1-10 over its last 11 games, the game was played at Dartmouth, where the Big Green were 9-2 on the season going into the weekend. Dartmouth rebounded on Saturday with a 5-4 win over Colgate and stand tied with Yale for fourth place.

9. PRINCETON (9-12-4, 7-8-3) LW: 7

The Tigers are a tough nut to crack. Last weekend, they picked up two wins on the road after entering that weekend with one road win all year. This past weekend, Princeton brought a 6-2 home record into home games with Clarkson and St. Lawrence. They lost both.

10. HARVARD (7-15-3, 4-12-2) LW: 11

Don't look now, but Harvard is unbeaten in its last four contests (2-0-2). It's certainly a welcome sight after the Crimson had a stretch with one win in 16 games. Harvard put up seven goals on Tuesday in a 7-4 win over #/11/13 Boston University in the Beanpot consolation game. The strong effort was followed by a 4-1 win over Colgate on Friday and a 2-2 draw with Cornell on Saturday.

11. CORNELL (9-13-3, 5-10-3) LW: 12
With a win and a tie, Cornell had its first league weekend with more than two points since picking up four points against Clarkson and St. Lawrence on Nov. 30-Dec 1. Cornell closes out the regular season portion of its home schedule this weekend against RPI and Union.

12. COLGATE (13-13-4, 5-10-3) LW: 8

With four straight defeats, the Raiders are sputtering to the finish line. The recent struggles can at least partly be blamed on a power play unit that has gone belly up after spending most of the season as one of the best in the conference. Over the past four games, the Colgate power play is 1-for-19.

College Hockey Video of the Week (2/7/11): It's Beanpot Time!

Today begins Beanpot 2011! The first game is between Northeastern and Harvard at 5pm, and the second game between Boston University and Boston College begins at 8pm. The winners of each game will face each other next Monday at 7:30pm, while the losers will play in the consolation game at 4:30pm.

For more info on the tournament check out Beanpot Hockey.com and Wikipedia.

The second game is the "bigger" game of the two. The Terriers won the Beanpot and the NCAA Championship in 2009, while the Eagles did the same thing last season. This game is the fourth meeting between the two teams this season. BC has won the three previous games this season by the scores of 9-5, 5-2, and 3-2.

So, in honor of the BC-BU game here are some videos that pertain to the rivalry:

BC's "Beanpot Trot" (1986):


What BC and BU students think of each other:


Beanpot pump-up video from 2009:


CSTV's Beantown Faceoff (2006):

Union Has Up And Down Weekend

The reason why I have this title is because they won a game where they came back from behind in the third period for the first time this season (Harvard), but lost a game that they needed to win (Dartmouth).

Actually, if you really think about it this was a disappointing weekend for the Dutchmen. This was a weekend where they absolutely needed four points. With a win over Dartmouth, Union would have finally won that PWR game that they desperately needed and solidified themselves as a contender for the NCAA tournament. But, now they are back to being on the cusp of a tournament bid.

Here the question of the week: Are the Dutchmen ever going to win the PWR game? Maybe they will next weekend...

Here are some things I took away from the weekend:
- Dartmouth played really well. They jumped all over Union right from the drop of the puck with a hard hitting game plan.
- Ryan Carroll is excellent against the Dutchmen. I was pretty worried going into the third period down 1-0.
- I think Matt Hatch is the missing link on the Prezie-Zaj line. His past few performances have really proven that he belongs on that top line. He skates really hard and very fast and is always willing to fight for the extra inch and throw his body around. I've said it before, but he really looks like an upperclassman out there.
- Good articles about the team might actually affect the team. Coach Leaman said that there might be a hex around feature stories on INCH, as most ECAC teams that get featured end up losing the following weekend. So, players DO NOT read the papers or any other coverage... I'm just kidding. But, it was interesting how Leaman mentioned that after the Dartmouth game.

Here are some recaps of the games:

Dartmouth
Union Athletics.com
USCHO
INCH

Harvard
Union Athletics.com
USCHO
Times Union.com

Go to the "Official" Union Hockey Blog for post-game quotes for both games.

Also, check out this feature on the Simpson Brothers from the Boston Globe.

Tonight's Lineups vs. Harvard

Luke Cain has the best headshot on the team

Union
Carr - Welsh - Jooris
Presizniuk - Zajac - Hatch
Sullivan - J. Simpson - W. Simpson
Cain - Buote - K. Bodie

Forgaard - Julseth-White
Coburn - Stuart
M. Bodie - Matheson

Kinkaid
Milan
Grosenick

Notes: Justin Pallos is out of the lineup for the first time in awhile as both Luke Cain and Kyle Bodie join Andrew Buote on the fourth/checking line. Mike Ingoldsby is still out of the lineup, probably still suffering from a concussion.



Danny Biega is known as the "Harvard Hulk"

 Harvard
Morrison - Killorn - M. Biega
Everson - Michaud - Kroshus
Coassin - Moore - Del Mauro
McCollem - Valek - Fallstrom

Ford - Grimshaw
Huxley - D. Biega
Caldwell - Fick

Carroll
Richter

Notes: Danny and Michael Biega are two/thirds of the Biega brothers trio that played together last season (Alex graduated)... The Crimson have four NHL draft picks in their lineup tonight: Killorn (Tampa Bay '07), McCollem (St. Louis '06), Fallstrom (Boston '09), and Danny Biega (Carolina '10).

Players to Watch: Alex Killorn leads the team with six goals and 14 points, and is tied for tops in assists with eight... Danny Biega leads all Crimson defenders with three goals, eight assists, and 11 points. He is known as the "Harvard Hulk" for his impressive performance at the NHL Draft combine... Ryan Carroll made 47 saves in his last appearance at Messa Rink in his team's 4-1 last season. He's only started three games this season, but he's in net tonight looking for a repeat performance.

Make sure to read Ken Schott's pre-game report by clicking here.

Check out Harvard's pre-season video

The Dutchmen face-off against Harvard tonight to open up ECAC play at 7:00pm.

Union opens up ECAC play at Harvard and Dartmouth

Union hits the road this weekend to begin ECAC play at Harvard and Dartmouth. This is when the important games begin because the easiest way to make the NCAA tournament is to win your conference. Recently, the Dutchmen have not been good in ECAC openers. They have not begun ECAC play with a win since a 6-5 win against St. Lawrence on Nov. 5, 2004. Over this period Union has gone 0-3-2.

Let's take a look at the Crimson and Big Green:

Harvard
Last season they finished 10th in the ECAC going 7-12-3 in league play and 9-21-3 overall. But, they swept the Dutchmen in 2009-10. In the first game the Crimson won 4-1 behind 47 saves from Ryan Carroll. It was a one-goal game before Harvard scored to empty-netters late in the game. The second game took place at Harvard where the Crimson jumped out to a 4-0 lead, but the Dutchmen scored three goals in the last 5:30 to make it a one-goal game. Union was unable to tie the game. This season's game will be Harvard's home/season opener.

Sophomore Danny Biega

Harvard lost their leading scorer from last season, freshman Louis Leblanc, to the NHL's Montreal Canadiens. This will be a big hit to them since he was definitely their best player on the ice.

Players to Watch:

Conor Morrison: as a freshman was second on the team with 10 goals.

Michael Biega: the senior led the Crimson with 15 assists last season.

Daniel Moriarty: only scored six goals last season, but four them came on the power-play.

Danny Biega: was the youngest of the three Biega brothers on the team last season, and led all Crimson defensemen with five goals. He has a very bright future ahead of him.

Prediction: Union 4, Harvard 1

Dartmouth
Finished 9th in the ECAC last season (7-12-3) and 10-19-3 overall. They played Quinnipiac very tough in a three-game series in the first round of the ECAC playoffs. The Big Green and the Dutchmen were very well matched last season. Dartmouth took the first game at Union 3-1, but the Dutchmen won at Dartmouth with a come-from-behind 5-4 win. In the game, Darmouth went up 4-0 after one period where Keith Kinkaid made only one save. But, Union scored three goals in the second, and two in the third including Kyle Bodie's game-winner with 2:45 left in regulation. Corey Milan made 14 saves in relief, and James Mello made 38 saves for Dartmouth. The Big Green opened up their schedule last weekend at the Ivy Shootout where they beat Princeton 2-1, but fell to Yale 7-3.

I picked Dartmouth as my sleeper team this season. The main reason being that they return their top seven scorers and ten out of their top 11 scorers. I actually picked them to finish in 3rd place, ahead of Union. Also, they showed a lot of promise towards the end of the 2009-2010 regular season. The ECAC Coaches and Media picked them to finish sixth in the conference.

Players to Watch:

Senior Scott Fleming

Scott Fleming: the senior led the team with 22 goals (10 PPG) and 39 points last season. He should be up for First Team All-ECAC at the end of the season

Adam Estoclet: Fleming's partner in crime who led the team with 24 assists and was second with 36 points. I picked him as a pre-season All-ECAC selection.

Evan Stephens: led all Big Green defenders with six goals, 14 assists, and 20 points last season. The Coaches picked him as a pre-season All-ECAC selection.

James Mello: split time in between the pipes with Jody O'Neill last season. He played in both games against Union in 2009-10 where he made a combined 77 saves.

Prediciton: Union 3, Dartmouth 3... picking ties is weird (haha).

Union
The Dutchmen come off of two 3-3 ties against Connecticut and RPI. While it wasn't an awful week, it was not the way they wanted to head into league play, especially the tie against UConn. The Dutchmen have been able to jump ahead early in the game, but have allowed their opponents to jump back in the game this season. Let's see if they can change this around this weekend.

Sophomore Keith Kinkaid

Players to Watch:

Keith Kinkaid: he had an awful game in his last outing at Dartmouth. Let's see if the second time around is a better performance.

Mat Bodie: the freshman has had some difficult growing pains of late, but came up big late in the game against RPI. Maybe he'll get out his funk during ECAC play.

Stephane Boileau: "The Professor" has been playing on the top line with Kelly Zajac and Adam Presizniuk lately. Let's see if he'll be able to produce and create chemistry with these guys.

For more about the game with Harvard and Dartmouth check out Union Athletics.com.

Union goes down 4-0 once again, but unable to comeback

After last night's come-from-behind 5-4 victory you would think that the Dutchmen would not allow that to happen the following night. Well, we all thought wrong as Union was down 4-0 midway through the third period. They once again tried to comeback but just ran out of time as they fell 4-3. This game marked the fourth time in a row that the Dutchmen have let up the first goal of the game. Even though Union found a way to comeback and win three of these games, this is not the way you want to play hockey. Playing from behind leads to frustration and sloppy play. It is great to see that the Dutchmen have the ability to mount huge comebacks, but as we saw last night it will not always work. Scoring first is an essential aspect of winning games, and the Dutchmen need to figure out how to do this before the playoffs start.

With the loss and Yale topping Cornell, the Dutchmen are now tied with the Big Red for second place in the ECAC. These last four games will essentially be playoff games as it is a tight race for the top spots in the standings. As shown in this week's poll, the most important weekend of the season will be the last one when Union travels to Colgate and Cornell. There is a very good chance that the Cornell game will decide the final ECAC standings. Also with the loss, the Dutchmen fall into a tie for 20th place in the PWR, which is definitely not good enough for a NCAA Tournament berth.

My Dad sent me a good analysis on the ECAC playoff picture:

"If you look at the standings, Union needs four more points to wrap up a Top 4 finish. If Colgate loses to Cornell, four points gets them no worse than 3rd. If Colgate and Cornell tie on Tuesday night, it will depend on the tiebreaker with Colgate for 3rd, assuming Union gets four points and Colgate gets all eight of the points available to them over the last two weekends. Union won their first meeting. If Colgate wins the second meeting, it will come down to this tiebreaker formula. Besides Colgate, the only teams below them that can catch them if they get four more points are RPI and St. Lawrence. They swept both RPI and St. Lawrence, so they hold the tiebreaker against each of them. They need to get the four points next weekend so that they are only playing for positioning in the Top 4 during the final Cornell/ Colgate weekend." (Thanks Dad!)

To be successful in the last two weekends of the season and in the playoffs one of the goaltenders needs to get hot. This biggest thing to have in the playoffs is hot goaltending because the goaltender is the only player on the ice who can steal a game for your team, and as of right now neither Keith Kinkaid or Corey Milan has proved they can do this. Keith has had some nice stretches, but then falters after a while, and Corey has received his chances but has been prone to allowing the weak goal. The Dutchmen and their fans better pray for hot goaltending if they want to go somewhere in the post-season. Just see Jean-Sebastien Gigure's performance in the 2003 NHL playoffs to see what a hot goalie can do for a team.

This upcoming weekend will be the last regular season home games for the seniors, so expect Mario, Wally, and Schreiber to have big weekends.

You can read more about last night's game on Union Athletics.com, USCHO.com, Daily Gazette.com, Times Union.com, and Ken Schott's Blog.

Also, be sure to vote Mario and Wally for the 2010 NCAA Skill Competition. THE VOTING WILL END AT NOON TOMORROW (2/15), SO VOTE AS MANY TIMES IN THE NEXT 24 HOURS. You can vote here.

Union to travel to Dartmouth and Harvard

It's the last three regular season weekends of the season, so every game is crucial. This weekend the Dutchmen need to prove that they just ran into some hot goaltending in their last meetings with the Big Green and Crimson. There is also opportunity for Union to separate themselves from Cornell and/or Yale as they play each other this weekend. Let's see if the scoring touch holds up. Also, look out for 'Super' Mario and Wally inching closer to record for most points in a season. Check out Concordy.com and Union Athletics.com for notes on the games. Also be sure to read clips on USCHO.com, Times Union.com, Daily Gazette.com, and another article by Ken Schott.

Union drops first league game

Well, you can't win them all. With last night's 4-1 loss to Harvard, Union became the last team in the nation to lose a league game. Even Coach Leaman recognized that in the post-game press conference. And honestly, a loss like this could be a blessing and could take some pressure off the players. I would much rather lose my first league game in January than in February while heading into the playoffs. Also, it's not like the Dutchmen played an awful game. It was basically a 2-1 game with two empty-netters. It is true that they weren't crisp with their passing or decisions with the puck, but they got a decent amount of scoring chances and threw 48 shots on net. They just happened to run into a goaltender who made a bunch of big stops and finished the game with a career high in saves (47), along with Union barely missing some golden opportunities in the third period (Presizniuk, Bodie). Harvard is starting to find their identity as a team and their highly praised freshman class is beginning to adapt to the college game. Each Louis Leblanc and Danny Biega were very impressive last night. The Dutchmen just have to go out tonight against Dartmouth, salvage two points on the weekend, and maintain their first place standing. Also, with the loss Union moves down to #13 in the PWR, which still is the best for any ECAC team. One positive thing to come out of last night's game was that Jason Walters extended his scoring street to 14 games.

Read some reviews of last night's game on:
USCHO.com (by myself)
Daily Gazette.com (by Ken Schott)
Times Union.com (by Tim Wilkin)
Union Athletics.com
You can also see Ken Schott's post-game thoughts and video.

Tonight's Lineups (1/22/10)

It's not as crowded as the RPI game but still very full. The Union Pep Band is also in attendance.
Union:

Presizniuk - Walters - Valery-Trabucco

Welsh - J. Simpson - W. Simpson

Buote - Zajac - Boileau

Bodie - Lareau - Cain

Schreiber - Stuart

Matheson - Forgaard

Wakita - Coburn

Kinkaid

Milan

Harvard:

M. Biega - Leblanc - Killorn

Morrison - Fallstrom - Kroshus

Greiner - Moore - Valek

Everson - Michaud - Del Mauro

Morin - A. Biega

Huxley - D. Biega

Grimshaw - Christian

Carroll

Richter

Yep, that's not a typo there are 3 Biega's on the Crimson. Alex is a senior and is the team captain while Michael, a junior, is a first line winger, and Danny is a freshman defenseman. You can read about the trio on a website dedicated to them here. The brothers were also on the front cover of the New England Hockey Journal, and you can read the feature from the journal here. They have currently been featured in the Harvard Magazine. The brothers were even getting major attention in 2006 when they were featured on Canada.com and were compared to the Staal brothers who are currently tearing up the NHL.

Dutchmen to face Crimson and Big Green this weekend

Union fans should expect the Dutchmen to take four points a way from this weekend considering both Harvard and Dartmouth are in the lower half of the ECAC standings. Harvard has been on a nice winning streak lately so they could be dangerous, especially with freshman standout Louis Leblanc starting to heat up. The game against the Crimson should be the tightest game of the weekend but you should still favor the Dutchmen. The Dartmouth game should not be that close. The Big Green are currently second to last in the ECAC standings and do not have the offensive talent to keep up with Union's high flying offense. Also, Dartmouth goaltender Jody O'Neill has not put up the prettiest numbers this year. If everything goes as it should the Dutchmen should still be undefeated in league play and on top of the ECAC standings.

You can read some clips about the Dutchmen on Concordy.com, Union Athletics.com, Times Union.com, and Daily Gazette.com.

Be sure to also read Brian Sullivan's ECAC Midseason Report on USCHO.com where he names Mario Valery-Trabucco MVP and Top Forward, and Coach Leaman as Top Coach. Sullivan also names Union as a team most likely to take a tumble.

Union Hockey News: January 18th

• Union stays at #13 in the USCHO.com national rankings and the USA Today poll.
• The Dutchmen move up three spots to #11 in the INCH rankings.
• Read about RPI Coach Seth Appert saying that he doesn't believe the Dutchmen are better than his team on Troy Record.com.
• Read an interview with Jason Walters on Times Union.com.
• Harvard topped Dartmouth 4-1 tonight. The Crimson and Big Green will be traveling to Schenectady this weekend to take on the Dutchmen. You can read the game summary on USCHO.com.