ECAC Hockey in the polls - 2/18/13

by Ryan Fay

USCHO TOP 20

After a one week absence, Union returned to the top 20 USCHO poll. With 97 votes, the Dutchmen were ranked 20th. Over the weekend, Union beat Yale, 4-2, and Brown, 2-0.

Despite suffering its first league loss on Friday against St. Lawrence, Quinnipiac retained the top spot with 34 of 50 first place votes. The other first place votes went to WCHA's Minnesota (15) and Hockey East's Boston College (1).

After weekend losses at Union and RPI, Yale fell from 10th to 13th. Dartmouth slid two spots to 19th following a loss to Cornell on Friday and a win over Colgate on Saturday.

The two highest vote getters not to crack the top 20 were both ECAC teams. RPI received 34 points while St. Lawrence received 19.

Colgate received one point.

USA TODAY / USA HOCKEY MAGAZINE TOP 15

Union received 19 votes, but that wasn't enough to get the Dutchmen back in the USA Today / USA Hockey Magazine top 15.

With 26 of 34 first place votes, Quinnipiac was slotted first for the second straight week. The remaining first place votes were given to Minnesota.

Yale was the only other ECAC team ranked and the Bulldogs tumbled from 9th to 14th.

RPI (9 votes) and Dartmouth (6) were in consideration but lacked enough support.

PAIRWISE

Rk	Team	PCWs	W-L-T	Win %	Rk	RPI	Rk
1	Quinnipiac	30	22-4-4	.800	1	.5824	1
2	Minnesota	29	20-6-4	.733	2	.5658	2
3	Miami	28	19-8-5	.672	4t	.5528	3
4	New Hampshire	26	16-8-4	.643	8	.5473	5
5	Boston College	26	17-8-3	.661	6	.5455	7
6	North Dakota	25	16-8-6	.633	9	.5466	6
7	Minnesota State	23	20-9-3	.672	4t	.5474	4
8	Western Michigan	23	18-8-6	.656	7	.5391	9
9	St. Cloud State	22	18-11-1	.617	11	.5440	8
10	Niagara	20	19-6-5	.717	3	.5374	10
11	Denver	19	15-9-5	.603	13	.5351	11
12	Yale	16	13-9-3	.580	16	.5295	14
13	Boston University	16	14-12-2	.536	25	.5202	20
14	Mass.-Lowell	15	16-9-2	.630	10	.5347	12
15	Notre Dame	15	19-12-1	.609	12	.5323	13
16	Union	15	15-10-5	.583	15	.5245	15
17	Rensselaer	13	14-11-5	.550	23t	.5222	18
18	Merrimack	13	14-10-6	.567	18t	.5208	19
19	Dartmouth	12	12-9-4	.560	22	.5238	17
20	Nebraska-Omaha	11	18-12-2	.594	14	.5243	16
21	Alaska-Fairbanks	11	13-13-4	.500	31t	.5095	26
22	Robert Morris	10	16-12-2	.567	18t	.5039	28
23	St. Lawrence	9	15-11-4	.567	18t	.5152	22
24	Ohio State	8	13-12-7	.516	30	.5138	24
25	Northern Michigan	8	13-15-4	.469	36	.5032	29
26	Ferris State	7	15-13-4	.531	26	.5113	25
27	Wisconsin	6	13-10-7	.550	23t	.5194	21
28	Holy Cross	4	15-11-2	.571	17	.5062	27
29	Colgate	3	13-13-4	.500	31t	.5013	30
30	Providence	2	11-10-7	.518	27	.5147	23
31	Colorado College	0	11-14-5	.450	39	.5002	31

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.

ECAC Hockey in the polls (2/11/13)

by Ryan Fay

USCHO

Following a winless weekend, Union's 81 week streak in the USCHO top 20 has ended. The Dutchmen, ranked 18th a week ago, did receive 40 votes, the most of any team not ranked.

With 41 of 50 first place votes, ECAC-leading Quinnipiac finally was ranked atop the rankings. It marks the first time in Quinnipiac's history that the Bobcats were ranked first. The team had been stubbornly ranked behind Minnesota the past few weeks.

Yale and Dartmouth held steady at 10th and 17th, respectively. The former comes to Messa Rink on Friday evening.

Also in consideration were Colgate (2 votes), St. Lawrence (2 votes), and RPI (1 vote).

USA TODAY / USA HOCKEY MAGAZINE

Union received zero votes in the latest USA Today / USA Hockey Magazine top 15.

Quinnipiac jumped over Minnesota and earned another #1 ranking with 28 of 34 first place votes. The Bobcats had never been ranked first in this poll, either.

Yale was the only other ECAC team ranked. The Bulldogs moved up a spot to 9th despite not playing.

With 13 votes, Dartmouth was in consideration.

PAIRWISE

In the past week, Union has slid two spots to 21st.

Rk	Team	PCWs	W-L-T	Win %	Rk	RPI	Rk
1	Quinnipiac	30	21-3-4	.821	1	.5877	1
2	Minnesota	29	19-5-4	.750	2	.5682	2
3	Miami	27	18-7-5	.683	4t	.5577	3
4	Boston College	27	16-7-2	.680	6	.5539	5
5	New Hampshire	26	16-7-3	.673	7	.5564	4
6	North Dakota	25	16-8-6	.633	10	.5474	7
7	Western Michigan	24	18-7-5	.683	4t	.5459	8
8	Yale	23	13-6-3	.659	8	.5490	6
9	St. Cloud State	23	18-11-1	.617	11t	.5453	9
10	Minnesota State	19	18-9-3	.650	9	.5412	10
11	Niagara	19	18-5-5	.732	3	.5380	11
12	Denver	18	15-9-5	.603	13	.5352	12
13	Boston University	18	13-11-1	.540	23	.5255	16
14	Notre Dame	17	18-11-1	.617	11t	.5341	13
15	Alaska-Fairbanks	16	13-11-4	.536	24t	.5237	17
16	Mass.-Lowell	15	14-9-2	.600	14	.5291	14
17	Dartmouth	13	11-8-4	.565	18	.5274	15
18	Northern Michigan	12	12-13-4	.483	33	.5117	24
19	Nebraska-Omaha	11	16-12-2	.567	17	.5189	18
20	Merrimack	11	13-10-5	.554	19t	.5180	19
21	Union	11	13-10-5	.554	19t	.5142	21
22	Wisconsin	9	12-9-7	.554	19t	.5165	20
23	Rensselaer	9	12-11-5	.518	29	.5134	22
24	Ferris State	8	14-12-4	.533	28	.5134	23
25	Colgate	7	13-11-4	.536	24t	.5109	26
26	Ohio State	6	12-12-6	.500	30t	.5111	25
27	Providence	4	10-10-6	.500	30t	.5102	27
28	St. Lawrence	4	13-11-4	.536	24t	.5055	28
29	Holy Cross	2	14-10-2	.577	15	.5043	29
30	Robert Morris	2	15-11-2	.571	16	.5012	30
31	Colorado College	0	11-14-5	.450	37t	.5003	31

ECAC Hockey Power Rankings (2/11/13)

by Ryan Fay

Parity is the name of the game in the ECAC this year. Only six points separate second place Yale from the two teams tied for 10th place (Colgate, Brown).

Lets see how the teams stack up with only three more regular season weekends to go:

1. QUINNIPIAC (21-3-4 overall, 13-3-2 ECAC) LAST WEEK (LW): 1
The Bobcats went on the road and beat Cornell, 4-1, on Friday before outlasting Colgate, 3-2, on Saturday. The wins were no surprise as Quinnipiac has yet to lose a true road game all season long (10-0-2). It's a good thing the team was on the road with reports of 40 inches of snow in their home city of Hamden, CT.

2. YALE (13-6-3, 9-5-1) LW: 2
Yale only had one game on the weekend docket (at Brown), but it was postponed to tomorrow due to the powerful winter storm that rocked New England. With Yale potentially without goaltender Jeff Malcolm, and the way Anthony Borelli has been playing in net for Brown, it could be a very intriguing matchup.

3. RPI (12-11-5, 7-6-3) LW: 5
The Engineers were in the North Country to battle a couple surging teams in St. Lawrence and Clarkson. The Saints entered the weekend 4-0-2 in their last six and Clarkson was 2-1-2 in their last five. That didn't phase RPI, which won a 4-3 overtime thriller in Canton on Friday before 6-2 thrashing of Clarkson the next night. Five of RPI's top six scorers are either freshmen or sophomores and breakout goaltender Jason Kasforf is another freshman. This is a team with a lot of upside the next couple years.

4. ST. LAWRENCE (13-11-4, 6-6-4) LW: 4
The Saints may have lost a nail biter to RPI on Friday, but they made up for it the next night. St. Lawrence came out firing and knocked Union out of the game with three first period goals. Union head coach Rick Bennett told me that St. Lawrence's Greg Carey, who had a goal and an assist on Saturday, has one of the quickest releases he's seen in college hockey in a long time. And defenseman Gunnar Hughes, who Bennett thought was "really underrated," must have been looking to shed that tag when his first period goal ended up being the eventual game-winner.

5. BROWN (8-9-5, 4-6-5) LW: 6
Brown's lone game (vs Yale) was pushed back to tomorrow due to inclement weather. Brown lost to Yale, 4-3, back on Dec. 1 but bring a three game unbeaten streak (2-0-1) into tomorrow's pivotal contest.

6. UNION (13-10-5, 6-4-4) LW: 3
Since Nov. 30, the two-time defending league champions are just 5-8-4. Thoughts of a third straight Cleary Cup are long dead, but now a first round bye is in jeopardy after laying an egg in the North Country. A 2-1 loss at Clarkson preceded a 4-2 setback at St. Lawrence and the Dutchmen never lead in either game. Union's goals per game have gone down each month this season: 4.00 (Oct), 3.57 (Nov), 2.80 (Dec), 2.25 (Jan), 1.67 (Feb). Even the penalty kill has failed the Dutchmen lately, as the PK is just 6-for-13 in the past three outings.

7. PRINCETON (9-10-4, 7-6-3) LW: 9
Princeton entered the weekend with just one road win all season long. So what did the Tigers do? They traveled to Colgate and Cornell and picked up more road wins in two days than they had in the previous four-plus months. That's ECAC hockey for you.

8. COLGATE (13-11-4, 5-8-3) LW: 7
Colgate is limping to the finish line. The Raiders are on a four game winless streak (0-2-2) and only have two wins in their last eight contests (2-4-2). The team entered the weekend 10-3 at home, but dropped back to back home contests to Princeton and Quinnipiac. The good news is the next three teams on the schedule (Harvard, Dartmouth, Union) aren't exactly lighting it up either. The Colgate power play, usually one of the best in the league, went 0-for-9 over the weekend.

9. DARTMOUTH (11-8-4, 7-6-3) LW: 8
Dartmouth picked up the dubious distinction of being the first ECAC team not to beat Harvard since Cornell did so nearly three months ago. The Big Green, which have all of one win in their past six games, skated to a 1-1 draw at Harvard on Sunday. Dartmouth has scored more than two goals just once in that span (5 vs Clarkson).

10. CLARKSON (7-14-7, 6-7-3) LW: 10
Allan McPherson scored two of Clarkson's four goals this weekend and was assisted by Ben Sexton and Will Frederick on both of them. The Golden Knights go back on the road and battle Princeton and Quinnipiac next weekend. Clarkson's single game high in goals this season (7) came in a 7-2 romp of Princeton on Nov. 17.

11. HARVARD (5-15-2, 3-12-1) LW: 12
The Crimson finally notched their first league point since November, but the best news coming out of the program over the weekend was former standout Alex Killorn ('12) getting promoted to the Tampa Bay Lightning. Killorn, who had 109 points in four seasons in Cambridge, collected 39 points in 43 games for Syracuse (AHL) prior to the bump.

12. CORNELL (8-13-2, 4-10-2) LW: 11
Saturday's 1-0 loss to Princeton was a microcosm of Cornell's prolonged dry spell. The Big Red outshot Princeton 39-12, including 9-0 in the third period, but still lost. Cornell is 1-10 over their past 11 games with the only win coming via a 3-2 triumph at Messa Rink on January 18th.

ECAC hockey in the polls - 2/4/13

by Ryan Fay

Taking a look at how the Dutchmen and other ECAC hockey teams did in this week's college hockey polls.

USCHO

Union held steady at #18 in this week's USCHO top 20 poll. In their only action of the weekend, the Dutchmen tied Dartmouth, 2-2, on Friday. With 168 votes, Union received 17 more than last week.

ECAC-leading Quinnipiac (19-3-4) was ranked second with 20 first place votes, but that's two fewer first place votes than they had last week. WCHA powerhouse Minnesota (18-4-4) retained the top ranking.

Yale (10th, 13-6-3) and Dartmouth (17th, 11-8-3) were the other ECAC teams in the top 20. Yale fell from 8th to 10th and Dartmouth dropped a spot from 16th.

Colgate (46 votes) and St. Lawrence (2 votes) were in consideration. Colgate's vote total increased by 27 while the Saints didn't receive any support a week ago.

USA TODAY / USA HOCKEY MAGAZINE

Union remains unranked in the top 15 USA Today / USA Hockey Magazine poll. The 12 votes Union received were six more than a week ago.

Quinnipiac once again trails poll-leading Minnesota, but picked up two more first place votes (13) than they had last week (11). Yale, the only other ECAC representative, dropped two spots to 9th.

Dartmouth was on the outside looking in with 7 votes, far less than the 45 the Big Green had a week ago.

PAIRWISE

Since last Monday, Union has inched down one spot to 19th in the pairwise.

Rk	Team	PCWs	W-L-T	Win %	Rk	RPI	Rk
1	Quinnipiac	30	19-3-4	.808	1	.5847	1
2	Minnesota	29	18-4-4	.769	2	.5695	2
3	Miami	27	17-6-5	.696	4t	.5624	3
4	Boston College	27	15-7-2	.667	7	.5526	5
5	New Hampshire	26	16-7-2	.680	6	.5580	4
6	Western Michigan	25	17-6-5	.696	4t	.5493	7
7	Yale	23	13-6-3	.659	8	.5497	6
8	St. Cloud State	22	17-10-1	.625	10t	.5445	8
9	Niagara	21	17-4-5	.750	3	.5426	9
10	North Dakota	21	14-8-6	.607	12t	.5401	11
11	Boston University	19	13-10-1	.562	21	.5327	13
12	Denver	18	15-8-4	.630	9	.5424	10
13	Minnesota State	17	16-9-3	.625	10t	.5350	12
14	Alaska-Fairbanks	17	12-10-4	.538	23t	.5248	19
15	Dartmouth	16	11-8-3	.568	20	.5302	14
16	Notre Dame	16	16-11-1	.589	17	.5300	15
17	Colgate	15	13-9-4	.577	18t	.5215	20
18	Mass.-Lowell	13	14-9-2	.600	14t	.5287	17
19	Union	13	13-8-5	.596	16	.5265	18
20	Northern Michigan	13	11-12-4	.481	31	.5129	23
21	Nebraska-Omaha	10	16-10-2	.607	12t	.5288	16
22	Wisconsin	9	11-9-6	.538	23t	.5168	21
23	Merrimack	8	12-10-5	.537	26	.5136	22
24	Ferris State	8	13-11-4	.536	27	.5125	24
25	Ohio State	6	11-11-6	.500	29t	.5123	25
26	Providence	5	10-10-5	.500	29t	.5087	26
27	Robert Morris	5	14-9-2	.600	14t	.5080	27
28	St. Lawrence	3	12-10-4	.538	23t	.5052	28
29	Rensselaer	2	10-11-5	.481	32t	.5044	29
30	Holy Cross	1	14-10-2	.577	18t	.5022	30
31	Massachusetts	0	10-12-2	.458	37	.5019	31

Pairwise information via collegehockeynews.com

ECAC Hockey Power Rankings - 2/4/13

by Ryan Fay

1. QUINNIPIAC (12-0-2 ECAC, 19-3-4 overall) - Last week (LW): 1
#2/2 Quinnipiac was brought to the brink by a pesky Brown team on Friday night, but the Bobcats kept their league unbeaten streak alive with a 1-1 tie. They re-asserted their dominance the next night by whipping Yale, 6-2.

2. YALE (9-5-1, 13-6-3) - LW: 2
#9/10 Yale lost more than the game against Quinnipiac. Star goaltender Jeff Malcolm left the game in the first period and never returned. His absence would be a big loss as Malcolm has a 2.15 goals against average and a .930 save percentage in league play.

3. UNION (6-4-5, 13-8-5) - LW: 3
The 18th-ranked Dutchmen were a little more than five minutes away from beating Dartmouth, but an ill-advised tripping penalty on Daniel Ciampini led to the game-tying goal and it ended a 2-2 draw.

4. ST. LAWRENCE (5-5-4, 12-10-4) - LW: 7
St. Lawrence is one of the hottest teams in the league with a six game unbeaten streak (4-0-2). Greg Carey (37 points) and Kyle Flanagan (35 points) have been in a league of their own offensively this season. No other ECAC player has even 30 points.

5. RPI (5-6-3, 10-11-5) - LW: 8
After a one-game hiccup to Union, the Engineers picked up where they left off. Star freshman Jason Kasdorf picked up his first collegiate shutouts via consecutive 3-0 decisions, against Harvard on Friday and a nationally ranked Dartmouth team the next night. According to the RPI blog Without A Peer, it was the first time since March 2000 that RPI had back-to-back shutouts in an ECAC league weekend. One wonders where RPI would be if they had used Kasdorf from the start.

6. BROWN (4-6-5, 8-9-5) - LW: 9
He doesn't seem to get as much publicity as some other top ECAC goaltenders, but Anthony Borelli has been a brick wall since taking over in early December. The junior has a 1.39 GAA, second only in ECAC play to the 1.33 mark posted by Quinnipiac's Eric Hartzell. Borelli's .952 save percentage ranks first in league play.

7. COLGATE (13-9-4, 5-6-3) - LW: 4
Colgate was fit to be tied over the weekend, leaving the North Country with a 4-4 tie against Clarkson and a 3-3 tie versus St. Lawrence. The Raiders, playing without sophomore defenseman Spiro Goulakos (Hodgkin's Lymphoma), rallied from a two goal deficit to force Saturday's tie.

8. DARTMOUTH (7-6-2, 11-8-3) - LW: 5
#17 Dartmouth's 4-0 start in ECAC play seems like more and more of a distant memory. However, with Harvard on tap next weekend, the Big Green have an excellent chance to get back in the win column.

9. PRINCETON (5-6-3, 7-10-4) - LW: 6
After winning four of five at home, Princeton's road woes continued in two losses over the weekend at Yale and Brown. Princeton has only one win on the road this season (1-6-3) and travel to Colgate and Cornell this weekend.

10. CLARKSON (5-6-3, 6-13-7) - LW: 10
Considering Clarkson entered the weekend 1-8-2 at home, the Golden Knights had to be pleased with a three point home weekend against Colgate and Cornell. Next up are home dates with Union and RPI, the only teams Clarkson has yet to play this year.

11. CORNELL (4-8-2, 8-11-2) - LW: 11
The freefall continues. After two more losses -- 4-2 to St. Lawrence on Friday and 6-3 to Clarkson on Saturday -- Cornell falls to 1-8 in their last 9 games. Having to face Quinnipiac on Friday isn't going to make life any easier. Cornell's struggles rank as one of the more surprising stories in the league this season.

12. HARVARD (3-12, 5-14-1) - LW: 12
In its only action of the weekend, Harvard was blanked, 3-0, at the hands of RPI. The Crimson haven't won a league game since November 16th (4-1 at Cornell).

ECAC Power Rankings - 1/28/13

by Ryan Fay

1. QUINNIPIAC (11-0-1 ECAC, 18-3-3 overall) - Tuesday's 2-1 win over Connecticut may have been closer than some expected, but the Bobcats show no signs of slowing down. On tap is a road trip to Brown and #7/8 Yale, the only ECAC teams yet to face off against #2/2 Quinnipiac this season.

2. YALE (8-4-1, 12-5-3) - A 4-1 setback at Colgate on Saturday was Yale's first loss in nearly a month (December 30th to Holy Cross). Yale returns home, where they have a 5-2-1 record this season, to face Princeton and Quinnipiac this weekend. It will be their first meetings against both teams this year.

3. UNION (6-4-3, 13-8-4) - Concern has died down after three straight wins over Colgate, Harvard, and a non-leaguer over RPI. One sign of hope is highly touted freshman Matt Wilkins scoring his first three collegiate goals in January (including Saturday's game winner). Next on the docket is a rematch with #16 Dartmouth, which beat #18 Union, 3-2, at Thompson Arena in early November.

4. COLGATE (5-6-1, 13-9-2) - The Raiders have won five of their past seven games with the only blemishes being a weekend sweep in the Capital District on January 19th & 20th. Most impressive was Saturday's win over Yale. One concern going forward - six of their last 10 games are on the road, where the team is just 2-6-2 on the season (compared to 10-3 at home). Next up is a trip to the North Country, whose teams (Clarkson, St. Lawrence) split with Colgate a couple months ago.

5. DARTMOUTH (7-5-1, 11-7-2) - After starting 4-0 in ECAC play, the Big Green have gone just 3-5-1 since. The team split the weekend against the North Country teams, losing 4-2 to St. Lawrence before beating Clarkson 5-1.

6. PRINCETON (5-4-3, 7-8-4) - Since the calendar flipped to 2013, the Tigers have won four of five games with the lone hiccup being a 3-2 home loss to Union on January 11th. Revenge will be the theme this weekend when Princeton travels to Yale and Brown. Yale and Brown beat Princeton earlier this year, 3-2 and 2-1, respectively.

7. ST. LAWRENCE (4-5-3, 11-10-3) - The Saints have won or tied their past four games (3-0-1) including a 4-2 win at Dartmouth on Friday. It marked only Dartmouth's second home loss of the year (9-2).

8. RPI (3-6-3, 8-11-5) - Saturday's 3-2 non-league loss to Union aside, the Engineers have been playing better hockey of late. They handed Quinnipiac its only non-win in league play this season with a 1-1 tie on January 11th. The next weekend, they had their first home sweep of Cornell and Colgate since the 1990s. RPI hosts Dartmouth and Harvard this weekend.

9. BROWN (3-6-4, 7-9-4) - Brown has been up and down since league play resumed, going 3-3 in their past six league contests. The Bears split the weekend, losing 2-1 to Colgate ahead of a 3-0 win over Cornell.

10. CORNELL (4-6-2, 8-9-2) - Cornell has fallen on hard times. The Big Red have dropped six of their past seven games with the lone win being a 3-2 come from behind win at Union on January 18th. Making matters worse was losing World Junior Championship gold medalist Cole Bardreau for the rest of the season with a fractured neck. Cornell will look to rebound this weekend against Clarkson and St. Lawrence, who they swept earlier this year.

11. CLARKSON (4-6-2, 5-13-6) - Clarkson has one win in their past eight games, a 5-1 thrashing of hapless Harvard on Friday. The Golden Knights begin a four game homestand this weekend but don't expect much home cooking as the team is only 1-8 at home this season.

12. HARVARD (3-11, 5-13-1) - Decimated by an academic cheating scandal that resulted in the loss of four players a couple months ago, the Crimson have gone 1-11-1 in their past 13 games.

Union Drops In The Rankings

Union dropped two games and won once against Colgate this weekend. They will be off this upcoming weekend and will await to see where they end up in the NCAA Tournament.

This is where they currently stand in the rankings:

USCHO: down 5 spots to #9
INCH: down 4 spots to #7
USA Today/USAHM: drop 4 spots for a tie for #8 with Notre Dame
TCHB: down 6 spots to #9

PWR: 9th
RPI: 8th
KRACH: 10th

Here are some links pertaining to where Union could end up in the NCAA tournament:

USCHO's Jayson Moy has Union as the 9-seed playing in Bridgeport against Merrimack and with Yale and RIT. (click here)

Have fun with USCHO's PairWise Predictor to figure out all the different scenarios of how different teams can and cannot make the NCAA tournament. (click here)

The College Hockey Blog has Union in Green Bay for the NCAA Tourney playing Michigan, and with Miami and Boston University. (click here)

Taking A Look At The Rankings

Union had this past weekend off because of the first round bye. But, there were still college hockey games this weekend. The Dutchmen will play Colgate this weekend in the playoffs.

Here is where Union sits in the rankings:

USCHO: stay at 4th
INCH: stay at 3rd
USA Today/USAHM: stay at 4th
TCHB: stay at 3rd


PWR: tied for 6th with UNO
RPI: 4th
KRACH: 6th

This weekend the Dutchmen will host Colgate in the ECAC Quarterfinals. Last night the Raiders beat RPI at HFH in overtime in the decisive third game. This was the second year in a row that the Engineers were bounced from the first round of the playoffs. Last season they lost to 11th-seed Brown in three games.

You can read Jeffrey Haff's (Daily Gazette) observations from last night by clicking here.

I watched the post-game interviews with Seth Appert and Chase Polacek on YNN last night, and they were visibly upset. Even though I hate RPI (like most Union students and fans), I feel a little bad for Polacek and am a bit disappointed. Polacek is one of the best players I've seen in the ECAC in my four years, and he deserved to go out on a better note. He's probably my pick for the ECAC MVP. I was also looking forward to Union and RPI meeting up again one more time whether that were in the ECAC Final Four or the NCAA Tournament. The Engineers had a great season until they fell apart in the past few weeks. But, Polacek and York can only do so much. Besides those two stars and a few others, there really wasn't too much after that.

I admit that even a part of me last night wanted to see RPI win so we could play St. Lawrence instead of Colgate. I just feel SLU is a less dangerous team than the Raiders despite their upset of Princeton on the road (something I don't think anyone predicted).

Anyways, all of our focus is now on Colgate. The Raiders seem  to have hit their stride at the right time and have now proven that they can travel to the Capital District and win two games by close scores. Union has won both meetings with Colgate this season and have an outstanding record at home, but it's still very difficult to beat a team four times in one season. I still have the utmost confidence in our guys to win two games at Messa Rink.

We Are Very Good!

This past weekend the Dutchmen won their first Cleary Cup by tying Quinnipiac 2-2 on Friday and beating Princeton 5-0 the following night.

Union has a first round bye and will be off this upcoming weekend.

Here is where they stand in the national rankings:

USCHO: up one spot to #4 (one first place vote)
INCH: up one spot to #3
USA Today/USAHM: up one spot to #4
TCHB: down one spot to #3

PWR: tied for 6th with Merrimack
RPI: 4th
KRACH: 6th

Pretty unbelievable!

Union Gets More Love In The Polls

This past weekend the Dutchmen swept the North Country. On Friday they beat Clarkson 4-3 in overtime and followed that up with a 5-2 win over St. Lawrence.

Once again, Union has moved up in the USCHO poll:

USCHO: up two spots to 5th

INCH: stay at 4th
USA Today/ USAHM: up two spots to 5th

PWR: tied for 8th with UNO
RPI: 4th
KRACH: 7th

This weekend Union wraps up the regular season at Messa Rink against Quinnipiac and Princeton. With two games to play, the Dutchmen are in first place and one point ahead of Yale in the ECAC standings. They control their own destiny. If they win both games they will be the top-seed in the ECAC playoffs, and will probably secure a bid to the NCAA tournament.

Union Keeps Moving Up!!!

This past weekend the Dutchmen demolished Cornell 4-0 and then come from behind to beat Colgate the following night 6-3. As a result Union has moved up into elite company in the national polls.

Here's what Justin has to say on this success:

"I hope everyone is finally realizing we're living the beginning of the golden years for Union hockey. This is truly becoming a historically incredible season. This is why college sports are so special folks. These players aren't getting paid for what they do. We're not paying thousands of dollars to be season ticket holders. Together, we're purely doing this for the love of Union College, the love of college hockey, and for love of enjoying life. It's truly something remarkable."

USCHO: up two spots to 7th
INCH: up three spots to 4th
USA Today/ USAHM: up two spots to 7th

PWR: tied for 7th with Nebraska-Omaha
RPI: 6th
KRACH: 7th

After the weekend I predicted Union to finish 7th and it looks like pretty much everyone agrees with me. I think the INCH ranking is a little too high, but we definitely appreciate the love. Meanwhile, RPI lost two overtime games this weekend and dropped a lot in the rankings. I'm not surprised that they fell, but the amount they fell was a bit surprising to me.

Also, the Jason Klump's report about his incident with Paul Stewart at Messa Rink is up on Without A Peer. According to Ken Schott, ECAC commissioner Steve Hagwell will talk to Stewart about the incident.

Dutchmen Move Up In The Polls

This past weekend Union had two come-from-behind wins at Princeton and Quinnipiac. Against Princeton they were down 4-1 only to score six unanswered goals to win 7-4. The following night the team saw themselves down 2-1 heading into the third period only to have senior captain Brock Matheson tie the game and his classmate Justin Pallos win the game in overtime.

In the ECAC standings the Dutchmen are in second place just one point behind Yale and are four points ahead of third place RPI, who picked up three points on the weekend and saw their star goaltender Allen York get hurt.

Union has clinched home ice in their opening playoff series and are the first team in the nation to win 20 games this season. They should clinch a first round bye in the ECAC playoffs this weekend.

Here is where Union sits in the standings:

USCHO: up two spots to #9 (highest ranking ever)
INCH: up one spot to #7
USA Today/ USAHM: up two spots to #9

PWR: tied for 9trh with Merrimack
RPI: 7th
KRACH: 8th

This weekend the Dutchmen welcome a resurgent Cornell team and a Colgate team that won their first ECAC game of the season this past Saturday.

Union Moves Up In The Polls

This past weekend the Dutchmen upset #1 Yale 3-2 and then beat Brown 4-2, both at Messa Rink. RPI also beat Yale over the weekend. The Bulldogs have now lost their #1 ranking.

Here's where Union stands:

USCHO: up two spots to 11th
INCH: up one spot to 8th
USA Today/ USA Hockey Magazine: up one spot to 11th
PWR: tied for 12th with Merrimack
RPI: 9th
KRACH: 10th

This weekend Union travels to Princeton (who is ranked in the top 20) and Quinnipiac.

Union Drops In The Polls

This past weekend at Messa Rink, Union lost a huge game to Dartmouth 4-1, but came back in the third period to beat Harvard 2-1. The loss to the Big Green really hurt as Union dropped in the national rankings.

Here is where the Dutchmen stand:

USCHO: down one spot to #13
INCH: down one spot to #9
USA Today/USA Hockey Magazine: down two spots to 12th
PWR: 15th
RPI: 10th
KRACH: 12th

Where Is Union In The Polls?

This past weekend the Dutchmen swept their trip to Central New York for the first time since 1998. They beat Colgate 2-1 and then destroyed Cornell 5-1. Here is where Union stands after a solid weekend:

USCHO: up two spots to 12th
INCH: up two spots to 8th
USA Today/ USA Hockey Magazine: up two spots to 10th
PWR: tied for 12th with Boston University
RPI: 10th
KRACH: 10th

Up next for Union is Dartmouth and Harvard. The Dartmouth game is especially important since the Big Green are ahead of the Dutchmen in the PWR.

Union In The Polls

This past weekend the Dutchmen swept their North Country foes as they beat St. Lawrence 3-1 and Clarkson 8-1.

Here is where Union stands in the national polls:
USCHO: up one spot to #14
INCH: up two spots to #10
USA Today/ USA Hockey Magazine: up one spot to #13

Here is where Union stands in the calculated polls:
PWR: tied for #13 with Western Michigan
RPI: #12
KRACH: #13

It seems that the consensus is that Union should be ranked somewhere between #12 and #14. I don't think they deserve #12 as of now, but #14 sounds about right; right on the cusp of a national tournament berth. Once again, INCH overrated the Dutchmen, which is something they've been doing all season. But, as a fan I really can't complain (haha).

Union Drops In The Polls

This past weekend Union split games at the Mariucci Classic as they beat Minnesota but fell to Bemidji State. The second half of the season begins this weekend where Union plays 16 ECAC games, 10 of which are at Messa Rink. There are many more important games to be played and each game will become more important as the season goes on.

Here is where Union stands in the different polls:

USCHO: 15th --> 25th consecutive week
PWR: 16th
KRACH: 17th
USA Today/USA Hockey: 14th
INCH: 12th

These rankings are more realistic than they have been in the past weeks. I felt that the Dutchmen were ranked to high, but #14 - #17 is where I see this team. Union has proven at times to be a national tournament team, but at other times has shown that they unable to beat good teams when they need to. Maybe the return of Adam Presizniuk will help them creep back up the standings. It should be interesting to see where Union ends up in a few months.

On another note, RPI is climbing up the rankings. They have some players that are playing excellent right now such as forwards Chase Polacek and Tyler Helfrich, defenseman Nick Bailen, and goaltender Allen York. As of this moment, the Engineers have proven me wrong and now I think they will definitely be in contention for a Top 3 spot in the ECAC standings. But, don't look too much into their past two games as they beat Alabama-Huntsville (2-18-2) by the score of 2-1 on back-to-back nights. Anything can happen once ECAC play gets underway this weekend...

By the way, USA faces off against Canada tonight at 7:30pm in the semifinals of the 2011 World Junior Championships. The game will be shown on the NHL Network. For complete game notes click here.

Union in the Rankings

The Dutchmen were off for the second weekend in a row. They return to league play at Brown and Yale this weekend.

INCH: Union moves up two spots to #8... Yale is ranked second

USCHO: Union stays at #13... RPI moves up one spot to #16

USA Today/ USA Hockey Magazine: Union drops one spot to #13... just six points behind #12 Notre Dame

Union In The Polls

Union did not play last week and are off this weekend as well:

- The Dutchmen move up one spot to #13 in the USCHO poll.

- The INCH Poll keeps Union at #10.

Here is Union's schedule for the Winter Break:

12/3 at Brown
12/5 at Yale (on ESPNU)
12/10 vs. AIC
12/11 vs. Army
12/18 at Western Michigan
12/19 at Western Michigan
12/31 vs. Minnesota (Dodge Holiday Classic, Minnesota)
1/1 vs. Bemidji (Dodge Holiday Classic, Minnesota)