Four Woodsmen With Axes to Grind

Forget the Celtics. Forget the Bruins. Don't talk about the Beanpot (especially the Beanpot). Don't even think about WWF Wrestling.

Tonight and tomorrow at Boston Garden, the ECAC will be the main attraction as Harvard, St. Lawrence, Clarkson, and Vermont--the four survivors of last week's quarterfinals--will battle it out for the league's post-season crown. And a whole lot more.

An ECAC Championship would assure a team of an automatic NCAA bid. A trip to the title game tomorrow night can give a team the league's second invitation to the national tournament. A loss in the semis, and a team's chances are as good as Don King's hair ever flattening out.

And if you briefly look at this year's cast of characters, each team is out here at the Garden to prove something.

Harvard: This is the team that was picked to finish as low as fourth place in some pre-season polls. The loss of 12 players combined with a slew of fresh-faced recruits had the skeptics shaking their heads. Nah, no way, Harvard is not going to capture another title.

The skeptics over-looked a couple of things: Harvard has the best defense in the ECAC. And the Crimson still has a strong corps of seniors.

The Crimson didn't dominate the ECAC, but it still managed to win 18 of its 22 league games.

This will be Harvard's fourth-straight appearance in the ECAC Final Four, but the Crimson may not be an overwhelming favorite to win the title, as it was last year. The king is still king, but the throne is not as sturdy as before.

St. Lawrence: The Saints are the Rodney Dangerfields of the ECAC, the team that has played second-banana to Harvard for the past two years. The Saints run through the rest of the league like opposing teams were made of feathers.

But whenever St. Lawrence has played Harvard in the past two years, the Crimson has always hid a boulder behind its feathers.

The Saints like the fast-break philosophy of hockey. Score once but don't stop scoring. And when you've stopped scoring, add in another goal just for the kids.

Yet in its last three meetings with Harvard--including a 6-3 loss in last year's title game--St. Lawrence, which has been nationally-ranked ahead of the Crimson all season, has suffered three large lumps on its head.

Like Aretha would say, the Saints are looking for a little R-E-S-P-E-C-T.

Clarkson: The Golden Knights are a frustrated bunch. They have made the ECAC playoffs 26 times and have only captured one title. When it looks like Clarkson will finally win a championship, it starts hitting bricks.

The Knights are a silent bunch. Just when the whole league thought they were out of the playoff hunt, they come back in the second half of the season.

With the help of a mini-game, Clarkson virtually did the impossible--defeat Cornell during the playoffs in the mayhem of Lynah Rink. If Clarkson could do that, then it may not be just another fluke squad.

This is also Cap Raeder's last few games with the Knights, as he will join the NHL's Los Angeles Kings as an assistant coach. Maybe the Knights want to win one for ol' Coach.

Clarkson defeated Harvard, 4-2, the last time these two teams met in the ECAC semifinals two years ago. Luciano Borsato cashed in on an empty-net goal during that game.

Borsato is still around.

Vermont: "Hi, we're the Vermont Catamounts and we were walking around Causeway Street and decided to join you guys in this ECAC semifinal thing. It sounds like a lot of fun."

The Catamounts have done some rebelling already this season. They have defeated Harvard twice and shut out Colgate, 8-0, in the first game of their quarterfinal series.

But will the bright lights of Boston blind the new invites from Burlington?