Strong Union Team Adds Toughness to ECAC

Harvard Coach Ronn Tomassoni said it the first week of the season--for the ECAC to be a strong conference, it eventually has to have a strong, competitive team from Union College.

Don't took now, Coach, but the Skating Dutchman are soaring. With a conference record of 8-9-3, Union has a shot a first-round playoff bye in the ECAC postseason tournament heading into the final weekend of the regular season.

There's another guy closely related to Harvard hockey who likes that thought. However, that's his job.

We're talking about Kevin Sneddon '92, the Crimson's captain two short seasons ago, who is now pacing behind Union Head Coach Bruce Delventhal's bench for a living.

"I'm a Union guy all the way now," Sneddon says. "It was a tough adjustment at first, to be honest--I kinda wanted to get out there and play, especially with all the youth on our team and all the mistakes they were making."

It's amazing to fathom that 11 of Union's top 18 skaters are freshman, although Sneddon is quick to point out that "they really aren't freshmen anymore."

Unfathomable as it may seem, the ECAC may have found a new power-house for years to come.

"The biggest thrill is watching the team grow," Sneddon says. "There are some great kids in that locker room, and I've loved watching them improve as a team over the course of the season."

This year's effort--12-9-4 overall, and only a game under. 500 in conference play one year after the Dutchmen finished 3-19-0 in the ECAC--wildly exceeds the expectations of Sneddon and his compatriots.

"Our number one goal from the moment we first set foot in practice was to make the playoffs," Sneddon says. "Right now, we're in that slot, and we're actually ahead of where we wanted to be at this point."

"You really can't ask for anything more than these guys have done--I can't say anyone here was expecting to be shooting for sixth place at this time of year before the season started."

And even considering Harvard's 3-3 tie with Union last Saturday night, many Crimson players would gladly concede that if they had to lose that point to anyone, Sneddy's not the worst guy to have given it to.

"I love the guy--he's a great guy," captain Sean McCann says. "As a freshman, he was my defense partner, and he was a great player. I'm really happy for him to have that position, and it seems like he's really comfort able there."

So hats off to Kevin Sneddon and all those who have toiled to make Schenectady, N.Y. a future college hockey hotbed. And may the Crimson get a more benign opening round draw next weekend in ECAC quarter-final playoff action than those flying Dutchmen.

The Title Chase: Well, actually, that's been sewn up since last Friday--Harvard has won its third straight ECAC regular season title. But after that, there are several interesting races to watch that involve head-to-head competition.

Most intriguing is the Brown-Clarkson matchup this weekend. Both teams are currently tied for second, and both probably need four points from this weekend to have a shot at the NCAA's, unless one wins the ECAC tournament. This should be an especially tall order for Clarkson, as it gets Brown the night after its duel with the champion Crimson.

RPI and Colgate face off Saturday in key battle for fourth place and home ice (and a potential rematch eight days for now), but keep an eye on Vermont. The Catamounts play at Yale and Princeton, but with a little focus they might steal four points and the coveted home Gutterson Field-house advantage.

And then there's Yale and Dartmouth. The duel for 11th place has never been more heated--tonight at Ingalls rink, the cellar-dweller should be decided, with nothing but Ivy League pride on the line as the two teams play out their schedules.

Team  W  L  T  Pts. HARVARD  15  2  3  33 Clarkson  12  5  3  27 Brown  12  5  3  27 RPI  10  6  4  24 Colgate  10  8  2  22 Vermont  8  8  6  22 Union  8  9  3  19 Cornell  7  8  5  18 Princeton  6  11  3  15 St. Lawrence  7  13  0  14 Yale  4  15  1  9 Dartmouth  4  15  1  9

The Big, the Bad, the Beautiful:Very interesting philosophy Tomassoni introduced to his team going into this weekend's two games with Clarkson and St. Lawrence: rock `em, sock `em hockey. Don Cherry would be so proud. Or would he?

"I'm not just stressing the hit for the sake of hitting," Tomassoni is quick to clarify. "But our guys need reminders from time to time that taking the body helps establish the proper position on their men, from both an offensive and a defensive standpoint."

"And that's been one of the areas in which our guys have lost a little bit of an edge."

So if the physical Golden Knights and Saints decided to get into a "war in the trenches," as Tomassoni puts it--with the vocal hockey-loving student bodies of both schools watching with bated breath--there could be blood on the ice.

But don't look for Olympic gunner Todd Marchant to ever shed any of his blood again for Clarkson--he signed several days ago with the New York Rangers' AHL farm-team in Binghamton, thus waiving his right to return to college.

Don't think for a minute that Knight's Coach Mark Morris didn't get a few gray hairs when he heard about that.

NCAA POLL 1. Michigan (17)  28-5-1  268 2. BU (9)  23-7-1  251 3. HARVARD (2)  18-4-3  213 4. Lake Superior St.  22-9-4  172 5. Colorado Coll.  21-9-4  168 6. Minnesota  19-11-4  156 7. Michigan St.  18-10-5  72 8. Wisconsin  20-13-1  68 9. UMass-Lowell  18-8-7  61 10. West. Michigan  20-10-3  41

Compiled by the Troy (N.Y.) Record, with first-place votes in parentheses, records and total points.

0-and-2 for "M GO Blue":For the first time since very early in the season, Michigan failed to corner every first place vote in the Troy (N.Y.) Record national poll.

As it fell to 28-5-1 after two losses last weekend, the Wolverine's first-place margin fell to eight votes over second-ranked Boston University. The Terriers' perfect weekend helped them leapfrog over Harvard (which still got two first-place votes of its own), securing nine first-place votes and clinching the Hockey East Regular season crown.

But Crimson fans need hardly worry: next in line from the East it is UMass-Lowell at ninth, and all Harvard essentially needs to do to secure a first-round bye for the NCAA tournament is finish as one of the top two teams east of Ohio.

RIP to the ECAC for RPI?:Rensselaer has expressed an interest in leaving the Eastern College Athletic Conference (ECAC) for Hockey East next year.

An RPI committee has been formed to discuss the issue, and then the Hockey East Board would have to approve the move.

RPI sports information would only say that "a decision will be made in the spring."

The ECAC doesn't get as much respect as the other three NCAA Division I hockey conferences (Hockey East, WCHA, CCHA), and the loss of its current number four team would only continue this trend.

Tomassoni has said on several occasions that one of the Crimson's weaknesses is the fact that its schedule isn't one of the strongest in the country, and it RPI jumps ship, respectability woes will get progressively worse.

RPI has been the only ECAC team to crack the top ten besides the Crimson this year.

David S. Griffel contributed to the reporting of this article