Four Teams Advance to Albany

The field of contenders for the ECAC Championship in Albany was pared down to two frontrunners—No. 1 Colgate and No. 4 Dartmouth—and two unexpected challengers, Harvard and Clarkson, in the quarterfinal playoff round last weekend. With an automatic-bid to the NCAA Tournament as the door prize, all four teams will be in action on Friday as part of the single-elimination semifinal.

Colgate is the only team with a mathematical possibility to enter the NCAA Tournament via an at-large bid, but the Raiders’ chances of doing so are quite slim.

The best hope all four teams have of prolonging the hockey season is to beat their rivals and earn the NCAA auto-bid that goes hand-in-hand with the Whitelaw Trophy. For some teams that task looks daunting, but all four squads have factors in their favor.

NO. 1 COLGATE RAIDERS

ECAC Record: 14-6-2

Record Against Remaining Teams: 2-3-1

Top Forward: LW Jon Smyth 42 points, 21 goals and 21 assists

Top Defenseman: Rob Brown 19 points, 3 goals and 16 assists

Goaltender: Steve Silverthorn 18-8-4, 1.82 GAA and .926 save percentage

The Cleary Cup winners as the ECAC’s regular season champs, Colgate enjoyed a first-round bye before fighting out a tough 2-1 series win over St. Lawrence last weekend in Hamilton.

The Raiders rallied for two straight wins after dropping the opening contest; all three games were decided by one goal.

St. Lawrence coach Joe Marsh, who saw his team’s opening skating style stymied by Colgate’s defense, feels that the Raiders are playing with confidence.

“Their team offense, I think, is third [in our league],” he said. “Their team defense, I think, is third. Their power play…third, their penalty kill…third. That’s pretty consistent; they’ve been good in all areas.”

Yale coach Tim Taylor agreed, saying that Colgate “has very good balance”.

“They’ve found ways to win all year, they’re a very, very resourceful team,” he added.

Those wins included a 6-1 victory in Potsdam, home of the Raiders’ first round opponent, Clarkson, and both a win and a tie against Dartmouth.

But Colgate has struggled mightily with the Crimson this season, and that inability to overcome Harvard, even at the times of the season when it was struggling, will loom large if Colgate meets the Crimson in the title game.

NO. 4 DARTMOUTH BIG GREEN

ECAC Record: 10-5-7

Record Against Remaining Teams: 2-1-3

Top Forward: RW Lee Stempniak 36 points, 15 goals and 21 assists

Top Defenseman: Grant Lewis 25 points, 3 goals and 22 assists

Goaltender: Dan Yacey 13-9-8, 2.44 GAA and .914 save percentage

Dartmouth recorded an unbelievable seven ties this season, a testament to its inability to buckle down on defense. The Big Green’s offense, anchored by gifted forwards like Stempniak, Hugh Jessiman and Mike Ouellette, has been dangerous all year.

“Dartmouth has arguably the best forwards in the league—that’s the strength of their team,” Taylor said.

Taylor regarded the Big Green’s defense—or lack thereof—as a major weakness during the season but he, like many observers, was impressed with the commitment to defense displayed in Dartmouth’s playoff series.

The No. 4 Big Green enjoyed a first-round bye, but then drew a quarterfinal series with Rensselaer in Hanover. Much like with Colgate, Dartmouth clamped down after losing the first game of the series.

The team managed to shut out the Engineers 6-0 and 1-0 in games two and three behind consecutive strong performances in net from Yacey.

And even with those defensive gems, the Big Green’s strong corps of forwards managed to pot seven goals on Rensselaer’s Nathan Marsters, one of the ECAC’s hottest goaltenders down the stretch.

Unfortunately for Dartmouth, it faces off against the Crimson, a team that blanked it 3-0 in the regular season finale. This semifinal is a rematch of last year’s semifinal, a game that saw the Crimson post a 5-3 win.

NO. 6 HARVARD CRIMSON

ECAC Record: 10-10-2

Record Against Remaining Teams: 4-2-1

Top Forward: C Tom Cavanagh 33 points, 14 goals and 19 assists

Top Defenseman: Noah Welch 18 points, 6 goals and 12 assists

Goaltender: Dov Grumet-Morris 14-13-3, 2.33 GAA and .915 save percentage

Despite a difficult and inconsistent regular season, Harvard has won five straight and swept its two playoff series against Vermont and then Brown, leading to “an awful lot of momentum going into Albany”, according to Taylor.

The Crimson looked particularly strong against the Bears, with top performers like Cavanagh and seniors Tyler Kolarik and Tim Pettit stepping up their production in crunch time. Grumet-Morris also rose to the challenge, matching Danis nearly puck for puck.

He will be tested similarly by both Yacey and Silverthorn, who have been anchors for their respective teams, but few netminders can match the postseason record Grumet-Morris has accumulated over the last three seasons. Over that period, Grumet-Morris is 11-1 in ECAC playoff games, including an impressive 4-1 in overtime games.

Harvard’s success against the ECAC’s other Final Four teams (the Crimson has gone 4-2-1 against them) and its five-game winning streak makes it the favorite to win the ECAC title.

NO. 9 CLARKSON GOLDEN KNIGHTS

ECAC Record: 8-12-2

Record Against Remaining Teams: 2-3-2

Top Forward: LW Mac Faulkner 42 points, 17 goals and 25 assists

Top Defenseman: Matt Nickerson 14 points, 5 goals and 9 assists

Goaltender: Dustin Traylen 14-14-5, 2.60 GAA and .918 save percentage

The only team that can make a credible contention that it has more momentum than Harvard is the Golden Knights of Clarkson. The Knights have won four of five playoff games, all of them on the road.

Clarkson’s playoff trip began at Union, where the team won by an eight-goal margin in two games. Next, the Knights were handed the unenviable task of heading into Lynah Rink and trying to take two of three games from Cornell.

Against the odds, Clarkson succeeded, out-muscling and out-skating the Big Red in their own barn. After dropping game one 5-1, the Knights rallied, led by three goals from Faulkner and solid performances in net by Traylen.

They survived a 5-4 shootout in game two and dominated Cornell start-to-finish in the deciding game three.

Nothing in Albany will quite compare with the crowd and the atmosphere at Lynah, so all Clarkson will have to do is prove it can consistently beat Colgate and either Harvard or Dartmouth, a task at which it has struggled all season.

—Staff writer Timothy M. McDonald can be reached at tmcdonal@fas.harvard.edu.