ECAC Hockey Report, Week of 1997 October
13
© 1997,
Joe Schlobotnik
(archives)
URL for this frameset:
http://slack.net/~whelan/tbrw/tbrw.cgi?1998/ecac.971015.shtml
Recent Action
College hockey season got out to a somewhat inauspicious start for
the ECAC this weekend as the Golden Knights of Clarkson were pasted
7-1 by Wisconsin in the first round of the Ice Breaker Invitational in
Madison. Clarkson's senior netminder Dan Murphy was pulled halfway
through the second after surrendering two goals in 17 seconds to put
the Badgers up by two, but his replacement, sophomore Christian
Marois, let in the first shot he faced 57 seconds later, so Murphy was
back in, and ended up with 25 saves on 31 shots. The Knights looked
better the following afternoon in a 5-4 loss to Boston University in
the consolation game. Clarkson fans can also take heart in the fact
that these games may ultimately be recorded as exhibitions, pending an
NCAA ruling.
Standings
The conference season is a few weeks away, but to refresh your
memory here's last year's finish, along with the results of this
year's ECAC
Coaches' Poll. Rensselaer are the preseason favorites, with nine
of the twelve first-place votes.
1996-97 Results 1997-98 Poll
W- L-T PF-PA Pct Rank Pts FPV
1 Clarkson 17- 5-0 34-10 .773 2 132 3
2 Cornell 14- 6-2 30-14 .682 3 115
3 Vermont 13- 6-3 29-15 .659 7 71
4 RPI 12- 7-3 27-17 .614 1 137 9
5 Union 11- 8-3 25-19 .568 11 30
Princeton 11- 8-3 25-19 .568 4 100
7 Colgate 10- 9-3 23-21 .523 6 80
8 Harvard 9-11-2 20-24 .455 5 92
9 St Lawrence 5-12-5 15-29 .341 8 67
10 Yale 6-14-2 14-30 .318 10 37
11 Dartmouth 5-15-2 12-32 .273 9 47
12 Brown 4-16-2 10-34 .227 12 28
The National Scene
With little or no official NCAA action taking place, RPI hold
their place at #10 in the second US College Hockey Online Poll
of the season. Cornell remain among the top non-ranked vote-getters,
while Clarkson drop completely off the map with their poor showing in
Madison.
Upcoming Games
Several more ECAC squads begin play this weekend. Colgate is in
Ann Arbor for a pair with Michigan, while Saturday sees the renewal of
the ECAC-Hockey East rivalry as Vermont visits regional foe New
Hampshire and RPI is at Boston Univeristy. The Engineers-Terriers
match will mark the ECAC's first television appearance, as viewers in
parts of New England will see the game on WABU.
And until next week, this is Joe Schlobotnik with the ECAC
Hockey report.