ECAC 10/30-31

It's a little bit discouraging that, while on one hand we see Cornell winning two games by a margin of 14-2, Vermont taking 3 points at Duluth, and St. Lawrence sweeping Miami, on the other hand we see Dartmouth losing to to Quinnipiac and Colgate losing to Army, both at home, and Yale losing home games to UAH and St. Cloud by a combined 15-2. On the one hand, the ECAC is 7-3-0 against the CCHA, but on the other hand, we're also 2-5-1 against CHA. Hard to know what to make of this season thus far. At the very least we can say that, just two games into the season, 16 of 19 skaters on the Cornell roster (and 16 of 17 to play both games) have recorded at least 1 point.

A lot of people think the ECAC is getting better relative to the NCAA, but I think what's happening is the CCHA is getting worse and AHA is getting better.

The handful of games played before Daylight Savings Time ends aren't a full season indicator. The other ECACHL teams might get better. (Still, losing to an Army takes some doing.) Or it could just be the others are out of our league. Dartmouth and Colgate might be a bit overrated. St. Lawrence could still be trouble. Vermont seems like an aberration unless Martin St. Louis is sitting out the strike back at UVM. Bet that's the last time Minnesota-Duluth schedules Vermont looking for an eastern pushover.

I agree that St. Lawrence could be trouble. Beating Miami twice confirms what was suspected after they beat Maine and Michigan State. They are the real deal. Also agree that Colgate and Dartmouth may be a bit overrated. Losing J.R. Bria to UMass-Lowell will hurt Colgate and Dartmouth lacks the depth to compete against Cornell or St. Lawrence who are both very deep and balanced.

I think the CHA wins are something of an aberration, too. Niagara has 3 of them, two against UVM. Niagara has historically been the most competitive of the CHA in OOC games. But with the exception of Clarkson, the CHA has played the weak sisters of the ECAC (and we may learn that Clarkson fits that description as well).

I was at the Huntsville-Princeton game last night. If this were last year, Huntsville wins the game, but with all the penalties, Princeton was able to get some chances. Kind of like our game at Baker last year: Princeton got some early power plays and gave us a scare, but McKee kept us in. Once the penalties stopped, they were pretty weak. No bad calls, BTW, just a lot of them.

Huntsville were tiny but were faster than Princeton. Very little sustained offense from either side, though a lot of that was all the penalties. Neither goalie was challenged tho there were lots of shots on goal. Both teams played a counter-attacking style, and Princeton even trapped a bit. The game felt very sloppy to me compared to Cornell's cycling possession type game. Also not a lot of hitting, especially by Princeton.

The big problem was UAH's PK: Princeton scored 4 or their 5 goals on the PP, and they had 11 attempts. 5 on 5 Hunstville got some sustained pressure (some, not much) but couldn't finish - most shots either missed the net or went right into Leroux's breadbasket. Princeton used their size to force Huntsville wide. Most of the Huntsville goals came by a winger throwing the puck into a melee in the slot. UAH also had a goal called back in OT (supposedly kicked in, but it was at the far end so I didn't see the details).

As long as we stay out of the box, we eat both of those teams for lunch.

I find it interesting and strange that before daylight savings time there is one non-ecac team who is undefeated.

colorado college 4-0-0

brown 0-0-1

hahvahd 0-0-1

cornell 2-0-0

of course there are 11 teams with one loss in this young season. I just can't remember the last time that there was only 1 non-ecac team with no losses

I think the US Under-18 Team beat Brown 1-0 today (!), but the score hasn't been posted on USCHO yet

EDIT: Yes, they did; it's on collegehockeystats.com. Brown outshot USA 42-22 and was 0-15 on the PP

[Q]Avash '05 Wrote:
EDIT: Yes, they did; it's on collegehockeystats.com. Brown outshot USA 42-22 and was 0-15 on the PP
Edited 1 times. Last edit at 10/31/04 10:36PM by Avash '05.[/q]
Guess they're teaching 'em young to clutch and grab.

And the good (I suppose) news is that Dartmouth beat UConn today to avoid complete weekend embarrassment.