The race for first

We have five teams with in 3 points for first place! Is this a great race, or what? In the five years that I've been following Cornell hockey, it seems like the race is always for the middle positions--a huge log jam in the middle but not at the top. Is this one of the best races we've seen in recent history? Greg, I'm looking for some sort of historical references or atleast a link...

'95-'96 was a fantastic horse race. There were 5 teams that just wouldn't lose down the stretch. UVM, Clarkson, SLU, Cornell, and Colgate. And the last weekend was CU/CU @ CU/SLU. Cornell lost to Clarkson in OT on Friday to snap a 10-game unbeaten streak in a great "unstoppable force" vs. "immovable object" game. The final game of the season at SLU was an incredible finish as Cornell came back from being 4-2 down in the 3rd to win 5-4. Captain Brad Chartrand scored the winner with under 5:00 remaining. It clinched the home-ice series vs. #5 Colgate, who tied both their games.

Final standings: [www.hockey.cornell.edu]

5 teams reached 30 points. There have only been four 30-point seasons in the last 3 years combined: [members.cox.net]

Looking at that chart, '91 looked interesting, as 6 points seperated 1st and 6th.

2002, however was the ultimate free-for-all (except for Cornell finally attaining the #1 seed). 4 points seperated 3rd (23) from 11th place (19). Imagine being 2 wins (potentially, given tie-breakers) from home-ice, but not even making the playoffs. Sorry, Union.

Rich H '96 wrote:

'95-'96 was a fantastic horse race.

Which I got to cover for KCSB 91.9 FM (UC Santa Barbara college radio):
[www.amurgsval.org]

For the broad historical view of the ECAC, here are the standings for all seasons: [members.cox.net]

I haven't done a systematic analysis of dispersion (yet), but here are some fun anecdotal observations:

In '91, the top 5 teams were separated by .091. Contrast this with 2002, in which Cornell finished ahead of #2 Clarkson by .204!

The 17-team pre-HE ECAC featured many seasons with 4 team clusters at the top, but none with 5+ except '83, when the top 7 teams were separated by .112.

This is the separation between this season's top 5:

.000 Brown
.000 Colgate
.026 Cornell
.079 RPI
.079 Dartmouth

My award for the most competive season goes to '95, however. There was a separation of .364 for the entire conference, and just .227 separated 3rd from last.

The best measure of a horse race would be to assess the standings immediately prior to, say, the final weekend, and I don't have the data to do that.



Post Edited (02-21-04 08:24)