The Rest of the ECAC Year, Updated 3/1

[Jim Hyla]

Bump, updated. We better hope Colgate can do it tomorrow, otherwise Union losing to Brown or Yale? That's assuming we sweep next weekend. Sure would have been nice if Clarkson had helped. Go 'gate.

[Scersk '97]

[quote Jim Hyla]Bump, updated. We better hope Colgate can do it tomorrow, otherwise Union losing to Brown or Yale? That's assuming we sweep next weekend. Sure would have been nice if Clarkson had helped. Go 'gate.[/quote]

Union losing to (or only picking up 3 points vs.) Yale and Brown on the road?  I don't think that's anywhere close to outside the realm of possibility, to ever so slightly anti-woof.  What's crucial is that we pick up at least a tie vs. Dartmouth on Friday; without a tie, all Saturday will be about is bragging rights.

[lynah80]

I think it's very likely that Cornell is going to need 4 points next weekend.  They played very well this weekend and if everyone stays healthy, they should have a good chance of beating both Dartmouth and Harvard at Lynah.

[Give My Regards]

If Quinnipiac beats Colgate, Cornell goes into the final weekend with no control over a first-round bye, since Union has the head-to-head tiebreaker edge on the Big Red.  We'd have to hope for a sweep coupled with either Union getting 3 or fewer points, or Quinnipiac losing at least once in the North Country.  Certainly neither of those is impossible, but still -- Go 'Gate!

[daredevilcu]

Dartmouth is really up and down.  They trounced Yale tonight, but lost to Brown on Friday.  Harvard's riding high, Richter is playing well and the team is on a 4-game win streak.  Cornell will have to be at the top of their game, definitely, and they'll be cheering for SLU, Clarkson, Brown and Yale for most of the weekend.

I have to figure Union will get at least 2 points out of that trip, so Cornell will need at least 3 because they lose that tiebreaker.  Quinnipiac will need to drop 2 of their last 3, I think, for the Red to get a bye.  With the NC trip, it's always possible, however if Clarkson wins on Friday against Princeton they wrap up the Cleary cup. If that happens, who knows if they'll be playing a bunch of seniors who don't play often on Saturday -- it is senior night.  Might give Q a better shot to defy what has been a fairly predictable outcome at Cheel this year.

[Jim Hyla]

[quote daredevilcu]Quinnipiac will need to drop 2 of their last 3, I think, for the Red to get a bye. [/quote]

Actually, as said below, Q needs just one loss for us to have control. If they lose tomorrow, then, if we sweep they can't catch us.

If Quinnipiac beats Colgate, Cornell goes into the final weekend with no control over a first-round bye, since Union has the head-to-head tiebreaker edge on the Big Red.

If Q loses, we jump ahead of Harvard and stay ahead of Q with a sweep. Then if Union doesn't sweep we get 3, if they also sweep, they win the tiebreaker with us and we are 4. I don't think anything else matters. Since Yale plays Union they can't both overtake us.

All this depends upon us sweeping. Go 'gate, beat Q and rough up Harvard before we play them.::smashfreak::

So who's watching 'gate at Q tomorrow? I believe it's on NESN, and I'm still active with Q's web feed.

[Jim Hyla]

Well, we control our destiny. Win out and we have home ice. Thanks 'gate.

[Rita]

[quote Jim Hyla]Well, thanks to Colgate,we control our destiny. Win out and we have home ice. Thanks 'gate.[/quote]

One cannot ask for more than that. Given the ups and downs that the team has had, they are in a very good position heading into the final weekend.

LGR!

[Scersk '97]

We can also depend on the kindness of strangers:  there is, in fact, a scenario where we lose both games and end up in fourth.

[Al DeFlorio]

[quote Scersk '97]We can also depend on the kindness of strangers:  there is, in fact, a scenario where we lose both games and end up in fourth.[/quote]
Happened last year, but two years in a row would really be tempting the hockey gods.

[Scersk '97]

[quote Al DeFlorio][quote Scersk '97]We can also depend on the kindness of strangers:  there is, in fact, a scenario where we lose both games and end up in fourth.[/quote]
Happened last year, but two years in a row would really be tempting the hockey gods.[/quote]
Oh, I certainly agree.  Tempt ye not the hockey gods.

Last year, though, it was only three teams for 3rd and 4th; this year, it's six teams for 3rd and 4th, so backing into 4th would be quite the gift.

[BillCharlton]

[quote Al DeFlorio][quote Scersk '97]We can also depend on the kindness of strangers:  there is, in fact, a scenario where we lose both games and end up in fourth.[/quote]
Happened last year, but two years in a row would really be tempting the hockey gods.[/quote]

Unless the hockey gods favor Cornell over all others in the pantheon of truly deserving hockey teams.

[Al DeFlorio]

[quote BillCharlton][quote Al DeFlorio][quote Scersk '97]We can also depend on the kindness of strangers:  there is, in fact, a scenario where we lose both games and end up in fourth.[/quote]
Happened last year, but two years in a row would really be tempting the hockey gods.[/quote]

Unless the hockey gods favor Cornell over all others in the pantheon of truly deserving hockey teams.[/quote]
The '04 and '07 quarterfinals raise doubt.::cry::

[Trotsky]

From the "when the heck did that happen?" department, according to collegehockeystats, Cornell is now #2 in powerplay and #2 in kill in conference play.

RPI is staving off history with 8 ppg and 7 sha going into the final league weekend.  They are (12, 11) overall.

[lynah80]

Below are my predictions for the coming weekend.  Winners for each game are in bold.  For ties, both teams are bold.  The visiting team is first.

Friday

HVD CLG    
DRT COR
PRN CLK
QUN SLU
UNI YLE      
RPI BRN


Saturday

DRT CLG
HVD COR
QUN CLK
PRN SLU   
RPI YLE
UNI BRN


With these results, the standings on March 1 would look like this:

32 CLK 14 - 4 - 4
31 PRN 15 - 6 - 1  
27 COR 13 - 8 - 1
26 HVD 12 - 8 - 2
25 UNI  10  - 7 - 5
24 QUN 10 - 8 - 4
24 YLE 10  - 8 - 4
22 CLG  9 - 9 - 4
15 BRN  6 - 13 - 3
13 RPI  5 - 14- 3
13 DRT  5 - 14 - 3
12 SLU  5 - 15 - 2

And the Big Red would have a bye for March 7-9.

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I will post the USCHO predictions when they become available and do the arithmetic for the standings.  For last weekend, I tied USCHO for overall prediction accuracy.