ECAC PREVIEW

1. CLARKSON

No doubt about it, the Golden Knights are stacked. Hobey Baker candidates Hugo Belanger and Scott Thomas team up with freshmen Patrice Robitaille and Marko Tuomainen for the high-powered offense. Chris Rogles and Jason Curry compose one of the finest goalie tandems in the nation. And the defense, though young, should be solid, featuring bruisers Mary d'Orsones and Guy Sanderson. NCAA champions? Probably not. But they'll make a run for it.

2. Harvard

The year of the frosh. See above.

3. St. Lawrence

With only three seniors lost to graduation, the Saints should feature one of the top teams in the ECAC. Seniors Mike Lappin and Martin Lacroix, along with freshmen Brian Lapeller, will anchor a speedy, prolific attack. Look for defenders Daniel LaPerrier and Chris Lappin to perform well on the blue-line. Goalie time will be split between Paul Spagnoletti and Brady Giroux, but defense remains the Saints biggest weakness. A solid team, but nothing sparkling.

4. Vermont

The Catamounts are hoping that their youth will triumph over their inexperience. Having lost start forward John LeClair and goalie Mike Millham, Vermont will look for players to fill their shoes. Seniors Jim Larkin and Mike McLaughlin will try to inject some punch into the Catamount offense, while fellow senior Jeremy Benoit will lead the team's defense.

Vermont will turn to freshman Christian Soucy to fill Millham's spot in goal. If Soucy can shine, look for the Catamounts to do very well this year.

5. Cornell

The Big Red are in for some tough times. Coach Bill McCutcheon must make do with a rag-tag offense (a weak recruiting class and only two remaining guns, Ryan Hughes and Joe Dragon). His young defense, however, looks reasonably solid. Upstart Parris Duffus mans the pipes, and David Burke and Paul Dukovac will anchor the blue-line. Visions of Harvard Hockey 1990.

6. Rensselaer

The Engineers win the "Most Screwed By the Class of 1991" award. RPI lost nine of its top 10 scorers from last year to graduation and will have trouble filling their spaces.

RPI Coach Buddy Powers will look to promising sophomores Xavier Majic and Ron Pasco to carry a lion's share of the offensive duties for the team.

Senior Sean Kennedy and sophomore Neil Little will share goal tending duties again for RPI, trying to make up in defense what the team will undoubtably lack in offense. The task is a bit too tough for Rensselaer, however.

Don't look for RPI in the ECAC top four.

7. Brown

Last year, Brown stunned almost everyone by stealing the Ivy title from under Harvard's and Cornell's noses. Now, the ECAC will be more wary of the Bears from Providence and they will most likely crumble under the pressure.

Brown will look to a prolific first line of juniors Mike Ross, Derek Chauvette and Scott Hanley, to put the puck in its opponent's net, while 1990-1 ECAC Rookie of the Year Brown goalie Geoff Finch will concentrate on keeping the puck out of Brown's net.

8. Princeton

Perhaps the best news for the Tigers is that they have replaced their unpopular head coach Jim Higgins with Boston University assistant Donald "Toot" Cahoon.

The bad news for Cahoon is Princeton has most of the same players it did when it had a losing season last year. Most of the Tigers defense will be back, led by sophomore Sean O'Brien, and will try to protect their inexperienced goalies.

Unless divine intervention is on the Tigers schedule, don't look for much of a change in Princeton's performance this year.

9. Yale

The Bulldogs have to be pleased that they have their top-six scorers returning this year. Of course, their offense was near the bottom of the ECAC last year, so that's no guarentee for greatness this season.

Undoubtedly, the biggest loss for the Bulldogs standout goalie Ray Letourneau who logged over 1500 minutes in goal for Yale last season. His domination of the position leaves a huge hole for the team to fill with Letourneau's graduation.

In addition to finding a goalie and the rythm that it never had last year, Yale will have to play a full ECAC schedule.

Sound tough?

It will be.

10. Colgate

Last year, Colgate was just an average ECAC team. Don't look for much of a change this year. The Red Raiders lost Mark Dupere and Craig Woodcroft, two of the team's top all-time scores, to graduation.

If that weren't enough, Colgate also will skate without senior forward Jamie Cooke (29 goals) who waived his eligiblity to skate with the Philadephia Flyers.

Sounds like the Red Raiders are on their way to another mediocre season.

11. Union

The ECAC announced in January that the Skating Dutchmen filled Army's spot in the division. And that's exactly what they're doing.

Union has adopted Army's hit em' hard, beat em' up approach. Unfortunately for Union, the team will also adopt Army's position in the conference--the basement.

12. Dartmouth

While new coach Roger Demment has made a concerted effort to bring in young blood--including freshmen blue-liners Trevor Dodman and Yanik Roussin--Dartmouth still boasts the same porous defense and shoddy attack that earned it the bottom spot last year. Sophomore forward Scott Fraser will lead the uptempo attack, and standout sophomore Mike Bracko will man the pipes. But who are they kidding?