Icemen Prepare for Tourney Following Disappointing Finish

As the dust finally settles after the end of the ECAC regular season, the Harvard men's hockey team is holding a title, but apparently not much of the prestige that usually goes with such an achievement.

It is clear that, despite winning the ECAC regular-season title, Harvard's lackluster performance during its trip through the North Country didn't impress anyone.

In fact, the weekend in which Harvard and Clarkson each wasted chances to win the title made the entire ECAC conference look bad.

The Crimson, which had been ranked sixth in the nation by the Albany Times Union poll, actually dropped out of the top 10 as the eleventh vote-getter despite winning the ECAC. By doing so, Harvard became the first regular-season conference champion to not be ranked in the final week of the poll.

Clarkson also suffered in the poll dropping to twelfth for the year.

In fact, the only ECAC team to make the Top 10 at all was St. Lawrence, which moved up to number 10 after its successful weekend.

Talk about a conference with no respect.

Looking to the NCAA's

The bids to the NCAA Championship tournament don't come out until after the ECAC championship, but Harvard's situation is fairly clear.

If Harvard wins the ECAC tourney, it is in automatically, but if the team stumbles, the Crimson will find itself scrambling for an at-large bid.

Despite the fact that the Crimson won the regular-season title. Harvard has some trouble claiming dominance in and out of the league.

While the team was 13-3-6 overall in the conference, Harvard went 1-1-5 against the top four ECAC teams, including going 0-2 on its trip to the North Country. In addition, the Crimson impressed no one with its 1-3 non-conference record.

None of this looks too good for an at-large bid. But Harvard may just win by default, since no team in the ECAC looks too good right now, and the selection committee will feel obligated to hand out at least one bid to the weak conference.

Harvard's best hope for a bid (aside from winning the ECAC tournament) is to reach the finals at the Garden and lose to either St. Lawrence or Clarkson. If Harvard is knocked out earlier by a lesser opponent or if a dark horse wins the tournament, the Crimson will have a hard time making it into the 12-team affair.

Roy and Hughes Shine

Senior goalie Allain Roy won the ECAC regular-season goaltending title after checking in with a 2.30 goals-against-average and a .913 save percentage.

Roy also won the award when he was a freshman in 1989 with a 2.07 GAA inside the conference.

Fellow senior Chuckie Hughes was the fourth best ECAC goalie with a 2.90 GAA and a.878 save percentage.

The Path to the Garden

The Crimson will face off against Rensselaer in the ECAC Quarterfinal on Saturday at Bright Hockey Center.

The Engineers advanced to face Harvard by defeating Vermont, 5-1, on the road Tuesday night. The Crimson has fared well against RPI this year, beating the Engineers in both of their previous meetings.

In the other preliminary game, Princeton downed Colgate, 5-4, and will face the Saints on Saturday.