Three's Company?

The ECAC Tournament just has to be different from all the rest. Actually, the quarterfinal series aren't too different from those of the other three hockey leagues, but they do add a wrinkle.

Here's how it works: four games will be played tonight at 7:30 and tomorrow at 7 (Harvard at St. Lawrence, Brown at Clarkson, Rensselaer at Vermont and Colgate Cornell). If the score is tied at the end of regulation, the teams will play a five-minute sudden death overtime period. Should that also not produce a winner, the game ends in a draw with each team earning a point as they did during the regular season. A win is worth two points.

The first team to earn three points goes to the semifinals in Lake Placid next weekend.

If the two teams split the games tonight and tomorrow or if both contests wind up in a draw, a third and decisive game will be played Sunday night at 7. If that game is also dead-locked after three periods, the teams will play as many sudden-death 20-minute periods as necessary in order to determine a series winner.

Last year, Princeton eliminated favored Brown in double overtime by a 3-2 count. Princeton would go on to the ECAC finals where it fell to RPI, 5-1. Harvard dropped its quarterfinal series at home to the tourney champion Engineers, tying the first game at 2-2 and losing the second, 3-1.