ECAC Playoff Picture Clears Up

Last season, the Harvard men's hockey team traveled up to Dartmouth and Vermont with the possibility of finishing anywhere from third to eleventh. The Crimson swept the weekend, and a little luck vaunted Harvard into fifth place--good for home ice in an eventual first round sweep of Colgate.

This year, the Crimson host Vermont and Dartmouth for the final weekend, but no home ice jackpot awaits. The best it can finish is eighth and, at worst, 11th.

With those playoffs just a week away, it's time to take a close look at the annual conundrum of postseason seedings. The Eastern Collegiate Athletic Conference does not have quite the parity it had last year. Rather there are three distinct groups battling for slots.

The only team not in the post-season party is Union. With just four points, the perpetual cellar dwellers bowed out a long time ago.

Harvard is battling in a group with Dartmouth, Vermont and Brown to determine which squad will join the Skating Dutchmen. All four teams will square off against each other this weekend, and only the Catamounts have clinched a playoff berth.

The prize for this group is eighth place--currently occupied by Vermont with 16 points.

Whoever grabs that slot avoids traveling up to the North Country for the first round, greatly increasing their chances of advancing to Lake Placid.

"We're not afraid of Clarkson or St. Lawrence," freshman forward Kyle Clark said. "We certainly don't want to have to play a couple after being on the road for six to eight hours."

Despite sitting in ninth, the Crimson controls its own destiny. Trailing Vermont by just two points, a sweep puts Harvard in eighth place.

Under that scenario, the Crimson would at worst tie the Catamounts. However, having already beaten Vermont 7-6 earlier this year, Harvard would own the tie breaker.

A tie with the Catamounts and a win over Dartmouth also nixes the seven hour bus ride for next Friday.

A Crimson split clinches a playoff berth, but guarantees it one of the two bottom seeds, depending on how Brown finishes.

Most permutations have Harvard in ninth for a probable first round match-up with St. Lawrence.

Harvard will miss the playoffs for the first time since the 1980-81 season if it drops the deuce and Brown either wins one game or deadlocks both.

The Bears own the head-to-head tiebreaker with the Crimson, and both teams would finish with 14 points.

Brown also can eliminate Harvard by capturing at least three points this weekend and the Crimson eeking out just one with a tie and a loss.

The Bears were not a concern for the Crimson until last weekend when the North Country catastrophe sent the Crimson home without points and Brown stunned St. Lawrence with a 3-2 overtime victory on Saturday.

"We know that if we play well, we'll probably face RPI," Clark said. "But we're gunning for the sweep."

As might be expected, the top of the ECAC is considerably clearer than the bottom.

No. 6 Clarkson, with 34 points, holds a three point lead over the Saints, and obviously a win would clinch the ECAC crown and an automatic NCAA bid.

Should the two end up in a tie for first place, the champion is unclear. The two squads split their two regular season meetings and the next tiebreaker, record against the top-five, will not be determined until those teams are determined.

The Saints can finish no worse than second. They enjoy a four-point lead over Rennselaer and swept the Engineers in the season series.

Rennselaer, however, is the only other ECAC team with home ice clinched, and two losses would only drop it to fourth place. One point by the Engineers makes them the reward for the eighth seed.

Princeton and Yale will attempt to do just that, and they form the cream of the third bracket of teams in the final weekend. A double sweep by the traveling partners catapaults the Tigers into third.

However, two more losses for Princeton could send it back to where it finished last season--seventh place.

A few short weeks ago, the Tigers were the ninth ranked team in the nation, but now they are in danger of losing home ice.

A critical injury to senior defenseman Steve Shireffs has short circuited its transition game and severely cramped its offense.

For the Bulldogs to show, it will need to sweep and count on the lowly Skating Dutchmen knocking off Princeton.

Colgate and Cornell round out the ECAC. Both these teams can finish anywhere from fourth to seventh. However, in the toughest possible draw, these two will host both Clarkson and St. Lawrence. ECAC HOCEKY STANDINGS   ECAC  Overall Team  W  L  W  L  T y-Clarkeson  17  3  0  20  9  1 y-St. Lawrence  14  3  3  19  10  3 y-Rensselaer  13  6  1  20  9  1 x-Princeton  11  8  1  16  10  1 x-Yale  10  7  3  12  12  3 x-Colgate  10  8  2  15  11  4 x-Vermont  7  11  2  13  14  2 Harvard  6  12  2  11  14  2< /B> Dartmouth  6  12  1  10  16  1 Brown  4  12  4  8  14  5 Union  1  17  2  3  24  3 x-Clinched playoff berth y-Clinched home ice for first round