ECAC Roundup: Clarkson Nips SLU

In beating Harvard, Brown made a strong statement to the college hockey world that any team can beat anyone else in the wild and wacky ECAC. In this league, parity is the norm.

That was evident the next night, when a different Harvard team took the ice and dominated a highly-touted Dartmouth club in a 5-2 victory.

In the only other league game last weekend, Clarkson was able to edge archrival St. Lawrence, 7-6, in an overtime thriller.

Several other teams competed in a final round of non-conference tune-ups before the ECAC slate begins in earnest this coming weekend.

Clarkson 7, St. Lawrence 6

As much as those around college hockey talk about Michigan-Michigan State and Boston College-Boston University, this rivalry just might be the best.

Judging by the excitement at Clarkson’s Cheel Arena Saturday night, it sure seemed that way.

After Clarkson (2-2-1, 1-0-0) held leads of 3-0 and 4-1 in the first period, the Saints (1-4-0, 0-1-0) came back with a vengeance in the second frame. SLU tied the game with a power-play goal from Blair Clarance with just over two minutes to play in the period.

Clarkson regained the lead when Kevin O’Flaherty, the ECAC Player of the Week, capped a hat trick with a goal just 28 seconds into the third.

Trailing 6-5 midway through the final frame, St. Lawrence’s Josh Anderson tied things up on a power-play score at the 12:23 mark.

Things stayed that way until 2:04 had passed in overtime, when Clarkson’s Kerry Ellis-Toddington beat SLU freshman Kevin Ackley for the game-winner.

Union 8, Bemidji State 6

Union 2, Bemidji State 2

The Flying Dutchmen (3-1-1), led by Coach Kevin Sneddon ’92, continued their impressive start by earning three non-conference points at home this weekend.

Friday night saw a wild game in which 14 goals were scored by 14 different players.

Union freshman Jordan Webb’s tally at 16:24 of the third period proved to be the game-winner.

Saturday night was a stark contrast to the offensive explosion seen the night before. With Union on top 2-1, moments away from securing their second sweep of the 2001-02 season, Bemidji State’s Marty Goulet put a shot past Dutchmen goaltender Brandon Snee to tie the game with just four seconds to play.

Cornell 6, Ala.-Huntsville 1

Cornell 5, Ala.-Huntsville 2

Playing college hockey south of the Mason-Dixon line, Alabama-Huntsville doesn’t often experience venues like the raucous Lynah Rink.

Well, they did last weekend.

While Friday’s game was tied at one apiece early on, a goal by Cornell’s David Francis at 5:19 of the first period gave his team the lead for good.

Freshman goaltender David LeNeveu earned ECAC Rookie of the Week honors for his 24 saves.

UAH, however, took a 1-0 lead into the second period on Saturday on the strength of a goal by Karlis Zirnis at the 6:50 mark of the first.

However, three Cornell goals in six minutes of the second period spelled doom for the visiting Chargers.

All-ECAC goaltender Matt Underhill returned between the pipes for Cornell and stopped 16 shots in game two of the series.

Niagara 4, Princeton 2

Niagara 7, Princeton 1

Princeton (0-2-0) opened its season by dropping two road games to the Purple Eagles (6-2-0).

On Friday night, Niagara scored a goal in each of the first two periods and made it a 3-0 advantage just 23 seconds into the final frame on the first of two goals by Nick Kormanyos.

The Tigers were able to respond with two goals to narrow the lead to 3-2. Princeton was unable to score the equalizer, though, and Kormanyos potted an empty-netter with 15 seconds to play for the final margin of victory.

Princeton only managed 21 shots and didn’t score until Dan Hursh scored with 1:19 to go in the game.

Colgate 4, Iona 1

Just as Colgate (1-4-0) waited awhile to get its first victory, Coach Dan Vaughan’s club took its time scoring its first goal against Iona (4-1-1) on Saturday night.

The Gaels jumped out to an early lead on the strength of a four-on-four tally by John Gilbert at 16:59 of the first frame.

The scoreboard remained that way until 5:36 of the third, when Colgate’s Rob Brown scored the Raiders’ first goal in three games.

After that, the floodgates opened. Kyle Doyle, Scooter Smith, and Paul Kelley all dented the twine for Colgate before the night was through.

Jason LeFevre turned in the best performance by a Raider netminder so far this season, stopping 23 of 24 Gael shots.