Parting Schotts

College Hockey Slap Schotts Week 21 — ECACH tourney quarterfinals preview

The first round of the ECAC Hockey tournament is complete. Three teams that had home-ice advantage — Dartmouth, St. Lawrence and Brown — took care of business, although Dartmouth was the only squad that had to go the distance to knock off a pesky Harvard team. The only surprise, albeit a mild one, was No. 9 Cornell sweeping No. 8 Princeton at Hobey Baker Rink.

The ECAC Hockey tournament quarterfinals get underway Friday with the best-of-three first-round series. Here is my look at the four first-round series.

No. 9 Cornell at No. 1 Quinnipiac

Cornell seems to be back on track after a mid-season swoon that saw them go 1-10 in an 11-game stretch. Since then, the Big Red have gone 6-1-1.

And, if I’m Quinnipiac, I would be worried. You can never underestimate Cornell coach Mike Schafer. And there is no pressure whatsoever on the Big Red. Many people expect the Bobcats, being the No. 1-ranked team in the country, to cruise through to the ECACH tournament title. But since joining the conference in 2005-06, Quinnipiac has never hosted a quarterfinal-round series. The pressure will be enormous.

In Quinnipiac’s second year in the league, it swept Union in the first round, and then went to Cornell and swept the Big Red in the quarterfinals. The Bobcats went on to reach the final, losing to Clarkson.

Quinnipiac’s offense hasn’t been as dynamic as it has been in year’s past, and that could benefit Cornell. And it will be an interesting goalie battle between Cornell’s Andy Iles and Quinnipiac’s Eric Hartzell.

The Bobcats swept the season series. That’s fine with the Big Red. They were swept by Princeton in the regular season, and that meant nothing last weekend.

I can see this series going the distance.

No. 7 Brown at No. 2 RPI

Brown comes in having swept Clarkson. The Bears are a pesky team, and they are no strangers to coming into Houston Field House and winning a playoff series. As the 11th seed in 2010, the Bears ousted the No. 6 Engineers in three games. RPI was the more talented team, with junior forward and eventual ECACH Player of the Year Chase Polacek and freshmen forwards Jerry D’Amigo and Brandon Pirri leading the way.

The Engineers, who went 1-0-1 in the season series against Brown, are in unfamiliar territory. They never had a first-round bye since the 12-team tournament format was introduced in 2003. But I don’t think that will be much of a factor because they have been on a nice run over the last two months, going 11-2 in their last 13 games. A weekend off will do them some good.

The goaltending should be outstanding, with RPI freshman Jason Kasdorf and Brown senior Anthony Borelli. This series will come down to which team has the better offensive talent, and that is RPI. But will I call for a sweep? You’ll have to find out Thursday when I post my picks.

No. 6 St. Lawrence at No. 3 Yale

The Saints had little trouble in dispatching No. 11 Colgate in the first round. The return of senior forward Kyle Flanagan after missing the final weekend of the regular season surely helped. He had five points in the two games.

This is going to be an intriguing series. Both teams have strong offensives, and both teams have inconsistent goaltending. Yale’s Jeff Malcolm and St. Lawrence’s Matt Weninger can be great at times, and they can also be shaky. So, don’t be surprised if we see a wide-open game in one of the contests.

Yale won both games in the season series.

I can see this series going the distance.

No. 5 Dartmouth at No. 4 Union

Despite an up-and-down season, Union got the final first-round bye. It gave the Dutchmen a chance to rest some key players who are nursing injuries, particularly goalie Troy Grosenick and defenseman Shawn Stuart.

If the Dutchmen need any motivation, their 0-1-1 season series loss to the Big Green should be it. Union fell behind, 3-0, after two periods in the Nov. 10 game at Thompson Arena. It got goals from Daniel Carr and Matt Hatch scored in the first 2:10 of the third, but a third goal eluded Union.

In the rematch Feb. 1 at Messa Rink, the Dutchmen had a 2-1 lead late in the third when Union left winger Daniel Ciampini’s tripping penalty led to Rick Pinkston’s game-tying power-play goal.

Union has played well in its last four home games. The Dutchmen need to keep up the offensive pressure, especially since the Big Green’s goalie situation is in flux. Cab Morris lost Game 1 to Harvard on Friday, so coach Bob Gaudet went with Charles Grant for the final two games.

Will the Dutchmen make a second trip to Atlantic City? It’s possible.

PairWise Rankings

Michigan State’s 4-3 win over Alaska in the deciding game of their CCHA first-round series Sunday night benefitted Union. The Dutchmen are tied for 16th in the PairWise Rankings with Boston University. If the NCAA tournament selections were being made today, Union would get in because of a better RPI than BU.

RPI is tied for 13th with Niagara.

The PairWise Ranking is a system which attempts to mimic the method used by the NCAA Selection Committee to determine participants for the NCAA Division I men’s hockey tournament.

Rank Team PWR W-L-T Win % Win % Rank RPI RPI Rank vs. TUC TUC %

1 Quinnipiac 31 24-5-5 .7794 1 .5757 1 15-2-4 .8095
2 Minnesota 30 24-7-5 .7361 2 .5654 2 12-6-3 .6429
3 Miami 29 22-9-5 .6806 4 .5526 3 12-6-2 .6500
4 Massachusetts-Lowell 27 22-10-2 .6765 5 .5465 4 9-8-0 .5294
5t North Dakota 25 19-10-7 .6250 10t .5423 6 13-10-4 .5556
5t Denver 25 19-11-5 .6143 12 .5408 7 13-10-4 .5556
5t Boston College 25 20-10-4 .6471 7 .5407* 8 10-6-3 .6053
8 New Hampshire 24 18-9-7 .6324 9 .5401 10 11-7-3 .5952
9 Minnesota State 22 22-11-3 .6528 6 .5434* 5 11-11-1 .5000
10t Western Michigan 21 19-9-8 .6389 8 .5386 11 7-5-4 .5625
10t Yale 21 16-10-3 .6034 14 .5343 12 8-8-3 .5000
10t St. Cloud State 21 21-14-1 .5972 16 .5338* 13 14-9-1 .6042
13t Niagara 18 21-8-5 .6912 3 .5329* 14 4-4-0 .5000
13t Rensselaer 18 17-12-5 .5735 18t .5260 15 9-10-4 .4783
15 Notre Dame 16 21-12-3 .6250 10t .5402 9 5-9-3 .3824
16t Union 15 17-12-5 .5735 18t .5207 17 7-7-3 .5000
16t Boston University 15 18-15-2 .5429 25 .5169 20 10-9-1 .5250
18t Wisconsin 13 17-12-7 .5694 20 .5208 16 8-9-3 .4750
18t Dartmouth 13 15-12-5 .5469 23 .5177 19 8-7-3 .5278
20 Robert Morris 12 20-12-4 .6111 13 .5134 22 5-6-2 .4615
21t Providence 11 15-12-7 .5441 24 .5187 18 6-10-5 .4048
21t Alaska 11 17-16-4 .5135 30 .5068 26 8-7-2 .5294
23 Cornell 10 14-14-3 .5000 31t .5076 25 9-9-1 .5000
24 St. Lawrence 9 18-14-4 .5556 22 .5134 21 6-10-1 .3824
25 Air Force 8 17-11-7 .5857 17 .5062 28 6-5-1 .5417
26t Ferris State 6 15-14-5 .5147 28 .5096 23 4-9-2 .3333
26t Brown 6 13-12-6 .5161 27 .5079 24 3-10-5 .3056
28t Holy Cross 5 19-12-3 .6029 15 .5063 27 3-6-1 .3500
28t Ohio State 5 14-15-7 .4861 33t .5049 30 5-8-6 .4211
30 Nebraska-Omaha 2 18-16-2 .5278 26 .5051 29 5-11-1 .3235
31t Colorado College 1 14-17-5 .4583 37t .5023 31 8-15-3 .3654
31t Merrimack 1 15-15-6 .5000 31t .5018 32 6-11-1 .3611

*-Team’s RPI has been adjusted to remove negative effect from defeating weak opponent.

RPI, Union ranked move up

Even though neither team played, RPI and Union moved up one spot in the USCHO.com/NCAA hockey top-20 poll Monday.

The Engineers (17-12-5) went from 17th to 16th, while the Dutchmen moved from 20th to 19th. Both teams open ECAC Hockey tournament play this weekend when they host the best-of-three quarterfinals. Second-seeded RPI hosts seventh-seeded Brown, and fourth-seeded Union, the defending ECACH tournament champions, welcome fifth-seeded Dartmouth.

RPI dropped out of the USA Today/USA Hockey Magazine top-15 poll. The Engineers were 15th in last week’s poll.

USCHO.com/NCAA poll

Team (First Place Votes) Record Points Last Poll
1 Quinnipiac (39) 24- 5-5 977 1
2 Minnesota (11) 24- 7-5 956 2
3 Miami 22- 9-5 903 3
4 North Dakota 19-10-7 784 5
5 Boston College 20-10-4 758 6
6 Massachusetts-Lowell 22-10-2 746 7
7 New Hampshire 18- 9-7 663 4
8 St. Cloud State 21-14-1 620 8
9 Western Michigan 19- 9-8 596 9
10 Minnesota State 22-11-3 582 10
11 Denver 19-11-5 553 12
12 Notre Dame 21-12-3 489 11
13 Yale 16-10-3 386 13
14 Wisconsin 17-12-7 307 14
15 Niagara 21- 8-5 287 15
16 RPI 17-12-5 267 17
17 Providence 15-12-7 178 18
18 Boston University 18-15-2 154 19
19 Union 17-12-5 122 20
20 Nebraska-Omaha 18-16-2 67 16
Others receiving votes: Dartmouth 54, St. Lawrence 18, Merrimack 12, Air Force 6, Robert Morris 6, Alaska 5, Michigan 3, Ferris State 1.

USA Today/USA Hockey Magazine 2012-13 Men’s College Hockey Poll

(First-place votes in parentheses)
Rank School Last Week’s Ranking 2012-13 Record Weeks in Top 15
1 Quinnipiac, 504 (31) 1 24-5-5 14
2 Minnesota, 478 (3) 2 24-7-5 23
3 Miami (Ohio), 447 3 22-9-5 23
4 North Dakota, 366 5 19-10-7 23
5 Boston College, 358 6 20-10-4 23
6 UMass-Lowell, 345 7 22-10-2 14
7 New Hampshire, 270 4 18-9-7 20
8 St. Cloud State, 240 8 21-14-1 11
9 Western Michigan, 233 9 19-9-8 23
10 Denver, 202 11 19-11-5 23
11 Minnesota State, 198 10 22-11-3 10
12 Notre Dame, 166 12 21-12-3 23
13 Yale, 118 13 16-10-3 14
14 Niagara, 53 NR 21-8-5 5
15 Wisconsin, 46 14 17-12-7 4
Others receiving votes: RPI, 24; Providence, 18; Union, 10; Boston University, 2; Nebraska-Omaha, 2.

My vote

I have a vote in the USCHO.com poll. Here is how I voted:
1) Quinnipiac
2) Minnesota
3) Miami
4) New Hampshire
5) North Dakota
6) Boston College
7) UMass-Lowell
8) St. Cloud
9) Western Michigan
10) Minn. State
11) Denver
12) Notre Dame
13) Yale
14) Wisconsin
15) RPI
16) Niagara
17) Union
18) Neb.-Omaha
19) Providence
20) Boston U.

Daily Gazette Stick Salutes

Time for my weekly awards.

Player of the Week — Kyle Flanagan, St. Lawrence

The senior forward had five points in the Saints’ sweep of Colgate. He had an assist in Friday’s 4-2 win, and collected a goal and three assists in Saturday’s 4-1 triumph.

Goalie of the Week — Andy Iles, Cornell

The junior netminder helped the Big Red to a sweep of Princeton. Iles made 26 saves in Friday’s 4-0 Game 1 win, and he stopped 20 shots in Saturday’s 4-2 Game 2 victory.

Rookie of the Week — Mark Naclerio, Brown

The freshman forward scored the game-winning goal and had an assist in Friday’s 3-0 Game 1 win over Clarkson, then had an assist in Saturday’s 4-3 Game 2 triumph.

Team of the Week — Cornell

The Big Red were the only road team to win a series.

Awards blog

Next Monday, I will have my Daily Gazette ECAC Hockey Awards.

Bobblehead vote

A bit of self promtion here.

I’m in the New York Penn League’s Tri-City ValleyCats’ bobblehead contest. I would appreciate your vote. Round 1 is underway. You can vote once per day.

To vote, click here.

If you have any comments, post them below, or e-mail them to me at schott@dailygazette.com. You can follow me on Twitter (@slapschotts) Also, please become a fan of two Facebook pages — The Daily Gazette On Ice, and my "Slap Schotts" college hockey segment page.

Good Monday! Good Hockey!

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