UNION WINS IMPORTANT AREAS

You’ll never be cheated by effort whenever Union or St. Lawrence takes the ice. That knowledge inspired the expectation that Friday’s late semifinal would be a game of battles in the important parts of the ice. Expectations were met, and Union went on to a 3-1 win over St. Lawrence in the second semifinal of the ECAC Hockey Championship at Times Union Center in downtown Albany.

Fittingly, the Dutchmen scored their first two goals on plays in which they won the puck in the corner or on the half boards and made centering passes to the front of the St. Lawrence net. The game was won, however, in the 20-foot area in front of Union’s net, where the Dutchmen defense did a great job of tying up sticks of St. Lawrence forwards and blocking shots in front of freshman goalie Keith Kinkaid.

Keith Kinkaid was back in net for Union and made 29 saves in Friday's win.

According to the shot charts that were kept by the official scorers at the tournament, the Saints attempted 24 shots in the game from the points or outside the tops of the circles. In almost every instance, at least one Saint forward was stationed in front of Kinkaid. Union was credited with 12 blocked shots over the three periods.

“In practice we always work on blocking shots. We’re a great blocking-shot team and the guys form a pocket around the net to help me and we just battled all night long,” Kinkaid said.

Senior defenseman Mike Schreiber was a first-team All-ECAC Hockey selection and a finalist for the league’s best defensive defenseman award. Even though St. Lawrence outshot Union 30-19 in the game, Schreiber was happy that the shots they allowed didn’t come from dangerous areas.

“They outshot us tonight, there’s no secret there, but we really pride ourselves on really boxing out around the net. If they have perimeter shots, that’s OK,” Schreiber said. “Keith, he’s a good enough goalie that he’s going to control that rebound, he’s going to secure it. If we can just box out as well as we can, and have sticks and they can’t get a whack at the rebound then we’ve done our job.”

At the offensive end for Union, Stephane Boileau set up the game’s opening goal midway through the first when he won the puck in the left wing corner and spun a centering pass to a streaking Luke Cain in the slot, who scored from close range.

The go-ahead goal in the third had some similarities. Boileau was in on the boards after a faceoff in the St. Lawrence zone. He got the puck and laid it off for Jason Walters on the half-wall. Walters sent a shot to the front that was deflected in by Adam Presizniuk.

Two goals for, none against, in the area right in front of the net. Union’s success came as expected.

BOX SCORE

THE CHANT IS CHANGING

The raucous Lynah Faithful have regularly saluted their senior goalie with chants of “SCRI-VENS, SCRI-VENS” throughout the latter part of the season. The chant was a little different Friday afternoon in Albany. After one of his 23 saves in a shutout performance, the Faithful chanted “HO-BEY BA-KER”.

While Locke Jillson, John Esposito and Riley Nash scored for Cornell the goaltender was once again the team’s best player in a 3-0 win over Brown in the opening semifinal of the ECAC Hockey Championship at Times Union Center in downtown Albany.

Ben Scrivens ranks first or second nationally in goals-against average and save percentage.

Scrivens was named as one of 10 finalists for college hockey’s most prestigious individual honor Thursday night and is playing the best hockey of his career for the Big Red. His second-straight shutout was his eighth of the season and he is now tied for first in Cornell history with 18 career zeroes.

He was at his best in the third period. Cornell held a 1-0 lead when he made a good save early in the third on a shot from the slot by Brown’s Chris Zaires. After the Big Red went up 2-0, Scrivens stopped a short-handed breakaway by Bobby Farnham, and then made another save later in the period on a close-in chance by Jack Maclellan, who tried a deke.

It’s not just the job that Cornell’s goalie is doing, but how he’s doing it. Senior defenseman Brendon Nash has played in front of Scrivens in more than 100 games during their careers. He hesitated in saying that Scrivens is at his best right now, because of how consistent he’s always been.

“He always plays like this. He comes out ready to play in every game and he stops a lot of the shots he faces. He was really on his game tonight,” Nash said, and added that Scrivens is a reliable co-worker in the defensive zone.

“It’s really good. He loves to communicate out there, he loves talking to us, letting us know what’s going on out there. We always know that he’s going to make the save and where the rebound is usually going to go. He’s pretty good at controlling those. It’s pretty simple and it makes it easy on us when we know what he wants to do and he knows what we want to do.”

Freshman defenseman Braden Birch has just one year of experience playing with Scrivens, but knows that there’s a tremendous asset backstopping the Big Red.

“As a defenseman I love playing with Ben back there, and having full trust in your goaltender knowing that he’s going to keep you in the game and win you some games,” Birch said. “You feel a lot more comfortable and he’s a great goalie, one of the best I’ve ever played with. He’s a pretty special goalie and I’m happy to have him on our team.”

Scrivens has a 1.83 goals-against average (second nationally) and a .935 save percentage (tied for first nationally). Even if he continues to play this way, the Hobey Baker trophy might not end up in his hands. However, other more significant team-related trophies could, beginning with Saturday’s league championship game.

BOX SCORE

SEEN AND HEARD AT TIMES UNION CENTER

• Several in-arena advertisements were read promoting the 2011 ECAC Hockey Championship at the Boardwalk Convention Center in Atlantic City, and each time it was read, the announcement was booed by those in attendance in downtown Albany.

• St. Lawrence had its best chance to take the lead in the third period when defenseman Pete Child put a shot through traffic that hit the right post and was cleared to safety by Union. The Dutchmen went ahead about 30 seconds later on Adam Presizniuk’s goal.

• Two of Cornell’s three goals on Brown sophomore goalie Mike Clemente were roofed wristers under the crossbar. Locke Jillson’s opener with 4:25 left in the second period from the left wing circle went in and out so fast that they took another look on video review. The water bottle flipped, so it was definitely a good one, even though the goal judge never turned the light on. Riley Nash’s third-period goal from the high slot got through a Brown defenseman and beat Clemente over the blocker.

• Brown senior Aaron Volpatti was one of the team’s leaders and the Bears took great strides this season. “Obviously it’s a huge step for the program,” Volpatti said. “Did we achieve (all of) our goals this season? Absolutely not. But one of our goals as a senior class was we wanted this to be one of the years that we changed the culture of Brown hockey, and we did that.”

• It is the second consecutive season that a team will play for its first ECAC Hockey Championship. Union’s maiden voyage is Saturday night and they can hope it goes as well as Yale’s initial championship game appearance went last year - a 5-0 win against Cornell.

• St. Lawrence coach Joe Marsh was joined in the postgame press conference by senior forward Travis Vermeulen, who was named as the league’s best defensive forward earlier in the week and was saluted as INCH’s Unsung Player in our season-ending notebook. Marsh said that Vermeulen would be a member of his all-time St. Lawrence team if he were naming one (and he’s been the coach of that program for 25 years) based on Vermeulen’s incredible work ethic. “He’s never taken a day off in four years, and that’s not just Friday and Saturday nights, that’s every day,” Marsh said.

• Brown got off to a strong start in the game and had its best sustained pressure in the first 12 minutes. The Bears forechecked Cornell’s defensemen hard and generated chances. Brown outshot the Big Red 11-6 in the first period.

• Notable alumni sighting: Former St. Lawrence defenseman Shawn Fensel was in attendance for the Saints’ semifinal game.

PLUSSES AND MINUSES

Attendance was announced at 5,703 for the semifinal games. It may not have been one of the highest-attended ECAC Hockey events in downtown Albany, but all of the fans brought great energy. It felt full and there’s little doubt that tomorrow’s championship between Cornell and Union will draw their large and boisterous support groups and make for a great hockey event.

Best pep band song of the night, Cornell’s take on “What Would Brian Boitano Do?” from the South Park Movie. Of course, close friends of INCH may recall and substitute the alternate lyrics to “What Would Brian Gionta Do?”

Players commented that the arena conditions were difficult because of warm temperatures. Dressing rooms, benches, and the playing surface were all significantly warmer than teams are used to in their home rinks. I’ll bet fans didn’t mind one bit. The temperature in downtown Albany was right around 70 degrees when the first game started. I’m sure tailgate parties took full advantage of the sun.

INCH’S THREE STARS OF THE NIGHT

3. Derek Keller, St. Lawrence - The Saints’ minute-eating defenseman played almost half of the game and stood out on the blue line for St. Lawrence. He also scored a heck of a goal to knot the score 1-1 late in the second period. Keller dragged the puck inside of a sliding forward and roofed a wrister under the crossbar.

2. Ben Scrivens, Cornell - He’s making all of the saves, and he’s making them look somewhat easy. Scrivens is in control of his positioning, tracking the puck well and is very settled on rush chances as well as net-mouth scrambles.

1. Stephanie Boileau, Union - Boileau brought energy early and got in deep on the forecheck. He won two puck battles on the wall and earned assists on Union’s first two goals of the game.

WHAT’S NEXT

Cornell and Union meet for the third time this season and the Big Red have a win and a tie in the season series, but Union outshot Cornell in both games. Riley Nash has four points on Cornell’s six goals in the season series. Mario Valery-Trabucco has two of Union’s three goals in the season series.

St. Lawrence and Brown meet in the consolation game. Unlike past seasons in ECAC Hockey, there are virtually no national tournament implications in this game but it will be a much-deserved and well-earned final game for two groups of seniors that have left a positive mark on the direction of each program.

One quick realization about this weekend’s field - it’s hard to argue against the idea that the four hardest-working teams in the league all made it to Albany this year. The teams that do the best job in the battles along the boards and for loose pucks will have a decided advantage this weekend.

No. 2 Cornell
Cornell: 19-8-4 (14-5-3 ECAC Hockey)
Big Red Fact: Riley Nash has points in eight of his last nine games since returning from an injury, with six goals and 12 assists for 18 points in that stretch.
How Cornell Wins: Continued production from the line of Riley Nash, Colin Greening and Patrick Kennedy will be important, but another line or defenseman can step up and fill any gaps if that top unit struggles.

No. 3 Union
Union: 20-10-6 (12-6-4 ECAC Hockey)
Dutchmen Fact: Adam Presizniuk needs three points to reach 100 career points. He’d be the first junior in Union’s Division I history to reach that mark.
How Union Wins: A relatively young defense group will need to keep the front of the net clear to aid Keith Kinkaid or Corey Milan. That should help Union’s excellent transition game.

No. 5 St. Lawrence
St. Lawrence: 19-14-7 (9-8-5 ECAC Hockey)
Saints Fact: Mike McKenzie has 49 career goals. With one more, he’ll become the first Saint with 50 goals in a career since 2006 Hobey Baker finalist T.J. Trevelyan (78 goals).
How St. Lawrence Wins: This team is finding a way and has a three-game stretch in which they’ve won late in the third period. They’re tested and coming through in late-game situations.

No. 11 Brown
Brown: 12-19-4 (6-12-4 ECAC Hockey)
Bears Fact: Brown is the lowest-seeded team to make it to the league’s championship weekend in the eight years the tournament has been held in Albany.
How Brown Wins: The Bears’ confidence is soaring right now and while observers might be surprised at what they’ve achieved, the team expects this success. They’ll need to come out and play with that swagger, and continue to get great goaltending from Mike Clemente.

Union defenseman Mike Schreiber, a senior from Sherwood Park, Alberta, has been part of numerous milestones in his four years as a Dutchman. He is the program’s all-time scoring leader among defensemen with 78 career points, and 29 of those have come this year, establishing a single-season scoring record for a Union defenseman.

It’s not all about offense with Schreiber, a First Team All-ECAC Hockey selection on defense who leads the team with a plus-25 rating and was also a finalist for the league’s Best Defensive Defenseman Award.

Mike Schreiber

Last weekend, Schreiber was a part of two games of historical importance. The first game of Union’s quarterfinal game against Quinnipiac went five overtimes and is the longest game every played in college hockey. Sunday’s victory sent Union to the league’s championship weekend for the first time in program history.

Joe Gladziszewski: Let’s start by talking about the growth of this program over the last four years.

Mike Schreiber: From where we started off freshman year, we had a last-place finish, to where we are now, it’s leaps and bounds. That just shows how much this program, how much this team has grown. It’s positive, it’s going in the right direction. Without the coaches and the rest of my teammates I don’t think we’d be able to do it,

INCH: Let’s go back to those early days where a lot of young guys were playing a lot of important games in a lot of important situations. Do you think that’s helping now?

MS: Absolutely, if you look at our D corps now, how young they are, it means a lot for them to get this kind of exposure in big games. It definitely helps you out, it gets you in the right mindset, it lets you know what to expect and how you need to prepare.

INCH: What do you think the strengths of your defense group are?

MS: We move the puck pretty well. We’re not the biggest D corps but we have pretty active sticks and when there is a chance to knock a guy off the puck I think we’re pretty good about it. We have pretty good footspeed too, so that helps.

INCH: When you look around this league, it seems that every team has a really, really good top line, especially this year. What’s it like playing against those other teams’ top guys?

MS: It makes you prepare that much more, mentally and physically for games. That’s why it’s big for our freshman too with so many young d-men for them to get exposure against those top guys. I remember when I was younger I was getting that chance, that opportunity when I was an underclassman. You took it day by day, but you had a lot of pride. It made your job more meaningful and you knew you had to make that extra effort and you had to grow as a player and as a person.

INCH: How about your forwards, you play against them in practice and there are some dynamic forwards and depth up front too.

MS: They make you look silly sometimes but that’s where you’ve got to just keep it simple and that’s where it’s up to us upperclassmen to lead by example and show them the ropes.

INCH: I used to come to games here and be able to sit in the bleachers wherever I wanted, and that’s not the case anymore. Do you think that parallels how your program has grown?

MS: People always see teams that are winning. They don’t want to see a team when they’re down, and I think that just kind of shows. We’re a little more exciting to watch than we were a couple years ago, a little more offensive and we’re winning more so that helps.

INCH: Your team is advancing to the league’s championship weekend for the first time ever. What kind of meaning does that have for you?

MS: From freshman year to now, I guess I haven’t really thought about it, but it’s sinking in now. From freshman year when we finished last and lost first round to Quinnipiac, it kind of comes full circle for us seniors. To know how much it means, not only to our team, to my teammates, to our coaches, but also to our fans and our student body. They’re behind us 110 percent. Without that extra driving force behind us we probably wouldn’t be here.

Yale validated its excellent 2008-09 season with another first-place finish in ECAC Hockey and held off big challenges from the likes of Cornell and Union. St. Lawrence and Colgate outperformed expectations and Princeton and Clarkson fell way back in the standings after being two of the league’s stronger programs over the last five years. Quinnipiac’s magical start, a renewed energy at Brown and a dynamic campaign from some of RPI’s talented players also held the interest of fans around the league. Harvard showed some promise at times but again struggled outside of the league and Dartmouth finished its season with some classic games.

THE FAVORITE

As is the case in championship boxing, in order to take the title, you’ve got to defeat the current holder. That’s why we’ll go with Yale as the favorite to repeat as tournament champions. They won the regular season and tournament titles in 2009 and backed that up with another first-place finish this year. A recent injury to leading scorer Sean Backman might raise some red flags, but there’s enough offensive depth with the likes of Mark Arcobello, Denny Kearney, Broc Little and Brian O’Neill to expect Yale to retain both trophies. Yale was 3-0-1 in its four regular season games against Cornell and Union.

THE GATE CRASHER

St. Lawrence is a team that chased a top-four spot in the standings throughout the season before eventually finishing in fifth place, after being picked to finish 10th in the league in the preseason coaches’ poll. They rallied late in Sunday’s deciding game of the opening-round series against Clarkson and now head on the road to face fourth-place Colgate, a team they defeated in both regular-season meetings this year. While a win in this series would only be considered a mild upset, the bigger picture is that very few people truly thought the Saints would make an appearance in Albany.

INCH’s ALL-ECAC HOCKEY TEAM

F - Sean Backman, Yale
One of the league’s most dangerous goal-scorers is a repeat selection on this team. His 21 goals and 35 points were among the league’s best and he scored nine power-play goals, and four game-winners as the Bulldogs backed up last year’s excellent year with a very strong 2009-10 campaign.

F - Mario Valery-Trabucco, Union
Union has a number of forwards that can hurt an opponent and their depth is what makes them so difficult to control, but Valery-Trabucco stands out most nights for the Dutchmen. He doesn’t need much time or space to make plays, and those plays often make a difference in the game.

F - Chase Polacek, Rensselaer
A breakthrough junior season for Polacek saw him post 26 goals and 26 assists for 52 points. He was one of the early recruits that were brought in to provide some punch up front for the Engineers and really blossomed this season after totaling 60 points over his first two years combined.

D - Justin Krueger, Cornell
It’s hard to measure just how good Krueger is on a nightly basis for the Big Red and that’s probably why he was left off the All-ECAC Hockey and All-Ivy teams that were announced last week. No such oversight here. Krueger is one of the best in the league in all three zones, and had a terrific year in helping his freshman defense partner Braden Birch most of the season

D - Derek Keller, St. Lawrence
Defense was the question mark that saddled the Saints with low expectations in the preseason, but Keller was a senior that stepped into a bigger role and delivered St. Lawrence to a very good season so far. He logged tons of minutes and chipped in with nine goals from the blue line.

G - Ben Scrivens, Cornell
Scrivens displayed greater consistency in his senior year, had four shutouts and played some of his best hockey in the team’s biggest games. He currently owns a 1.99 goals-against average and .931 save percentage.

COACH OF THE YEAR

Strictly based on the standings, the 2008-09 season was a bit of a hiccup for Union’s hockey program. One year after finishing tied for fourth, the Dutchmen finished to eighth. Despite slipping in the standings, watching the Dutchmen showed that Union was trending in the right direction. This year the results showed up and Union and head coach Nate Leaman finished in third place in one of the best seasons in Union’s Division I hockey history. Among the noteable milestones were a 10-game unbeaten streak, the longest in program history, and a 7-0-3 start to conference play, the best Union start since joining ECAC Hockey. One more milestone is well within reach. Two wins this weekend will send the Dutchmen to the league’s championship weekend for the first time.

PLAYER OF THE YEAR

There are so many talented forwards scattered about the league and all of them make a tremendous impact on their team’s success, but there’s not a lot of separation. When comparing the league’s best goaltenders, it’s a different story. Cornell’s Ben Scrivens was the best in the league this year. In addition to the stats we mentioned above, Scrivens also carried a greater amount of confidence and limited some of the lapses in decision making and puck handling that were evident in his first three years.

CO-FRESHMEN OF THE YEAR

It was a great year for ECAC Hockey rookies and it’s tough to choose just one. No offense to the likes of Louis Leblanc (Harvard), George Hughes (St. Lawrence), and Keith Kinkaid (Union). We’ll choose RPI’s forward tandem of Brandon Pirri and Jerry D’Amigo as co-honorees. They came into their college seasons as NHL draft picks and garnered lots of attention. Each lived up to the hype. Pirri was second on the team in scoring with 43 points in 39 games and had a team-high 32 assists. D’Amigo missed four games while away at World Junior (and was one of USA’s best players) and had 34 points in 35 games.

BREAKTHROUGH PLAYER

St. Lawrence senior Travis Vermeulen had his best college season and was a big part of the Saints’ success this year. He led the Saints in goals (17), assists (23) and points (40) - all of which were career-best totals, and he’s one of the best defensive forwards in the league. Vermeulen had 42 points total in his first three years.

Other Conference Recaps: Atlantic | CCHA | CHA | ECACH | Hockey East | WCHA

Playoff Preview Capsules: Atlantic | CCHA | CHA | ECACH | Hockey East | WCHA

No. 11 Brown at No. 1 Yale
Brown: 10-18-4 (6-12-4 ECAC Hockey)
Yale: 19-7-3 (15-5-2 ECAC Hockey)
Season Series: Yale, 2-0-0
Bears Fact: Brown scored five goals each game against Yale, but lost both games in the regular season - the only two times all year that Brown lost when scoring more than four.
Bulldogs Fact: Yale scored 14 goals in its two wins over Brown during the regular season, scored by 12 different players. The only person with more than one was Broc Little (three).
How Brown Wins: Sophomore goalie Mike Clemente has shown that he can get hot in the playoffs and he’ll need to be at his best against Yale after an up-and-down season.
How Yale Wins: Maintain the balanced scoring, especially in lieu of being without Sean Backman, and stay hot on the power play. Yale scored seven PPGs against Brown this year.

No. 9 Harvard at No. 2 Cornell
Harvard: 9-19-3 (7-12-3 ECAC Hockey)
Cornell: 17-8-4 (14-5-3 ECAC Hockey)
Season Series: Cornell, 2-0-0
Series Historical Fact: The Big Red has the best winning percentage (.674, 87-41-4) in ECAC Hockey tournament history and the most titles (11). Harvard is second in winning percentage (.654, 85-44-4) and championships, with eight.
How Harvard Wins: The Crimson have tasted a bit of success against Cornell this year, as they created chances on the rush and took a 3-1 lead at Lynah halfway through their early-season meeting. Since then, Cornell has outscored them 8-0. Get to the net with speed and crash for rebounds.
How Cornell Wins: Cornell’s strength is in its team defense and they’ll have to play physically against Harvard. The Big Red will move their feet in the offensive zone and try to draw penalties and create scoring chances.

No. 7 Quinnipiac at No. 3 Union
Quinnipiac: 19-16-2 (11-11-0 ECAC Hockey)
Union: 18-10-6 (12-6-4 ECAC Hockey)
Season Series: Union, 2-0-0
Bobcats Fact: Quinnipiac has five players with 20 or more points, led by Brandon Wong (18-21-39) and Eric Lampe (12-23-35).
Dutchmen Fact: Jason Walters is just two points from becoming Union’s all-time Division I points leader.
How Quinnipiac Wins: Keep trending positively. The Bobcats have been one of the streakiest teams in the nation this year and come into this series having won four of their last five games.
How Union Wins: The Dutchmen are at their best when they’re competing in all areas of the ice and a high-pressure game with lots of puck battles favors Union.

No. 5 St. Lawrence at No. 4 Colgate
St. Lawrence: 17-14-7 (9-8-5 ECAC Hockey)
Colgate: 15-13-6 (12-8-2 ECAC Hockey)
Season Series: St. Lawrence, 2-0-0
Saints Fact: The Saints held Colgate’s power play without a goal in 12 opportunities during SLU’s two regular season wins.
Raiders Fact: Colgate has made it to Albany four times in the last six years, tied for most in that span with Harvard and Cornell.
How St. Lawrence Wins: High-end players make a difference at this time of the year. If St. Lawrence seniors Mike McKenzie and Travis Vermeulen can outduel Colgate’s David McIntyre and Austin Smith, it’s a boost for the Saints.
How Colgate Wins: The Raiders got improved goaltending and special teams down the stretch and went 4-1-1 in their last six games to get fourth place. Those will be keys again this weekend.

Playoff Preview Capsules: Atlantic | CCHA | CHA | ECACH | Hockey East | WCHA

Conference Recaps: Atlantic | CCHA | CHA | ECACH | Hockey East | WCHA

No. 12 Clarkson at No. 5 St. Lawrence
Clarkson: 8-22-4 (4-15-3 ECACH)
St. Lawrence: 15-13-7 (9-8-5 ECACH)
Season Series: Tied, 1-1-1
Golden Knights Fact: Clarkson has lost its last five postseason overtime games.
Saints Fact: St. Lawrence is 3-0-2 at home against Clarkson over the last three seasons.
How Clarkson Wins: Keep shots down. The Golden Knights have allowed just 22 shots against in each of their last two victories.
How St. Lawrence Wins: Regain home-ice dominance. SLU was 8-3-4 at Appleton in the regular season.

No. 11 Brown at No. 6 Rensselaer
Brown: 8-17-4 (6-12-4 ECACH)
RPI: 17-15-4 (10-9-3 ECACH)
Season Series: Tied, 1-1-0
Bears Fact: Brown got stung for seven goals against (one empty-netter) against Princeton last week but Mike Clemente still made 46 saves in that game, perhaps rounding into last year’s playoff form.
Engineers Fact: RPI’s last home playoff series was in the 2005-06 season, a two-game loss to Quinnipiac.
How Brown Wins: A renewed sense of pride has made Brown a tough team to play every night and they’ve got confidence in the postseason after last year’s deep run.
How Rensselaer Wins: Allen York is probably the second-best goalie in ECAC Hockey and can make the difference while the likes of D’Amigo, Polacek, Pirri and Kerins get the goals.

No. 10 Dartmouth at No. 7 Quinnipiac
Dartmouth: 9-17-3 (7-12-3 ECACH)
Quinnipiac: 17-15-2 (11-11-0 ECACH)
Season Series: Tied, 1-1-0
Big Green Fact: Scott Fleming is Dartmouth’s first 20-goal scorer since Lee Stempniak and Hugh Jessiman reached that mark in the 2002-03 season.
Bobcats Fact: Quinnipiac has had a winning record in the regular season in all 12 of its Division I seasons.
How Dartmouth Wins: Outscore ‘em. Dartmouth comes into the first playoff weekend as the hottest team of the bunch, with a five-game unbeaten streak (3-0-2) and is averaging more than four goals per game in that streak.
How Quinnipiac Wins: It’s been a streaky season for the Bobcats, but they won their last two games of the regular season and can take that momentum into this weekend.

No. 9 Harvard at No. 8 Princeton
Harvard: 7-19-3 (7-12-3 ECACH)
Princeton: 12-13-3 (8-12-2 ECACH)
Season Series: Princeton leads, 1-0-1
Crimson Fact: This is the first time that Harvard has opened the playoffs on the road in 10 years (at Cornell, 1999-2000 season).
Tigers Fact: Junior forward Mike Kramer has 25 points this season, after posting just 28 points combined in his first two years.
How Harvard Wins: Pretend it’s the regular season. The Crimson have lost 17 straight non-league games, which includes playoff games and non-league games against ECAC Hockey teams.
How Princeton Wins: Zane Kalemba has to play to his potential, and he’s done that against Harvard, stopping 68 of 72 shots this season in two games against the Crimson.

This week’s NHL trade deadline was an opportunity for a number of teams make personnel moves in hopes of making themselves better. Of course, there is no trade deadline in college hockey. That didn’t stop Rensselaer from making a mid-season personnel move to make its team better. In exchange for defenseman Bryan Brutlag, RPI acquired forward Bryan Brutlag.

Bryan Brutlag

When the calendar turned to 2010 and RPI returned from the Great Lakes Invitational in Detroit, Brutlag shifted to the right wing beginning with a Jan. 8 game at Quinnipiac and he’s stayed there since. There were a couple of reasons for the move. First, senior defenseman Christian Jensen played his way into the every day lineup. Second, Brutlag’s skill set brought a unique element to the group of Engineer front-liners.

“One of our weaknesses, and we’re getting better at it now at forward, was that we didn’t have enough energy. We didn’t win enough puck battles and we didn’t possess the puck in the offensive zone enough. Nobody on our team, and very few people in the league do that as well as Bryan Brutlag,” head coach Seth Appert said.

Brutlag showed some offensive upside as a defenseman in his first two and a half seasons and has enough skill to be a threat from the wing and in the offensive zone. Some elements of the transition brought a bit of concern, such as making strong plays on the boards to get pucks out of zone when forecheckers apply pressure. Others, such as getting in on the forecheck and helping out defensively came naturally due to his guts and grit.

“It’s kind of nice being on the other side of the checks. The advantage that I kind of have is that I kind of know where D are looking. I can jump pucks a little bit better and get to where I think pucks will go,” Brutlag said.

Appert said teammates appreciate Brutlag’s knowledge of their job responsibilities from both sides.

“Other guys that are more role guys at the forward position see the transition he’s made from defense because of how hard he plays. And the other thing is how hard he backchecks,” Appert said. “Defensemen love him, and he knows what it feels like as a defenseman to be left on an island. He’s been a spark plug for us in terms of how hard we need to play at the forward position.”

Brutlag has played with several combinations of linemates, but has regularly flanked senior center Paul Kerins, whose experience and demeanor have helped Brutlag in the transition.

“Paul’s a great guy to play with. He keeps things calm, keeps things in good perspective,” Brutlag said. “At any point in the game if you have to come back, he knows what we need to do to be successful.”

Now, Brutlag and the Engineers bring that work ethic and attitude to the postseason when they host Brown in a playoff series this weekend. Despite a close loss at Colgate and a tie at Cornell, last week’s games were highly competitive and fast-paced preparation for the postseason.

“This is the best year that we’ve had so far and the exciting thing is that we’re only going to keep getting better,” Brutlag said. “We’re really looking forward to the rest of the season and the playoffs.”

You know what they say, defense wins championships. And as the postseason approaches, not many people are touting Dartmouth as a championship contender, but what they’ve done over the last four weeks is serving notice to some of the other teams that might have to deal with the Big Green in the playoffs.

Scott Fleming leads Dartmouth with 17 goals.

Some of the numbers worth noting - in Dartmouth’s last eight games, the teams have combined to score at least six goals, and the average number of goals in those games is 8.5.The Big Green ranked 10th in conference scoring prior to the streak and is currently fifth in the league with a 3.15 goals-per-game average.

The Big Green is a respectable 3-3-2 in those eight games including wins over top-four teams Cornell and Rensselaer in dramatic fashion. That .500 clip gives Dartmouth a bit of momentum, and counts for half of its six victories in ECAC Hockey play, as they currently stand 11th with a 6-12-2 record in the league. They

Dartmouth’s last five games have been particularly dramatic. It started with a 5-5 tie against Brown, when Adam Estoclet scored with 29 seconds left to draw Dartmouth level. The following weekend began with a 5-4 loss to Union in which the Big Green built a 4-0 lead in the game’s first eight minutes. They flipped the script the following night, scoring three goals in the third period to rally for a 4-3 win over Rensselaer. Dartmouth’s run of high-scoring games continued this past weekend. A 6-6 tie with Colgate was followed by a comeback win over Cornell, and a three-goal rally in the last seven minutes.

The high-scoring junior tandem of Estoclet and Scott Fleming has taken the offensive leade during Dartmouth’s scoring spree in the last eight games. Estoclet has four goals and nine asisists for 13 points. Fleming has eight goals and four assists for 12 points. They are also Dartmouth’s top two scorers. Estoclet has a team-high 19 assists and 30 points. Fleming has a team-leading 17 goals and 29 points.

The Big Green is 10th in the league in team defense. Sophomore goalies James Mello and Jody O’Neill have split the duties in recent games. Mello’s .914 save percentage in league games ranks fourth among ECAC Hockey qualifiers, but it has yielded only a 3.08 goals-against average.

Dartmouth wraps up its regular season with games at St. Lawrence and Clarkson this weekend, and has a mathematical possibility to get into eighth place and a home-ice playoff series in the first round. But if Dartmouth’s season is to continue beyond the first week of the playoffs, reducing goals against will also be a priority.

THREE MORE THINGS WORTH KNOWING

• Yale is poised for its second straight league title, and its most remarkable attribute may be its consistency. An 18-6-3 overall record stands out, as does the fact that the Bulldogs haven’t lost back-to-back games at any point this season. They can clinch the outright title with three points this weekend in games at Princeton and Quinnipiac. Several observers pointed to Yale’s 2-1 win at Cornell earlier this month as one of its best performances of the season, and that was part of Yale’s current six-game winning streak. It seems that the Bulldogs are peaking at the right time.

• ECAC Hockey will soon announce its all-decade team spanning the seasons 1999-2000 through 2008-09. The list of candidates was impressive to peruse and brought back memories of many of the league’s greatest players over the last 10 years. A panel of coaches, media and sports information directors voted on the nominees. Look for that to be announced in the near future. And how do you pick just two goalies from a list that includes the likes of Danis, LeNeveu, Kalemba, Dekanich, McKee, Grumet-Morris and Scrivens?

• The Good: There’s room for lots of teams to move into better standings positions headed into the final week of the season, highlighted by a Friday game between RPI and Colgate. Those teams are currently tied for fourth place and the game will be aired on NHL Network and other regional sports networks. The Bad: Rumors are that the set-to-be retired numbers of Ken Dryden and Joe Nieuwendyk will be hung in the rafters at Lynah Rink. Just where about in those over-crowded rafters do they plan to hang them, and properly honor the Big Red greats? The Ugly: It’s important to alumni and fans, but carries no bigger impact in the season than any other league game. That being said, a 7-0 loss by RPI in its annual Big Red Freakout! was especially startling.

The nature of the game is such that we gravitate toward the scores. The games on a given weekend paint a simple picture, and the resulting standings tell a simple story about what’s gone on in a given year. But it’s not always so simple, so black and white. There’s also the case of Brown.

Aaron Volpatti, third on Brown in scoring, and the Bears are enjoying a much-improved season.

A late-summer announcement of new head coach Brendan Whittet following the resignation of Roger Grillo to take a position with USA Hockey meant that some new attitudes and new energy would be taking over at Rhode Island’s Ivy League school. Whittet, a former player at Brown and 1994 graduate wanted to emphasize pride and passion while invigorating a program that he is so proud to be a part of.

“We’ve come a long way from the team we were at the beginning of the year. We work very, very hard to create our chances. I give our guys credit. They’ve got a lot of heart, they play with a lot of passion for Brown and they play hard,” Whittet said. “We stressed it. When people by into that, when they buy into the fact that they’re playing for more than themselves. Brown is a special place, and I just want the guys to represent the college, and they lay it on the line every time we’re on the ice.”

That message means more to current players when coming from someone who’s worn the sweater, taken the classes and represented Brown in the past.

“This season, my senior year, has been the most fun for me. I’ve never been on a team where the guys are so tightly tied together and I think a lot of that has to do with the coaching staff. Coach Grillo, I had a good relationship with and I enjoyed when he was here also, but Coach Whittet is a new voice and the guys all love him,” senior defenseman Sean McMonagle said. “He really emphasizes how much it means to the alumni as well as us. It’s more than just us wearing the jersey. We’re playing for a group of brothers and it motivates the guys for sure. You can see it in their eyes when he speaks to you in the room.”

McMonagle is a part of a senior class that put the interests of the program ahead of their personal experiences. He specifically demonstrated his individual commitment by moving back to play defense this season after spending his first three college seasons - and most of his youth hockey and junior hockey career as a forward. It’s not totally unfamiliar to McMonagle, as he has played the point on the power play and he looks forward to continuing his hockey career as a blue liner.

Aaron Volpatti, one of three Brown captains, is another member of the senior class.

“We, as seniors wanted to leave our mark on the program and be a part of turning it around,” he said. “I think we’ve already done that, and now we’ve just got to stay positive. Our compete level is there and we’re in every game we play, we just have to tighten up defensively.”

As Volpatti mentioned, reducing goals-against will be a key over the season’s last four games. Some of that starts with defensive zone efforts, but some of the burden falls on sophomore goalie Mike Clemente. The hero of Brown’s postseason run last year hasn’t backed it up this year. He currently ranks outside of the top-12 qualifying goalies in league play in goals-against average and save percentage.

“We’ve got to find a way to get him out of it, he’s a pretty good goaltender when he’s on, I just think he’s too deep in his net right now,” Whittet said.

Clemente made a name for himself in last year’s league playoffs. After recording just three wins as a team in the entire regular season,12th-seeded Brown upset fifth-seeded Harvard on the road behind back-to-back shutouts from Clemente. They followed that up by giving regular-season and eventual playoff champion Yale all it could handle in the quarterfinals.

That helped Brown get some energy headed into the season, but it didn’t yield immediate results. The Bears started 0-7-1 before rattling off a five-game winning streak. Some tough matchups against nationally-ranked teams followed and Brown dropped five straight, but has improved in recent weeks, earning league points in four of its last seven games.

“The guys are great kids and have played really hard. We haven’t gotten all of the results we wanted but by and large we’ve made a lot of strides. A lot of people may not see that but this was a program that was on real hard times,” Whittet said. “I got hired in August, it’s not like we brought in our own guys, the guys that were here performed very very well. By and large, we’ve been in every game.”

That attitude and confidence has come from the top and filtered through the players. A positive turn for Brown is apparent, and the Bears are excited about the future, in the close of this year and in years to come.

“Before we never realized what it really meant to represent Brown. We all had pride but, Brendan just kind of reiterates the kind of history that goes into the program. I guess we’re all more aware of it now, realizing on a bigger scale that it’s not just about us, it’s about everyone,” Volpatti said. “Winning breeds more winning and losing breeds more losing. In the past, it was just a snowball. Now we bounce back with a sense of confidence even when we don’t come back with the win. There’s still that confidence that we can win every game we play.”

Apologies for the presentation this week, but the real world has been clutching and grabbing. I thought we were cracking down on this stuff? Here’s some of the best of the web to get you prepared for the upcoming weekend in ECAC Hockey and a few original thoughts.

• Cornell and Yale meet Saturday in Ithaca in the biggest game of the weekend. That was previewed in this week’s INCH Friday Four-cast as well as the New Haven Register and Ithaca Journal. The New Haven Register article also includes some notes on Quinnipiac.

• The Boston Globe continues to explore the issue of a declining number of college players produced by the Commonwealth.

• In New York’s Capital District, the Albany Times Union featured Mario Valery-Trabucco who was this week’s INCH National Player of the Week. The Troy Record previewed RPI’s weekend.

• From the North Country and the Watertown Daily Times - Clarkson’s Matt Beca is a bright spot in a dismal season for the Golden Knights and St. Lawrence could have Kyle Flanagan back in the lineup.

• Around the Ivies, The Daily Princetonian helped inspire this Web site and has a preview of the Tigers’ trip Clarkson and St. Lawrence; The Crimson discusses the slumping Harvard team; and The Dartmouth has a combined preview for the Big Green men’s and women’s teams.

THOUGHTS FOR THE ROAD

• On a weekend in which many of the western-based teams that regularly play on regional sports networks (Minnesota, Denver, North Dakota) were not televised, ECAC Hockey had a chance for some national exposure when Union and Clarkson aired on NHL Network and both Quinnipiac games were shown on CBS College Sports. Friday’s game at Union, an 11-2 Dutchmen win, may have retained some interested eyeballs based on the magnitude of the blowout and curiosity as to how many goals the Dutchmen would eventually score. A pair of less-than-thrilling tussles in Quinnipiac didn’t provide a lot of attractive hockey, but Cornell goalie Ben Scrivens probably gave himself a boost in Hobey Baker consideration with his shutout of the Bobcats with a lackluster Cornell squad playing in front of him that evening. Of course, Scrivens was yanked the following night in a loss at Princeton. Also, far too many blue seats were visible in Quinnipiac’s barn. Friday’s game was announced as a sellout, with Saturday’s tilt announced around 600 people short of capacity.

• Keep an eye on Colgate over the remaining three weeks of the season. The Raiders have one game each against Yale, Cornell and Union and can play an important spoiler’s role down the stretch. Princeton is 4-1-0 in its last five games and appears to me to be the team most likely to pull a first and second round upset once the playoffs begin.