Final Weekend in ECAC Regular Season

Well, the final weekend of the regular season is upon the college hockey world, and the ECAC playoff picture could use the NFL's resident cryptographer to decipher all of the possible per mutations.

The format is set, murky though it be: Ten of twelve teams qualify for the playoffs, with number ten playing number seven and number nine playing number eight in single games on Tuesday, March 9, to decide who makes the quarterfinals.

From March 12-14, the top four seeds host three-game series (number one vs. number eight or nine, number two vs. number seven or ten, number three vs. number six, number four vs. number five), with the winners making it to Lake Placid for a two-game, Beanpot-style format the following weekend.

Although Harvard's less to Dartmouth dropped the Crimson in the national polls from the fourth spot to the sixth behind Boston University, Harvard did lock up the number one seed in the ECAC tournament with its win over Vermont.

In the rest of the league, lowly Union is the only team eliminated at this point from playoff consideration.

After that, it gets confusing. Barring a collapse in its final two games, the red-hot Engineers of Rensselaer should secure second place over the weekend. But with Brown (26 points), Yale (25), Clarkson (25) and St. Lawrence (24) so tightly bunched together, and Brown hosting the latter two this weekend, each team controls its own destiny for slots three through six. Even Vermont, on the road at Cornell and Colgate, could conceivably get to 25 points and end up as high as fourth in the standings.

On the lower end, Cornell (9 points) can still catch Princeton (11) for the final slot. Dartmouth (16) and Colgate (14) are in for sure, but again, anything can happen.

Any of those latter three teams could wind up in Bright Arena come March 12, and as Crimson fans know, Princeton and Dartmouth have proved irksome to Harvard in conference play already this year.

But Harvard Coach Ronn Tomassoni claims he has no preference as to which team draws the Crimson.

"I don't care who we play; if you are going to win, you have to beat everyone," Tomassoni said. "It doesn't really help to look at the standings; we have no control over our situation.

"After Tuesday, we'll know who we're up against, and we will prepare accordingly. But until then, there's nothing you can do."

***

Lost Sticks: Of immediate concern to Tomassoni and the Crimson are home dates against Clarkson and St. Lawrence this weekend.

"Home" is the key word for some of the ashen-faced Harvard equipment managers, who upon entering Hanover, N.H., discovered that the bag containing all of the Crimson's sticks had been left back in Cambridge. Just hours before the scheduled start of the game at Dartmouth, a frantic detachment purchased close to $650 worth of sticks from a local sporting goods store, and as rumor has it, the players were working on honing their sticks to their comfort right up until game time.

"I don't want to use that as an excuse at all for why we lost," said Tomassoni. "But nevertheless, the head coach is responsible for everything that happens in his program, and I will take the blame for the mix-up."

***

Pipe Problems: Saturday night's game at Vermont started with a bang for sophomore center Perry Cohagen--three of them, in fact.

Less than a minute into the game, Cohagen collected the puck to the right of Catamount goalie Christian Soucy, and took dead aim at the far corner. His shot was just slightly off; although the shot beat Soucy, the goalpost rejected it, and a freak rebound deposited it right back to Cohagen.

Slightly nonplused, Cohagen tried again, and in a truly bizarre sequence, the biscuit again hit the far post, snuck behind Soucy and hit the near post, and finally ricocheted out of harm's way. To further complicate matters, the goal judge flicked the red light on, but referee Harry Ammian was right there to wave the "goal" off.

"[Cory] Gustafson and I already had our hands in the air," said Cohagen. "We thought they had ruled it a goal. The whole thing was pretty weird."

And when Vermont scored a minute later, it looked like another jinxed opening for the Crimson. But a quick reply by senior Matt Mallgrave took Vermont's early momentum away, and Harvard was off and skating. HOBEY BAKER WATCH Lineman Player/School/Year  GP  G  Asst.  Pts. Ted Drury, Harvard, Jr.  24  19  34  53 Mark Kauffman, Yale, Sr.  27  21  34  56 Greg Johnson, UND, Sr.  32  17  43  60 Jim Montgomery, Maine, Sr.  36  22  50  72 Chris Marinucci, Minn-Duluth, Jr.  32  29  33  62 Devid Sacco, BU, Sr.  33  22  29  51 Bryan Smolinki, Mich St., Jr.  35  30  34  64 Paul Karlya, Maine, Fr.  30  22  60  82 Derek Plants, Min-Duluth Sr.  29  27  42  69

HOBEY BAKER WATCH Goalies Player/School/Year  GP  W  L  T  Pct.  GAA Garth Snow, Maine, Sr.  17  15  0  1  924  1.88

On March 18, the Decathion Club of Minneapolis will introduce the 10 Hobey Baker Award finalists for 1993 at the ECAC Tournament Banquet at Lake Placid, New York. The Decathion Club has presented the award to the nation's most outstanding college hockey player since 1961, and three Harvard players have won the prize (Mark Fusco '83. Scott Fusco '85-86, and Lane MacDonald '88-89). The Sports Cube has compiled a list of this year's potential candidates and will keep an eye on them and any other players who may become finalists in March. The list reflects the opinion of the Crimson sports writers. NCAA Poll 1. Maine (24)  31-1-2  249 2. Michigan (1)  24-5-2  218 3. Miami-Ohio  24-7-3  184 4. BU  24-7-2  158 5. Minn-Duluth  23-8-1  153 6. HARVARD  19-3-2  152 7. Lake Sup. St.  21-7-4  88 8. RPI  17-7-4  69 9. Wisconsin  21-11-2  49 10. Minnesota  16-11-7  20

Compiled by the Albany Times-Union, with first-place votes in parentheses, records and total points.

HOBEY BAKER WATCH Goalies Player/School/Year  GP  W  L  T  Pct.  GAA Garth Snow, Maine, Sr.  17  15  0  1  924  1.88

On March 18, the Decathion Club of Minneapolis will introduce the 10 Hobey Baker Award finalists for 1993 at the ECAC Tournament Banquet at Lake Placid, New York. The Decathion Club has presented the award to the nation's most outstanding college hockey player since 1961, and three Harvard players have won the prize (Mark Fusco '83. Scott Fusco '85-86, and Lane MacDonald '88-89). The Sports Cube has compiled a list of this year's potential candidates and will keep an eye on them and any other players who may become finalists in March. The list reflects the opinion of the Crimson sports writers. NCAA Poll 1. Maine (24)  31-1-2  249 2. Michigan (1)  24-5-2  218 3. Miami-Ohio  24-7-3  184 4. BU  24-7-2  158 5. Minn-Duluth  23-8-1  153 6. HARVARD  19-3-2  152 7. Lake Sup. St.  21-7-4  88 8. RPI  17-7-4  69 9. Wisconsin  21-11-2  49 10. Minnesota  16-11-7  20

Compiled by the Albany Times-Union, with first-place votes in parentheses, records and total points.

On March 18, the Decathion Club of Minneapolis will introduce the 10 Hobey Baker Award finalists for 1993 at the ECAC Tournament Banquet at Lake Placid, New York. The Decathion Club has presented the award to the nation's most outstanding college hockey player since 1961, and three Harvard players have won the prize (Mark Fusco '83. Scott Fusco '85-86, and Lane MacDonald '88-89). The Sports Cube has compiled a list of this year's potential candidates and will keep an eye on them and any other players who may become finalists in March. The list reflects the opinion of the Crimson sports writers. NCAA Poll 1. Maine (24)  31-1-2  249 2. Michigan (1)  24-5-2  218 3. Miami-Ohio  24-7-3  184 4. BU  24-7-2  158 5. Minn-Duluth  23-8-1  153 6. HARVARD  19-3-2  152 7. Lake Sup. St.  21-7-4  88 8. RPI  17-7-4  69 9. Wisconsin  21-11-2  49 10. Minnesota  16-11-7  20

Compiled by the Albany Times-Union, with first-place votes in parentheses, records and total points.

Compiled by the Albany Times-Union, with first-place votes in parentheses, records and total points.