More pummelling of ECAC schools went on in the Midwest, where Princeton finished last in the Badger Hockey Showdown in Milwaukee, losing 10-2 to Boston University and 8-3 to Wisconsin. In the final, a Notre Dame team which had advanced by upsetting the host school 3-2 was no match for BU, who were 7-3 winners. At the Mariucci Classic, Harvard also ended up #4, falling 5-2 to host Minnesota and 8-3 to New Hampshire, while Minnesota won the tournament with a 3-2 victory over Bowling Green, who had themselves been 3-2 winners over UNH in the semis. A bit further North in Saskatoon, Yale had their problems in the round-robin Chill Out, edging Western Ontario 6-5 on penalty shots before losing 8-2 to Team Austria and 8-3 to host Saskatchewan. The Elis, at least, can take consolation in the fact that their games were officially only exhibitions.
Back on the East Coast, three tournaments featured two ECAC schools each, but none of the possible extra tilts within the conference materialized. At the RPI invitational, Clarkson advanced with a 4-3 win over Providence, while the host school fell 5-4 to Illinois-Chicago. Rensselaer went on to lose 3-2 to the Friars in the consolation, while the Golden Knights claimed the ECAC's lone tournament title of the weekend, besting UIC 4-2 in the final. In Burlington, the Sheraton/USAir Classic saw some surprises, as Dartmouth won their first game of the season, 3-1 over Boston College while host Vermont fell 5-2 to Minnesota-Duluth. After UVM and BC tied at 1 in the consolation, The Big Green fell just short of pulling off another shocker, falling 3-2 to UMD in the championship. Moving to Central New York, Colgate advanced to the finals of the Syracuse Invitational by topping Northeastern 4-3 while St. Lawrence lost 5-2 to Western Michigan. The Skating Saints salvaged third place with a 4-1 win over Northeastern in the consolation while WMU edged the Red Raiders 5-4 to take the title.
Outside of the Tournament forum, Brown and Union faced Hockey East foes in non-league bouts. The Skating Dutchmen were 4-2 winners over Merrimack, while the Brown Bears fell 6-3 to Mass-Lowell and, just this afternoon, tied Merrimack at 4.
Again, with the lack of ECAC conference action this week, Clarkson maintains their lead of one point on Colgate and two points on St. Lawrence, Cornell and Harvard, so let's have a look at the Ivy League standings so far this year. So far, the Ancient Six race has been dominated by archrivals Cornell and Harvard. The Crimson have the most points, at 5-1-0, but the Big Red are undefeated at 4-0-1, thanks to their big win against the boys from Cambridge back in November. Yale are a distant third at 2-3-0, followed by Princeton at 1-4-1 and Brown at 1-4-0. Dartmouth have only played one Ivy game, losing 4-3 to Cornell in overtime, but considering their overall 1-10-1 record, that may be a good thing for the Big Green.
The ECAC action resumes on the first weekend of the new year, with several big games taking place in Central New York, where first-place Clarkson and third-place St. Lawrence visit fellow frontrunners Colgate and Cornell. One other showdown presents itself in Cambridge as Harvard and Yale play host to Vermont and Dartmouth, and finally the lower division entertains itself as Rensselaer and Union visit Princeton and Brown.
With the ECAC hockey report, this is Joe P------k, Mr. Squishy sports.