Men's hockey in playoff free-for-all

You're at a banquet somewhere, hungry and ready to eat. When the hosts finally break out the food, everyone in the room rushes to get it, disregarding any pleas for order, and trampling any bystanders who happen to be in the way.

To date, men's hockey in the Eastern College Athletic Conference has resembled such a confusing scene. No team has established a claim on any spot in the standings, except for cellar-dweller Brown.

Ten teams qualify for the ECAC tournament, a second season where a team can come out of nowhere to seize the automatic bid to the NCAA tournament. In 1999, Princeton made an incredible run to the title — the same could happen this year.

Parity reigns in the league, where just 10 points separate current leader St. Lawrence (25) and the two teams tied for tenth, Colgate and Union (15), Throw out the records when ECAC teams collide — on any given night, one team can beat any other team.

For example, Princeton is currently locked in a three-way tie for seventh in the conference. The Tigers are just one point from playoff oblivion. But in just two meetings with the St. Lawrence Saints this year, Princeton skated to a tie at home and beat them on the road to snap out of an eight-game losing streak.

St. Lawrence was the consensus preseason favorite to win the ECAC, and it has hovered near first all season long. The Saints regained the conference lead from Cornell two weekends ago. The Big Red had relied on defense and the stingy goaltending of Matt Underhill for their brief run as league leader.

But Cornell fell to Princeton and Yale, and St. Lawrence swept Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute and Union, giving St. Lawrence the conference lead by three points.

Offense is the key to the Saints' success. St. Lawrence leads the ECAC in scoring, and center Erik Anderson keys the attack. But this weekend, Anderson went down with a sprained ankle, and his team was stunned by Harvard in Cambridge, Mass., 4-1.

The Crimson had lost five straight going into the contest with the Saints, and the checking and speciality teams that temporarily made Harvard the ECAC leader had lost their crispness. But the young, talented Crimson seem to be on the upward track again and should be a force in the tournament.

If Harvard is pulling out of a losing streak, Dartmouth — tied with the Crimson for fourth — is riding a hot streak as far as it can. The Big Green are almost unbeatable at home and are coming off a three point weekend on the road that included a 4-1 triumph over Colgate, breaking the four-game winning streak.

Another team that has been hot recently is Clarkson. The Golden Knights upped the level of their play since the New Year, and are now just one point out of first place. Clarkson's balance — it is second in both scoring offense and defense — gives it a very good shot in the playoffs.

Another balanced team, RPI, has been close in a number of games this year only to lose late. The Engineers have occasionally displayed flashes of superior talent, but inconsistency has left them in sixth place, out of home ice.

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Five teams — Princeton, Yale, Vermont, Colgate and Union — are battling it out for the last four tournament slots. The first three have 16 points each, and the final two are just one point back. With the conference so tightly packed, any of these teams still has a shot at home ice.

Of the five, the team to watch this weekend is Vermont, which takes on Yale Friday and Princeton Saturday.

With just two weeks to play in the season, no team will be able to establish itself as dominant in the ECAC before the tournament, which might be just as crazy as the regular season has been.