Tigers skate into quarters

Ivy League schools may be known for the privileges they offer students, but the men's hockey team is determined to make sure that a certain New Hampshire college doesn't take an unfair portion of the championship spoils.

Last weekend in Hanover, N.H., the Dartmouth women captured the 2006-07 Eastern College Athletic Conference Hockey League championship, challenging the Tigers to prevent the men's Big Green squad from moving one step closer to doing the same in this weekend's best-of-three ECACHL quarterfinal series.

Incredibly, Princeton (15-14-3 overall, 10-10-2 ECACHL) and Dartmouth (16-10-6, 12-7-3) have never met in the playoffs despite having played each other 179 times in 100 years. In recent seasons, the Tigers have gotten the best of the Big Green, winning two of the past three regular season series, including their meetings this year.

Princeton takes its game up to western New Hampshire fresh off its thrilling come-from-behind series victory over Brown, snapping a 17-game playoff losing streak to secure its first series win since 1999. The Orange and Black looked good in all three games, dominating the Bears with solid neutral-zone play, a strong penalty kill backed by good goaltending and a knack for coming up with big goals at clutch moments.

While Princeton rides a wave of momentum into the weekend series, the Big Green has not played since Feb. 24 because a fourth-place finish in the regular season standings earned them a first-round bye. It wrapped up its regular season as one of the hottest teams in the nation, however, ringing up seven wins in its last eight games. The one loss? Princeton 3, Dartmouth 0.

Senior starting goaltender BJ Sklapsky, the winning goalie in that Feb. 10 game, is undefeated against the Big Green in his career, with a 2-0-1 record that includes two shutouts and a .982 save percentage.

As if those numbers weren't daunting enough to the Dartmouth shooters, "The Sklapper" was recently named ECACHL Goaltender of the Week for his opening round heroics against Brown, which included stopping 53 of 57 shots, several of those in sudden-death overtime, to backstop the Tigers into their first quarterfinals series in eight years.

Staring Sklapsky down at the other end of the ice will be Big Green goaltender Mike Devine, no slouch himself between the pipes. The first-team All-Ivy junior has taken home ECACHL Goaltender of the Week honors four times this year and owns the fourth-best save percentage in the league. Interestingly, his goals-against average of 2.56 is identical to Sklapsky's.

The Dartmouth attack will be led by junior forward David Jones, who finished third in ECACHL scoring with 39 points and was unanimously named Ivy League Player of the Year, the first unanimous selection since 1980. Jones headlines an offense that scorwed 69 times this season, exactly equal to Princeton's total.

Will the Big Green be joining its female counterparts in victory's song, or will the Tigers ensure that the Hanover hockey faithful don't spoil themselves with a second championship?

With both teams' defenses and offenses evenly matched, the stage is set for a playoff series that could easily go either way.