ECAC set to begin playoffs

This means that the Tigers, who are currently ranked No. 15 nationwide in the uscho.com/CSTV poll, will rest for the next week and a half before hitting the Baker Rink ice on March 14 for the start of their second-round playoff matchup. Their opponent will be determined by the results of this weekend’s play.

Other teams in the ECAC who earned a first-round bye include league champion No. 8 Clarkson (20-10-4, 15-4-3), third-place Harvard (14-11-4, 12-7-3) and fourth-place Union (15-12-6, 10-7-5). The other eight teams in the league will play best-of-three first-round series this weekend.

Last-place Dartmouth (11-14-4, 6-13-3), which eliminated Princeton in the second round of the ECAC playoffs last year, will play fifth-place Cornell (14-12-3, 12-9-1) in Ithaca in the only all-Ivy League matchup of the first round. The Big Green had the most porous defense in the ECAC this season, allowing a league-high 79 goals — a full 10 more than the next team. Dartmouth partially counteracted this weakness by boasting the ECAC’s third most potent offense, led by 15-goal scorer JT Wyman and Nick Johnson, the league’s second-leading scorer.

Johnson’s 34 points trail only Tiger junior forward Lee Jubinville, who tops all ECAC skaters with 37.

The Big Red will rely on its staunch defense to shut down its opponent’s attack. Cornell goalkeeper Ben Scrivens was phenomenal in net all season, ultimately leading the league in save percentage at .930 and goals-against average at 2.01.

Eleventh-place Brown (6-19-4, 6-13-3) faces sixth-seeded Quinnipiac (17-13-4, 9-9-4). The Bears struggled for most of the season, dropping 15 consecutive games at one point before winning five of their final 10 games to avoid a last-place finish.

The Bobcats, on the other hand, started strong but fell flat on their faces to end the regular season, losing their final six games to slip in the standings from their usual spot near the top of the league. One of Quinnipiac’s key strengths is its balanced team scoring, as it has six 10-goal scorers — more than any other team in the ECAC.

Tenth-place Rensselaer (11-21-4, 6-13-3) visits seventh-seeded Yale (13-12-4, 9-9-4) in New Haven. The Bulldogs defeated the Engineers, 3-0, on the final day of the regular season last Saturday — an unfortunate harbinger for RPI. The Engineers, like Brown, narrowly avoided finishing last. RPI suffered from an anemic team offense that was the worst in the league, with just 45 total goals scored in conference play. Moreover, Engineer starting goaltender Jordan Alford had a league-worst 3.09 goals-against average and the second-worst save percentage at .900, which likely will not help the Engineers.

Alford’s counterpart, Yale’s Billy Blase, was decent in net, but the real Bulldog player to watch will be sophomore forward Sean Backman. Backman, an offensive dynamo, finished third in total league goal scoring with 17 and was first in goals-per-game average at .63.

The other first-round matchup pits ninth-seeded St. Lawrence (12-18-4, 7-13-2) against eighth-seeded Colgate (14-14-6, 8-9-5). The Raiders won the season series 3-0 and have two dangerous offensive weapons in Jesse Winchester and Tyler Burton, who tied for second in league scoring with 34 points apiece. Colgate goaltender Mark Dekanich, who was drafted in 2006 by the NHL’s Nashville Predators, also had an outstanding year. Dekanich’s 2.11 goals-against average and .924 save percentage both ranked second among ECAC goaltenders.

The Saints have an interesting situation in goal, where four different goalies saw significant game time during the regular season. Of those four, senior John Hallas played the most by a slim margin and has the edge to get the starting nod in net.

Meanwhile, the Tigers will bide their time, resting and waiting to see which ECAC foe will emerge from the first-round fray to face them in 10 days’ time.