The Ivy League schools finally saw their first action over the weekend and the results were mixed. The six prestigious schools went 2-2-5 in the first weekend of play. The results are always scattered for these schools and I will explain below. The weekend was a mix of results for league teams in non-conference. Quinnipiac picked up two wins against hapless, winless Northeastern, Brown picked up a win against Army, Yale defeated UConn to take home the Liberty Invitation, while Colgate split with Mercyhurst. All told, the league went 5-3-1 in true non-conference games over the weekend and hold the third best mark of all the conferences on the season at 22-18-3.

League teams played each-other in three games over the weekend. St. Lawrence picked up a win and a tie against arch-rival Clarkson. Kyle Hayton again stood on his head over the weekend, stopping 64 of the 66 shots he saw on the weekend. Yale and Princeton tied at the Liberty Invitational in the other matchup that featured two ECAC teams.

With the league season beginning in earnest last weekend, who would have thought that Rensselaer would come out of the weekend flying? Not me, but the Engineers surprisingly came out of nowhere to sweep Union to pick up two conference wins. Dartmouth and Harvard also skated to a 3-3 tie in an entertaining, exciting game of hockey at Harvard’s renovated Bright-Landry Hockey Center. This weekend will feature the first weekend of a full conference slate., as Yale, Quinnipiac, Brown, Princeton, Union and Rensselaer will all host games. We should get a better idea of which teams will be the ones to beat in the early going after this weekend.

Dartmouth’s first line is going to be special

The Big Green’s first line was dominant when it was on the ice against Harvard. The chemistry of Tyler Sikura and Eric Robinson is untouched, added with the power of Brad Schierhorn on the left wing the line was just a step above throughout the game. To me Schierhorn was an unexpected entrant on the line but when thinking back Schierhorn over his career he had his moments brilliance. The line just seemed to click from the first puck drop, but it is because their playing styles compliment each other. SIkura a smart play-maker, Robinson a sniper, while Schierhorn a big, strong power-forward. The line is a classic ECAC first line.

“Tyler and Eric have really good chemistry,”said Dartmouth coach Bob Gaudet. “Brad is a very strong kid, who I think is going to really breakout this year.”

Sikura and Robinson had a successful 2012-2013 campaign, but Robinson was injured in the second game of the season last year. Dartmouth seriously missed Robinson’s strong wrister, which is easily the best in the ECAC. Robinson had a goal on Saturday in his first game since early last year, the moment was big for him. Tyler Sikura was also on the mend for much of last season. Having both back and healthy will be important for the Big Green.

“It was great to have Eric back,” said Gaudet “He was out all last year and Tyler was also injured for a while last year. They seem to have some chemistry and they are good size kids that are pretty smart moving the puck.”

Moving the puck was an issue Dartmouth had at times last year. Having the two best players healthy should lead to great things. If Saturday was any indication, the Big Green’s top line could just be the best in the conference.

Atlantic Teams aren’t the slouch people think they are

Mercyhurst pulled off the upset of Colgate over the weekend, but in essence I kind of called it in my preview blog saying that Mercyhurst will present a challenge to Gate. Atlantic hockey has eight wins against the other conferences, including a 4-9-0 mark against the ECAC. Over the last few years the gap between the Atlantic and all the other conferences has gotten smaller. One can look at the box scores and realize that case. It wasn’t too long ago that even the top teams in that conference were getting heavily outshot against the power-conference teams, sometimes the totals hit 50 or 55 shots against. Now that is hardly the case, as the teams in the Atlantic are hanging tough and hardly getting blown out in all aspects of the game.

The top teams in the conference are good hockey teams. They can beat anyone on a given night. Mercyhurst, as an example has a 2-2-0 record against the ECAC and Hockey East. They split series’ against Merrimack and Colgate. Bentley swept RPI last weekend and many people quickly wrote off the Engineers because of the conference that Bentley plays in, they shouldn’t have. It held RPI to just 39 shots on the weekend and played two good road games in the win. RIT picked up the other win against an ECAC team, as it defeated a St Lawrence team that has gone on to defeat Miami and Ferris State. The only outlier this season has been SLU’s 10-2  trouncing against Niagara.

When one looks at the Atlantic, Air Force, Mercyhurst, Bentley, RIT, Robert Morris and Holy Cross have been the cream of the crop in recent years. Looking at the standings in the early going, there are only two undefeated teams left in the nation, not including the Ivy League schools. Michigan Tech out of the WCHA and Robert Morris of the Atlantic. Yes Robert Morris is 7-0-1 and has outscored opponents 31-12. The fact that Bentley and Mercyhurst beat two pretty good ECAC teams should be no surprise. The next time I get a text saying so and so from the Atlantic beat so in so in the ECAC, that ECAC team is bad. (I actually got two this weekend on Colgate’s loss) I am just going to say, nope they are good hockey teams. It is time to give them credit for being as such, the gap with the growing pool of players is much less than even five years ago.

The Ivy League’s Late Start Hinders its members

It is written about every year, I suppose, but the Ivy League starting late hurts its teams in many ways. For three weeks, the Ivy league teams sit around and don’t play while the rest of the nation play in hard, action packed games. When it comes to life, the teams usually play each other to get games in before playing other teams, possibly hurting their record and chances later in the season for the NCAA tournament. In most cases, that first game back is sloppy and ugly. Case in point, Yale and Princeton getting 84 shots on net combined in a wild game in Newark. Then Princeton got shellacked by a Merrimack team, 6-1 on Sunday, that was playing in its seventh game. Cornell gave up an uncharacteristic 39 shots against Omaha on Friday and followed it with a 2-1 loss at Lynah.

While other teams are gaining important game situational experience and fitness, Ivy members are practicing. Practice does make perfect, but it does not come close to a real game. The hits are softer, the pace is slower and simulations do not have the pressure a regular game has.

The late start also means less games for its members in non-conference. NC games go a long way in determining the NCAA tournament field. With only 5 games out of conference and less games overall, it puts more emphasis on one game because winning percentages count so much in determining the RPI system. Cornell and Dartmouth are the two best at scheduling big programs. This season DC has BU, BC, Denver and UNH as part of its non-conference schedule.

Most non-league games occur within two windows of time, one before November begins and the other immediately following the winter break. The fact one of the windows is all but eliminated makes it hard for these programs to find windows to schedule non-conference games against big name opponents. Look up and down the Ivy teams’ schedule and you will find a lot of Tuesday games in November, that is an immediate effect of the limited time within the Ivy schedule.

One of the things that bothers me the most about the Ivy schedule and less games is how much players are ignored on the national stage and in terms of league awards. Mark Naclerio last year had some of the better per game averages in the conference but got left out on the all-ECAC teams and in terms of awards. Because reporters, and in a sense coaches, look at the overall numbers and not per game numbers, good players miss out. Naclerio was a great example of this last season.  It will happen again this year and it will continue to happen because of this.

All in all the six members of the ECAC from Ivy League end up fine and unscathed, although most will get off to poor starts in conference. The fitness and game experience will forever be the biggest impact of the late start.

Monday, November 3rd, 2014 - 6:03 pm | Blogs, ECAC, Notes, Thoughts, Ramblings