An almost full slate of conference games this weekend, as Quinnipiac and Princeton are the only teams no playing an ECAC opponent. Quinnipiac holds a six point lead in the ECAC standings, which will almost certainly evaporate this weekend as its closest competition has two games this weekend.

There are no huge tilts this weekend, within league play. the biggest games on the calendar are the non-conference pair that Quinnipiac plays, when it hosts and travels to Merrimack College. For Pairwise purposes, the game is huge because of how close the season series is between the Hockey East and ECAC conferences. Quinnipiac is also within a game of going below .500 in non-conference. A sweep would make it difficult for them to solidify a spot in the Pairwise going forward.

Can Harvard recover?

Harvard looked, well bad against Yale last Saturday at Madison Square Garden, in New York City. The Crimson are better than their performance on national television last week. In all honesty, I had a hunch before the game the Crimson were going to struggle and they did. I was surprised however of how easy Yale made it look against its long time rival. I saw the first Yale, Harvard game in November and it was a great hockey game. Saturday night on the big stage was as lopsided as it could have been.

Harvard has breezed through its schedule for the most part, other than the two hiccups against Yale. Wins against Boston College, Boston University and Lowell are no flukes. Harvard has talent but has been beat up in the last few games. Two top six forwards were vacant in the lineup last Saturday, as Sean Malone and Alex Kerfoot have both been on the mend. Getting those guys back will be very important in the coming weeks. I have heard both should return this week. Both could be slotted on the top line and Kerfoot was the guy for much of the first half and he was on fire in the process. Both Malone and Kerfoot are in the top three nationally in points per game. The return of those guys are important.

The Crimson will be looking forward to getting back to a regular schedule, as it has played just twice this half. At 10-2-2, it is in good shape going forward in both the league and national pictures. Sitting in second in the league standings and third in the Pairwise, Harvard should and wil recover fast. This weekend, it hosts the North Country duo of St. Lawrence and Clarkson. Both enter as struggling teams, as SLU has just one win in eights contests and Clarkson enters on a two game losing streak. Tech has a record of 2-5-0 in last seven contests. Harvard and its travel partner, Dartmouth, have quite the chance to put some points on the board this weekend.

On Matchup problems

Hockey is a funny game, because at times matchups play a huge part in a game. In the ECAC that seems all the more a thing as there are many that confuse me daily. Quinnipiac’s domination of Yale (unbeaten in eight of nine, ya the one was a big one, however), Yale over Harvard (7-0-1 in the last eight), RPI over Union (three wins in a row), and Clarkson over SLU (10-2-2 in last 14). What is funny or strange about all these matchups is that they are all rivalry games that really do mean a lot, it shouldn’t be a case of one team not showing up.

Then what are the problems that stick out in these matchups? Well none of them are clear cut but in Harvard, Yale on Saturday I feel as though I pinpointed it. Whereas Harvard has become a hybrid fast team, with a pretty cautious defense when it comes to offense, Yale has morphed into a defensive and goaltending machine since its star-power has left. Because Yale has better goaltending, now, it tends to win close games against its rival. Yale can still score plenty of goals but its advantage over its rival is situational defense and goaltending. Clarkson and SLU’s  mismatch is also pretty clear cut in my eyes, as great defenses (Clarkson), usually trump great offenses. SLU’s defensive game has been a tad behind Tech’s in recent years. Then come the Union-RPI and Yale-QU, which I have no answers for. Union-RPI is notoriously a rough game and those can usually turn towards the less skilled, lower ranked team.

None of these teams play each other this weekend, but I felt it important to bring it up now. Harvard has beaten Clarkson in seven its past nine games in that series, RPI is unbeaten in its last five against Colgate, and for what it is worth SLU is unbeaten in five against Harvard. Those games occur this weekend and have been kind of one sided but not as much as the others I mentioned. All in all, the moral of the story is some teams just do not matchup well with others.

Quinnipiac has a huge non-conference weekend

QU in 5-4-1 in non-conference play and that has been pretty indicative of its play out of the ECAC. Losses to Umass and Uconn will haunt until the last weekend of the season, if the Bobcats miss out on the NCAA tournament for the first time in three seasons. This weekend it has an opportunity in non-league play to play a team right behind it in the Pairiwse rankings, Merrimack. The all important Hockey East and ECAC mark is also close, 20-19-5 in favor of the defectors.

Merrimack is a tough team and a difficult one to beat at home. I will see the Bobcats road matchup in North Andover on Friday and am looking forward to seeing two very defensive teams take to the ice. Merrimack allows just 27 shots a game, while Quinnipiac is second in the nation allowing a meager 23 shots a tilt. Quinnipiac needs to find consistent scoring and a consistent defensive game, which it has lacked over the past year or so but lately it has been good. The defense has tons of talent and so does the offense. Quinnipiac should be dangerous and it appears they are getting there.

Quinnipiac’s 14th ranking in the Pairwise means that wins and results are at a premium. Unlike in recent seasons, QU has no room for comfort in terms of the national picture, The conference picture looks great for it, but the national one leaves it in a predicament. Given Merrimack’s position right behind its ECAC counterpart, a sweep in this series would be huge for the conference.

Predictions:

Friday

Quinnipiac at Merrimack: 2-1 Mack

SLU at Dartmouth: 3-2 SLU

Clarkson at Harvard: 4-1 Harvard

Yale at Brown: 3-1 Yale

Cornell at Union: 2-1 Union

Colgate at RPI: 5-1 Gate

Saturday

Merrimack at Quinnipiac: 4-3 Quinnipiac

SLU at Harvard: 3-1 Harvard

Clarkson at Dartmouth: 2-1 Dartmouth

Brown at Yale: 4-1 Yale

Colgate at Union: 6-1 Gate

Cornell at RPI: 3-1 Cornell

Thursday, January 15th, 2015 - 10:25 pm | Blogs, ECAC, Notes, Thoughts, Ramblings