Most teams will be in conference action this weekend, while Union, Dartmouth and Harvard all have the weekend off. RPI plays a lone non-conference game on the road against Bentley. One has to wonder how long Quinnipiac’s winning streak will go on, as it approaches the absurd at this point. The 11 game winning streak to start the season is the longest such streak to start a year, since Air Force won 12 to begin the 2008-09 season. The Bobcats will host the North Country teams this weekend, after a 6-2 triumph on Tuesday against a struggling Uconn squad. Cornell-Yale looks to be the best game on the docket, but either Quinnipiac games should  also be entertaining.

With RPI playing a lone non-conference game, its lead on Quinnipiac sits at two and the Bobcats will take the lead in the Standings this weekend playing two conference games. The Pairwise also looks good, but I caution one in taking too large of a look, but as a whole the league is in good position. Also check out my Three Things I Think from earlier in the week and a feature on RPI’s Cam Hackett.

Friday

Clarkson at Quinnipiac

The Bobcats win streak to begin the year has hit 11 games. They are the reigning CHN Team of the Week as this weekend’s games will finish a long stretch of games, where they will have played five games in nine nights. One might wonder if Clarkson or SLU might benefit from it but one would probably assume they will both be victims of the QU train that is going at Japanese speed down the rails. After a 5-1-0 start to the season, the Knights have begun to go in the opposite direction. It is winless in its first three conference games as the offense has sputtered to just three goals in three games.

Both of these are possession dominant teams, with Quinnipiac in third nationally in corsi and Clarkson fourth in the nation. Quinnipiac’s win streak nears an end, I would put money on that, but I am not ready to pick them to lose but a tie seems sufficient. Clarkson has given them problems in the past, at Tech is one of the few teams that can keep up with the possession and has the defenders to stop the Bobcats high powered attack.

Pick: Tie 3-3

St. Lawrence at Princeton

The Saints picked up a big rivalry victory last weekend, as it defeated Clarkson at home for the first time since March 2010. Those streaks tend to end and SLU proved the muscle that this team has. SLU wins the talent battle in this one, but Princeton  has looked better this regardless of what the results tell us. SLU is 17th in the country with a 53 percent corsi, while Princeton is near the bottom at 45%. One should expect the powered offense of SLU to get going in this one, but Princeton is tough to play at home. Last season a second place SLU team went to Princeton and the Tigers muscled for a tie in it, so the Saints know to not overlook its struggling opponent. Colton Phinney and Kyle Hayton is a juicy goaltending matchup, as well, so look forward to that.

Pick: SLU 4-1

Cornell at Yale

In the most intriguing matchup of the weekend, Yale which has struggled a tad more than we expected, will take on a red hot Cornell team that is scoring in bunches. The Big Red have unexpectedly scored 23 goals in its first six games and have looked good in the process. Yale despite its overtime loss to RPI, sits in good position at 4-1-1 on the year. In its last four games, it has allowed two goals per game which is actually pretty good. But it is probably averaging .25 more goals allowed than we would have expected. They are scoring however, which continues to be a good sign.

Pick: 3-1 Yale

Colgate at Brown

Brown was robbed of a four point weekend, by the video replay system that didn’t work. I wrote about this earlier in the week, and Mark Divver of the Providence Journal had a column today with quotes from a very upset Brendan Whittet. I really don’t blame him, as I stated earlier in the week, and he has every reason to be upset. Colgate has struggled in recent weeks. They have dropped five of its past six games, but the competetion has been good, as three of those games have come against Providence and Quinnipiac. Gate has allowed 22 goals in its last five losses.

Pick: 5-2 Brown

RPI at Bentley

The Engineers are off to a surprise start in ECAC conference play, as it is unbeaten in six games at 4-0-2. Last weekend, it picked up a huge win against Yale and got lucky in a tie with Brown. Cam Hackett has been a great story, as he is filled in admirably for an injured Jason Kasdorf. The Engineers last two wins have come in overtime and its last four games have all been overtime games, which it hasn’t lost. Bentley is 5-3-1 on the season, with two wins against Northeastern that highlight those wins. Jayson Argue is a phenomenal goaltender and RPI will need to work him to beat him. Argue is ninth in the country in save percentage, at .941.

Pick: RPI 3-1

Saturday

Cornell at Brown

Last season, Cornell was robbed of a win at Brown on a phantom goalie interference call. But this season, this matchup looks to be one that might go up and down. Cornell has scored 3.83 per game this season and the Bears 3.20. Both teams appear better this season, although Brown has again struggled at times on defense but it has seemingly righted the ship. Four points would have been huge, but so was three last weekend. It was one of their better weekends in some time and I think they can top it this weekend, hence I am picking the surprise winner.

Pick: 4-2 Brown

Colgate at Yale

Last season this probably would have been a marquee matchup in a given week, but at least on paper right now it probably isn’t. Yale will probably sweep this weekend and Colgate will struggle to keep up the depth of the Bulldogs. This will be a get-away game from Colgate as it will head to Northern Ireland to take part in the Friendship Four Tournament.

Pick: Yale 4-1

St. Lawrence at Quinnipiac

St. Lawrence and Quinnipiac have played some great games over the years, which included a good one in Hamden late last season that Quinnipiac used to win another regular season title. QU has won the last three matchups in this series, including two one goal victories last year. The two teams have a combined 18 wins on the year and both have looked good. SLU is better with possession this year, but QU is dominant. This to me is an interesting game, but I still think the Saints possession struggles against Q will continue and it will cost them.

Pick: 4-3 QU

Clarkson at Princeton

The last time Clarkson visited Hobey Baker rink, the Tigers picked up a huge late season win against the Golden Knights. Princeton is improved, as I said above, but Clarkson is also better. The Tigers are scoring at a clip of 1.67 goals per game, which is over a half goal more than it has last season. It is a positive, but it will need to dig deeper to score more against Tech. Clarkson will probably dominate the shot attempts, but the question will be whether they will be able to find the net against a stingy Princeton defense.

Pick: 3-1 Princeton

Power Rankings

1. Quinnipiac (11-0-0, 4-0-0 ECAC)

2. Harvard (4-1-1, 4-1-1)

3. Cornell (5-1-0, 3-1-0)

4. RPI (5-4-2, 4-0-2)

5. Yale (4-1-1, 2-1-1)

6. St. Lawrence (7-3-1, 2-1-0)

7. Clarkson (5-3-1, 0-2-1)

8. Brown (1-3-1, 1-2-1)

9. Dartmouth (2-4-0, 2-4-0)

10. Union (3-6-3, 1-5-0)

11. Colgate (4-7-0, 1-3-0)

12. Princeton (1-5-0, 0-4-0)

Thursday, November 19th, 2015 - 9:53 pm | Blogs, ECAC, Notes, Thoughts, Ramblings