Lots of shuffling occurred at the top on Friday night, while RPI clinched home ice in the first round and Quinnipiac clinched the third of four byes. The championship is locked up for Union but the final bye and final home ice spot are up for grabs in the last weekend. Lets go through some scenarios but check out the standings page for a more complete record and pts standing.

1. Union (33 pts.)

Union clinched the Cleary Cup outright and will be the number one seed in the ECAC tournament. Union will have home ice in the quarterfinals and will face the lowest remaining seed after the first round.

Position: 1

2. Quinnipiac (27)

Quinnipiac did well for itself tonight by trouncing St. Lawrence, 8-0. The win must have felt good considering the Bobcats were on a three game losing streak entering the night. The big news out of the night was the injury situation. Jordan Samuels-Thomas returned to the lineup from a shoulder problem but Dan Federico was out of the lineup. Per a source, Federico was seen on campus wearing a boot and on crutches, he has been Q’s best defender this season, so this has to be concerning. Quinnipiac will either finish second or third. The tiebreaker is really tricky because of it being on the third tiebreaker but QU would have some issues if it ended up tied, as Colgate wins the third tiebreaker that is record against the top 4. Wins and head to head are both tied. Bobcats need to win it outright.

Position: 2-3

3. Colgate (27)

The Raiders did not help their own cause tonight, with a loss to Harvard. It has clinched a bye and can finish no worse than third. As I stated above if QU and Colgate finish tied, the raiders would win the tiebreak and Colgate would finish second.

Positions: 2-3

4. Cornell (24)

Cornell controls its own destiny in fourth place, but it did itself no favors by losing to Dartmouth. Clarkson sits just one point behind and with a loss against Dartmouth on Saturday, Cornell is in serious trouble. Clarkson would win the second tiebreaker if it were to end tied at the end of the day, which can only be achieved by a Clarkson win and Cornell tie. Cornell can finish no lower than fifth, because it holds the tiebreaker against Yale, with two wins head to head.

Positions: 4-5

5. Clarkson (23)

Clarkson has had a remarkable season and tonight it put itself back into the conversation with its win against Princeton. As I said above, Clarkson can get the bye with a win and a Cornell loss or tie. It does not control its own destiny, but it at least has a chance. Clarkson also sits one point ahead of Yale, but if the two were to end up tied, Tech would hold the tiebreaker. Clarkson can finish no worse than sixth because it holds the tiebreaker on RPI, who sits three points back. Tomorrow night it will play Quinnipiac, no easy task.

Positions: 4-6

6. Yale (22)

Yale can finish no higher than fifth in the standings, because Cornell holds the tiebreaker on it in fourth. It could finish ahead of Clarkson, if Tech lost to Quinnipiac and Yale defeats RPI. Yale and RPI will hypothetically play for seventh place on Saturday night. The Elis can finish no lower than seventh.

Positions: 5-7

7. Rensselaer (21)

RPI picked up a huge victory against Brown, assuring them of a first round home series and also locking them into seventh or sixth place. Rensselaer can only jump into sixth place with a win against Yale on the road, Saturday night.

Positions: 6-7

8. Brown (17)

Brown controls its own destiny, but it plays Union who has been on fire. Brown also holds the tiebreaker against all three teams that trail it by one point. A loss, though, puts it in serious jeopardy because you have to assume one of the three behind it win. Bruno can finish anywhere from eighth to 11th in the conference. Saturday will be the difference between playing at home or on the road.

Positions: 8-11

9. Dartmouth (16)

So Dartmouth is in this position because it is 4-0-1 in its last five games. I seriously wrote them off weeks ago for even having a chance at this but here they are. Dartmouth needs to win and hope Brown loses to Union, because on the third tiebreaker, record against the top 4, Brown wins the tiebreaker. So a tie and a Brown does not work. Dartmouth holds the tiebreaker against St. lawrence and Harvard, based on league wins as well so if it were to win and Brown were to lose, it would get the home ice position. Remarkable, really.

In the case of a 3-way tie with Brown and Harvard, Dartmouth would have a record of 2-2-0 with Harvard having a record 1-3-0 and Brown having a record of 3-1-0 thus Brown would finish 8th, Dartmouth 9th and Harvard tenth. In the case of a 4 way tie for the 8th spot, Brown would have a record of 4-1-1, Dartmouth 3-3-0, SLU 2-2-2 and Harvard 1-4-1. Its all complicated, But it works. Quite simply, Dartmouth needs Brown to lose to have any shot.

Positions: 8-11

10. St. Lawrence (16)

St. Lawrence might have the easiest road to an eighth spot because it plays last place Princeton, but it needs to hope for Brown to lose and Dartmouth to pick up less than a point. St. Lawrence currently sits in tenth place because Dartmouth holds the tiebreaker for ninth. St. Lawrence would hold the tiebreaker against Harvard because it beat and tied them in the regular season.

Positions: 8-11

11. Harvard (16)

Harvard, of the three teams tied for ninth, has the least chance of getting the home ice spot because St. Lawrence and Dartmouth hold tiebreakers. Harvard’s perfect storm would be Brown, Dartmouth and St. Lawrence all losing. That is highly unlikely but is possible. All I would say is good luck because it would lose eevery tiebreaker.

Positions: 8-11

12. Princeton (8)

Princeton will finish in 12th, we have known this for a while now.

Position: 12

Saturday, March 1st, 2014 - 3:18 am | Blogs, ECAC, Notes, Thoughts, Ramblings