The Race Begins

The Harvard hockey team may be resting atop a volcano.

The Crimson is sitting on the throne and outside the castle, within sight, the peasants are revolting.

Don't look now, Harvard, someone may be gaining on you.

The ECAC world--that hockey orb over which Harvard rules--has spun wildly out of control. Since the Crimson's three-week layoff for exams (and its annual excursion into the Lost Kingdom, know as the Bean--looked like they were hit over the head with a--pot), Harvard's league rivals have been battering each other. A few teams have been getting the better of the battering.

Remember Cornell?

The mediocre team the Crimson took care of, 3-1, in Ithaca, N.Y., in the beginning of December? The once sub-.500 Big Red is now 10-4, and has won six straight games.

Cornell is now fourth in the league.

Clean Sweep

Remember Clarkson?

The mediocre team the Crimson handled, 5-3, in mid January? The Golden Knights swept RPI and Vermont (the same Vermont squad the Crimson fell to in early January) on the road last weekend.

Clarkson is now fifth in the league.

Remember Yale?

The midget-league team the Crimson destroyed twice, 7-2 in New Haven and 8-1 in Cambridge? The Elis have won five of their last six games.

After sliding to a 1-8 start, Yale is now in ninth place in the league a point out of eighth place and a league playoff spot.

Harvard rested. The league kept running.

"I think it's a case of old-fashioned hard work," Cornell Coach Brian McCutcheon said, explaining his team's climb up the ECAC ladder. "Everyone has pulled together."

"We have struggled all year," Clarkson Coach Cap Raeder said. "But the kids have really hung in there. We're looking to cash in this weekend [against Cornell and Colgate]."

That's the Ticket

Yale's resurrection is even more remarkable. In the early season, the Elis--once a league powerhouse--jammed a blue flag in the league basement and declared it theirs. Yale seemed to have solidified its hold on sub-mediocrity by crumbling against Harvard here three weeks ago.

"When we had the loss at Harvard, we sat down with the team and tried to come to grips with what had been happening," Yale Assistant Coach Dan Poliziani said. "Somehow it had to be stopped. It was like a cancer."

Recently, the Elis have been getting solid play from their special teams, converting six of 12 powerplay opportunities and killing 16 to 16 penalties. Yale goalie Mike O'Neill leads the league in save percentage with a .910 average.

"Mike O'Neill in the nets has been stupendous," Poliziani said. "But he's been getting better help out front."

Horse Race

With three weeks left in the season, the ECAC race is too close to call. Defending champion Harvard leads with 12 wins, followed by St. Lawrence with 11. Colgate and Cornell have 10 victories each.

Eleven of the league's 12 teams are still in the running for playoff spots.

"There's a great deal of parity in the league," McCutcheon said. "You have to be ready to play every weekend."

"I was looking at our record a couple of weeks ago," said Raeder, whose team has been in the ECAC Tournament more often than any other, "and I was saying 'Let's just make the playoffs.'"

"Everybody can beat everybody," Poliziani said.

Remember Brown?

No?

No one else does either. The Bruins have proved that you can take an elevator below basement level. Brown is groping around in the sewers with a 0-13 record.

No, coach Poliziani, everybody can't beat everybody.

When the ECAC world turned upside down, Brown fell off.