Four teams from the ECAC advanced to the ECAC Tournament, which took place over the weekend at the Pepsi Arena in Albany. The top three seeds, Cornell, Harvard, and Dartmouth advanced, and fifth-seeded Brown upset fourth-seeded Yale to advance. The first game of the semifinals pitted the underdog Brown against the Big Red of Cornell. The Brown Bears kept up with Cornell in the first period. Referee Dan Murphy had a quick whistle, calling eight penalties in the first period alone. Brown gave Cornell an early power play opportunity, but killed it off with timely clears and by clogging the shooting lanes. Brown got caught holding again, but the penalty was negated a minute later when Cornell took an obstruction-holding penalty. The Big Red got the next power-play opportunity, but rang their best chance off the crossbar.
Brown mounted a comeback effort in the third period. The Bears managed to get some momentum, despite Cornell winning all the battles in the corner. Brown had some good scoring chances with 13 minutes remaining, but could not get a puck past Big Red goalie David LeNeveu. Cornell broke out of the Brown defense and created an odd-man rush with nine minutes remaining. Cornell’s defenseman Mark McRae rang their 2-1 chance off of the post, but the rebound ricocheted straight to Travis Bell, who put the puck into the back of the net from the point. Brown pulled goalie Yann Danis with just over a minute remaining, but could not score. Cornell took the game 2-0 to earn a berth in Saturday’s finals.
The second semifinal saw the Dartmouth Big Green take on the Harvard Crimson. Both teams came out slowly, with each team having trouble in the neutral zone. The Big Green looked stale after their epic series with Colgate, and Harvard was quick to capitalize. At 16:37, Harvard’s Dave McCulloch one-timed an attempted clear past Big Green goalie Nick Boucher. Dartmouth’s sloppy defense continued, and at 9:03, when Crimson forward Dominic Moore wove through the defense and feathered a pass to Charlie Johnson, who drove the puck home to put Harvard up 2-0.
Dartmouth came out strong in the second period. Just after a Harvard penalty ended, two Big Green players broke out of the defensive zone. Dartmouth’s Kent Gillings fired a shot at Crimson goalie Dov Grumet-Morris. Grumet-Morris got his pads to the puck, but it still trickled into to the net to cut the Harvard lead to 2-1. The Crimson fired back just 1:11 later, when Brett Nowak centered the puck to Tim Pettit. Boucher tripped over the side of the net, and Pettit fired the puck into the yawning goal to put Harvard up 3-1. Dartmouth gave up another power play opportunity, and the Crimson again capitalized. At 12:01, freshman Dan Murphy fired a puck over the shoulder of Boucher from the left face-off circle. The Dartmouth coach decided to pull Boucher in favor of backup Dan Yacey after Harvard took a 4-1 lead.
Dartmouth gained momentum, and with less than seven minutes remaining, the Big Green began to mount a comeback. Dartmouth’s freshman dynamo Hugh Jessiman snapped in a juicy rebound at 6:34 to cut the lead to two. Harvard took a timeout to slow the Dartmouth advance, but at 3:51, Dartmouth’s Mike Murray broke away from the Harvard defense and was hauled down from behind. Murray was awarded a penalty shot and used a nifty deke to backhand the puck past a flailing Grumet-Morris to pull the Big Green within one. Dartmouth called a timeout at 1:04 and pulled Yacey. Harvard rang an empty net opportunity off a post, and seconds later, Harvard’s Rob Flynn scored to put the Crimson into the finals.
Dartmouth took the consolation game over Brown on Saturday afternoon, winning 4-2. In a high point for the Big Green, defenseman Pete Summerfelt broke the Dartmouth single season record for assists by a defenseman. Brown, despite losing both games, had highlights as well. Senior goaltender Danis broke the tournament record for saves, breaking the mark that Dartmouth’s Boucher set Friday.
Cornell and Harvard met in the ECAC championship game for the second straight year. Last year, Harvard won in double overtime, and the Crimson looked to repeat.
Harvard needed to come out early and score quickly on Cornell, but a quick holding penalty stung the Crimson. The Big Red power play is ranked 14th in the nation, and quickly showed Harvard why. Less than a minute into the penalty, Big Red forward Sam Paolini tipped a Stephen Bâby slap shot home to give Cornell a big one goal lead.
Harvard came out for the second period with intensity, but again fell victim to a quick penalty. The Crimson bounced right back, and it looked like they scored with 16:30 remaining in the second. The referee originally waved the goal off, but upon further review, it was determined that there was a Crimson player in the goal crease. Four minutes later, another apparent Crimson goal was waved off; the referee determined that it was scored after he had blown the whistle. Harvard’s momentum could not be stopped, and they greatly out-chanced Cornell, but failed to find the net in the second period.
Cornell tried to take the wind out of Harvard’s sails by grinding them against the boards. Harvard avoided the big hits, and eight minutes into the period, Big Red defenseman Doug Murray went into the boards hard, but lost Crimson forward Moore, who skated in front and scored on Big Red goalie LeNeveu to tie the score at one. The Harvard march continued, and with just 3:46 remaining in regulation, Crimson Tyler Kolarik tipped in a Nowak shot to put Harvard up 2-1. The teams continued to trade chances until 1:17, when Cornell took the opportunity to call a timeout. The Big Red won a face-off in the zone, and center Ryan Vesce drew the puck back to Mark McRae, who rocketed a shot through Grumet-Morris’ pads to knot the score at two and send the game to overtime.
Cornell looked to score quickly, not wanting to let Harvard gain back momentum. After turning away three Harvard shots, Cornell broke loose on a two-on-one. Paolini faked out a Crimson defenseman and snapped a shot past Grumet-Morris to clinch the championship for the Big Red.
The win ensured a number one seed for Cornell in the NCAA championships. The Big Red will travel to Providence to take on Minnesota State in the first round. The second-place finish was good enough to land an outright bid to the NCAA Tournament for Harvard. The Crimson took the third seed in the Northeast bracket, and will take on Boston University in Worcester, Mass.
