There's only one weekend left for the ECAC women's hockey league and there's still plenty of teams still in the race for the final playoff spots. Could be a crazy weekend so we'll take a look at the matchups but also how high a team can finish.
1. Cornell (25-1-1, 19-0-1) vs. 8. RPI (10-14-7, 8-10-2)
Cornell: Well, they've clinched first place so not much to say here...moving on.
RPI: RPI is in an absolute dogfight for the last spot in the playoffs, tied with St. Lawrence (the Saints have more wins) and matching Colgate's record exactly. RPI split with Colgate and wins are equal, so the next relevant tiebreaker is record vs. the top 4. They are 0-2 vs. Cornell, 1-1 vs. Harvard, 1-1 vs. Dartmouth and 1-1 vs. Quinnipiac (3-5). If Princeton moves in to the top four, they will fall to 2-6 in this measure. Engineers have home games against Clarkson as well as finishing up Saturday vs. St. Lawrence.
2. Harvard (14-9-4, 13-4-3) vs. 7. St. Lawrence (14-16-2, 9-11)
Harvard: The Crimson are up three on Dartmouth for second place, so a win Friday vs. Colgate will guarantee the Crimson home ice until the semifinals (if they were to advance that far.) Essentially, Harvard needs to match Dartmouth's points on Friday night to seal this position.
St. Lawrence: The Saints are tied in points with both RPI and Colgate but break the three way tie through having 9 wins to both those teams' eight. St. Lawrence is 0-1 against RPI, who they face Saturday on the road, but are 2-0 vs. Colgate so they hold that tiebreaker.
3. Dartmouth (17-9, 13-7) vs. 6. Clarkson (11-15-6, 8-8-4)
Dartmouth: The Big Green have a chance to finish as high as second if they can make up the three point deficit against the Crimson but they also have a chance to slip as far as fifth with Quinnipiac only two points away and Princeton three points away. Dartmouth also has a tough schedule with Cornell in town Friday night and then a Colgate team fighting for a playoff spot on Saturday.
Clarkson: The Golden Knights are out of the battle for home ice as they trail Quinnipiac by four for fourth place but lose on the second tiebreaker (league wins) as the Bobcats have 12 wins and the most Clarkson could have is 10. Clarkson also is not assured of a playoff spot with Colgate two points behind and Yale four points behind, though they could clinch by Friday with a win and some help from Harvard.
4. Quinnipiac (20-10-2, 12-8) vs. 5. Princeton (14-12-1, 11-8-1)
Quinnipiac: The Bobcats can finish as high as third or as low as fifth, thanks to trailing Dartmouth by two and leading sixth placed Clarkson by four with the tiebreaker. Home ice will be determined by how many points they get compared to travel partner Princeton. Both teams face Yale and Brown on the road.
Princeton: The Tigers can also move up to third place but can fall as far as sixth. Third requires some help against Dartmouth from Cornell and Colgate while a Clarkson sweep could also drop the Tigers. As said just above, the most likely battle will be which of the travel partners gets home ice, Quinnipiac or Princeton. It comes down to who gets the most points this weekend. At the moment, Quinnipiac holds the win tiebreaker but were the Bobcats to go 0-0-2 and Tigers to go to 1-0-1, it would go to the next tiebreaker and Princeton is 1-4-1 as opposed to the Bobcats at 2-4, so Princeton cannot tie Quinnipiac and move up to fourth (assuming Dartmouth doesn't drop.)
On the Fence
9. Colgate (11-17-3, 8-10-2)
The Raiders are tied in points and wins with RPI and the season series is also tied. Colgate's record is at 1-5 vs. the top 4 with a chance to move to 3-5 with a weekend sweep. Assuming the top four don't change, that would tie them with RPI for that tiebreaker, bringing it to record vs. the top 8. They are 1-1 vs. Princeton so they would benefit from the Tigers moving into the top 4 as it would not change their record but would drop RPI's.
10. Yale (8-16-3, 7-11-2)
The Bulldogs are only two points out of a playoff spot so they could move up as far as a tie for sixth (they are split 1-1 with Clarkson) but if they caught the Golden Knights in points with two wins (the only way), Yale would necessarily have more wins than Clarkson. That would mean RPI beating Clarkson (also making RPI have twenty points) and thus St. Lawrence would need to beat RPI, though lose to Union (and that would put all four teams at 20 points) so that's a fun possible tangle that I will admittedly be lazy and avoid trying to solve.
And Finally...
11. Brown (2-22-3, 1-16-3) and 12. Union (2-27-3, 1-17-2)
Not much more to say...spoiler possibilities abound though.
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