Here we go with another edition of the Skodnick Total Hockey Ratings System (creative name, eh? If you can think of a better name, feel free to email me) for the ECAC. It’s been a couple weeks, and with my little boy home during winter break, I didn’t have a chance to update these as quickly as I usually would.

Here are the overall ratings through Tuesday’s game between Harvard and Boston University:

Indexed	Overall Rating
Quinnipiac	127.84
Union	118
Clarkson	117.29
Harvard	106.96
Yale	105.37
Cornell	100.48
Princeton	95.25
Brown	95.68
Dartmouth	92.6
Colgate	83.02
RPI	79.61
SLU	76.95

Quinnipiac (15-4-1) has the highest rating in the league at 127.84, drive by itsfive-on-five goal differential per 60 mins of 2.14. Rand Pecknold’s club scores 3.76 goals for every 60 minutes of five-on-five play, though it can be argued that a weaker non-conference schedule (including a pair of October games against AIC where QU scored 13 goals, eight of them five-on five and a blowout and shutout at Maine) helped boost that number. On the flip side, they’ve also shut out UMass-Amherst, so they’re certainly competitive against the top team in the east.

The Bobcats are 5th in the PWR and RPI and 6th in the USCHO.com poll.  

Union (10-5-4) is second, and the Dutchmen picked up a huge win against USCHO.com No. 1 St. Cloud State in the opening round of the Three Rivers Classic before inexplicably coughing up two shorthand goals in a 6-3 loss to Brown in the final.

Clarkson (12-6-0) is third this week, coming on the heels of a tournament championship at the Desert Hockey Classic (beating Arizona State 3-0 and Minnesota Duluth 3-2) and an OT win at Vermont. The Golden Knights are 16th in the PWR and RPI and the poll.

Harvard (6-4-3) lives and dies by its power play, which has found the net 18 times in 13 games. The Crimson, however, are a middling five-on-five team, with a 0.31 five-on-five goal differential per 60 minutes.

Yale (7-5-3) struggled of late, losing at home to UConn and tying UNH and losing to Maine in OT on the road. The Elis have also allowed five goals while on the five-on-four power play — half the number that that unit has scored. Only Union (6 goals allowed on five-on-four PP) has allowed more of those, but the Dutchmen have also scored 14 goals on the five-on-four… and played five more games.

Cornell (7-5-1) is as close to average as could be. (Remember, reader, that the numbers are indexed to an average of 100.) The Big Red score .19 five-on-five goals per 60 minutes than their opposition, which makes sense when you think of how Cornell has played under Mike Schafer – they generally are stingy defensively and score sparingly while winning a lot of one-goal games, as they’ve done four times thus far this season.

Princeton (5-10-2), which has played 82 percent of its hockey five-on-five, has also been outscored by 11 with both teams at full strength, and the Tigers’ strong PP (7.29 60-min 5×4 goal differential) isn’t enough to make up for it. This likely doesn’t make Hobey proud.

Brown (5-7-3) won the Three Rivers Classic and has a three-game win streak! That’ll give the Bears some momentum as the Providence Friars visit Meehan on Jan. 15 for the Mayor’s Cup game.

Dartmouth (5-7-2) has one win in their last seven games. They’re treading water playing five-on-five, but the Big Green can’t kill five-on-four penalties.

Colgate (6-10-2) picked up a big OT win at Quinnipiac and another win at Princeton last weekend. The Raiders likely won’t rise much higher in the ratings, though, as they’re allowing one more goal than they’re scoring per 60 minutes of five-on-five hockey, and their special teams aren’t getting the job done.

RPI (5-14-0) has had a tough run of late. The Engineers are 2-8 in their last 10 games, and five of those games were decided by one goal. Included in that run are two losses at No. 9 Notre Dame, and with those excluded, RPI was in all those games. Hopefully Dave Smith’s club starts getting some bounces.

St. Lawrence (3-14-1) returns to the bottom of the ratings. The Saints wish what happened in Vegas would stay in Vegas, but unlike when Central Hockey League teams hosted ECHL teams for preseason games back in 2007 (more on this below), records of the Saints’ dismal performance at the Ice Vegas Invitational are available for public consumption. The Saints are 59th in the PWR and RPI. Only Alaska-Anchorage is below them.

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Leif’s ECAC Picks for the upcoming week:

Friday, Jan. 11

	Union		at	Clarkson		EC	7:00 pm ET
	Harvard		at	Princeton		EC,IV	7:00 pm ET
	Dartmouth		at	Quinnipiac		EC	7:00 pm ET
	Rensselaer		at	St. Lawrence		EC	7:00 pm ET
	Arizona State		at	Cornell		NC	7:00 pm ET
	UMass Lowell		at	Colgate		NC	7:30 pm ET

Saturday, Jan. 12

	Rensselaer		at	Clarkson		EC	7:00 pm ET
	Dartmouth		at	Princeton		EC,IV	7:00 pm ET
	Harvard		at	Quinnipiac		EC	7:00 pm ET
	Union		at	St. Lawrence		EC	7:00 pm ET
	Arizona State		at	Cornell		NC	7:00 pm ET
	Sacred Heart		at	Yale		NC	7:00 pm ET
	UMass Lowell		at	Colgate		NC	7:30 pm ET

Tuesday, Jan. 15

(1)	Providence		at	Brown		NC	7:00 pm ET
(1)	Mayor’s Cup

(Schedules and statistics for this blog are compiled from Collegehockeystats.net)

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Minor League Story of the Week

If an exhibition game is played and the league hides the game sheets, did it really happen?

Back in 2007, a number of ECHL teams played preseason games against teams from the then-rival Central Hockey League. Among them, the Mississippi Sea Wolves, for whom I was the play-by-play man, paid a visit to the Fort Worth Brahmas and the Austin Ice Bats.

The Brahmas were playing at the NYTEX Sports Center, a glorified beer league rink and the Ice Bats, made famous by Jason Cohen’s great book Zamboni Rodeo, had left Travis County Expo Center for Chapparal Ice, a 1,000 barn with bad ice, worse sightlines, and a broadcast booth located above a garden shed in the corner of the rink that also stored the Bats’ extra equipment.

The Central Hockey League really believed itself to be on a level playing field with the ECHL. If memory serves, there were 10 preseason games between ECHL and CHL teams that year, and the ECHL won all 10. Most of them weren’t close. And rather quickly, any record of those games played in Central Hockey League venues disappeared, as if they never happened.

But I do know that Mississippi beat Fort Worth 2-1 and Austin 5-1 back in September of 2007, and somewhere, I have a tape of the broadcasts to prove it.

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As always, email me at leifskodnick@gmail.com with questions, comments, etc.

Note: The original post gave RPI and SLU the same rating, and has since been changed to reflect the Saints’ correct rating of 76.95.