It was a great start for the Harvard Crimson in the first weekend of life without Jimmy Vesey as they swept the weekend series against the Arizona State Sun Devils.
While the Sun Devils aren’t national powers by any stretch of the imagination as they are their full season of NCAA Division I Hockey, but Harvard showed they will be able to put the puck in the net with a 7-0 and a 6-2 victories in the Valley of the Sun.
18 of the the 19 skaters that hit the ice weekend recorded a point. Senior Luke Esposito led the way with two goals and four assists while Buffalo Sabres draft pick Sean Malone also had a pair of goals and three assists. Tyler Moy lit the lamp twice and had two helpers this weekend.
Don’t expect 13 goals this upcoming weekend when they open up ECAC play against Colgate and Cornell in Cambridge, but they showed they have the fire power for another NCAA Tournament run in 2017.
Tough go against Big 10 opponents
Four of the six Big Ten teams took on ECAC opponents and it wasn’t a good showing for the ECAC. The Big Ten went 4-1-1 on the weekend. The lone win for the ECAC was the Dartmouth Big Green with a 3-2 victory over the Michigan Wolverines Saturday evening.
The other “positive” result for ECAC this weekend also happened on Saturday as St. Lawrence skated to a 2-2 tie with the University of Minnesota Golden Gophers. It was a much needed tie for the Saints as they had dropped the previous two games against ranked opponents last weekend against UMass-Lowell and Providence.
This weekend was also disappointing for ECAC in the fact they hosted five of the six games this weekend. Princeton was the lone team to go out to the Midwest as they dropped a 6-2 decision in East Lansing, Michigan to Michigan State on Friday night.
Clarkson was swept by Minnesota and Wisconsin.
Union continues strong start as they open the conference schedule
Union and RPI officially opened ECAC conference play this weekend as the two rivals had a home-and-home series. The Dutchmen extended their unbeaten streak to six games (5-0-1) as they swept the Engineers 4-1 and 3-2 in overtime.
Mike Vecchione has been talked about a lot as he’s tied for first in the nation in scoring with Anders Bjork of Notre Dame with 16 points. His teammates Spencer Foo and Sebastian Vidmar are poised to also have big years. Both have 11 points which is tied for fifth in the nation as each have three goals and eight assists.
Foo has been a steady player in his first two seasons scoring 25 points in each season and is on pace to to shatter that mark this season. Sebastian Vidmar is finding his scoring touch after only recording ten points as a freshman last season. In his final year of junior hockey with the Lone Star Brahmas, he potted 35 goals and 45 assists in the North American Hockey League in 2014-2015.
Great hockey also starts with the goaltending. Alex Sakellaropoulos has been solid as he’s perfect in the five starts this season with a 2.39 goals-against average and a .904 save percentage.
