D1 preview: Cornell, Clarkson can seal NCAA Tournament fate

Clarkson goaltender Jake Kielly has a .940 saver percentage during the playoffs. (Clarkson Athletics)

For college hockey fans, this is the most wonderful time of year. Before the 16-team NCAA tournament field set to be revealed on Sunday night (7 p.m. on ESPNU), two Tri-State clubs from both ECAC Hockey and Atlantic Hockey will be competing for conference championships this weekend in Lake Placid and Buffalo, respectively.

Cornell split the Cleary Cup as the ECAC’s regular-season champion with Quinnipiac, but the No. 2 Big Red will be the highest-seeded team in Lake Placid after Brown upset the Bobcats in a pair of tight quarterfinal affairs last weekend. Clarkson (No. 9) and the Big Red (No. 11) are both positioned well in the PairWise Rankings entering this weekend, but, of course, two wins would erase any doubts of NCAA fate.

As is typically the case in Atlantic Hockey, the lone NCAA team will be whichever comes out of the weekend with a championship. American International has been atop the standings and finished as the No. 1 seed for the first time ever, but in-state foes Niagara and RIT will battle it out for one spot in Saturday’s title game.

ECAC HOCKEY

No. 8 Brown (15-13-5) vs. No. 2 Cornell (19-9-4)

Friday, 4 p.m. at Herb Brooks Arena, Lake Placid, N.Y.

What to watch for: The Bears stunned Quinnipiac in back-to-back games last weekend to advance to Lake Placid with a perfect 4-0 mark on the postseason, while the higher-seeded Big Red had the challenge of overcoming a series deficit after losing a 3-2 game to Union last Friday. Cornell scored early in the first period and needed only 15 saves from Matthew Galajda to knot the series with a 4-0 victory before advancing to Lake Placid for the third straight year and 11th in 15 by a 4-2 score in the only third game of any ECAC quarterfinal set. Junior Noah Bauld recorded only four points in 25 regular-season games for the Cornellians, but the Nova Scotian came through with five in last weekend’s series. While the upset-minded Bears dropped a one-goal game in Ithaca, N.Y., in January, they earned a 3-3 home tie on Feb. 15 after scoring three goals in a 53-second span early in the third period.

Fun fact: Sophomore Morgan Barron became the first Cornell skater to eclipse the 30-point marker since Greg Miller in 2013 and the first underclassman to do so since Riley Nash in 2008-09.

No. 4 Harvard (19-9-3) vs. No. 3 Clarkson (24-10-2)

Friday, 7:30 p.m. at Herb Brooks Arena, Lake Placid, N.Y.

What to watch for: These two teams will play in a rematch of last year’s conference semifinal, which the Golden Knights won before losing to Princeton in the title game and Providence in the NCAA tournament. This year’s season series between the clubs was split, but the Golden Knights won the latest meeting on Feb. 16 to start their current 5-0-2 run over which junior captain Nico Sturm has nine points and freshman Josh Dunne has lit the lamp five times. The game features two Hobey Baker finalists in Harvard’s 46-point defenseman Adam Fox, the ECAC Player of the Year from Jericho, N.Y., and Sturm. While Fox paces a dynamic offense, it will be a challenge against goaltender Jake Kielly and a Clarkson back end that surrenders only 1.97 goals per game, ranking fourth nationally.

Fun fact: Clarkson’s current unbeaten streak includes a 2-0-1 record against the other top four-seeded teams in the ECAC. The Golden Knights are 15-4-2 since winning the Desert Hockey Classic at the end of December.

ATLANTIC HOCKEY

No. 6 Niagara (16-18-5) vs. No. 5 RIT (17-16-4)

Friday, 7:35 p.m. at Harborcenter, Buffalo, N.Y.

What to watch for: AIC and Robert Morris will open Friday’s Atlantic Hockey slate, but the nightcap features a pair of New York teams that will be meeting for the fifth time this season. The higher-seeded Tigers went 2-1-1 during the total season series, though the Purple Eagles were 4-2 winners in the most recent game on Feb. 27. Niagara’s AHC Rookie of the Year Ludwig Stenlund was the top-scoring freshman in the country with 19 goals and 34 points and added five points in last weekend’s quarterfinal set win at Air Force. Stenlund’s club has been battle-tested lately as well, going to overtime in five of its last eight games. RIT needed three games to take down Sacred Heart on the road. Sophomores Alden Dupuis (3-5-8) and Jake Hamacher (3-3-6) scored three goals apiece during the weekend set in which the Tigers dropped the opener by a 9-4 score last Wednesday in Bridgeport, Conn.

Fun fact: RIT is among the final four Atlantic Hockey teams playing for the eighth time in 12 seasons. The Tigers last won the title in 2016, also as a No. 5 seed.