After defeating Princeton 1-0 on home ice at Bright Laundry, the Harvard men's hockey team (6-10-6) heads to Ithaca this weekend to compete for a spot in the ECAC semifinals in Herb. become. Brooks Arena, Lake Placid, New York The Crimson, ranked eighth in the ECAC playoffs, will play Cornell University, ranked second in the ECAC, in a best-of-three series (12-6-4). Cornell, ranked No. 15 nationally, played well in the regular season and earned the No. 2 ECAC ranking in the postseason tournament, while the Big Red Bears received a first-round bye and were temporarily suspended from playing.
During the regular season, the Crimson and Cornell split the series, with each team having the road advantage. The Crimson won the first meeting of the season in November, 3-2, and in late January, Cornell shut out the Crimson at Bright Landry, winning 2-0.
Historically, these teams have only met twice in the past decade in the postseason, and this weekend's matchup will be the sixth time the teams have met in the quarterfinals of a best-of-three series. Last year, the two teams met in the semifinals, with Harvard winning in overtime and advancing to the ECAC finals for the second consecutive year. The last best-of-three series was in 2011, with Cornell winning 2-0. The Crimson hopes to use the momentum from the 2023 tournament to avenge their loss in January.
The remaining teams in the ECAC bracket are loaded with competitive matchups, with No. 12 RPI taking on No. 1 Quinnipiac, No. 7 St. Lawrence taking on No. 3 Colgate and No. 6 Union. hopes to defeat Ivy League foe No. .4 Dartmouth. Head coach Ted Donato's team will need to play hard to have any chance of success against both Cornell and other programs.
The first game of the series begins tonight at Lina Rink with puck drop at 7pm ET, and the second game will take place tomorrow at 7pm ET. If necessary, a tiebreaker game is set to begin Sunday at 4pm ET. All three games will be streamed on ESPN+.
—Staff writer Tommy Branca can be reached at tommy.branca@thecrimson.com.
