{"id":132174,"date":"2022-02-02T14:00:27","date_gmt":"2022-02-02T20:00:27","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wp-admin.uscho.com\/?p=132174"},"modified":"2022-02-01T21:03:06","modified_gmt":"2022-02-02T03:03:06","slug":"this-week-in-ecac-hockey-with-one-month-left-in-regular-season-conference-quartet-emerging-as-teams-to-beat","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wp-admin.uscho.com\/2022\/02\/02\/this-week-in-ecac-hockey-with-one-month-left-in-regular-season-conference-quartet-emerging-as-teams-to-beat\/","title":{"rendered":"This Week in ECAC Hockey: With one month left in regular season, conference quartet emerging as teams to beat"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"<\/a>
Union goalie Connor Murphy has taken the reins as the No. 1 netminder for the Dutchmen (photo: Michael Mason).<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

With a month left in the regular season, the top four teams in ECAC Hockey have started to pull away from the rest of the pack.<\/p>\n

Quinnipiac, Clarkson, Harvard and Cornell are clearly the top dogs in what has been a mostly underwhelming year for the conference. It would be an upset if any of those four teams didn\u2019t finish the regular season with a first-round bye for the conference tournament. But after those teams, the race is wide open for home ice in the first round of the playoffs.<\/p>\n

Rivals Rensselaer and Union enter the stretch run narrowly leading the rest of the pack in the race for home ice. A big reason for that has been the production that both schools are getting from their respective goaltenders.<\/p>\n

Junior Connor Murphy has started all 25 games for the Dutchmen this season after transferring from Northeastern in the offseason. It\u2019s been a homecoming for Murphy, who grew up in in Hudson Falls, N.Y, just under an hour from Union\u2019s campus in Schenectady.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was more of a decision based on the hockey side of things,\u201d Murphy told the Schenectady Daily Gazette<\/em> prior to the start of the season. \u201cI just felt like things weren\u2019t going to go my way at Northeastern this year. I just kind of felt I needed a fresh start to keep the ball rolling instead of having some setbacks that I thought I was going to have.\u201d<\/p>\n

It\u2019s been a good match. Murphy has three shutouts and a .922 save percentage and has gotten playing time he likely wouldn\u2019t have gotten with the Huskies, where freshman Devon Levi has been one of the best goalies in Division I men\u2019s hockey.<\/p>\n

\u201cMurph\u2019s been the backbone,\u201d Union coach John Ronan told the Daily Gazette<\/em> after Murphy had 33 saves in Saturday\u2019s 2-0 Mayor\u2019s Cup win over RPI. \u201cHe\u2019s a guy that showed up every night.\u201d<\/p>\n

Murphy\u2019s counterpart in net that game was RPI freshman Jack Watson, who has only recently taken over as the Engineers\u2019 starting goalie after graduate student Linden Marshall missed time due to COVID-19 protocols. Watson has started RPI\u2019s last six games and has three shutouts during that stretch, including a 39-save effort at Harvard and a 41-save game against St. Lawrence.<\/p>\n

Watson was quick to credit his teammates for his success in net.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe guys were just working so hard, keeping a lot of the shots coming from the perimeter,\u201d Watson said of his shutouts against the Crimson and the Saints. \u201cAnd they were clearing every rebound\u2026the guys were great for me.\u201d<\/p>\n

RPI coach Dave Smith also likes the way his team is playing right now. After several COVID-19 related postponements last month, Smith thinks the Engineers are starting to hit their stride.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is a great stretch right now,\u201d he said. \u201cWe\u2019re fine tuning and we\u2019re a hell of a lot better than we were a week ago. If we keep doing that, good things will happen.\u201d<\/p>\n

Both Watson and Murphy should have their hands full this weekend when RPI and Union head on the road to play against Quinnipiac and Princeton. The Bobcats have been one of the top teams in the country this season, while the Tigers have struggled overall, but are fifth in the conference in scoring during league play.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

With a month left in the regular season, the top four teams in ECAC Hockey have started to pull away from the rest of the pack. Quinnipiac, Clarkson, Harvard and Cornell are clearly the top dogs in what has been a mostly underwhelming year for the conference. It would be an upset if any of […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":33,"featured_media":132175,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[812],"coauthors":[846],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nThis Week in ECAC Hockey: With one month left in regular season, conference quartet emerging as teams to beat - College Hockey | USCHO.com<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"With a month left in the regular season, the top four teams in ECAC Hockey have started to pull away from the rest of the pack. Quinnipiac, Clarkson,\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.uscho.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/132174\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"This Week in ECAC Hockey: With one month left in regular season, conference quartet emerging as teams to beat - College Hockey | USCHO.com\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"With a month left in the regular season, the top four teams in ECAC Hockey have started to pull away from the rest of the pack. 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