Don't forget The Whale: Yale-Harvard II on tap

JULIA TIERNAN/YH Forward Cory Shea, BR '00, and the rest of the Elis hope fans pack The Whale for Yale's key Ivy matches this weekend.

Last year, all the experts predicted that the Yale men's ice hockey team would finish in the cellar of the Eastern College Athletic Conference (ECAC). But behind the strong play of All-American Ray Giroux, BK '98, and second team All-Americans Jeff Hamilton SM '00, and Alex Westlund,

SM '99, Yale completed a magical season, clinching both the ECAC title and their first NCAA berth in 46 years. Now, both expectations and confidence have risen. Teams that last year may have underestimated Yale are now gunning for the defending champions.

Last weekend, the Elis were warned early of this potential trend. Their season began inauspiciously with two road losses against Clarkson and St. Lawrence. Clarkson had already played four games and lost them all. Despite their record, "they're no slouches," captain Keith McCullough, BR '99, said. They proved this beyond a doubt by defeating the Bulldogs 3-1 on Fri., Nov. 13. Yale's only goal came shorthanded off the stick of McCullough. The Bulldogs then traveled to St. Lawrence for Saturday's contest, hoping for better results, but again were defeated 3-1. Hamilton scored the only goal.

In their weekend matches, the Bulldogs hurt themselves with poor execution on power plays, going 0-9 with the one-man advantage in two games. "Problem?" McCullough said. "That's an understatement. The power play is a bit of an enigma right now, but I don't see it being an issue." McCullough, however, was not worried about the rest of the season. "This was pretty disappointing, but it was just a bad weekend," he said.

Now the team will look forward to two league contests at home this weekend against Brown on Fri., Nov. 20, and Harvard on Sat., Nov. 21. There is, however, another game vying for fan attention this weekend. The annual gridiron battle between the Bulldogs and the Cantabs takes on even greater importance this year because of its Ivy League title implications. Thousands of Yalies will head to Cambridge on Friday night and Saturday morning to see the 115th edition of the Game. How will this scheduling conflict affect hockey attendance?

Many fans plan to return to New Haven in time to catch the hockey game. Aja Horwitz, MC '01, and her father will drive back to New Haven immediately following the football game. "I've heard that the Yale-Harvard hockey game is the most exciting sports event at Yale, and I want to experience it for myself," she said.

Indeed, the Yale-Harvard hockey game would take center stage among Eli sporting events on any other weekend. Even with the football game scheduled at Harvard, the hockey game sold out quickly. "The Yale-Harvard game is without a doubt the most intense feeling a Yale hockey player has during the regular season," McCullough explained. That intensity makes the game a great contest to watch. "Yale-Harvard is the oldest rivalry in the country," Billy Goldman, BK '01, another fan who plans to attend both games on Saturday, said.

If such an historic rivalry weren't reason enough, the hockey team's popularity soared last year during the season. The team sold out eight straight home games at Ingalls Rink last year en route to a 13-1-1 home record. Although the Harvard hockey game is sold out, the Brown contest isn't, most likely because of the game. The Brown game, however, is not sold out, and the events in Cambridge may explain this.

Even if attendance isn't affected by The Game, it's still disappointing that the two contests will take place in different cities. McCullough called the scheduling unfortunate, saying, "It would have been a lot of fun for fans of both sports." The ECAC schedules hockey games while the Ivy League schedules football games, so the scheduling conflict results from the existence of separate athletic associations for the two sports.

Some fans, however, see a need for cooperation between the two agencies. "The ECAC should take the Ivy League schedule into consideration," Goldman said. "The ECAC, which is trying to promote college hockey, isn't doing itself any favors." Although avoiding a scheduling conflict may have been impossible for either the ECAC or the Ivy League, the result has made it much more difficult for Bulldog fans to show their support.

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