Men's Ice Hockey Drops the Puck on the 2010-11 Season

Yale's Broc Little

Poll courtesy of ECAC Hockey
Photo courtesy of Yale Sports Publicity

PRINCETON, N.J. -- The quest for the 2010-11 Ivy League men's ice hockey title begins this weekend as five of the six Ivy teams drop the puck on the season in their regular-season contests.

Brown, Dartmouth Princeton and Yale are facing off in the Ivy Shootout in New Haven, Conn., with Dartmouth taking on Princeton and Brown going up against Yale on Friday, Oct. 29. The winners and losers play each other on Saturday, Oct. 30.

Cornell sees two familiar foes in its opening games of the 2010-11 season, hosting New Hampshire on Friday and Rochester Institute of Technology on Saturday. New Hampshire ousted the Big Red in the NCAA Northeast Regional semifinals last year and RIT then defeated New Hampshire in the regional final to advance to the 2010 Men's Frozen Four in Detroit.

Harvard hits the ice for its first regular-season game on Friday, Nov. 5, squaring off against Union, after facing the Swedish National Under-20 Team in an exhibition contest on Monday, Nov. 1.

ECAC HOCKEY PLAY
The six Ivy League men's hockey teams combine with Clarkson, Colgate, Quinnipiac, Rensselaer, St. Lawrence and Union to make up the 12 teams in ECAC Hockey.

Yale, which finished atop in the ECAC Hockey regular-season standings last season for the second consecutive season, is the team to beat in the 2010-11 regular season, according to voting by the league coaches. The Bulldogs garnered a total of 121 points, including 11 of 12 first-place votes. Defending ECAC Hockey Tournament Champion Cornell claimed one first-place vote in finishing second in the poll, amassing 92 total points.

2010-11 ECAC Hockey Coaches' Preseason Poll

2009-10 RECAP
Yale captured its second-straight ECAC Hockey regular-season title (15-5-2 ECAC Hockey, 21-10-3 overall) and third Ivy League (9-1-0) title in four years on the strength of leading all NCAA Division I teams in scoring offense at 4.15 goals per game. The Bulldogs suffered a stunning defeat to 11th-seeded Brown in the quarterfinal round of the ECAC Hockey Tournament. The Bears continued its impressive tournament run from that win to shut out St. Lawrence in the third-place game. Cornell, which finished second to Yale in the regular-season, shut out Union to earn its 12th ECAC Hockey title.

Cornell and Yale advanced to the 16-team NCAA Championship field with the Big Red falling to New Hampshire 6-2 in the East Regional semifinals in Albany, N.Y. and the Bulldogs being outlasted in the highest scoring NCAA Tournament game in 50 years, a 9-7 loss to Boston College in the Northeast Regional final in Worcester, Mass.

ALL-IVY RETURNEES
Led by Senior CLASS Award candidates Broc Little of Yale and Evan Stevens of Dartmouth, only eight players who received All-Ivy honors a year ago will be back on the ice for the 2010-11 season. The reigning Rookie of the Year, Harvard's Louis Leblanc, joins Stevens as one of five players who received honorable mention recognition last year. Here is a look at the returing All-Ivy honorees from a season ago (with current class year listed):

First Team All-Ivy
F — Broc Little, Yale (Sr., Rindge, N.H.)
D — Jeff Buvinow, Brown (Jr., Turnersville, N.J.)

Second Team All-Ivy
D — Taylor Fedun, Princeton (Sr., Edmonton, Alb.)

Honorable Mention All-Ivy
F — Adam Estoclet, Dartmouth (Sr., Orono, Minn.)
F — Scott Fleming, Dartmouth (Sr., Plainfield, Ont.)
F — Louis Leblanc, Harvard (So., Kirkland, Que.)
D — Evan Stephens, Dartmouth (Sr., Bessemer, Mich.)
G — Kyle Richter, Harvard (Sr., Calgary, Alta.)


HELPFUL LINKS
Ivy League Men's Hockey Team Pages
Brown
Cornell
Dartmouth
Harvard
Princeton
Yale

Additional Links
ECAC Men's Hockey
Inside College Hockey
USHO.com
USCHO.com/CBS College Sports Network Division I men's poll
USA TODAY/USA Hockey men's poll