The End of "Easy A.C."

2013 NCAA tourney: ECAC Hockey private party

Rightly or wrongly, the ECAC Hockey Conference, formerly just E.C.A.C., has been considered the weak sister of the Division I power conferences, particularly by the traditional WCHA powers.  Judged by NCAA tourney results over the past 20 years prior to Pittsburgh, there is some validity to the teasing chant "Easy A.C."  Union's cinderella run to the 2012 Frozen Four was the first ECAC appearance in the national  semis since Cornell in 2003. The conference hadn't even had a national finalists since Harvard's victory in 1989, while rival conference Hockey East, all former ECAC members, claimed nine national championships in that time.   The ECAC is the conference of academic schools, most members with no athletic scholarships and vigorous academic standards, trying to compete against traditional hockey "factories" like BC and Minnesota.  The western schools start their practices nearly a month prior to the Ivy schools. ECAC Hockey is an "Easy" conference to root for, but not a wise bet. The snobs from Minnesota's Gopher Nation credited Boston College's national championships with all their  "Easy" wins against ECAC Hockey. Those fan sentiments were enshrined in one of the great parodies of all time prior to last year's NCAA tourney.


But the 2013 NCAA tourney was where it all changed. ECAC hockey treated last year's tourney as its own playground. As you all remember, Yale, the final team to make the NCAA field of 16, had a miraculous run in the west region, chopping down the vaunted Gophers and then doubling down by offing the Fighting Sioux.  The clever writers of the parody above were proved 100% wrong on each count, because while the greatest powers in the west were being slain in Grand Rapids, over in Providence reigning champion Boston College was cut down in surgical fashion by the Union College Dutchmen, an intellectual powerhouse with no Division I programs other than hockey.  The final score was 5-1 in a game that wasn't that close.  And the next day Union was blown out by conference rival Quinnipiac to set up the Frozen Four that thrust former weak sister ECAC Hockey into the spotlight.  That spotlight revealed more greatness in the form of two ECAC Hockey semifinal victories, one against Hockey East and one against the WCHA. Thanks to ESPN, the sporting world got to see Quinnipiac's version of the "Magnificent Seven," a world class goalie and a half dozen elite snipers. But they were solved in the final by Yale's brilliant coaching and goaltending to cap ECAC Hockey's NCAA party. A private party on college hockey's biggest stage.

Now there have been occasions of two schools from the same conference in the NCAA Championship, the 1999 NCAA's comes to mind.  But last year you can make a very good case that the ECAC Hockey team best suited to win an NCAA title, Union, wasn't even represented in Pittsburgh.  So any three of those ECAC Hockey teams could have won the 2013 NCAA tourney, as every traditional big name school and conference was decapitated by this conference of eggheads and short seasons.  And there is one startling factoid from the 2013 post season that will last at least as long as Joe Dimaggio's hitting streak or Ted Williams .406

The 2013 ECAC Hockey Tournament consolation game, an antiquated concept that has since been discontinued, was a preview of the NCAA championship game. Think about that for a second, the absurdity of ECAC Hockey riches from 2013.   The two NCAA finalists couldn't get to their own tourney's final.  And that's no fluke, because Brown was one of the hottest teams in the nation down the stretch last year, and they would have been another extremely dangerous team had they made the NCAA's.

If hockey fans haven't figured it out yet, the coaches have.  Jerry York, the loveably honest Dean of America's college hockey coaching fraternity, has stated matter-of-factly that going into the 2014 Frozen Four, his semifinal opponent, Union College, is the squad best-equipped to win this year's national title. It sure makes sense. This is Union's third straight run deep into the NCAA's, claiming big scalps in each rampage.  This school, this conference, is now the "Easy" team to pick.