CLIFTON PARK, N.Y. - The back-to-back ECAC tournament champion Colgate Raiders have been selected by the league's head coaches to win the 2022-23 regular season in a poll announced on Wednesday.
In 2021-22, Colgate finished the regular season with a 16-5-1 record through 22 conference games, good for third in the league. The Raiders went a perfect 4-0 en route to the conference tournament, securing their second straight ECAC postseason title with a 2-1 overtime victory over Yale in New Haven. The team's NCAA tournament run ended in Hamilton with an overtime loss to Yale. This season, Colgate's offense will be strenghtened by the return of forwards Danielle Serdachny and Kalty Kaltounková and the addition of 2022 U-18 silver medalists Elyssa Biederman and Ava Svejkovsky.
Yale, fresh off a program-best 16 league wins in 2021-22 and a trip to their first ever Frozen Four, received three second place votes and finished second in the preseason poll with 98 points, narrowly edging out Princeton, who finished third with 97 points and one first place vote. Quinnipiac, who won their first national postseason contest in 2021-22 by defeating Syracuse in Columbus, finished fourth, and Clarkson rounded out the top five with a first place vote of their own.
ECAC HOCKEY PRESEASON COACHES' POLL
|
Rank
|
Team (first place votes)
|
Points
|
|
1
|
Colgate (6)
|
115
|
|
2
|
Yale (3)
|
98
|
|
3
|
Princeton (1)
|
97
|
|
4
|
Quinnipiac
|
92
|
|
5
|
Clarkson (1)
|
86
|
|
6
|
Cornell
|
73
|
|
7
|
Harvard (1)
|
67
|
|
8
|
St. Lawrence
|
60
|
|
9
|
Brown
|
33
|
|
10
|
RPI
|
30
|
|
11
|
Dartmouth
|
27
|
|
12
|
Union
|
14
|
The ECAC Hockey Preseason All-League team has also been named, with 2021 ECAC Player of the Year Danielle Serdachny and 2022 ECAC Tournament MVP Kalty Kaltounková honored at forward. The Colgate duo is joined by Yale's Elle Hartje, who is fresh off a career-best season in 2021-22 that saw her set a single-season program assists record (35) and finish second in single-season program history in points (51).
Sophomore defender and 2022 World Championship silver medalist Rory Guilday has been named to the six-player squad and is joined on the blue line by reigning ECAC Defender of the Year Emma Seitz. Back-to-back ECAC Goaltender of the Year and 2022 HCA Goaltender of the Year finalist Lucy Morgan rounds out the list of honorees.
The ECAC drops the puck on the 2022-23 season on Saturday, September 17, when Quinnipiac squares off against the University of Connecticut in Storrs and Union faces Syracuse in Schenectaday. Both contests are slated as exhibition matchups.
PRESEASON ALL-ECAC ROSTER
G: Lucy Morgan (Sr., St. Lawrence)*
D: Emma Seitz (Sr., Yale)
D: Rory Guilday (So., Cornell)
F: Danielle Serdachny (Sr., Colgate)
F: Kalty Kaltounková (Jr., Colgate)
F: Elle Hartje (Jr., Yale)
*denotes unanimous selection
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