Complete Game Notes
 
ELMIRA, N.Y. -- Sitting in seventh place in the ECAC West Conference standings, the Elmira College men's ice hockey team will need two wins this weekend to secure a spot in the year-end conference tournament. Elmira opens this weekend's home-and-home series at the Murray Athletic Center on Friday, February 17th, against seventh-ranked Hobart College at 7:00 p.m., before concluding the regular season the following night at 7:00 p.m. against the Statesmen in Geneva, New York.
 
WEEKEND OVERVIEW              

• After dropping back-to-back games at the Murray Athletic Center last weekend, the Elmira men look to bounce back against seventh-ranked Hobart in a home-and-home ECAC West series.
• Elmira heads into Friday's matchup in the seventh spot in the ECAC West standings and needs two wins against the Statesmen to clinch a postseason berth.
• If EC wins and ties, the Soaring Eagles would be in a virtual tie with Stevenson for the sixth spot, but a 0-2-0 head-to-head record would give the Mustangs the edge.
• Hobart sits in third place in the league standings, but only one point separates the Statesmen from fourth-place Nazareth. Neumann is also close behind in the fifth spot with 13 league points, just two away from the Statesmen.
• Hobart can clinch the third seed and home ice for a quarterfinal matchup with one win over Elmira this weekend.

 
MACLEAN FINDS SCORING TOUCH

• Elmira's Spencer MacLean '20 has three goals in EC's last five games and heads into Friday's matchup with goals in back-to-back games.
• All three of MacLean's goals during this time have been scored on the power play, which accounts for nearly his entire power-play goal total (4).
• MacLean's four power-play goals are tied for second-most on the team with classmates Connor Powell '20 and Nick Ford '20.
• The last Elmira freshman to score four power-play goals in a season was Greg Whittle '16, who netted four extra-skater goals during the 2012-13 season.
• Going as far back as EC the archives allow, this season marks the first time in over 21 years that the Soaring Eagles have had three freshmen with four power-play goals apiece.

 
HOBART AT A GLANCE

• Hobart is 15-4-4 on the season and 7-4-1 in ECAC West play, which has the Statesmen in third place in the league standings.
• The Statesmen were riding high on a 12-game unbeaten streak that stretched from December 2nd to February 3rd. However, Hobart has gone 0-2-1 in its last three games, all of which have been against conference opponents.
• Hobart has proven to be the toughest team in the ECAC West to score on this season with a league-best 2.52 goals allowed per game.
• Hobart has leaned on a quartet of players to score goals, led by senior Nick Bingaman, who paces the group with 15 goals.
• Jonáš Toupal and Bobby Sokol are close behind with 10 tallies apiece, while Zach Sternbach sits in fourth place on the team with nine goals.
• Toupal has 20 points on the season (10g, 10a) which ranks 12th in the country, and second in the league, in defenseman scoring.
• Defensively, Frank Oplinger and rookie Alexander Connal have split time in goal. However, Oplinger looks to be the team's top choice with seven consecutive starts.