Men's ice hockey coach Tim Taylor has been named Eastern College Athletic Conference Coach of the Year for 1997-98. This is the third time Taylor has won the award.
Three Yale players -- senior defenseman Ray Giroux, junior goalie Alex Westlund and sophomore forward Jeff Hamilton -- were named to spots on the six-man ECAC first team. Giroux was also named the conference's Player of the Year. Hamilton led the conference in goals scored with 27, and Westlund's 2.29 goals-allowed average was the ECAC's best.
The honors for Yale came after the team won its first-ever ECAC regular season championship with a
17-4-1 record. In the ECAC's post-season tournament, Yale beat St. Lawrence University in the first round before losing to Princeton, the tournament's eventual winner.
The National Collegiate Athletic Association hockey tournament, which will determine the national champion, was scheduled to begin March 27. Yale, Princeton and a third ECAC team, Clarkson, earned berths in the 12-team NCAA tournament. Yale, with an overall record of 23-8-3, was scheduled to play Ohio State on March 27 in Ann Arbor, Michigan. Yale's NCAA tournament appearance was its first since 1952.
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