Playoff Time!

Here we go folks- ECAC playoffs! Let's go RPI!!! Here are McDonald's picks for the weekend.

Who: No. 7 Seed Rensselaer14-15-6 Overall8-8-6 ECACHL11-6-1 Record on Home Ice
vs.
No. 10 Seed Quinnipiac17-16-1 Overall8-13-1 ECACHL7-11-0 Record on the Road
Where:Houston Fieldhouse in Troy, N.Y.
When:Friday at 7:00 p.m.Saturday at 7:00 p.m.Sunday at TBA (if necessary)
Previous Encounters:Rensselaer 4, Quinnipiac 2 Friday November 11th in TroyQuinnipiac 4, Rensselaer 4 (OT) Saturday February 18th in New Haven
In Brief:
In the only first-round series that features two teams who didn't split their regular-season contests, this weekend's playoff match presents a challenge for Rand Pecknold and his Quinnipiac squad.
"We're certainly very excited to move into our first year in the ECACHL playoffs," he said. "But we didn't fare too well this season against Rensselaer, losing to them up there and then getting a tie down here."
"In fact I don't think we've ever beaten Rensselaer as a program," he added.
Pecknold does know what to expect from the Engineers, and his mind the foremost challenge they present is team balance and solid goaltending.
"Rensselaer has a good team and a good goaltender in [Mathias] Lange," he said.
Pecknold thinks his team has the offensive capability to challenge Rensselaer and put some points on the board against Lange. Defensively, though, he has concerns.
"This year we've played better than I expected in some areas, and worse in others," he said. "I'm very happy with our offense; we've scored more goals than I imagined.
"But I'm not happy with our defensive play," he continued. "Both in five-on-five situations and on the penalty kill, we need to improve."