Hockey! While the ECAC has yet to play a regular season game, several of the conference’s teams were in action in exhibition games this weekend. Rensselaer shut out the Ottawa Jr. Senators 2-0 on Friday night, and Union then tied the Jr. Sens 2-2 on Saturday. Colgate also opened its season with a 3-0 shutout victory over Cambridge in exhibition play.

The ECAC preseason coaches’ poll was released: Harvard was tabbed the top team in the conference, garnering nine first-place votes and 119 total points. Cornell was second with 108 points and one first-place vote, while defending national champion Clarkson was third and earned two first-place votes. Quinnipiac, St. Lawrence, and Yale rounded out the top half of the rankings, while Princeton and Colgate finished seventh and eighth. Dartmouth, Rensselaer, Union, and Brown followed in the nine-through-12 slots to finish out the poll. The full ECAC release is here.

Union added Ashley Johnston to its coaching staff: Johnston is a 2014 graduate of Union and served as a captain during her senior season with the team. She’ll join head coach Claudia Asano Barcomb’s staff as an assistant in 2014-15.

Harvard unveiled its new locker room to the players: Harvard tweeted out pictures from the unveiling on Monday afternoon, and the team seemed pretty excited about its new home.

Clarkson announced that it will have a banner-raising on Oct. 4: The Golden Knights will raise their 2014 NCAA Championship banner at 4 p.m., before their game against St. Lawrence. They’ll have a “Knight’s Faire” prior to that at 3 p.m., also at Cheel Arena, and the NCAA championship rings will be presented to the team after the game. The game as well as the preceding activities will be free for all those who attend. You actually have to pay if you’re not in attendance. It’s just a really good idea to go, because free hockey and fun stuff generally makes for a good Saturday afternoon.