John gave me a lot to comment on here. And people said I was prolific. :-)
At 12:39 AM -0700 12/29/96, John T. Whelan wrote:
[Colgate-Merrimack]
> Colgate looked in the first like a team that hadn't
> played in a couple of weeks, as the Warriors outshot them 22-10 and
> won most of the physical battles as well.
Agreed...I wondered what would have happened in this game if 1) Colgate
hadn't been off for that long, and 2) Colgate had taken a lead at some
point. Merrimack never trailed but has had trouble coming back when they
fall behind.
Merrimack also had a bit of adversity to contend with on their own - the
team bus broke down at the end of the Mass Pike on Thursday and they missed
the pre-SIT banquet. Trip took about 10 hours and they did not arrive in
Syracuse until late Thursday night.
One of the Merrimack goals was scored by Kris Porter, who leads the team in
goals. Someone at the tourney commented on how Porter doesn't seem to
skate that well. That may be true, but he has a nose for the net like few
other players on this team and finds a way to get shots and goals. He also
knows enough to work on his skating in practice and has been improving.
> ...Colgate score[d] the equalizer shorthanded and 32 seconds into the
> period.
The sixth SHG allowed this season by Merrimack in (now) 17 games...not a
good trend. The Warriors are only +4 on their own PP this season - 10 for,
6 against.
> This seemed to wake the Red Raiders up, and they played with
> much more intensity, outshooting the Warriors 15-13 (and being called
> for four penalties). They had an apparent goal waved off at the
> 12-minute mark (which led to coincidental roughing minors and an
> unsportsmanlike conduct penalty), but the period ended with the score
> tied at 2.
BTW, the goal was waved off because the puck was ruled not to have entered
the net. Couldn't tell from the press box, but it might have made a
difference as I mentioned above if the goal had counted and given Colgate
the lead.
> We were just in time to see Merrimack score their second goal of the
> period and go up 4-2.
Two terrific plays by Reggie Stringer, one of the real bright spots this
year. Stringer set up Beck for the go-ahead goal and then scored the
winner with 4:27 left when he carried out alone from behind the net and
beat Harder. If he had gotten on the board in the championship game, he
would have had a shot at the all-tourney team. Stringer and Porter, two
sophomores, have already bettered their rookie point totals in half the
number of games, for a team that has trouble putting the puck in the net.
That's impressive.
> It seemed that the game had been decided in our
> absence and would simply run its course. But that was when the strange
> occurrences began. Merrimack coach Ron Anderson used his time out, and
> whatever he had to say didn't work, since Colgate scored shortly
> thereafter, with 2 or 3 minutes to go.
I wondered about the timeout too, since momentum was going the Warriors'
way after Stringer's goal, but I surmised that the intent was to make sure
that Anderson had the guys he wanted on the ice. Mike Schafer had to call
a timeout for this reason in the other semifinal.
> Then Red Raider skipper Don
> Vaughn called his timeout, and with a minute and a half remaining
> called for a measurement on a Merrimack stick. I guess Mike Schafer
> made an impression on him when he used that trick in the
> Cornell-Colgate game back in January. The stick was indeed illegal...
Great call by Vaughan. You don't see it that often, and of course, you
take the risk that if the stick is legal, you will be the one who is short
a man. With Harder pulled, it was 6x4, but Colgate couldn't get the tying
goal.
[Cornell-Providence]
> [Cornell] did manage to get
> some insurance and go up 3-1.
Great job by Chad Wilson, stealing the puck and beating Dennis for the goal.
> I hope I'll be forgiven if my memories of the third period are a
> little hazy, in light of what happened later. I do remember vividly
> the sight of the second Friar goal of the period sailing over
> Pelletier's left shoulder into the net to tie the game at 3.
A goal that was WAY offside on a 2x1...making it sort of fitting that
Cornell pulled out the win in OT.
> There was a long brown puddle in front of
> Friar goalie Dan Dennis, and I thought someone had thrown a cup of
> coffee at him. But then he lifted his mask and vomited again. Again,
> it was very strange.
Made me think of Glenn Hall and other goalies who were known to have gotten
physically ill during games. Some PC players were apparently suffering
from the flu and I don't know if Dennis may have had it coming on.
> Providence coach Paul Pooley complained that his team
> shouldn't have been charged a timeout because of the incident, and
> Mark pointed out that as a timeout is not supposed to be assessed in
> case of injury, he had a point.
I couldn't find anything in the rule book that covers this, so Gallagher
must have taken it upon himself to charge the timeout. Given that it was
necessary for a member of the rink crew to come out and clean the ice, I
think Pooley may have had a beef. On the other hand, it was a situation
that was "caused" by Providence, so it could have gone either way.
> When the overtime ended, we learned that the contest would not be
> settled on penalty shots (I can only imagine how Dennis would have
> handled that), but by 20-minute sudden death periods.
This was unusual because the rules provide for 20-min overtimes in games
like this. I could only guess that the decision was to start by playing a
5-min OT in hopes that the game would be decided quickly.
> All four teams were
> playing fairly physical hockey, and the Colgate-Merrimack game showed
> some danger of becoming chippy.
I didn't get this impression - in fact no penalties were called in the
third period (Colgate-Merrimack) other than the illegal stick. Other than
that, there were only 11 minors called in the game, and two were bench
penalties on Colgate in the second (unsportsmanlike conduct & too many men).
> Then in the late game, 6'6" Providence
> captain Hal Gill seemed to dedicate himself to baiting Cornell's Tony
> Bergin.
Didn't notice this, but I did think Gill had a pretty good
tournament...used his size well and was probably PC's best defenseman.
He's a strong candidate for All-HE.
> Beeeej tells me David Adler made a beautiful,
> gutsy shot from the point to score his first goal and give Cornell the
> 4-3 victory.
I guess you could call it that. :-) In those situations it makes sense
just to put the puck on net and see what happens. That's what Adler did,
and I don't think Dennis ever saw it through the screen. The defensemen
who screened him seemed more upset than Dennis was. A tough way for PC to
lose, but probably fitting since their game tying goal in the third was
offside.
> If the scoreboard is to be trusted (and given that the
> announcements of times, saves, etc. were often inconsistent, that's by
> no means certain), Pelletier finished the game with 52, and Dennis,
> despite his adversity, with 40.
The shot counting was very strange all weekend long. Once in the first
game, Merrimack's Chris Halecki carried into the zone and shot the puck
about 20 feet wide and it was put up as a shot. Several times in the
championship game the board op put up Merrimack shots under Cornell.
The tourney staff did not have anyone doing shot charts at the game, so we
did them ourselves. Fortunately PC SID Arthur Parks had extra copies of
shot charts with him. For the Merrimack-Colgate game we tried to make it
match with the board, but that turned out to be so far off, the other three
games found the SIDs doing their own charts and using those as the official
ones. Arthur did the charts for the PC games and we had Heather do them
for the Merrimack games. All the SIDs did a great job helping out. Moral
is, always be sure you have extra charts on hand.
[Colgate-Providence consolation game]
> Perhaps the strangest sight was Friar goalie Dan Dennis still between
> the pipes. We were imagining how that must have made his backup Mark
> Kane feel; Dennis plays 95 minutes Friday night and tosses his
> proverbial cookies during the game (the reporter for the Syracuse
> Post-Standard put it best when he said Dennis "literally left
> everything he had on the ice"), and coach Paul Pooley still didn't
> start Kane in the consolation game?
Gotta remember that PC came into this game on a five game losing streak and
needed a win. Dennis is the man; no other PC goalie has posted a win yet
this year. Dennis also played pretty well in the Cornell game and given
that his team was bound to be tired and give up some shots, it probably
made sense for Pooley to have his All-HE goalie in there and hope for a win
to end the slide.
> Brenzavich was also not given the
> traditional goalie advantage in the other direction as an apparent
> slash directed at him a few minutes later went uncalled. I only saw
> him go down out of the corner of my eye, but those next to me said a
> Providence player got his stick up under Brenzavich's pads. Not only
> did Dupree (who had been a lines--er, assistant referee the night
> before; Gallagher, who reffed the late game, was an assistant for this
> game, wearing a jersey with no name on it) not call it, he apparently
> lectured the Colgate netminder during the next stoppage about taking a
> dive.
This could have gone either way. Brenzavich was hooked, but he also
over-acted a bit, and this may have been why Dupree did not call it.
> But Colgate began to take over soon thereafter, going up 3-2 at 15:37
> of the second and putting the game out of reach with a couple of nice
> goals in the third.
PC certainly did look tired in the third...the defense wasn't able to
contain Colgate forwards in front as they had done earlier.
> Dennis
> was pulled at around 18:30 to set up a 6-on-4 on the power play, but
> then Mike Harder got the short-handed empty-netter to make it 6-2
> Colgate.
Don't know how Harder made the All-Tourney team. Counting this ENG, he had
only two points on the weekend, the other an assist on Colgate's first goal
(no points in the Merrimack game). I could have thought of a few Cornell
forwards I would have named instead, or perhaps PC's Russ Guzior, Colgate's
Dave Debusschere, or Merrimack's Reggie Stringer.
[Cornell-Merrimack championship game]
> Merrimack goalie Eric Thibeault was shown no mercy, I suspect because
> Providence's Dan Dennis had earned some sympathy the night before
> after his unfortunate accident.
Thibeault had a pretty good outing, as did Legault the night before. Only
allowing three goals in each game (not counting the Cornell ENG) was a good
sign, and Thibeault could not be blamed on any of the goals he allowed.
> Cornell
> returned to Junior Jason Elliot for this game, and once again gave up
> the first goal, on a Merrimack powerplay.
John Jakopin had an outstanding weekend for Merrimack...with this goal
gained by crashing the net and two assists the night before, he more than
doubled his point total on the season. Seems to have settled into a
leadership role on defense a la Steve McKenna last season, and he hit some
Big Red players pretty hard like McKenna used to do.
> But that would not end up mattering, as Cornell tied it
> up later in the period, and added two pretty goals in the second.
> Darren Tymchyshyn put on a beautiful display, skating the puck in from
> the blueline and deking Thibeault completely out of the net before
> depositing the puck. Doug Steinstra made in 3-1 on a similar if
> slightly less impressive play.
The disappointing thing from the Merrimack standpoint was that all three
Cornell goals resulted from atrocious mistakes committed by defensemen. No
names to protect the guilty, but Bergin's goal in the first came when a
player wearing double numbers :-) decided to throw the puck across the
front of the net and Cornell's forecheckers picked it off. Tymchyshyn beat
Thibeault on what should have been a 2x2 but a Warrior rookie decided to
leave his man and then blame his senior defensive partner, who played it
perfectly only to discover he was suddenly defending a 2x1. And
Steinstra's goal came on an equally horrible play when Cornell lost a draw
in its own end but pressed the pointman, who pinched in even though he had
no hope of beating Steinstra and Smart to the puck - presto, 2x1 and goal.
When you have as much trouble scoring as Merrimack has, you cannot give the
opponent golden opportunities like this. Cornell played smart hockey and
took advantage of their chances. Other than that, and those three mistakes
made by freshman or sophomore Merrimack defensemen, there was not much to
choose between the teams.
> We were of course wary of the 3-1 lead after the team had given up a
> similar advantage against Providence, but the Red were playing like a
> team in command for the second half of the game...
That first goal turned the tide. After that, Cornell, which was getting
hit pretty hard and giving up some good scoring chances, started to play
more confidently and took control, especially after taking the lead.
Looked like a case of one team which believed it would find a way to win
and the other team which has had trouble winning and loses some confidence
when they fall behind.
Thus it goes back to not being able to commit the kind of egregious
defensive mistakes that Merrimack was guilty of. They didn't make too
many, but the ones they made cost them the game.
> In the third, Thibeault began to
> suffer for the misfortunes of his predecessor, with taunts like "Hey
> Eric, at least you didn't puke...yet!" These are the Lynah Faithful
> folks. Consider them offensive if you like, but you can't accuse them
> of not being enthusiastic.
On the other hand, Thibeault didn't seem to be bothered, turning aside all
11 shots he faced in the third and doing his part to keep his team within
striking distance. Swap the goalies (Elliott and Thibeault) and it might
have been Thibeault on the All-Tourney team, but his defense did not play
as well as Elliott's did.
I guess I didn't think the crowd was a factor. It was nice to see some
Cornell people turn out (although overall attendance at the tourney was not
great, only about 1,000-1,200 each night) and be enthusiastic, but I didn't
get the sense that any of the players were intimidated or anything.
> ...Cornell won the game 4-1 and the Tournament for the
> first time ever. In fact, this was Cornell's first appearance in the
> SIT title game, and Merrimack's first in the tourney at all.
I think the current SIT "regime" has chosen not to recognize the previous
incarnation of the tourney, which was held in the 60s and 70s and in which
Cornell won something like 4 titles. This was Cornell's first "modern"
title.
> Then it was time to hand out the hardware. The announcer, who had
> previously introduced the "Colgate Big Red", named Cornell skipper
> Mike Schafer as the coach of Merrimack, bringing a "SIEVE!" chant from
> the Faithful.
It was funny to see Schafer and Merrimack coach Ron Anderson look over at
each other and laugh at this mistake. :-) Not the first time for
Anderson...he was once introduced at PC's Schneider Arena as, "And the
coach of Merrimack...Mister Jack Parker." :-)
> As expected, Cornell had about half of the spots on the
> all-tournament team, including both Steve and Chad Wilson.
Not bad choices, but Jamie Papp also deserved a look, and Kyle Knopp played
well despite not getting on the board in the final. Ryan Moynihan also
seems to keep getting better. And Jeff Burgoyne and Jason Dailey also
played well defensively.
> Jason
> Elliot's one-goal game earned him all-tournament goalie, while
> Jean-Marc Pelletier's 52 saves in the triple-overtime semifinal won
> him tournament MVP.
Merrimack SID Tom Caraccioli and I were discussing this before the voting,
and Tom initially put forth the idea of Pelletier. At first I wasn't so
sure and figured a Cornell skater had to be a better choice, but the more I
thought about it, the more I agreed, given that no one else had a truly
outstanding tourney. If not for Pelletier, Cornell might not have been in
the final.
Also got to meet Mike Schafer at the post-tourney buffet - I made sure to
seek him out and congratulate him on the win and his team's success during
his short tenure. I have a lot of respect for the job he has done and I
enjoy watching his team play - a team not full of stars but which gels well
and constantly works hard. They do not beat themselves.
I would not mind seeing these teams meet again in the near future. Some of
the Warriors could take a lesson from the way Cornell plays, and I hope
they picked up something by playing the Big Red in this game. Take away
some of those defensive mistakes and add some confidence, and Merrimack
could be in the same situation Cornell is in.
It was also nice to see Arthur Mintz again, although he might like me to
stay away from Cornell games for his health since I believe the last time I
ran into him was several years ago at Hockeyfest - a double overtime win by
Cornell over Clarkson in the 1992 ECAC semis. :-)
--- ---
Mike Machnik [log in to unmask] *HMM* 11/13/93
***** (Part-Time) Color Voice of Merrimack Hockey WCAP 980 AM *****
***** Unofficial Merrimack Hockey home page located at: *****
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