Here's the first half of my report on this weekend's games,
under my radio alias of Joe Schlobotnik (which should show up on the
web sometime on Monday); I tried to be more impartial this
week, since I expect there are fewer game reporters at these than were in
Syracuse. Unfortunately, I was limited by the legibility of my notes...
John Whelan, Cornell '91
<[log in to unmask]>
<http://www.cc.utah.edu/~jtw16960/jshock.html>
Special Report: 1997 Cornell North Country Road Trip
by Joe Schlobotnik
The North Country road trip, venturing near the Canadian border to
play the St. Lawrence Saints and the Golden Knights of Clarkson, is a
critical point in the season of any ECAC hockey team. This year's was
doubly so for the Cornell Big Red, as they entered the weekend tied
with Princeton at 6-2-1 in league play, and returned injured forwards
Matt Cooney and Vinnie Auger to the lineup after absences of three and
four games, respectively.
Friday Night, 1997 January 3: St. Lawrence
special thanks to Scott Southard, Rich Hovorka and Barbara Whelan
(Potsdam, NY) Friday night's opponents, the Saints, were also at a
critical juncture, with star goalie Clint Owen playing his first ECAC
game since ending a two-month suspension imposed for violating an
unspecified team rule. Without Owen, SLU lost their first four games
and limped to a 4-8-1 start and a 3-3-1 record in league games.
Following his return, they posted four straight wins in tournament
games last weekend and earlier this week.
With the injured forwards returned to the lineup, Cornell was able to
return Chad Wilson to defensive duty, and he started with his usual
partner Steve Wilson (no relation). The Big Red's youth was evinced by
the starting line of two freshmen, Doug Steinstra and Frank Kovac
along with sophomore Jeff Oates. The returning Cooney and Auger were
centered by UIC transfer Darren Tymchyshyn, and freshman sniper Ryan
Moynihan remained in Kovac's former place on the checking line with
seniors Tony Bergin and Jamie Papp. Ryan Smart, Mike Rutter and Kyle
Knopp made up the fourth line. Sophomore Jean-Marc Pelletier, MVP of
the Syracuse Invitational Tournament, started in net for the Red, as
Mike Schafer continued to platoon his two goalies.
Cornell put on some offensive pressure early in the first, with Owen
being run into by his own men a couple of times, but the Saints
dominated much of the rest of the period. Pelletier was several times
caught out of the net or slow to get back into position after going
down to make a save, but still managed to play just well enough to
turn away all 16 St. Lawrence shots. The only bright moments in the
late part of the period for Cornell came when Moynihan just missed the
net at around the 13-minute mark, and the Cooney/Auger line put
together a nice flurry on the ensuing shift. With the two veterans
returning to a line with the team's leading goal-scorer Tymchyshyn,
this line's
play was eagerly watched, but Cooney and Auger were still putting
things together. Cooney has apparently returned from his injury
stronger than before, however.
The second period saw the most offensive action, with a sequence of
odd-man rushes back and forth for most of the period. One appeared to
have been created by Cornell's Steve Wilson pulling down a St.
Lawrence player to send Ryan Moynihan in with the puck. Owen managed
to get a glove on it and it dribbled just wide of the net. The Saints
finally lit the lamp at 9:32 when a shot from the left point was
deflected in front, then ricocheted off of Pelletier's right skate and
in. With the defensive lapses and adventuresome goaltending which had
plagued Cornell up to this point in the game, things seemed in danger
of falling apart, but the Bergin/Papp line came through again on a
3-on-1 at 12:42. Papp, skating down the left side, passed across to
Bergin, who sent it in to tie the score at 1. Many of Cornell's passes
throughout the night were just tipped away, but with the third man
occupying the SLU defender, Papp's cross made it unmolested.
It was also in the second that what seems to be the new ECAC style of
hands-off officiating came to a bit of a head. After a St. Lawrence
hook went uncalled, tempers flared on the next stoppage, leading to a
brief scuffle. No penalties were called until the third period. (In
fact, Cornell has not had a power play in its last two games.)
Strangely, the assistant referees seemed slow to whistle icing as
well.
The third period saw numerous scoring opportunities, including a
Cornell shot which landed on the back of the net, causing the goal
judge to momentarily light the lamp upon seeing the twine snap. Jeff
Oates, who scored an empty-net goal in Cornell's previous game, had
one of several good opportunities for Cornell, but was ridden off the
play and into Owen. Owen seemed physically uncomfortable since being
run into by his own man in the first and was taking skates and
adjusting his equipment throughout the game. Oates had another chance
at the beginning of a good stretch for Cornell midway through the
third, feeding Jeff Burgoyne from behind the net. St. Lawrence had one
chance at the 8-minute mark when Jason Dailey got only a small piece
of a fluttering puck with a high stick just outside his own blue line,
and an SLU player, not called for being offsides, took the puck to the
net alone, but was stymied by Pelletier. They also had the only power
play of the game when Cooney was sent off at 8:47, but Cornell killed
the penalty with only a few scary moments. St. Lawrence called its
timeout at 14:15 during a 4-on-4, and had its best chance to go ahead
immediately afterwards. The puck came across the blue line with a
Skating Saint in hot pursuit, and Pelletier, who had come out to make
a perfect sweep-check on an identical play in the second, hesitated
too long, made a poor attempt at a poke-check at the last moment, and
got incredibly lucky as the puck was shot across the goal-mouth.
Things heated up as regulation wound down; a clear trip was not called
on St. Lawrence with about 2:30 to go, with the makeup non-call coming
on a similar Cornell play moments later. At the 19-minute mark,
Cornell benefitted from a rare quick whistle as SLU was about to make
a transition on a rebound off Owen's glove. Finally, Cooney displayed
his confidence in the refs' refusal to call anything by hauling down a
Saints player on his way into the Cornell zone.
The overtime was almost all SLU, starting with a point-blank shot off
Pelletier's mask 17 seconds into the period. Pelletier saved the game
again 16 seconds later after Cooney turned the puck over in the
faceoff circle. Cornell's best offensive chances came around the
two-minute mark, and ended when a Red player was run into Owen and
then cross-checked in the back of the head. Despite protests from the
home crowd, no penalties were called either way. Somehow Pelletier
managed to stop all seven St. Lawrence shots, and at the 4:56 mark
they were whistled for icing. After Cooney and SLU's Thomas Cullen
took double-minors for cross-checking and hitting after the whistle,
Schafer made the bold move of pulling Pelletier (who was visibly
upset) with four seconds on the clock. He called timeout to set up the
play off the faceoff in the St. Lawrence zone, running the risk
of a long shot into the empty
net. (Four seconds is a long time, especially on the road with the
other team's timekeeper in charge.) Papp was on the left wing,
presumably in case Kovac was kicked out of the faceoff circle, with
Kyle Knopp as the last line of defense in case of a long try by the
Saints. As it was, the puck slid harmlessly into the corner and time
expired, leaving a 1-1 tie on the books. Steve Wilson gave everyone a
scare by looking like he was about to get into a fight and miss the
Clarkson game, but that situation was also defused.
On the whole, Cornell seemed lucky to escape with a tie. Pelletier,
despite 37 saves (Owen also had 37) looked shaky early on, and all
around, the Red looked like the young team they are. They'll need to
play better against Clarkson (presumably with Jason Elliott taking his
turn in the Cornell net) to come out of this road trip with two or
three points. With Princeton beating RPI, Cornell drops a point back
of the Tigers in the ECAC race. Up the road in Potsdam, Colgate pulled
out a 3-2 overtime victory, which gave the visiting teams three of the
four points in tonight's North Country action, and moved the Red
Raiders into third place with 11 points, four behind Princeton and
three back of Cornell.
Personal Perspective
I suppose I should skip over the more mundane aspects of my trip North
with my mother, such as driving back and forth between Canton and
Potsdam looking for our motel, and rearranging the furniture in the
so I had room to sleep on the floor, and go straight to SLU's
Appleton Arena. This was my first trip to Appleton, and while I'd seen
ice arenas which deserved the loving appellation "barn", this is the
first I've come across with quite so much wood. US College Hockey
Online's Jayson Moy had warned in his guide to ECAC roadtrips that the
place could get noisy, and with the pre-game music blasting at
mind-numbing levels, I believed him. Our nice usher, a member of the
SLU women's basketball team, told us that with break on, there
probably wouldn't be a Saints pep band. She also told us how to
exchange the behind-the-goal seats Cornell had accidentally sold us
for fabulous seats behind the Cornell bench. (Appleton is one of these
old-style rinks where the benches are on opposite sides of the ice,
with the home bench next to the penalty box. Not that the advantage
really mattered given how few penalties were called.) We did so once
we discovered that those seats were next to the Cornell band.
Apparently, the six bandies in attendance decided to arrange a few
pieces for a brass-only pep band (five trombones and a French horn).
So we had three sources of music: the 'bone-band, the rink's organ
(fun to see one of those at a college game, although he could have
played a bit better) and a DJ. In fact, the organist wanted the 'bones
to play more often than they had the material for, and bandleader
Scott Southard had to tell his charges to put down their instruments
so the guy on the organ would get the idea. The pieces were a mixed
bag, with the low point being the bizzare arrangement of the Cornell
Alma Mater and the high being the existence of any arrangement of
"Give My Regards to Davy". (And also that I got to hear their
rendition of my ECAC theme music, the New World Symphony, after
suggesting that they fall back on 'bone standards.)
The St. Lawrence fans themselves were a bit subdued until the end of
the game, probably due to the fact that most of the students were
away. I noted with chagrin that more people were doing the YMCA during
the second intermission than had chanted "S-L-U" up to that point. The
Cornell band and those sitting around them put on an effective
display, although the nature of the game precluded many of the
traditional goalie-mocking cheers. Owen was treated to a few choice
speculations about his suspension, but I'll refrain from detailing
them to protect those around me from claims of slander ;-).
Tomorrow's game figures to be an even better experience, with the
livelier Clarkson crowd and the prospect that the home team will have
a band.
I liked the closeness of the two arenas; we met people in a Pizza Hut
afterwards who'd been to the Colgate-Clarkson game (the result of
which had been cheered by both camps in Appleton). I guess something
like that could happen in Boston, but I can't think of where else in
College Hockey. In fact, it's a bit of a shame that the Clarkson and
St. Lawrence games happen at the same time so that one can't attend
both of them. (Although I guess that would make Clarkson tickets even
harder come by.)
Saturday Night, 1997 January 4: Clarkson
_________________________________________________________________
Last Modified: 1997 January 4
Joe Schlobotnik / [log in to unmask]
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