Saturday night, the Big Red played its first home game in over a month, hosting
the Cadets of Army, and the 1-1 tie was, at best, a mixed result for Cornell.
 The Big Red's goaltending was superb.  The defense was solid.  The offense...
well, the goaltending was superb and the defense was solid.  Actually, Cornell
was able to generate some good chances on offense, but they repeatedly failed to
capitalize on them.
 
Despite six of the game's nine penalties being called in the first 20 minutes,
with the resultant three power-play chances for each team, the opening period
was relatively dull... as defensive struggles often are.  Army managed just
three shots on Cornell goaltender Jean-Marc Pelletier, while the Big Red didn't
generate a lot more action at the other end, putting seven shots on goalie Daryl
Chamberlain.  Cornell did have a flurry in the latter stages of the first, but
Chamberlain came up with some big ones to keep the game scoreless.  Chamberlain
has improved considerably since his last trip to Lynah, two years ago, when he
gave up five goals on 18 shots in an 8-2 Cornell pummeling.  On this night, he
was a cool and confident netminder, as was Pelletier.
 
Cornell was finally able to put some sustained pressure on Chamberlain in the
second period, particularly at about the 11:30 mark, when a big flurry forced
Chamberlain to come up with three terrific saves in a row.  All of a sudden,
however, a pinching Cornell defenseman missed the puck, and Army had a 2-on-1
the other way, which Pelletier thwarted with his pads.  Still, the pace of the
game was starting to pick up for the Big Red, and they finally broke through at
17:22 of the second.  Jeff Oates skated in from the right side and looked like
he was going behind the net, but at the last second, he rolled the puck through
the crease to Frank Kovac, who stuffed it home.
 
After the first period, the game was called pretty loosely, as there were only
two penalties in the second; one on Army's Ian Tyson for elbowing (which I
didn't see), and the other on Cornell's Jamie Papp for charging (a legitimate
call, but rather lame, considering all the hooking, shoving, tripping, etc. that
had been let go up to that point).  By the third, some of us were wondering what
on earth somebody would have to do to get sent to the box, and at the 4:56 mark,
we got our answer, on a penalty I have heard of but don't recall ever seeing.
 Army got themselves a bench minor for "abuse of official."  I suspect somebody
on the bench (perhaps a coach?) loudly told referee Alex Dell what he thought of
the officiating or something.  Whatever, it was a rare sight.
 
The ensuing power play was dreadful for Cornell, as Army had a number of short-
handed opportunities.  It also pointed out Army's greatest strength; this is not
a team that has great masses of talent (though this year's edition looked
considerably more talented than any of the teams the Cadets had when they were
in the ECAC in the late 80's and early 90's), but they are in terrific physical
shape, as you would expect from a military academy.  Army had played an overtime
game the night before, while Cornell had been off since Tuesday, but it was the
Cadets skating rings around the Big Red in the third.
 
And it was the Cadets scoring at 8:50 of the third to tie the game.  Chuck
Sawicky took a shot from near the right circle that Pelletier blocked at the
edge of the crease, but he lost track of the puck as it rolled under his leg.
 Two Army players were right in front of him, and with Pelletier still down on
the ice, Tyson dug the puck loose and flipped it into the empty net.  Army had
another chance about four minutes later, as Pelletier knocked down a shot and
the puck rested on the goal line for several seconds, with Cornell desperately
trying to keep the Army players away from it.  The threat was defused by a quick
whistle, and whoever abused the official before must have had a *real* hard time
holding his tongue after that one.
 
The teams battled into overtime, and Army came very close to ending it 20
seconds into the extra session.  Cornell defenseman Steve Wilson collided with a
Cadet at center ice and lost his stick, and that helped set up an Army rush into
the Cornell zone, which ended when Pelletier made a leg save of a quick wrister
from the slot.  With 37 seconds left in the game, Cornell called timeout, and
the strategy almost worked, as after the ensuing faceoff, Chad Wilson took the
puck behind the Army net, then quickly passed back in front to Darren Tymchyshyn
for the tip home, apparently winning the game with 29 seconds left in OT.  Dell,
however, ruled that the puck did not cross the line.  (I had an excellent view
of the goal line -- unfortunately, it was of the other goal)  Army dodged a
bullet, and the 1-1 score stood.  Pelletier stopped 22 of the 23 shots he faced,
while Chamberlain had 27 saves.
 
Not a pretty game on offense for Cornell, and in fact, the players held a
* l o n g * closed-door meeting afterwards to discuss the issue.  Cornell fans
can only hope that this will be the turning point of the season, much as last
year's game against Army was.  Last year, the Big Red suffered an embarrassing
loss to the Cadets, lost their next game by a close score, then took off on a
14-1-1 tear that netted them the ECAC tournament championship and a berth in the
NCAAs.  This year's Big Red currently stands at 8-4-4, a marked improvement over
last year's 7-6-3 record at the same juncture.  However, after starting 4-0,
Cornell has played 0.500 since, and after breaking the four-goal barrier three
times in their first four games, they haven't done so since.  Troubles on
offense were not unexpected, since the team lost six forwards from last year
including their leading scorer and power-play-goal scorer.  Cornell appears to
have enough talent to light the lamp more often, and if head coach Mike
Schafer's post-game comments are any indication, you can bet that there will be
some cages rattled.
 
Cornell is back in action tomorrow night at Colgate.
 
--
Disclaimer -- Unless otherwise noted, all opinions expressed above are
              strictly those of:
 
Bill Fenwick
Cornell '86 and '95
LET'S GO RED!!                                                  DJF  5/27/94
"So what's Cornell's strategy now -- go to the net?"
-- Grady Whittenberg, Cornell (WQNY) play-by-play announcer, following the
   clean-up efforts after Providence goalie Dan Dennis got sick on the ice
   during the first round of the Syracuse Invitational
 
HOCKEY-L is for discussion of college ice hockey;  send information to
[log in to unmask], The College Hockey Information List.