Continuing the Marquis de Sade portion of their schedule (three games in four
days, five games in ten days, and oh yeah, plenty of snow and ice to deal
with), the Cornell Big Red journeyed to the North Country for a pair of ECAC
games with Clarkson and St. Lawrence.  Saturday night, a well-rested Clarkson
team rode an outstanding first-period performance by freshman goalie Shawn
Grant as well as some offensive heroics by Erik Cole, Matt Reid, and Mikko
Ollila to a 6-2 shellacking.  The next night, Cornell came back from a two-goal
deficit to grab a tie at St. Lawrence's Appleton Arena and salvage a point from
the North Country trip.  The Big Red now sits in fifth place in the ECAC, three
points behind league leader Princeton.
 
A few notes on both games:
 
Clarkson 6, Cornell 2
 
The question at the beginning of this game was which team was going to be more
sloppy and sluggish:  Clarkson, coming off a three-week layoff, or Cornell,
coming off a pair of OT games and a trip halfway across the country.  The
Golden Knights lost little time in answering that question, as they converted
their first power-play opportunity a mere seven seconds in, at 1:57 of the
opening period.  After a couple of quick passes off the faceoff, Matt Reid
slapped the puck past surprised Big Red goaltender Matt Underhill.
 
Cornell was a bit tired, but the Big Red managed an 18-8 shot advantage in the
first period.  Unfortunately for the visitors, A) they didn't get very many
"quality" shots, and B) Clarkson goalie Shawn Grant wasn't letting anything in
anyway.  In the meantime, the Knights made it 2-0 at the 15:32 mark when Kent
Huskins converted from in close for his first goal of the season.  Grant
actually did let a Cornell shot get by him later, but the apparent goal was
waved off, since the puck had crossed the line after time had expired.
 
Reid put a beautiful centering pass right on the stick of Erik Cole, who beat
Underhill for Clarkson's third goal at 5:20 of the middle period.  Midway
through the second, Underhill made a sliding stop on a shot by David Evans, but
Matt Poapst pounced on the rebound and knocked it home to give the Knights a
4-0 lead at the 10:03 mark.  That was all for Underhill, who left the game at
that point in favor of Ian Burt.  The Knights continued to tee off on a tiring
Cornell team, as they would put a total of 19 shots on the Cornell net in the
second.  Burt weathered the storm, however, stopping the nine shots that he
faced.
 
Fatigued though they were, the Big Red wasn't quite dead yet, as Ryan Moynihan
finally solved Grant 25 seconds into the third period.  Krzysztof Wieckowski
made it 4-2 a few minutes later... at least, he appeared to, but the goal was
almost immediately waved off due to a hand pass, and it was Clarkson lighting
the lamp at the 6:10 mark.  This time Cole left the puck for Mikko Ollila, who
snapped a low one past Burt.
 
Kyle Knopp, Cornell's leading scorer, set up another one when he dumped the
puck out in front of the Clarkson net for Denis Ladouceur, who rammed it home
for his team-leading seventh goal at 9:44 of the third.  With just over half a
period left, it looked like the Big Red could still make a game of it, but
reality checked in a mere ten seconds later.  The Knights charged into the
Cornell zone off the faceoff, and Cole notched his second goal of the game to
close out the scoring.
 
Burt stopped 20 of 22 shots in relief of Underhill, who had 14 saves.  Grant
had 35 saves for the Golden Knights.
 
 
Cornell 3, St. Lawrence 3 (OT)
 
The Big Red, which has not had the lead in any of its four post-Christmas games
(the win against Wisconsin came in overtime), fell behind by two in this one
before rallying to gain the tie.  Goaltender Matt Underhill shook off the
previous night's shaky performance, preserving the tie with five stops in
overtime.
 
Once again, Cornell gave up an early goal, this time at 2:03 of the first.
 Matt Oikawa fought off a couple of Big Red defenders and worked the puck out
from the end boards and toward the crease.  Charlie Daniels then took a shot
which bounced off Underhill's pad, but Al Fyfe was there to backhand the
rebound into the corner of the net.  Underhill kept the Saints at bay for the
rest of the period, and some good Cornell pressure finally paid off at the
18:08 mark.  Larry Pierce intercepted a St. Lawrence clearing attempt and left
the puck in front of the net for Ryan Moynihan, who stuffed it through goalie
Eric Heffler's pads.  Moynihan continues to recover nicely from his ice-cold
start this season; the goal was his fourth in the Big Red's last three games
after he notched just two in the team's first ten.
 
Defenseman Matt Desrosiers put the Saints up 3-1 in the second period with his
first two goals of the season.  Desrosiers took a pass from Fyfe in the slot
and put a hard shot past Underhill at the 4:36 mark, and then he scored again
on a similar play at 9:18 of the second, with the pass coming from Jason Windle
this time.  But Cornell's Doug Stienstra responded with a pair of goals of his
own, the first coming with 44 seconds remaining before the second intermission.
 Wayne Gretzky (I'm making a leap here; please bear with me) once said of a
particularly amazing goal he scored, "Well, I had to turn the puck on its side
to get it in through the gap."  Stienstra seemingly had to do something similar
to score this one, as he somehow managed to get it between the right post and
Heffler's pad during a scramble in front of the Saints' net.
 
The game-tying goal came at 5:11 of the third with Cornell on the power play
and was a bit more, er, believable, as Stienstra redirected a Tyler Sutherland
drive behind Heffler.  Both teams had some big opportunities the rest of the
way, with St. Lawrence coming up with the biggest about four minutes into OT.
 Erik Anderson came in one-on-one with Underhill and tried to beat him with a
quick wrister, but the goaltender got a piece of the shot to preserve the tie.
 
Both netminders were outstanding in this one, as Heffler finished with 41 saves
and Underhill had 32.  Next up for Cornell is a home contest tonight against
Hockey East foe Providence.
 
--
Disclaimer -- Unless otherwise noted, all opinions expressed above are
              strictly those of:
 
Bill Fenwick
Cornell '86 and '95                                             DJF  5/27/94
LET'S GO RED!!                                                  JCF  12/2/97
"This can't be right.  Terry Felton started the game, and now they've got him
 relieving himself on the mound."
-- Fred White, Kansas City Royals radio announcer, on a wire-service report
   that erroneously listed the same pitcher starting and coming in from the
   bullpen
 
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