Cornell at RPI
Houston Field House, Troy,NY
November 5, 1999
attendance - 5156
officials - Noeth-Shea-Crowley
period 1
P 1:02 CU Bell (rough)
P 1:02 RPI Pothier (rough)
G 3:45 RPI (1-0) Tapper(Shepherd,Munn)
P 5:26 RPI Coupal (trip)
P 8:14 RPI Dupee (trip)
P 11:24 CU Kovac (hook)
P 13:13 CU Bell (hit from behind)
P 16:18 CU Stienstra (rough)
P 16:18 RPI Gardiner (rough)
G 17:24 RPI (2-0) Caley(Reigstad,Murley)
period 2
P 0:32 RPI Munn (interference)
P 2:11 RPI Vickers (cross check)
P 3:12 CU bench (too many men on the ice)
P 4:58 RPI Coupal (hold)
G 6:40 CU (2-1) Pierce(Baby,Rutter) ppg
P 7:14 CU Powell (hit from behind)
G 7:19 RPI (3-1) Tapper(Murley,Gardiner) ppg
G 11:01 CU (3-2) McRae(McMeekin,Ladouceur)
P 17:52 CU Baby (high stick)
G 18:43 RPI (4-2) McPherson(Murley,Pothier) ppg
P 19:30 RPI Munn (trip)
P 19:57 CU Ladouceur (charging)
P 19:57 CU Stienstra (high stick)
P 19:57 CU Baby (high stick)
P 19:57 RPI Murley (high stick)
P 19:57 RPI Caley (high stick)
period 3
G 2:54 CU (4-3) Adler(McRae,Ladouceur)
P 3:35 RPI Graham (misconduct)
G 4:11 CU (4-4) Stienstra(McRae,Ladouceur)
P 7:53 RPI Shepherd (holding stick)
P 15:24 CU Adler (hold)
OT
G 1:55 RPI (5-4) Coupal(McPherson,Butterwick)
saves 1 2 3 OT total
Laing(RPI) 17 14 16 0 47
Underhill(CU) 12 8 12 0 32
When RPI and Cornell meet, it doesn't matter whether it's the
first game of the season, the playoffs or what each team's records are. It's always a war and tonight was no exception.
RPI opened the scoring in the first period when Doug Shepherd
hit Brad Tapper breaking out of his own zone. Tapper picked up the puck in center ice and skated away from two Cornell defenders breaking in on Underhill and burying the shot for a 1-0 RPI lead just 3:45 into the first period. At 7:56
Cornell thought they had tied the score on a scramble out in front of the net but Mike Noeth ruled that the whistle had blown for a man in the crease before the puck went in.
Cornell took a penalty at 11:24 but RPI moved the puck around for about 45 seconds prior to the whistle on the delayed penalty. During that time, RPI missed the net once on a point blank shot and bounced another off the goal post. RPI failed to score on the power play.
Late in the first, a charging Cornell forward took a poke at
Joel Laing as Laing covered up the puck next to the RPI net.
After some pushing and shoving, Noeth decided that no penalties were warranted. A few seconds later, at the Cornell end, an RPI player poking through a crowd tried to poke the puck out of Matt Underhill's glove after he had stopped it. The pushing and shoving started again in earnest and this time Noeth decided to try to regain control by calling matching minors. It seemed to cool things off (for a while). At 17:24, RPI defenseman Jared Reigstad hit Steve Caley with a pass in the RPI zone and Caley went flying down the ice along the boards through center ice and deep into the Cornell zone. Caley slammed on the brakes, spun and tried to hit a charging RPI forward. Instead, the puck hit the skates of a retreating Cornell defenseman and slid past Underhill to give RPI a 2-0 lead.
My impression at the end of the 1st was that the big Cornell defensemen were doing a nice job in the corners but the Cornell forwards were just one step off from their passes. This was Cornell's second game while RPI has played 5 and it showed in that first period.
In the second period, Cornell pulled within 1 goal at 6:40
when Larry Pierce took a blistering slapshot from the high slot. Laing got most of the shot, but it trickled past him and crossed the goal line before he could dive on it.
But RPI regained the 2 goal lead at 7:19 just 5 seconds into a power play when Matt Murley picked up his second assist of the night carrying deep into the Cornell zone, forcing Underhill to commit and feeding a wide open Brad Tapper on the opposite side of the net. Tapper popped it into a wide open net for his second goal of the night and his 12th of the young season.
But Cornell was not going to roll over. At 11:01, Matt McRae
picked up the puck in the crease right in front of Laing. McRae lifted the puck straight up and it somehow went over Laing's shoulder, hit the crossbar and deflected down into the net making the score 3-2. At 18:43, RPI scored their second
power play goal of the night when Matt Murley got his third assist of the night finding Andy McPherson to Underhill's left
and threaded a pass to him. McPherson's goal put RPI back up by 2 (4-2) as the 2nd period wound down. Things started getting ugly when Cornell's Denis Ladouceur was called for charging into goaltender Joel Laing at 19:57 of the second.
After a bit of pushing and shoving, Noeth tried to quickly drop the puck in center ice to end the period quickly. But, before the puck could be dropped, RPI's Steve Caley and Cornell's Stephen Baby started slapping at each with their sticks. Before they could be escorted off the ice, the two centers (Murley and Stienstra) started pushing each other around and things almost got out of control. Noeth sent all 4 combatants into the box and quickly dropped the puck to let the final 3 seconds run off the clock and then ushered both teams off before any more trouble started.
Cornell came out flying in the 3rd period scoring at 2:54 making it 4-3 and again at 4:11 to tie the score. For the first 9 minutes of that period, Cornell dominated RPI. RPI not only couldn't get their offense moving, but couldn't even get the puck out of their own zone. The almost sold out Field House went deathly silent when Cornell went on the power play at 7:53 of the 3rd and Cornell did everything but score. But with 10 seconds left in the power play, Marc Cavosie fed the
puck to Brad Tapper breaking out of his own zone and Tapper streaked down the ice on a breakaway. He beat Underhill but fired the shot high as a collective sigh of disappointment went out from the Field House seats. But that breakaway seemed to wake RPI up as they came back played solidly for the rest of the third period. The final 10 minutes was the typical RPI/Cornell back and forth, run and gun hockey and the game could have gone either way with both Laing and Underhill making impressive stops in their respective goals. RPI went on the power play at 15:24 and controlled the power play but couldn't manage to score. The third period ended in a 4-4 tie and the teams went to OT.
The teams went into overtime and it was clear that neither team wanted to settle for the tie. The action went end to end and at 1:55 Glenn Coupal lifted a slapshot from just outside the blue line. The shot lifted over Underhill's shoulder and settled in the net for the OT goal.
with the win.
Cornell played an impressive, disciplined game (especially in the last 2 periods). I was impressed with the way their defensemen controlled the corners in their own zone despite the speed of RPI's forwards. Underhill played a very good game except for the soft goal in OT. Considering this was Cornell's
2nd game of the year, they were impressive. I think Cornell fans will have a lot to cheer about this year.
On the RPI side, Coach Dan Fridgen appears to have abandoned
his alternating goalie lineup, starting Laing a second straight game after Laing's 6-0 victory over UNH last weekend. It will be interesting to see whether Fridgen goes back to his rotation and starts Scott Prekaski on Saturday.
Brad Tapper continues to fly scoring his 11th and 12th goals
of the season and more importantly, Matt Murley seems to have broken out of his slow start by getting 3 assists tonight. On the down side, the Engineers are still taking too many dumb penalties. No matter how many goals you score, you can't keep putting your opponents on the power play without getting burned.
At times the RPI defense was impenetrable with the forwards dropping back and keeping Cornell from getting any good scoring chances. But at other times, the defense seemed out of sync and confused leaving Cornell wide open and failing to clear the zone for minutes at a time.
RPI moves to 6-0 overall and 1-0 in the ECAC.
Tomorrow night, Colgate comes to town.
HOCKEY-L is for discussion of college ice hockey; send information to
[log in to unmask], The College Hockey Information List.
|
