Cornell made its annual trip to the North Country last weekend, which is
almost always the most difficult road trip in the ECAC. In the ten years
prior to the 2001-02 season, the Big Red had not been able to manage more
than two points on any of their trips to Clarkson and St. Lawrence, but
with last weekend's results in the books, Cornell has now gone 5-0-1 up
north in the last three years. Not that the trip has become a cake walk
for the Big Red by any means, as all five wins have been by one goal.
Still, Cornell remained undefeated in league play and now sits one point
behind first-place Brown, with a game in hand.
Friday saw the Big Red overcome some sluggish, even near-disastrous play to
get a hard-fought tie. Cornell played considerably better the next night,
which was a good thing, as they had to overcome an early and somewhat
controversial St. Lawrence goal. Boxes and more notes below:
Friday, November 14
Cheel Arena
Potsdam, NY
Cornell 2, Clarkson 2 (OT)
Cornell 0 1 1 0 -- 2
Clarkson 1 1 0 0 -- 2
First period -- Scoring:
CLA Tristan Lush (Max Kolu, Jean Desrochers), 9:53 0-1
Penalties:
COR Matt Moulson (hooking), 10:44; CLA Jeff Genovy (boarding), 16:57;
COR Daniel Pegoraro (tripping), 18:54
Second period -- Scoring:
COR Cam Abbott (Charlie Cook, Greg Hornby), 8:44 1-1
CLA John Sullivan (Lyon Porter), 11:33 1-2
Penalties:
CLA Bench (too many men on ice, served by Porter), 2:55; CLA Mike Nigai
(interference), 12:35; COR Jeremy Downs (slashing), 18:34
Third period -- Scoring:
COR Hornby (Cam Abbott, Chris Abbott), 8:04 2-2
Penalties:
COR Moulson (high-sticking), 1:03; COR Cam Abbott (slashing, slashing),
10:40; CLA Matt Nickerson (unsportsmanlike conduct), 10:40; CLA Matt
Curley (roughing), 10:40; COR Cook (roughing), 13:34; COR Shane Hynes
(roughing, misconduct), 13:34; CLA Mac Faulkner (roughing), 13:34;
CLA Genovy (roughing, misconduct), 13:34; COR Mike Knoepfli (roughing),
18:41; CLA Faulkner (roughing), 18:41
Overtime -- Penalties:
COR Ryan O'Byrne (roughing), 1:11
Shots on goal: Cornell 7-8-12-3 -- 30, Clarkson 8-8-11-1 -- 28
Power plays: Cornell 0 of 3, Clarkson 0 of 5
Goaltending:
COR David McKee (26 saves, 28 shots)
CLA Dustin Traylen (28 saves, 30 shots)
Officials: Tim Kotyra (R), Mike Baker (AR), Larry Legault (AR)
Attendance: 2,677
After solid efforts the previous weekend at Yale and Princeton, it was a
bit of a surprise to see the Big Red come out so flat for this one.
Neither team was able to get much of anything started in the early going,
but the Golden Knights were generating some good scoring chances in close
to the Cornell net, while the Big Red seemed content to fire away from the
perimeter rather than muscle in down low. Eventually, Clarkson started
forcing the action and making it difficult for the Big Red to get the puck
out of their own end, and the Knights' aggressive play paid off with a goal
at 9:53 of the first. Jean Desrochers sent a pass across the goalmouth to
Max Kolu, who dumped the puck to the back boards. Tristan Lush found it
there and came up the side boards, apparently headed for the point, when he
suddenly stopped in the left circle and wristed a shot that beat a screened
and surprised David McKee through the pads.
Cornell coach Mike Schafer read his team the riot act during the first
intermission, and the Big Red played a bit better in the middle period,
generating some good scoring chances and forcing goalie Dustin Traylen to
come up big several times. The action still favored Clarkson, but the Big
Red was finally able to get on the board at the 8:44 mark. Greg Hornby
lost the puck to Michael Grenzy along the Cornell boards, but he stole it
back and found Charlie Cook at the right point. Cook's wrister bounced
past a couple of defenders and was deflected into the net by Cam Abbott.
The tie was short-lived, however, as the Knights regained the lead at 11:33
on a couple of Cornell miscues. Lyon Porter forced a turnover near the
point and sent a soft shot toward the net that McKee got his stick on, but
the puck bounced through the crease. Mitch Carefoot skated in and
attempted to either clear the puck from in front of the goal or slide it
under McKee's glove for the stoppage in play. What he was assuredly *not*
trying to do was to bounce the puck off John Sullivan and into his own net,
but that's what happened, and Clarkson took the 2-1 lead.
As the second period wore on, Coach Schafer began mixing up his lines in an
attempt to spark the Big Red offense. Displeased -- all right, PO'ed -- by
his team's lethargic play for most of the first two periods, Schafer would
say later, "It was a necessity to find nine or ten guys that wanted to
actually work hard consistently.... When you don't have four lines that are
willing to go and someone's luggage is on the line, you've got to shuffle
things up in order for people to produce." Cornell did step things up over
the last five minutes of the second and came out more fired up in the
third, but Traylen was doing a good job between the pipes.
At 8:04 of the third, however, the Big Red tied the game on a nice play,
once again benefiting from a turnover. As Grenzy was headed out of the
Clarkson zone, Chris Abbott knocked him off the puck (actually knocked his
stick loose; Grenzy seemed to be arguing for a penalty call) and sent a
pass ahead to Cam Abbott, who one-timed a wobbly shot toward the Knights
goal. Traylen blocked the shot, but the rebound went off to his left,
where Hornby was waiting to flip the puck into the open net.
The game, already physical up to this point, began to degenerate a little
after that, as there were several scuffles and a couple of major shoving
matches resulting in trips to the penalty box. The Clarkson announcers
seemed impressed with referee Tim Kotyra's handling of the third period,
referring in particular to his calling matching penalties and "letting them
play." I'm not sure I would be so effusive, but I do have to give Kotyra
credit for doing something more than a few refs wouldn't have the, uh,
stones to do -- call a penalty in overtime. Just over a minute into the
extra session, Cornell's Ryan O'Byrne hauled down Trevor Edwards and got
called for roughing, putting the Knights on their fifth power play. Now
O'Byrne, a freshman defender, has been getting flambe'ed by some for his
penchant for taking penalties (or rather for taking them at extremely
inopportune times), but I can't really fault him for this one. Rob
McFeeters sent a pass across the goalmouth that found Edwards unguarded at
the edge of the crease, and had O'Byrne not taken him down, Edwards might
very well have ended the game right there. The Cornell penalty kill took
care of business after that, holding Clarkson without a shot on goal.
Neither team was particularly happy with the end result, Cornell due to its
slow start and Clarkson for losing the lead in the third period for the
fifth time this season. Both goaltenders played well, with McKee making 26
saves for Cornell and Traylen stopping 28 shots.
Saturday, November 15
Appleton Arena
Canton, NY
Cornell 2, St. Lawrence 1
Cornell 1 1 0 -- 2
St. Lawrence 1 0 0 -- 1
First period -- Scoring:
SL John Zeiler (Colin FitzRandolph, Simon Watson), 1:26 0-1
C Matt Moulson (Charlie Cook, Ryan Vesce), 11:25 1-1
Penalties:
SL Watson (holding), 12:12; SL Ryan Glenn (cross-checking), 15:08
Second period -- Scoring:
C Cam Abbott (Jeremy Downs, Chris Abbott), 14:40 2-1
Penalties:
SL FitzRandolph (slashing), 1:01; SL Rich Peverly (interference), 9:04;
C Dan Glover (holding), 12:15; C Downs (interference), 15:44
Third period -- Penalties:
C Cook (hooking), 10:46; C Ryan O'Byrne (interference), 17:43; SL Mike
Madill (interference), 18:11
Shots on goal: Cornell 10-7-4 -- 21, St. Lawrence 8-11-9 -- 28
Power plays: Cornell 0 of 5, St. Lawrence 0 of 4
Goaltending:
C David McKee (27 saves, 28 shots)
SL Mike McKenna (out at 18:43 of third period, 19 saves, 21 shots)
Officials: Tim Kotyra (R), Mike Baker (AR), Larry Legault (AR)
Attendance: 2,275
Given head coach Mike Schafer's irritation at the Big Red's lackluster
start the night before, it seemed that an overhaul might be in the offing
for this game, but the only lineup change was on the fourth line, where
Paul Varteressian replaced Daniel Pegoraro at center. On this night,
Cornell showed much more of the hard-working, physical style that Schafer
favors and that has helped the Big Red be successful in the past, but even
so, the visitors found themselves behind only 1:26 into the game thanks to
a strange and controversial goal. From the corner of the Big Red zone,
Colin FitzRandolph flipped the puck toward the crease. Goaltender David
McKee caught the puck in his glove, but John Zeiler skated to the crease
and whacked at the glove, and the puck popped loose and into the net. The
Big Red argued either that McKee had the puck and the play should have been
dead, or that Zeiler should have been called for high-sticking (McKee's
glove was near his face, well above the crossbar), but the goal stood.
Despite playing better than at Clarkson, it took the Big Red eleven minutes
to get their first shot on goal, but they tied the game 25 seconds after
that. Ryan Vesce won a faceoff back to Charlie Cook at the point, but
Cook's long shot was gloved by goalie Mike McKenna. Vesce won the ensuing
faceoff as well, once again drawing the puck back to Cook at the point, but
this time, Cook fought his way down the left boards before sending a shot
toward the crease. As Cornell crashed the net, Matt Moulson took a couple
of hacks at the bouncing puck and finally got it by McKenna.
Though both teams continued to press the action, neither had much in the
way of quality scoring chances for the rest of the period, or for that
matter for most of the second. The Big Red's power play continued to
struggle, as four consecutive man-up opportunities produced nothing but a
number of good saves by McKenna. But finally, at 14:40 of the second, a
beautiful play resulted in the final goal of the game. With Cam Abbott
skating stride-for-stride up the ice with a Saints defender, Cornell's
Jeremy Downs lifted a long break-out pass out of the Big Red zone. Abbott
got the pass in stride near the red line, muscled his way past the
defender, and backhanded a shot into the net.
Cornell went into a bit of a defensive shell with the lead, and their
penalty-killing unit got a bit of a workout as the Saints wound up with
four straight power plays of their own. The last of these came with 2:17
remaining in the third, when Ryan O'Byrne was called for interference
(another late penalty -- ouch), but the threat was snuffed out when the
Saints' Mike Madill was sent off less than half a minute later. McKenna
left the game with 1:17 remaining but St. Lawrence could not get the
equalizer.
McKee made 27 saves on the night, while McKenna finished with 19. The Big
Red begins a five-game home stand this weekend with a pair of non-league
games, hosting CCHA foes Bowling Green and Ohio State.
Bill Fenwick DJF 5/27/94
Cornell '86 and '95 JCF 12/2/97
LET'S GO RED!!
"For surely there is nothing more thrilling in this world than the sight of
a lone man, facing single-handedly, a half a ton of angry pot roast."
-- Tom Lehrer, on bullfighting
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