[ Haven't seen anything from HOCKEY-L in a couple of days, so hopefully this
won't repeat too much... ]
The Big Red made their annual North Country pilgrimage over the weekend and,
in a bit of a surprise, managed to come away with two points, thanks to a
victory over St. Lawrence at Appleton. Cornell's winless streak was thus
snapped at nine games. The Big Red was unable to complete the sweep against
a tough Clarkson team, but still, their performance on the weekend may ulti-
mately prove to be a turning point in this up-and-down season. It was
particularly noteworthy that Cornell was able to come from behind against
the Saints and almost duplicated the feat the following night against the
Golden Knights. More notes on the weekend games below:
Cornell 5, St. Lawrence 3
OK, the Big Red had been playing considerably better since the Union
fiasco a few weeks ago, with three ties in their last four games, and
the Saints were in the midst of a slump that had seen them lose nine of
their last ten games. Still, this one was kind of a shocker. Cor-
nell's offense finally came to life, as the five goals they notched in
this one was their season high. The stars of the game were freshman
forward Vincent Auger, who assisted on Cornell's first three goals
before picking up an empty-netter, and sophomore goaltender Eddy
Skazyk, who had another terrific game, finishing with 40 saves. One
other bit of good news for Big Red fans was that the Geoff Bumstead-
Jake Karam-Mike Sancimino line, which had made some noise earlier in
the season, was put back together for this game.
Overall, the game was rather sloppily played by both teams, and in
spite of junior Blair Ettles' return to the lineup, the young Cornell
defense had some rough times early on. St. Lawrence, however, squan-
dered some early opportunities, and the first period remained scoreless
until the 18:25 mark, when Mike Allain, fresh out of the box after
serving a high-sticking penalty, stuffed home a Burke Murphy rebound.
Mark McGeough followed that with his first goal of the season at 2:07
of the second period, and it appeared that St. Lawrence was well on its
way to taking control of this one. But Joel McArter blasted an Auger
feed past Saints goalie Paul Spagnoletti at 8:05 of the second for his
first career goal, and P.C. Drouin tied the score at 2-2 with 13:12
gone in the period. A turnover deep in the St. Lawrence zone led to
Drouin wristing one off Spagnoletti's glove and into the net. The tie
lasted all of 1:17, however, as Ken Ruddock fired a low shot that
eluded Skazyk, giving St. Lawrence the one-goal lead they enjoyed for
the rest of the second period.
All season long, the Big Red has had trouble playing consistently and
converting their scoring opportunities into goals, and these problems
plagued them again in the first two periods of this game. In the
third, however, things finally started to click for Cornell, starting
with a slashing call on McGeough at the 1:07 mark. Coach McCutcheon
sent out his five-forward power-play unit, and the Big Red tied the
score at 2:30 of the third. Auger took a long shot that Spagnoletti
blocked, but Bumstead was right there to poke the rebound home. Bum-
stead also figured in the game-winner two and a half minutes later, as
he started Cornell on a 3-on-1 break which ended with Karam pouncing on
a Sancimino rebound and wristing it over Spagnoletti.
The Big Red did not slack off after taking the lead, as they were able
to keep the pressure on the Saints' defense for most of the rest of the
game. Cornell wound up with 17 shots on goal in the third period, an
astonishing total when you consider the difficulties that the Big Red
has had on offense this season. St. Lawrence tried to generate some
scoring chances of their own later in the period, but an interference
call on Joel Prpic with 4:54 left was a crucial blow. The Saints did
pull Spagnoletti with 1:40 left and were able to bottle Cornell up in
their own end for a time, but Geoff Lopatka was finally able to work
the puck across the blue line, leading to Auger's empty-netter with ten
seconds left.
The win boosted Cornell to the 0.500 mark in league play at the halfway
point, with a 3-3-5 record. Spagnoletti wound up stopping 33 of the 37
shots he faced.
Clarkson 6, Cornell 3
Cornell entered this game gunning for its first North Country sweep in
eight years, but the Golden Knights put an end to that dream with three
goals in under two minutes midway through the second period. The Big
Red is now winless against Clarkson in their last five regular-season
meetings.
The Big Red was considerably more inspired at the start of this game
than they were the previous evening at Appleton, and they had a pretty
solid forecheck going in the first period (Clarkson, surprisingly, did
not). Neither team had much of a territorial advantage in the first 20
minutes, but Clarkson did a lot more with their opportunities than the
Big Red did with theirs. The Golden Knights wound up with a 13-4
shots-on-goal advantage for the first period, and Cornell didn't get
its first shot on goal until seven minutes into the game.
Clarkson came out on fire for the second period and was all over the
Cornell zone in the first couple minutes. The Knights missed a few
chances, however, and all of a sudden, Vincent Auger was going the
other way and firing a low slapper toward Clarkson goalie Jason Currie
from 25 feet out. Currie was equal to the task, and the Golden Knights
worked the puck back up the ice. Linemates Kevin Murphy and Dave Seitz
criss-crossed at the Cornell blue line (almost going off-side in the
process), and Seitz got the puck over to Murphy in the slot. Murphy
took a low shot from in close that beat goaltender Andy Bandurski to
the stick side at 2:25 of the second period. (the radio announcers
said that Murphy was credited with the goal, his first of the season,
but Bri Farenell's posting indicated that Seitz scored on the rebound)
Cornell had a golden opportunity to tie the score a minute and a half
later, when Shaun Hannah blew into the Clarkson zone on a 2-on-1 break
with Matt Cooney, but Hannah's shot rolled behind Currie and harmlessly
out the other side of the crease. The action was end-to-end at this
point, and Joel McArter came very close to a clean breakaway at the
seven minute mark. The puck rolled toward him at center ice, but he
overskated it and was promptly levelled by Clarkson's Josh Bartell.
The Knights took over after that, and they made it 2-0 at the 11:57
mark. Cornell defender Jason Zubkus stood Steve Palmer up in the right
circle and kicked the puck off his stick, but Craig Conroy was trailing
the play, and he got the loose biscuit and whacked it into the net to
Bandurski's right. The goal opened the floodgates for Clarkson, as
they lit the lamp again a minute and eleven seconds later. This time,
Seitz dug the puck out of the right corner and worked it over to
Murphy, who snapped a shot that Todd White deflected into the net. The
Big Red called their timeout at this point, but it did no good, as
Patrice Robitaille made it 4-0 24 seconds later. Zubkus corralled the
puck at the back boards and tried to clear it, but Ed Henrich inter-
cepted the pass at the left point and dumped it in front for Robi-
taille. The goal ended the night for Bandurski, who was replaced by
Eddy Skazyk.
Over the past few years, the Golden Knights have had the annoying, and
sometimes costly, habit of taking a big lead and then sitting on their
heels, allowing their opponent to get back into the game. For whatever
reason, they had never done this against Cornell -- at least, not until
Saturday night. Murphy went off for hitting from behind at the 16:02
mark, and the Big Red's five-forward power play struck for the second
time on the weekend at 17:49. After a brief flurry, Brad Chartrand's
try was blocked by Currie at the edge of the crease, but the rebound
floated over to Hannah on the other side, and he backhanded the puck
into the net as Currie was diving back. Still, with the Golden Knights
holding a 4-1 lead, the Cheel faithful had little reason to be nervous
at the end of the second period.
However, it didn't take much time in the third for Cornell to make it a
whole new game. The Big Red won the opening faceoff and dumped the
puck into the Clarkson zone, where Jake Karam dug it out and worked it
over to Geoff Bumstead behind the net. Bumstead came around the net
and bounced one in off Currie's left pad to make it 4-2 twenty seconds
into the third. Bumstead struck again minutes later, as he got to a
loose puck and fired it under Currie while Karam was busy taking a
Clarkson defenseman out of the play.
It looked for sure like a flying Big Red team would erase a multi-goal
deficit for the second straight night, but Clarkson finally woke up,
and Robitaille got a momentum-killing goal at the 7:18 mark. Cornell
defenseman Dan Dufresne pinched in at the Clarkson end to take a shot
that Currie blocked, and the next thing anyone knew, Robitaille and
Chris DeRuiter were steaming back the other way on a 2-on-1. DeRuiter
got the puck over to Robitaille, whose quick shot eluded Skazyk. The
goal was a bit controversial, as Dufresne was unable to get back into
the play due to being knocked down and possibly held. At least, that
was the prevailing opinion on the Cornell bench, where coach Brian Mc-
Cutcheon spent a good thirty seconds hollering at referee Dan Murphy
about the situation.
Robitaille's goal seemed to take the life out of the Big Red, and
although they created some opportunities the rest of the way, they
never seriously threatened again. Skazyk left for the extra attacker
with about 40 seconds left, but Jean-Francois Houle rounded out the
scoring with an empty-netter with 10 seconds remaining. Currie had a
solid game in net for the Golden Knights, finishing with 21 saves,
while Bandurski had 20 and Skazyk stopped eight shots in relief.
--
Disclaimer -- Unless otherwise noted, all opinions expressed above are
strictly those of:
Bill Fenwick | Send your HOCKEY-L poll responses to:
Cornell '86 and '94 (.5) | [log in to unmask]
LET'S GO RED!!
Reporter: "What do you think of the team's execution?"
John McKay: "I'm in favor of it."
-- an exchange that occurred while McKay was coaching the 0-14 Tampa Bay
Buccaneers in 1976
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