Perhaps Clarkson head coach Mark Morris should keep his team from reading
about themselves in _The Hockey News_ preview issues. Last year, the
Knights were THN's overwhelming choice to take the ECAC regular-season
title, but they stumbled in their last game to hand the crown to Harvard.
This year, they were the even more overwhelming favorite, especially since
"they've learned from last season." Oops. I doubt very much that a team
has won the ECAC regular-season crown after an 0-2 start (in recent memory,
anyway). At least the Knights get to go back to the friendly confines of
Cheel Arena, where they'll have the chance to get well in a hurry against
two probably not-so-good road teams, Colgate and Cornell. Still, forty
minutes a night ain't gonna do it.
Meanwhile, with their weekend sweep, Vermont has served notice that they're
not going to make it any easier on the opposition at rockin' and rollin'
Gutterson Fieldhouse than they did last year. If they can put together a
decent road record, this team will be a force to be reckoned with in the
ECAC. Harvard, leading the league with a 3-0 mark, continues to win
converts as well. The Crimson may have once again hit on a great freshman
goaltending tandem (a la Hughes and Roy) in Aaron Israel and Tripp Tracy.
Results from the weekend:
Friday, 11/13:
BROWN 5, Rpi 3
CORNELL 5, Princeton 4
HARVARD 4, Union 0
St. Lawrence 5, DARTMOUTH 3
VERMONT 3, Clarkson 2
Yale 10, COLGATE 6
Saturday, 11/14:
BROWN 5, Union 2
DARTMOUTH 4, Clarkson 3
HARVARD 4, Rpi 3
Princeton 4, COLGATE 1
VERMONT 4, St. Lawrence 3
Yale 3, CORNELL 2
ECAC standings as of 11/16/92:
League Overall
Team W L T Pts GF GA W L T Pts GF GA
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
Harvard 3 0 0 6 11 5 3 0 0 6 11 5
Yale 2 0 0 4 13 8 2 0 0 4 13 8
Vermont 2 0 0 4 7 5 3 1 1 7 14 14
Brown 2 1 0 4 12 8 2 1 0 4 12 8
St. Lawrence 1 1 0 2 8 7 4 1 0 8 27 16
Cornell 1 1 0 2 7 7 1 1 0 2 7 7
Princeton 1 1 0 2 8 6 2 1 0 4 16 6
Dartmouth 1 1 0 2 7 8 1 2 0 2 8 16
Clarkson 0 2 0 0 5 7 2 3 0 4 26 13
Colgate 0 2 0 0 7 14 0 4 0 0 12 22
Union 0 2 0 0 2 9 0 3 0 0 7 15
RPI 0 2 0 0 6 9 1 2 2 4 16 17
This was quite a weekend for the Big Red. They won the one they were sup-
posed to win and lost the one they were supposed to lose, but at the same
time, they had more chances to lose the one they won and more chances to win
the one they lost. (Say that three times fast :-) Notes from the action at
Lynah:
Cornell 5, Princeton 4
For whatever reason, the Tigers always seem to play Cornell tough, and
this year, a young Princeton team looks surprisingly good (especially
in their sharp new road uniforms -- getting rid of most of the orange
was a good move). They played aggressively most of the night, and if
their defense hadn't been depleted due to injuries -- Sverre Sears
(torn knee ligament) and David Scowby (possible broken rib) were out,
along with winger Keith Merkler (broken wrist) -- things might have
turned out differently. Cornell was also bitten by the injury bug, as
forward Tyler McManus messed up his back during practice and spent the
weekend in the stands.
I was asked Friday night if I was going to comment on the refs in my
game summary. Well, yes, I am. My new season's resolution this year
was to try to be more understanding of the guys in stripes, but the
officiating in this game was just not good. In fact, it was pretty
bad. In fact, in the first period, it was horrendous. A total of 21
penalties were called in the first 20 minutes, and about half the calls
were at best needless and at worst phantom. On at least two occasions,
a Cornell player was pushed, shoved, etc. by a Princeton player, did
nothing in retaliation, and was sent off with the Princeton player with
a coincidental minor. I'm sure the same thing happened a couple times
to the Tigers as well, although being a Big Red fan, I wasn't watching
them as closely. It got to the point where it seemed that referees
Harry Ammian and Peter Dawes were calling coincidentals on any two
opposing players who happened to be in the same area. The officiating
got a little better later on, but a game like this makes you realize
why it was felt that having only one referee would speed up play.
Princeton showed an aggressive penalty-kill early on, but with about
five and a half minutes gone in the first period, Tiger goalie Craig
Fiander almost gave up an easy goal. Cornell got the puck into the
Princeton zone, and a pass rattled around and bounced off the rear
boards, rolled toward Fiander, and ricocheted off his skate. The puck
rolled to the left post and almost across the goal line before Fiander
got his glove on it. The first set (actually two sets) of coincidental
minors came shortly thereafter, all for hitting after the whistle, as
some festivities broke out near the Princeton goal. (Not much seemed to
be happening, but I guess Ammian and Dawes wanted to "establish some
authority") The Tigers got on the board first at the 6:32 mark on a
relatively easy goal, following a giveaway right in front of the
Cornell net. Goaltender Andy Bandurski dropped to his knees to block
the first shot, and Jonathan Kelley backhanded the rebound into the top
of the net.
The new faceoff rule came into play 14 seconds later, as Princeton's
Ethan Early lived up to his surname by edging across the circle before
the puck was dropped. He obviously had no idea why he was whistled for
delay of game. Anyway, more coincidental minors followed, including a
marvelous bit of creativity in which Etienne Belzile was grabbed and
shoved into the side of the net by Princeton's Matt Zilinskas, dropped
his stick, skated away with his hands raised in the air -- and was
called for hitting after the whistle. By this point, the penalty box
was filled almost to overflowing, and when Princeton's Brent Flahr was
sent off for cross-checking mere seconds later, the number of players
in the box reached nine. When Alex Vershinin, who had been sent off
for holding seemingly hours ago, picked his way through the crowded box
and returned to the ice at the 15:20 mark, the Big Red suddenly found
themselves with a 5-on-3, and they quickly capitalized to tie the game.
Fiander blocked a shot by Ryan Hughes, but Jason Vogel picked up the
rebound on the left boards and popped the puck into the open right side
of the net at 15:57. Vogel put the Big Red up 2-1 with 2:46 left in
the first period, as he got his stick on a hard pass by Hughes and
redirected the puck past Fiander.
Princeton struck back in the second period, taking advantage of a
Cornell defense that was not checking too well. At 6:46, Zilinskas
tipped in a blast from Brian Bigelow to tie the game, and at the 9:05
mark, Scott Sinson and Terry Morris combined on a similar play to put
the Tigers up 3-2. Morris fired the puck through the crease to Sinson,
who slapped it under Bandurski's leg as the goaltender went down.
Freshman wing P.C. Drouin tied the game again for Cornell on the power
play at 11:42, as he let loose with a rocket from the right circle that
Fiander never saw. Vogel came thisclose to completing a hat trick with
a short-handed goal, as he and Hughes streaked in on a 2-on-1 break
with about 13 and a half minutes gone. However, Vogel's top-shelf
attempt was just an inch or so over the net.
Bigelow gave Princeton the lead with 3:22 left in the second, beating
Bandurski to the glove side. The third period, however, was almost all
Cornell, as Bandurski shook off some early jitters and the defense
finally began to clamp down. Bandurski was tested early in the third
when Vogel turned the wrong way as a Princeton wing flew by him,
setting up a clean breakaway, but the Cornell goalie stuffed the shot.
Princeton's Jason Smith was then sent to the box with a misconduct, and
a short time later, at the 3:59 mark, the Big Red's Russ Hammond tied
the game. He broke for the net, got the puck from Hughes, and fired a
tough angle shot behind Fiander. Hughes' assist on the play was his
fourth of the night and gave him 100 points for his Cornell career.
At 9:44 of the third period, Kelley slashed Cornell's Blair Ettles, who
dropped to the ice and stayed there for a few minutes while the trainer
worked on him. He got up and was able to get to the bench, but he was
clearly favoring one leg, and he was later taken to the training room.
(Kelley got a minor) With 5:10 to go, Geoff Bumstead and Mike Sanci-
mino were able to get the puck away from a couple Princeton players in
the corner, and Bumstead broke for the net, stuffing the puck between
Fiander's pad and the right post. A minute or so later, Princeton was
given a gift when Hughes was called for delay of game (Zilinskas
hollered at Ammian, who obligingly made the call -- it looked to me
like Hughes had not deliberately fallen on the puck, nor had he grabbed
it with his hand). The ensuing power play was for the most part inef-
fective, although near the end of it, they managed a quick shot that
bounced off the right post. That was as close as the Tigers would get
to tying the score, although they pulled Fiander with 51 seconds left.
Bandurski, off a sharp third period, wound up with 25 saves, while
Fiander finished with 28.
P.S. From the Bill Has Too Much Free Time department: This win gives
Cornell a 7-1 record in games played on Friday the 13th since the dawn
of the "modern era" of Cornell hockey, which began with the opening of
Lynah Rink in 1957. This includes a 3-0 mark in playoff games.
Yale 3, Cornell 2
This game was reminiscent of the first one between these two last
season, in which Cornell had many chances during the third period to
overcome a 3-2 deficit but failed to convert any of them. It also
served as a reminder that there are a number of freshmen on this year's
squad, and they are bound to make the occasional mistake. Not that
Yale didn't play well -- they did, although their offense lacked the
flash they had had last season (and apparently the night before at Col-
gate).
Along with Tyler McManus, defenseman Blair Ettles missed this game,
forcing head coach Brian McCutcheon to call up freshman Dan Dufresne,
who actually did reasonably well. The game started with Vogel being
announced as a winger on the first line (McManus' usual spot), and for
a minute it looked like the Big Red was going to go with only five
defensemen (suicide against an offense like Yale's), but Vogel quickly
dropped back to his defenseman spot once the game was under way.
After Friday night's fiasco, I thought maybe referees Rob Hearn and
Scott Hansen would put together a good effort in the officiating
department, but they may have set a record for earning the Lynah Faith-
ful's enmity when they hit Cornell with a bench minor before the start
of the game for, get this, dressing too many players during the warmup.
You can imagine the cascade of boos that greeted that call, and it is a
remarkably stupid-sounding penalty, but, Cornell fans, it's a for-real
rule. The note under Section 2.3.a of the 1992-93 NC$$ Hockey Rules
and Regulations states, "Should more than 18 players and three goalies
participate in the pre-game warmup or game, the offending team shall be
assessed a bench minor penalty." The officiating was quite good in the
first period (during which not much happened anyway), although things
got interesting later.
Cornell killed off that penalty and managed to score on its own power
play at 4:48 of the first, when Russ Hammond one-timed a pass from P.C.
Drouin into the net behind Yale goalie Todd Sullivan. The lead lasted
less than two minutes, as at 6:42, David Cochran blasted one from near
the blue line that flew over goaltender Andy Bandurski's right shoulder
and bounced in off the crossbar. Less than two minutes after that,
Mark Scollan had a terrific opportunity on a breakaway to put the Big
Red up 2-1, but he made one too many moves trying to go to his backhand
and lost the puck in front of the Yale goal. Not too long after that,
an already-depleted Cornell squad suffered another blow when Scollan
was injured going down to block a shot. He sat out the rest of the
game, and the Cornell lines had to be shuffled once again.
Mark Kaufmann stole the puck off the opening faceoff of the second
period and stuffed it under Bandurski's leg with just ten seconds gone
to give the Elis a one-goal lead. Two minutes later, the crowd was
treated to a clinic on the slow whistle, as the puck clearly hit the
net behind the boards (hence going out of play) and dropped to the ice.
Play more or less continued as Hearn and Hansen looked at each other
for literally several seconds before one of them decided to call for a
faceoff. Come on, I know the two-ref system is still new, but
SOMEBODY'S got to take the initiative.
The Big Red then proceeded to misfire on three big chances to tie the
game up. Four and a half minutes into the second, with Yale on the
power play, Sullivan sent the puck behind his own net, but Ryan Hughes
got to it first and, as Sullivan dropped his stick and struggled to get
back to the net, Hughes fired just wide to the left. Another shot
floated wide to the right, and then Jake Karam came in on a clean
breakaway and bounced a shot off the left post. The score was still
2-1 at the 11:28 mark, when Cornell's Bill Holowatiuk took a rather
dumb high-sticking penalty. (Holowatiuk is a good player and clearly
Cornell's defenseman of the future, but he had an awful night Satur-
day) It took Mark Kaufmann just 12 seconds to convert the ensuing
power play, as he wristed the puck over a sprawled Bandurski.
Geoff Bumstead brought the Big Red back to within one on an outstanding
play, stealing the puck along the right boards, getting off a shot on
Sullivan, and following up his own rebound into the left side of the
with 6:24 to go in the second. Half a minute later, Yale's Andy
Weidenbach crashed the Cornell net and slashed Bandurski, who was down
on the ice for a scary few minutes. Fortunately, he got up and was
able to continue. Weidenbach was sent off, and on the ensuing power
play, Bumstead picked up a rebound and, as he was skating by the Yale
net, fired the puck home to tie the score at 15:13 of --
Hold it. No goal -- icing. WHAT?!? That's right, folks, the play was
dead because the puck had been iced. Only problem was, it took the
referees several seconds to let everybody else know. I think this was
another one of those "Well, who's going to call it?" situations. I
don't know whether there was icing or not (I would tend to think not,
but then, I can't claim to be impartial, since it was my team that had
the goal disallowed), but if that was the call, then obviously play
should have been stopped a lot sooner, particularly when it was clear
that no one on either team had heard a whistle. This certainly didn't
cost Cornell the game, but it made the officials look rather bad. I
hope things improve as the season goes on.
The Big Red never did get the equalizer, although they held Yale to
just three shots on goal in the third period and had three power-play
attempts. Cornell played sloppily through the final 20 minutes, and
they looked tired and dispirited, icing the puck on the power play
several times. Bandurski was pulled for the game's final minute, but
the Big Red never really threatened. Sullivan figured heavily in
Yale's victory, as he stopped 31 of 33 shots; Bandurski recorded 24
saves.
One more gripe about the officiating: I don't know how the communi-
cation between the two referees works as far as deciding who is
supposed to be on the ice for faceoffs, but however it's done, it seems
to need improvement. Several times over the course of these two games,
one referee would send a few guys off and the other would call them
back, creating all sorts of confusion. I hope this is just a side
effect of the officials getting used to the new system, rather than an
inherent problem with it.
Although Union puts off playing Dartmouth for a while, the other teams all
have a pair of games this weekend. Here's the schedule:
Friday, 11/20:
Brown at Yale
Colgate at Clarkson
Cornell at St Lawrence
Harvard at Princeton
Vermont at RPI
Saturday, 11/21:
Brown at Princeton
Colgate at St Lawrence
Cornell at Clarkson
Dartmouth at RPI
Harvard at Yale
Vermont at Union
Game to watch: Harvard at Yale. Although Yale has a tough Friday night
hosting a surging Brown team, and Princeton may cause Harvard a lot of
trouble, the Crimson and the Elis are likely to head into Saturday's
showdown at the Whale with perfect records, making this always-nasty game a
battle for first place. And the two schools continue their traditional
football rivalry Saturday also. A big weekend in Cambridge and New Haven.
--
Bill Fenwick | Send your HOCKEY-L poll responses to:
Cornell '86 and probably '94 | [log in to unmask]
LET'S GO RED!!
"It's difficult to buy anything in there because the saleswomen are so snooty.
They won't try anything on for you."
-- Ross Schaefer, on Victoria's Secret stores
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