As the season progresses, perhaps the Big Red men's hockey team and their fans
will look back on Monday night's game at Colgate as the turning point of the
whole season, the night the team finally came together and showed an immense
amount of character, recovering from a heart-breaking OT loss two nights before
as well as a 2-0 deficit in the third period of this one.  Perhaps the comeback
win will fuel a stretch drive similar to two years ago, when Cornell blitzed
the rest of the ECAC with a 14-1-1 finish that culminated in the ECAC
championship.  Or, maybe, this one will be remembered as a big "up" in an
up-and-down season. There's certainly the potential for the former to happen,
as Cornell tied the game with a pair in the last eleven minutes of regulation
and picked up the badly-needed win at 3:53 of the OT.
 
The win ended a number of streaks, both for Cornell and Colgate.  For the Red
Raiders, it stopped a four-game unbeaten streak and ended a 4-0 run against
ECAC competition.  It also broke a string of 12 consecutive overtime games in
which Colgate had not lost (8-0-4, dating back three years).  The Big Red ended
a four-game losing slide in the ECAC and also stopped a non-winning streak in
overtime that had reached eight games (0-2-6) since the three-OT win against
Providence in last year's Syracuse Invitational.
 
Cornell didn't seem to be suffering any adverse effects from the Saturday night
game, as they came out and put 17 shots on Colgate goalie Dan Brenzavich.  But
the Red Raider netminder stood tall, frustrating the Big Red time and again...
including two 5-on-3 chances and all three power-play attempts that Cornell
would have on the night.  Cornell goaltender Jason Elliott was busy at his end
too, stopping 11 first-period shots.  The tide reversed in the second period,
as the speedy Colgate attack seemingly began to wear down the Cornell defense.
 But Elliott was still a wall, stopping 17 shots of his own and apparently
preserving the scoreless tie.
 
But with time running down, after Cornell had cleared the puck out of its zone,
the Red Raiders mounted one last rush up the ice, and Dru Burgess fired a high
slapper toward the Cornell goal.  The green light came on, the horn sounded,
and the puck sailed over Elliott's shoulder into the net.  Those events seemed
to happen in that order (according to Cornell play-by-play announcer Grady
Whitten- berg, whose reaction to the "goal" came somewhat after the horn), but
referee Bill Doiron ruled it a goal, coming at the 19:59 mark.  It is quite
possible that the puck went in after the period ended... as Cornell coach Mike
Schafer and some of his charges pointed out to Doiron, the red goal light
cannot be turned on once the green end-of-period light is lit.  Then again,
this setup may not take into account the reaction time of the goal judge,
perhaps seeing the puck go in but unable to hit the red light before the green
light came on. Whatever, the end result was a 1-0 Colgate lead.
 
(Those with long memories might view this one as payback for a similar goal
Cornell scored six years ago against the Red Raiders at Lynah.  It was the same
situation, with the puck going in seemingly just after the buzzer sounded and
Cornell being credited with the goal.  Lynah has no green lights to help out,
however.  That one came at the 20:00 mark of the period, which if you think
about it is impossible.)
 
The momentum had clearly shifted to the Red Raiders, and they pushed their lead
to 2-0 3:05 into the third.  With Cornell losing the puck at their own blue
line, Darryl Campbell skated in on a 2-on-1 with Rob Mara and beat Elliott to
the stick side.  The Big Red struggled for the first half of the third period,
trying to force passes through the neutral zone, which resulted in a number of
turnovers and Colgate rushes.  But finally, Keith Peach found Jeff Burgoyne at
the center-ice red line, and the defenseman skated the puck into the Colgate
end on a 2-on-1 with David Hovey.  Burgoyne fired a hard 25-footer that eluded
Brenzavich at the 9:12 mark.
 
With under four minutes left in the third, Darren Tymchyshyn got the puck low
near the right corner of the Red Raider zone, and he quickly fired a pass into
the slot for David Adler, who redirected it through Brenzavich's five-hole.
 Adler's first goal of the season tied the contest at 2-2 with 3:29 remaining.
Seventeen seconds later, a flurry in front of the Colgate net resulted in a
pileup, which quickly became a shoving match.  Four misconducts were called,
two on each team, but Colgate came off with the worst of it, as Burgess, their
leading scorer and power-play quarterback, was one of those tossed.  Thus, when
the Red Raiders did get a power play, at 17:53 of the third, they weren't able
to do a whole lot with it.
 
The first couple minutes of OT belonged to Colgate, but suddenly Cornell's
Jason Dailey broke free and wristed one from the left circle that missed by
inches.  Colgate had the next big chance, on a bullet by Jed Whitchurch, but
Elliott blocked the shot and, as the puck dropped between his pads, Doiron
whistled the play dead.  The Red Raiders were, ah, not pleased, and the end
result was coincidental unsportsmanlike conduct minors to Dailey and Colgate's
Dan Wildfong.
 
Later in overtime, the Red Raiders attempted to clear the puck out of their
end, but Kyle Knopp was barely able to keep it in, sending a pass to Ryan
Moynihan in the slot.  Moynihan's first attempt bounced off a defender and
fluttered back to the blue line, where Burgoyne knocked it down and sent it in
again.  Moynihan, still in the slot, took another whack at it, got knocked to
his knees, and hacked at it a third time, rolling the puck past Brenzavich and
over the line with 1:07 left in OT.  Colgate protested, claiming the net had
been knocked off the moorings prior to the score, but Doiron ruled that the
goal stood.  Brenza- vich was so incensed that he chased the ref down the ice,
hollered at him, and smashed his goalie stick on the boards near the Colgate
bench.  This was not a brilliant move -- Doiron hit him with an "abuse of
officials" major and a game disqualification.  Majors and DQ's were also handed
out to Colgate's Mark Holdridge (spearing) and Cornell's Tyler Sutherland
(punching), who went toe-
to-toe near the net.  Sutherland will sit for this Friday's game at Western
Michigan, while Holdridge and Brenzavich will be shelved for Colgate's game on
the 30th, when they host St. Lawrence.
 
After his sterling first period, Brenzavich stopped only nine of the remaining
12 shots he faced, finishing with 26 saves.  Elliott had possibly his best
night of the season, as he stopped 38 of 40 shots.  In Cornell injury news,
senior center Ryan Smart, who suffered a broken thumb in the second period of
Saturday's game, had surgery on it that night to insert a screw to help it to
heal.  He's expected to miss the next five to seven weeks -- a big blow for the
Big Red.
 
--
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
"A friend of mine became a billionaire by inventing Cliff Notes.  When I
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 story short...'"
-- Steven Wright
 
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