Greg Berge writes:
>This was a great game to watch, with both Breznavich and Elliott the twins
>starts of the game, truning away numerous point blank chances.
That's the trouble with only one camera... a lot of stuff away from the puck
gets missed. There was certainly some good, even great, hockey played at times
on Saturday night, but there was also plenty of slashing, holding, and general
interference going on to slow things down. The local rag compared this game to
the clutch-and-grab defense that is so prevalent in the NHL these days, and
while I wouldn't go that far, it got pretty slovenly at times.
Dan Brenzavich had his best game against Cornell since his freshman season
(94-95) as Colgate beat the Big Red for the first time in seven tries, but he
had several shaky moments reminiscent of his play in the quarterfinal series
two years ago, in which he surrendered 15 goals in the two games and inspired
the Lynah Faithful's "We want Weder!" cheer. He wandered away from the crease
a lot, and Cornell had at least four opportunities to make him pay for it.
There were times when I felt that if Cornell could have maintained some
pressure on offense (which was a bit of a problem for the Big Red, though
Colgate's team speed deserves some credit for that), Brenzavich would have come
apart like a cheap rug. But they didn't, and he didn't. Guess I gotta give
the guy some credit for keeping "We want Weder!" out of the Faithful's
vocabulary Saturday.
>The Lynah crowded sounded fantastic on the EMPIRE broadcast.
EMPIRE must have had only one microphone too. The crowd was dead for large
portions of the game. Hopefully, they're just out of practice, as the last
home game was almost two months ago.
Anyway... going in, the question was whether Cornell's defense and goaltending
could keep Colgate's league-leading offense (averaging 5 goals per game) in
check, as they had done a week ago out on Long Island. The Big Red did a
pretty good job of it early on; despite being outshot 14-5 in the first period,
Cornell did not yield many good scoring chances. It was the Big Red striking
first, with a power-play goal at 12:50 of the opening period. Freshman
defenseman Larry Pierce took a long feed from Jeff Burgoyne and slapped one
that beat Brenzavich to the glove side. It was Pierce's third straight goal
for the Big Red, as he accounted for Cornell's two scores in their previous
game against the Red Raiders as well.
Three straight penalties on the Big Red late in the first finally proved to be
too much, as Colgate tied the score with 33 seconds left before intermission.
Tim Loftsgard fired a shot that goaltender Jason Elliott got a pad on, but Rob
Mara deflected the rebound into the net. Colgate made it 2-1 14 seconds into
the middle period, benefitting from some sloppy play in the Cornell zone. A
clearing attempt rolled into the slot and Elliott dove to poke the puck away,
but he wound up knocking it toward Cory Murphy, who one-timed a rocket from the
blue line that the fallen Elliott had no chance on.
Cornell controlled the play pretty much from then on, outshooting the Red
Raiders 14-5 in the period, and tied the game at the 7:25 mark. Frank Kovac
won a faceoff in the Colgate zone, getting the puck ahead to Jeff Oates. Oates
took two strides and suddenly, there was no one between him and the back of the
net except for Brenzavich, who Oates beat with a quick wrister from the slot.
This was the first of several scoring chances for the Big Red in the second,
but it would be the only one they would capitalize on.
A free-wheeling third period followed, and both goaltenders had some
spectacular saves to keep the game tied. Cornell went into overtime for the
second straight time at Lynah, and for the second straight time, a turnover
cost them, though this one wasn't quite as egregious as the pass through the
slot that gave Yale the 2-1 win back in November. A clearing attempt bounced
off a Big Red defender's skate and wound up on Murphy's stick; he skated across
the blue line and, as Dru Burgess streaked through the Cornell defense, sent
the puck toward the net. Burgess caught the pass and beat Elliott one-on-one
with a high wrister into the corner of the net, ending the game at 2:41 of the
extra session. For the game, Elliott had 27 saves and Brenzavich finished with
29.
Saturday's game showed that the Big Red have the capability to generate scoring
chances, but it also showed just how far the team has to go in order to convert
those chances consistently. Cornell gets another shot at Colgate tonight, when
they round out this year's series with a game at Starr Rink.
--
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
asked him where he got such a great idea, he said, 'Well, to make a long
story short...'"
-- Steven Wright
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