Another pair of home losses, combined with Princeton's tie of Vermont,
dropped the Big Red further into eleventh place, two points out of a playoff
spot -- effectively three, since Princeton will likely end up with the tie-
breaker edge. Cornell hasn't won in a month and has now lost eight straight
games, which is their longest losing streak in 33 years. (Back in 1959-60,
Cornell lost 19 straight. The Big Red won't break that record... will
they?) The Big Red has already guaranteed themselves their worst regular-
season record since that infamous 1959-60 season, and one more loss in their
last four games will give them their worst ECAC mark ever. And yet, with
all of that, Cornell still has a chance to make the playoffs -- although
that would involve beating Vermont and Dartmouth at Lynah in the season's
final weekend. It's probably significant that Cornell hasn't swept a home
series since those two came to town in January of last year.
Harvard 6, Cornell 3
[Arthur has already posted the box, so I won't waste bandwidth repeating it]
Notes:
In case there were those who might have been wondering whether the
fourth-ranked Crimson could win a game on talent alone, Friday night's
contest at Lynah showed that they can. Against a Cornell squad they
should have handled easily, Harvard did not look like a nationally-
ranked team for the most part -- the Crimson flubbed passes, took a few
dumb penalties, and were generally undisciplined for a good portion of
the game. That, combined with the Big Red's playing aggressively in
one of their best efforts of the season, kept this one close until the
last few minutes.
The evening began with a rarity as far as Harvard-Cornell games go:
there was no announced warning about throwing objects on the ice.
Other than the traditional newspapers at the start of the game, there
was very little of that kind of thing going on -- and this is a rivalry
which tends to bring out the worst in the Lynah Faithful. I suspect
the "fans" who delight in tossing things at anyone wearing crimson have
already given up on the Cornell team this year. The only object I saw
tossed onto the ice was a can of tuna before the third period -- which
in itself is beyond moronic, but at least it didn't cost the Big Red a
penalty. Oh, and the game was not a sellout (about 50 people short),
and I think you'd have to go back to the mid '60s to find the last time
that happened for a Harvard-Cornell game.
Cornell's aggression caused quite a bit of trouble for the Crimson
early on, as the Big Red jumped on Harvard almost from the opening
faceoff. Fifty seconds into the first period, Tyler McManus led a rush
into the Harvard zone, leaving a drop pass for Jake Karam, but Karam
had the puck poked away from him, which started a rush the other way.
A 3-on-1 developed in Cornell's end, but Steve Flomenhoft lost the
handle on a cross-ice pass near the left circle. The Crimson kept
control of the puck, however, sending it behind the net, where Matt
Mallgrave found Flomenhoft all alone in the right circle. Flomenhoft
took Mallgrave's pass and sent a fluttering shot toward the net, which
beat goaltender Eddy Skazyk to the stick side with 1:18 gone in the
first. (I was a bit surprised, with an almost-healthy Andy Bandurski
available, that Coach Brian McCutcheon went with the less-experienced
Skazyk for this game. Maybe he felt the team would play better in
front of Skazyk than Bandurski, or perhaps the team is more used to
Skazyk's style, since he's had most of the action for the past three
weeks. Skazyk did play fairly well, coming up with several big saves,
but he also let in a few soft ones.)
It took the Big Red 32 seconds to tie the score and get the Faithful
back into the game. With the Big Red hustling up the ice, Mark Scollan
stole the puck at the Harvard blue line and worked it deep into the
zone, where he found Brad Chartrand in front of the net. Chartrand
hacked at the puck and sent it across the line behind Harvard goalie
Aaron Israel. Five minutes in, Scollan had a great chance to put the
Big Red in the lead when he poked the puck past a Harvard defender and
retrieved it behind him to set up a breakaway, but Scollan lost the
handle in shifting to his backhand, and the puck rolled harmlessly to
the left of the net.
Shortly after that, Harvard's Brian Farrell found himself with a break-
away opportunity, but Cornell defenseman Alex Vershinin chased him down
and disrupted him enough that Farrell couldn't get much of a shot off.
Former Olympian Ted Drury made some noise at the six-minute mark with a
breakaway of his own, but Skazyk came up with a great pad save to
defuse that threat. As you can guess, that fired up the Lynah crowd,
but Harvard finally regained the lead at the seven minute mark. With
the puck rattling around the end boards, Skazyk skated behind the net
to stop it, but the puck hit a hinge on one of the doors and came out
directly in front of the net. With Skazyk scrambling back to the
crease, two Harvard forwards (Mallgrave and Tom Holmes) whiffed on
empty-net chances, but Flomenhoft worked the puck over to the right
circle, where he wristed one that Mallgrave deflected through Skazyk's
legs.
Once again, Cornell answered quickly, as Andre Doll found Karam near
the right circle, and Karam slid the puck over to McManus in the slot.
McManus turned and poked the puck past Israel into the net at 8:32 of
the first. Referee Tim MacConaghy then called Cornell's Geoff Lopatka
for hooking at the 10:28 mark, which was somewhat questionable consi-
dering what he and fellow ref Rob Hearn had been letting both teams get
away with up to that point. When Etienne Belzile was subsequently sent
off for hooking, it left Harvard with a 51-second 5-on-3, which, almost
unbelievably, they proceeded to fritter away. They took a good 15
seconds to bring the puck out of their own zone, and when they finally
got some pressure going in Cornell's end (after a few botched passes),
they were hit with a crease violation.
With about a minute to go in the first, the Big Red had a 2-on-1 going
with Karam and McManus, but as McManus broke for the net, he lost
Karam's pass. Cornell then came up with a couple of golden oppor-
tunities in the first minute of the second period. Geoff Bumstead
found P.C. Drouin on a breakaway near the left circle, and Israel just
barely deflected Drouin's shot wide. Then Karam blew through the Har-
vard defense and got a nice pass from the right side of the zone, but
his wrister went over the net.
Three minutes into the second period, Cornell dumped the puck into the
Harvard zone and started a line change. If what happened next was
deliberate, it was a pretty smart play: the Crimson shot the puck over
near the Cornell bench, where it hit one of the departing players in
the skate, causing Hearn to whistle the Big Red for too many men on the
ice. As if that wasn't bad enough, the Crimson took the lead for good
on the ensuing power play, as Flomenhoft got around Shaun Hannah and
slid the puck over to Lou Body in the left circle, who fired a rising
slapshot that Derek Maguire tipped past Skazyk at the 4:25 mark.
Drouin had a chance to tie the score again with 8:30 gone in the
second, but his shot hit the crossbar.
Skazyk came up big with 5:30 remaining before intermission, as he
stuffed a Harvard 2-on-0 break, kicking aside a shot from the right
circle and stopping the rebound try while he was sprawled in the
crease. Seconds later, he came up with another great pad save, but by
this time, Harvard was doing a good forechecking job on the Big Red,
and it paid off at the 18:16 mark. Farrell worked the puck into the
slot, where he took a shot that Skazyk blocked, but Drury was trailing
the play, and he beat a pair of Cornell defensemen to the rebound and
poked it through the goaltender's pads.
Yet another great effort by Skazyk three minutes into the third period
kept the Crimson from making it a 5-2 game, as he got his left pad on a
breakaway attempt by Jason Karmanos. Harvard's Perry Cohagan went off
for interference at 7:39 of the third, and the Big Red came up with a
solid power play, keeping the pressure on the Harvard penalty-killers
and creating a number of chances near the net. It paid off at 8:28 on
a beautiful play; Bumstead sent a long pass to a wide-open Drouin near
the crease, who one-timed it over a sprawled Israel.
With 4:54 remaining, Drouin came into the Harvard zone on a breakaway
with two Harvard guys chasing him, and Michel Breistroff caught up to
him and hooked him to the ice. The ensuing power play brought a bit of
comic relief, with Israel waving for icing practically every time Cor-
nell got the puck across the blue line. Fortunately, the refs pretty
much ignored him. This power play wound up being the Big Red's last
chance to tie the game, as Harvard (who by now was playing quite a bit
better than in the first period) successfully killed it off and shortly
afterward got themselves some breathing room. Cohagan and Cory Gustaf-
son came into the Cornell zone and for some reason, the two defenders
who were on them switched men. They didn't do it quickly enough, how-
ever, as Gustafson was sprung on a breakaway. He raced to the slot and
sent a low backhander past Skazyk's stick side with 1:59 left in the
game. (Note: for what it's worth, the box score in the _Ithaca
Journal_ also gave Karmanos an assist on this goal)
The Big Red sagged noticeably after that one. Skazyk was pulled with
under a minute left, and almost immediately, Chris Baird tried for the
empty-netter. His weak backhander bounced off the side of the net, but
with one second remaining, Maguire did get Harvard's sixth goal with a
soft shot from center ice. Skazyk stopped 30 of 35 shots, while Israel
wound up with 21 saves.
Despite the Big Red's tenacious play, Harvard deserved this win;
they're clearly far more talented than Cornell is (so I'm a master of
belaboring the obvious). By and large, however, I was not impressed
with the Crimson. It didn't seem like they were playing smoothly until
late in the game, and in spite of his goal and two assists, I didn't
find Drury to be the game-breaking star I thought he was -- at least,
not on this night. Harvard is a shoo-in for the regular-season title,
but if they play like that, they will have their hands full come
playoff-time.
Brown 4, Cornell 2
Brown 0 2 2 -- 4
Cornell 0 1 1 -- 2
First period -- Penalties:
B Patrick Thompson (holding), 9:31; C Russ Hammond (high-sticking),
12:03
Second period -- Scoring:
C Mark Scollan (Shaun Hannah, Brad Chartrand), 1:14 0-1
B Brian Jardine (Mike Ross, James O'Brien), 17:12 1-1
B Scott Hanley (Derek Chauvette), 19:24 2-1
Penalties:
B Jardine (hooking), 6:40; C Bench (too many men on ice, served by Russ
Hammond), 9:04; C Bill Holowatiuk (misconduct), 9:04; B James O'Brien
(slashing), 10:31; B Mark Fabbro (holding), 18:44; C Shaun Hannah
(tripping), 19:05
Third period -- Scoring:
B Chauvette (Hanley, Ryan Mulhern), 4:21 (PP) 3-1
C Geoff Lopatka, 7:22 3-2
B Hanley, 19:48 (EN) 4-2
Penalties:
B Mike Traggio (interference), 1:01; C Ryan Hughes (holding), 2:57;
B Chris Schremp (interference), 7:55; B O'Brien (hitting after
whistle), 8:45; C Hammond (hitting after whistle), 8:45; C Tyler
McManus (high-sticking), 13:36
Shots on goal: Brown 11-14-11 -- 36, Cornell 2-6-11 -- 19
Power play: Brown 1 of 5, Cornell 0 of 6
Goaltending:
B Mike Parsons (19 shots, 17 saves)
C Andy Bandurski (out at 19:05 third period, 35 shots, 32 saves)
Notes:
I suggested to a few people that the Big Red might be better off
suiting up the JV team for the Harvard game, which they had little
chance of winning, and giving the regulars some rest to get ready for
this one. I doubt any coach would ever do that (or be permitted to),
but I mentioned it because I was figuring something like this was going
to happen. The Big Red played an aggressive, emotionally draining game
against Harvard and didn't have much of anything left for a Brown team
which was very beatable Saturday night. I told somebody after the Har-
vard game that I felt if Cornell had played like that for the whole
season, they would have won at least four more games -- well, make it
five.
A question for anyone who follows Brown hockey: what's the deal with
junior goalie Brett Haywood? He and Geoff Finch had been handling the
goaltending duties for the Bears the last two seasons, but it seems now
that freshman Mike Parsons has taken Haywood's place. And frankly,
Parsons is no freshman sensation; he looked very shaky against the Big
Red, as he had back in December the last time these two teams met.
Fortunately for Parsons, Cornell played the gracious host Saturday
night, as the Big Red only tested him with eight shots through the
first two periods.
A harbinger of things to come occurred on Cornell's first power play,
which was pretty awful. No matter what they tried, it seemed that the
Big Red could not hold on to the puck. In fact, it was Brown putting
together a 2-on-1 break as the power play ended, forcing goaltender
Andy Bandurski (making his first start in four weeks) to come up with
the pad save. Both teams were flat in the first period, and the only
other newsworthy occurrence came with under three minutes left, when
linesman Mike Andrews whistled Cornell for icing despite the fact that
Shaun Hannah's pass from his own blue line clearly went through the
legs of another Cornell player at the other blue line. It's been a
while since I've seen Coach McCutcheon jump that high.
At 1:14 of the second period, Mark Scollan got the first goal of his
Cornell career on a nice play. As he was breaking toward the net, a
Brad Chartrand pass went off his skates; Scollan picked up the puck,
went behind the net, and surprised Parsons with a wrap-around to the
left side. The Big Red had another chance a few minutes later, with
Ryan Hughes and P.C. Drouin on a 2-on-1 break, but Hughes' pass led
Drouin a little too much, and the Brown defense was able to catch up to
the puck. Midway through the period, the Big Red was hit with their
second too-many-men call of the weekend, and Brown came close to making
them pay for this one as well. With Bandurski out of the net to the
right side, the Bears had a pair of shots at the empty goal, but they
missed the net the first time, and the second shot went into a clump of
players before Bandurski threw himself on top of it. This led James
O'Brien, who had taken the second shot, to nullify the Bears' power
play with a very stupid slash of Bandurski.
It looked like Cornell was going to take their lead into the locker
room, but the late goal, which has plagued the Big Red this season,
rose up once again to squash their momentum. Actually, it was a pair
of late goals, the first coming with 2:48 remaining in the second.
Mike Ross and Brian Jardine broke out of the Brown zone, and Ross fired
a cross-ice pass that was behind Jardine. It hit him in the back
skate, but Jardine recovered nicely and kicked the puck to his stick.
No sooner had I said, "Nice play -- hope he doesn't score" when he did,
skating through the Cornell defense and wristing the puck under a
diving Bandurski from the right circle. The Big Red barely had time to
absorb that when Scott Hanley gave the Bears the lead for good, ramming
home a centering feed from Derek Chauvette with 36 seconds remaining
before intermission.
Cornell came back from the break two minutes early, but it didn't help
much, as they were playing tentatively early in the third period.
Matters got even worse when Brown went on the power play and Cornell
absolutely could not clear the puck. Whatever they tried, the puck
would wind up on a Brown player's stick, and he would usually take a
shot at the net. Bandurski kicked aside three shots in the span of
about fifteen seconds before Chauvette finally buried it at the 4:21
mark.
However, the Big Red got back into the game three minutes later on a
fluke goal that, for once, went their way. Geoff Lopatka carried the
puck to the right corner of the Brown zone, spotted John DeHart to the
left of the net, and tried to center the puck for him. Parsons
attempted to block the pass, but the puck bounced off his stick and
wound up in the net. The goal fired the Big Red up for a while, but
Parsons and the Brown defense were able to keep Cornell from mounting
much in the way of sustained pressure in the Bears zone, and Cornell
eventually lapsed into the tentative play they had exhibited earlier in
the period. Cornell called timeout with 1:14 to play, and when the
Bears iced the puck with 55 seconds remaining, Bandurski headed to the
bench for the extra attacker. Another stoppage in play occurred with
37 seconds left, setting up a faceoff to Parsons' left, but Brown won
it and forced the puck into the Cornell zone. Hughes got to the loose
puck and tried to send it behind the Big Red goal, but the puck bounced
off the net and came loose in front, where it was reached by an unmol-
ested Hanley and shovelled home for the empty-netter with 12 seconds
left. Bandurski made 32 saves, while Parsons recorded 17.
A couple of rather revealing comments were made by a displeased team captain
Ryan Hughes after the game. In assessing his teammates' play, Hughes said,
"It seems like we're happy just to go out there and play decent and say we
worked hard. The guys are happy to come into the room and say, 'We worked
hard, we almost had them.'" Later on, in discussing the playoffs and the
Big Red's ever-diminishing chances to make them, he said, "Time's running
out on a lot of guys here. There are four seniors who don't want to see
this thing end in a couple of weeks. And unless we get it turned around
right now, that's what's going to happen." (Quotes from the _Ithaca
Journal_) It's been pretty obvious just from watching him that Hughes has
been extremely frus-trated this season, but this is the first time he's
boiled over in public. Frankly, I'm surprised it took this long.
--
Bill Fenwick | Send your HOCKEY-L poll responses to:
Cornell '86 and probably '94 | [log in to unmask]
LET'S GO RED!!
"Getting married was the best way I knew how to tick off my father-in-law."
-- Bob Saget
|
