Scores from Tuesday 1/29:
Boston College 5, CORNELL 4
Lowell 7, YALE 2
Babson 5, UMass-Boston 2
Connecticut College 6, Bentley 3
Salem State 10, Bowdoin 6
Notes on the game at Lynah:
Boston College 5, Cornell 4
This one started out looking very much like last season's meeting
between these two teams at Conte Forum, which was an 8-3 laugher for
BC. However, Cornell was able to rally from a three-goal deficit and
made a pretty exciting game of it, although they never led. Ryan
Hughes scored all four goals for the Big Red, recording a natural hat
trick in the process. Corrie D'Alessio started in goal, appearing in
the 84th game of his career and breaking the Cornell record for goal-
tenders, which was previously held by Ken Dryden.
BC played without forwards Steve Heinze and Jeff O'Neill (both out with
injuries), but that didn't seem to matter, as the Eagles came out on
fire in the first period. Conversely, the Big Red played rather tenta-
tively in the opening stanza; they could not keep up and were unable to
establish much of a forecheck, playing almost as if they were afraid to
hit the BC players. The Eagles threatened several times in the first
period (including a couple of breakaway attempts), and they finally
struck pay dirt at the 10:36 mark on freshman John Joyce's first career
goal. Joyce's initial high shot was blocked by D'Alessio, but Joyce
picked up the rebound on the left side and fired a shot over the
goalie's leg from a tough angle. Two and a half minutes later, David
Emma put the Eagles up 2-0 with the first of his two goals, both on the
power play. Emma skated around the net to D'Alessio's left and let fly
with a shot that rolled across the goal mouth and crossed the line just
inside the left post.
Cornell continued to play sloppily for the rest of the first period,
and things did not get any better for the Big Red at the beginning of
the second period when Joe Dragon took an idiotic penalty. During a
stoppage of play, BC's Joe Cleary hooked Dragon's arm (one of several
instances in the game where BC players were pulling some sneaky things
after the whistle blew), and Dragon took offense, skating up to Cleary,
jawing with him a little, and elbowing him in the head. Referee Tim
MacConaghy saw it (the refs *always* see the retaliation, don't they?)
and called Dragon for hitting after the whistle. This gave BC their
second power play of the game, and Emma did not take very long to
convert, blasting one through D'Alessio's pads from the right side at
2:08 to put the Eagles up 3-0.
The Big Red began their comeback at 4:44 of the second period -- or
rather, Hughes did, redirecting Doug Derraugh's soft shot under BC
goalie Scott LaGrand's leg. A little later in the period, the Eagle
players got pretty angry about something -- probably the officiating,
as MacConaghy has a reputation for inconsistency. LaGrand was upset
about the net at the BC end of the ice, which comes off its moorings
easily (most goalies seem to LIKE that), and several of the other
players were huddling around the ref and having some apparently heated
discussions. The game started to get very rough, with all kinds of
elbowings, holds, trips, and so forth. To MacConaghy's credit, he
managed to get the game back under control without calling a lot of
cheap penalties. He did whistle BC's Matt Glennon for hooking, and
when Glennon skated up to him and hollered at him, MacConaghy
immediately hit him with a ten-minute misconduct. At any rate, Hughes
scored his second goal on the ensuing power play, at the 9:20 mark, on
a wrist shot from the bottom of the right circle.
Cornell suddenly mounted a great deal of offensive pressure, and they
were able to bottle BC up in their own end -- even when the Eagles went
on the power play a couple minutes later. This pressure paid off at
13:48 of the second period, as Hughes tied the game up with his third
straight goal. Derraugh tracked down the puck behind the BC net and
sent a perfect feed to Hughes, who was skating in front of the goal.
Hughes one-timed the puck into the air and over LaGrand. There was
some more rough play between the teams later in the second, and the
officials kept the teams separate as they left the ice for the second
intermission.
Cornell's Phil Nobel was whistled for interference at the end of the
second period for running into LaGrand -- a call I have to question,
since it was not made immediately. It looked suspiciously like LaGrand
and others complained to MacConaghy, and he gave them the penalty. At
any rate, it took only 54 seconds of the third period for BC to retake
the lead, on Ted Crowley's hard slapshot from the right point that flew
by D'Alessio, who was screened on the play. But Ryan Hughes tied the
game up again for the Big Red at 3:01, taking a pass from Trent
Andison, rushing up the ice, and beating LaGrand with a 15-foot back-
hander. Hughes' stellar performance wound up going for naught, as BC's
David Franzosa took a pass from Scott Zygulski and fired the puck at
the Cornell net. D'Alessio kicked aside the shot, but Franzosa one-
timed his own rebound under D'Alessio's foot for what would prove to be
the game-winner with 12:09 left in the third period.
Cornell had some chances to get the equalizer during the rest of the
third period, but with 2:14 left, MacConaghy made a questionable call
that all but decided the game. LaGrand went behind the BC net to play
the puck, and Trent Andison ran into him. MacConaghy's arm shot up,
and he whistled Andison for hitting from behind. Now, I don't have a
problem with the call itself (it was technically a correct one --
Andison did hit LaGrand from behind), but it was a serious inconsis-
tency on MacConaghy's part. He had been calling a pretty loose game up
to that point, letting a fair amount of extracurricular activity go
(including, yes, a few other instances of hitting from behind). Why
crack down all of a sudden in the last couple minutes of the game?
It's unfortunate that this is exactly the type of inconsistent
officiating that MacConaghy is known for -- and in many ways, an
inconsistent ref is far worse than a merely bad one. The other thing I
don't like about this call is that it seems to be an instance of
preferential treatment of a goalie who is out of the crease. You
cannot touch a goalie in the crease, but if he leaves that area, he
becomes just another player. I guarantee you that if it had been a BC
forward or defenseman with the puck, that call would not have been
made. Well, as you might expect, Cornell coach Brian McCutcheon was as
livid as the fans were, coming thisclose to earning himself a bench
minor. Once the game resumed with BC on the power play, the Eagles
went into a frustratingly effective stall, holding the puck behind
their own net, skating slowly up the ice, and so forth. They didn't
even bother taking a shot on goal, electing instead to play keep-away,
and it worked. Cornell was unable to get control of the puck until
there was less than half a minute left, and they didn't get the extra
attacker on the ice until there were five seconds remaining.
Although this game, like the one against Lake Superior at the SIT, showed
that the Big Red is capable of playing with the top squads in the country,
it also pointed out a glaring problem that has haunted Cornell all season --
the inability to put together 60 minutes of solid hockey. If Cornell had
played in the first period the same way that they played in the last two,
they most likely would have beaten BC. Lapses like that have already cost
the Big Red some other games that they should have won (Princeton, Colgate
twice). With the always-tough North Country teams coming to town this
weekend, and with Cornell probably now in the position of having to win
either the ECAC title or the tournament championship to get an NCAA bid, the
Big Red is going to have to pull together and play consistently at the high
level that they've shown they're capable of. It's certainly too early to
write them off, but despite having plenty of talent, they are not yet a
serious NCAA championship threat.
Bill Fenwick
Cornell '86
LET'S GO RED!!
From the "I never thought of that" department:
"To open, use can opener"
-- Printed on the top of a can of Furmano's spaghetti sauce
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