As you may have already gathered from the volume of postings, this was, uh,
quite a weekend for ECAC hockey. I'd like to start off with an open memo to
the ECAC league office: Whatever Cornell University, its alumni, faculty,
staff, or students may have done to deserve the cruel and inhuman punishment
of being assigned Pierre Belanger for back-to-back road games, we apologize
sincerely and profusely, and we solemnly swear upon the graves of our
ancestors that we will never do it again. OK?
By the way -- Jeremy, Mike, and anyone else who would care to drop a
friendly(?) line to the ECAC office, the address is:
ECAC
PO Box 3
Centerville, MA 02632
I suspect I'll be mailing a note or two myself after Pierre makes his annual
pilgrimage to Lynah Rink. The ECAC *has* gotten rid of referees in the past
(including a couple from last season), so there is hope...
I think most, if not all, of these have already been posted, but here are
last weekend's ECAC scores anyway...
Friday, 11/16:
ARMY 6, Dartmouth 3
CLARKSON 5, Colgate 2
Cornell 7, ST. LAWRENCE 4
PRINCETON 4, Harvard 3
Rpi 5, BROWN 3
Vermont 4, YALE 4 (OT)
Saturday, 11/17:
Cornell 3, CLARKSON 3 (OT)
Harvard 5, ARMY 2
PRINCETON 9, Dartmouth 0
Rpi 4, YALE 3 (OT)
ST. LAWRENCE 5, Colgate 3
Vermont 5, BROWN 0
ECAC Standings as of 11/19/90:
League Overall
Team W L T Pts GF GA W L T Pts GF GA
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
Cornell 3 0 1 7 19 10 3 0 1 7 19 10
Clarkson 3 0 1 7 20 13 6 0 1 13 48 23
Harvard 3 1 0 6 26 9 3 1 0 6 26 9
St.Lawrence 3 1 0 6 15 13 5 2 0 10 32 22
Princeton 2 2 0 4 21 13 2 2 0 4 21 13
RPI 2 2 0 4 16 16 3 4 0 6 34 34
Yale 1 2 1 3 11 17 1 2 1 3 11 17
Colgate 1 2 1 3 14 18 4 2 1 9 33 30
Vermont 1 2 1 3 13 12 1 5 1 3 21 29
Army 1 2 1 3 11 16 1 3 2 4 16 24
Dartmouth 0 3 1 1 8 21 0 3 1 1 8 21
Brown 0 3 1 1 8 24 0 3 1 1 8 24
Division III scores from the weekend:
Friday, 11/16:
Geneseo 7, Cortland State 3
Elmira College Invitational Tournament (Pine Valley, NY):
I don't have scores for the games, but in the first round,
Salem State beat Mercyhurst and Elmira beat North Adams
State.
Saturday, 11/17:
Babson 3, Norwich 0
Brockport State 10, Cortland State 3
Fredonia 5, SUNY-Binghamton 4
Oswego State 7, Potsdam State 2
W. New England 5, Nichols 2
Elmira College Invitational Tournament:
Consolation:
Mercyhurst 8, North Adams State 1
Championship:
Salem State 5, Elmira 4 (OT)
Notes on a few of the games:
Elmira College Invitational:
Mercyhurst 8, North Adams State 1 (Consolation)
Mercyhurst had a 3-0 lead going into the third period on goals by
Mickey Keen, Kevin Gauthier, and Rick Gignac, but North Adams State's
Tim Hallett scored at 3:58 of the third to make it 3-1. Maybe
Mercyhurst was angry about blowing the shutout, because they proceeded
to explode for five goals, including three on the power play. Scott
Burfoot notched his two goals and two of his three assists in the
decisive third period.
Salem State 5, Elmira 4 (OT) (Championship)
Elmira College had won this tournament in each of the last two seasons
and was 5-0 going into this game, but the Salem State Vikings overcame
a 3-1 third-period deficit to beat the Soaring Eagles and take the
trophy at Murray Athletic Center. It was Elmira's first loss in 18
regular-season games.
On paper, this looked like a good matchup, as Elmira was one of the
top-rated teams in the ECAC East while Salem State was considered the
top team in the ECAC West. Elmira's Joey Spinelli put the Soaring
Eagles on the board with a goal in the first, and Salem State's Mike
Lacroix answered nine minutes into the second. However, Elmira's Bobby
Holmes and Tom Moses scored to put the Soaring Eagles up by two and
seemingly in control of the game. Salem State started its third-period
comeback with Todd Snell's short-hander, and the Vikings took a 4-3
lead when Chris Mullin scored twice within two minutes later in the
period. Elmira scrambled to tie the score, and with just 36 seconds
left in regulation, Holmes lit the lamp with his second goal to send
the game into overtime. The extra session lasted just 59 seconds and
ended with Dennis LeRoux's short-handed goal. The Vikings' Mullin was
voted the tournament's most valuable player.
Army 6, Dartmouth 3
Just to add a note to Mike Zak's posting -- the Cadets were led by Al
Brenner's hat trick. Which leads me to an interesting point: Brenner
is a senior at the United States Military Academy, and his hometown is
listed as Woodstock, Ontario. Since West Point cadets, as far as I
know, are required to be US citizens, I'm guessing his family is simply
living in Canada. Or maybe he switched citizenship to attend West
Point? (Boy, would *that* be a recruiting coup!)
Cornell 7, St. Lawrence 4
Not much to add to Mike's summary. The action was end-to-end in this
game, as the Big Red was a little sloppy at times on defense. Etienne
Belzile's goal at 8:50 of the first period, off a rebound of a Ryan
Hughes shot, was his first of the season. It's unusual for Belzile to
go far enough past the opponents' blue line to pick up a rebound -- he
scored only once last year, and that was in the ECAC tournament
semifinal against RPI. I was surprised that Les Kuntar got replaced
after the first period. Even though I think he's a little overrated,
he wasn't doing THAT badly.
Two of St. Lawrence's goals could be attributed to sloppy play by the
Cornell blueliners. In the second period, Lee Albert shot the puck
right between two Cornell defensemen toward Michael Allain, who tipped
it past goalie Jim Crozier. And in the third, on St. Lawrence's last
goal, the Big Red defense lost the puck at the blue line, allowing Mike
Lappin and Eric Lacroix to set up a two-on-none break. Lappin got his
hat trick with that goal. However, one player who starred for Cornell
was Doug Derraugh, who should finally be getting the respect he
deserves around the ECAC. Derraugh had two goals and three assists in
the game, and both of his goals were outstanding efforts. He scored a
power-play goal in the second when he faked a shot and, when the
defenseman went down to block it, skated around him and shot the puck
into the net. Then in the third, Derraugh scored Cornell's last goal
literally on his way back to the bench. He was going off at the end of
his shift when a St. Lawrence defenseman shot the puck right at him.
Derraugh intercepted the puck, skated into the defensive zone, and
blasted it past then-goalie Paul Spagnoletti. Cornell's seven goals in
this game were more than they scored in any game last season, and it
was the highest total since a ten-goal outburst at Brown in February
1989.
As for the Pierre report, well, he was talking to the players after
penalties again, and he even went so far as to call coincidental delay-
of-game penalties on a faceoff -- unusual, to say the least. The
penalties were pretty even, for what that's worth. Cornell's Belzile
did get hit with a ten-minute misconduct in the second period after
saying something to Pierre, but Etienne did start that one, and the
call was immediate. However, I did hear that Belanger was talking to
Belzile for the whole game, telling him what a sloppy skater he was.
Needless to say, there's no place in hockey for that kind of behavior.
If I write a letter about Pierre, you can bet that little story will be
in it.
Cornell 3, Clarkson 3 (OT)
OK, let's see a show of hands of people who are surprised by THIS
result. Yeah, I didn't think so. Next to "evenly matched" in the
dictionary are pictures of the Cornell and Clarkson logos.
Again, I don't have much to add to what Mike and Jeremy posted. Both
teams had plenty of opportunities to win, as Cornell missed several
scoring chances early on and Clarkson was unable to take advantage of a
very tired Cornell team later in the game. The stars of the game (not
counting our buddy Pierre -- don't worry, I'll get to him) were
definitely the goalies. In his first big game, Clarkson freshman Jason
Currie withstood constant Cornell pressure in the first, stopping 14 of
15 shots as the Big Red was unable to score their first goal until very
late in the period. Currie even got a piece of that shot (from Joe
Dragon), as it went between his pads. As for Corrie D'Alessio, he took
a little while to get into the game, allowing a couple of easy goals in
the first period, but he was terrific in the third period and in over-
time. Interestingly enough, Currie said he had watched D'Alessio play
last year and that he had tried to model himself after the Cornell
goaltender. Looks like Clarkson's got a franchise goalie again (John
who?) One other note: Clarkson forward Dave Trombley, who is tied
with Hugo "Don't call me Pierre" Belanger for the team lead in scoring
with 18 points, slammed his knee on the boards with about a minute left
in the second period, was helped off the ice, and I believe did not
return to the game.
It's too bad the officiating was such a joke, because this was the
ECAC's biggest matchup of the season so far, and it actually WAS a very
good game hockey-wise. What more is there to say about Pierre? Glad
you asked. First of all, Cornell had an almost obscene 12-3 power play
advantage. I think the problem was not necessarily that Belanger was
calling too many penalties against Clarkson, as the Golden Knights were
playing a rougher and more physical game than the Big Red was. Most,
though definitely not ALL, of the calls were at least borderline
legitimate, which is about all you should ask of Belanger. However,
Pierre did miss a number of calls that should have been made against
Cornell, which probably would have balanced things out. In addition,
he was his usual inconsistent self, coming down hard in the first
period (ten penalties), and then ignoring the action the rest of the
way (ten more penalties total in the second, third, and overtime).
Belanger and Belzile apparently patched up their differences from the
St. Lawrence game, as Belzile was not called for anything against
Clarkson -- including two times when he hauled down a Clarkson player.
I think Currie had the best line on how this game went when he said,
"We got a few bad calls. It tired out Cornell's big line, though." He
was referring to the power play unit, and indeed they did get VERY
fatigued.
It must have been thrilling and awe-inspiring to watch Pierre "take
control" of the game at the 17:12 mark of the first with a tripping, a
cross-checking, AND an unsportsmanlike conduct on Clarkson all at once!
The fact that the game was not *out* of control at that point didn't
seem to bother him.
Now, about that goal... Mike writes:
>At 12:28 Cornell scored on the pp. A pass to Andison of Cornell redirected
>off the Clarkson defenseman's skate into the net. Pierre having the two
>players between him and the goal assummed that the puck went off of Andison's
>skate. So he called the goal off.
The Cornell radio announcers thought that the puck had ricocheted in
off Andison's skate, and that the question was whether he had kicked it
(no goal) or it had just deflected off his skate (goal). Pierre
originally signalled that the goal was good, then waved it off after a
few seconds. Obviously, if the puck went into the net off a Clarkson
skate, the goal should have been good. If Pierre blew this one... hoo,
boy, I'll have to switch to a stronger blood pressure medication.
And as for all that fun and games with the band in the third period:
>Usually when Cornell plays @ Walker they complain about the bell and/or
>the pep band. I don't know if it was at Cornell's beckoning or Pierre took
>it on himself to try and keep the band from playing. Nobody heard the
>announced
>
>warning. The whole arena was standing and yelling at Pierre for a good two
>minutes after that.
About this complaining -- sorry, Clarkson fans, but that band IS known
for continuing to play after the play on the ice has resumed, and the
bell does ring while the game is going on (though only once or twice).
BUT, that isn't what happened here. The show started just after Pierre
missed a hooking call on Cornell's Etienne Belzile. Play was stopped
for some reason (icing, maybe?), and with the crowd still screaming for
a penalty, the band launched into "Three Blind Mice", which wasn't very
sportsmanlike but was certainly an accurate description of the
situation. Belanger skated down to that end of the ice and pointed up
at the band, apparently showing his intent to hit Clarkson with a bench
minor. He then skated over to the PA announcer and had that warning
announced. Well, as you might expect, that little act only made things
(much) worse. Eighteen hundred angry people in a small building can
make a hell of a lot of noise... Oh yes, and speaking of the bell,
somebody glued foam inside of it sometime during the day of the game.
Rumor has it that it might have been a couple of Cornell players --
(un)fortunately, the foam was removed before the game actually started.
Well, if you've read this far, you must REALLY be interested in what's going
to happen this week in the ECAC, so here's the schedule of upcoming games:
Nov. 20
Boston University at Harvard (NLG)
Providence at Brown (NLG)
Villanova at Army (NLG)
Nov. 21
Vermont at Middlebury (NLG)
Nov. 23
Alaska-Anchorage at Brown (NLG)
Harvard at Boston College (7:00) (NLG)
Lowell at Army (NLG)
New Hampshire at Clarkson (NLG)
Yale Hockey Classic:
Colgate vs. Colorado College (4:30)
Yale vs. McGill (7:30)
Nov. 24
Vermont at Dartmouth (8:05)
Boston University at Princeton (NLG)
Holy Cross at Army (NLG)
New Hampshire at St. Lawrence (NLG)
Northeastern at Cornell (NLG)
Yale Hockey Classic:
Consolation and Finals
Nov. 25
Boston College at RPI (NLG)
Have a happy Thanksgiving, everyone!
Bill Fenwick
Cornell '86
LET'S GO RED!!
"Pick a number from one to ten." "Got it."
"Is the number odd or even?" "Even."
"Is the number between one and three?" "No."
"Between three and five?" "No...I think I got him!"
"Between five and seven?" "Yeah."
"Number six!" "Right...How did he do that?...HEY!"
-- Abbott and Costello, in "Buck Privates"
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