The ECAC got set for its five-week sprint to the end of the season with a
few odds-and-ends games last weekend, which pretty much evened up the
standings at twelve games apiece (except for Harvard and Union, who have
each played one extra game). Except for Harvard's Beanpot participation,
the rest of the schedule features only league games, as the race for playoff
positioning begins in earnest. Here are the weekend results and standings:
Friday, January 29, 1993:
DARTMOUTH 5, Princeton 4 (OT)
Rpi 8, UNION 3
VERMONT 6, Yale 3
Saturday, January 30:
COLGATE 6, Cornell 3
VERMONT 7, Princeton 1
CLARKSON 4, St. Lawrence 1
Yale 7, DARTMOUTH 6
ECAC standings as of 2/1/93:
League Overall
Team W L T Pts GF GA W L T Pts GF GA
------------------------------------------------------------------------
Harvard 12 0 1 25 64 33 13 1 1 27 72 39
Yale 8 2 2 18 58 42 11 6 2 24 87 70
RPI 8 3 1 17 50 33 11 5 4 26 81 59
Vermont 7 5 0 14 45 35 9 9 2 20 68 66
Brown 5 5 2 12 50 47 6 8 2 14 67 75
Clarkson 4 5 3 11 49 36 8 8 4 20 86 57
St. Lawrence 5 6 1 11 38 41 10 8 2 22 78 72
Dartmouth 5 7 0 10 40 50 7 9 0 14 53 71
Cornell 4 7 1 9 35 45 5 10 1 11 49 65
Colgate 4 8 0 8 42 59 6 11 3 15 82 89
Princeton 3 8 1 7 38 58 5 10 1 11 53 69
Union 2 11 0 4 26 56 2 14 0 4 35 69
Colgate's victory over Cornell this weekend gave the Red Raiders a season
sweep of the Big Red for the first time since the 1986-87 season. Notes
from that game:
Colgate 6, Cornell 3
For the second time this season, Cornell played a rotten game against
travel partner Colgate, but at least this time the Big Red had an
excuse. Cornell's lineup was a mess, thanks to the loss of forwards
Russ Hammond, Tyler McManus, and Mike Sancimino (P.C. Drouin was also
not dressed for this game, for more or less unknown reasons). The Big
Red got even worse news last weekend when goaltender Andy Bandurski,
who had seen all the action between the pipes up to that point, could
not go due to a badly sprained ankle (I also heard an unconfirmed rumor
that he was ill). Freshman Ed Skazyk, who had practiced with the team
for about a week (and who hadn't played hockey at all since last May),
was pressed into service, and despite the score, he really didn't do
too badly. Yet another freshman, forward Joel McArter, made his
Cornell debut Saturday night.
The game started off relatively well for Cornell, as they were able to
put some pressure on Colgate goalie Jason Gates early in the first
period. A couple minutes into the game, Jason Vogel had a good
opportunity from the slot with Gates sprawled on the ice, but he shot
wide. Later in the period, Shaun Hannah went through the Colgate
defense on a breakaway, but Gates came up with a nice pad save. This
seemed to fire up the Red Raiders, who started coming together at about
the same time as Cornell began to fall apart. Dan Gardner camped out
near the Cornell crease for a while before getting the puck and firing
toward the net. Skazyk sticked the shot aside but, in what was to
become an all-too-familiar refrain this night, no one from Cornell
could clear the rebound. Gardner got to it first and slapped a high
shot over Skazyk's glove at the 9:42 mark.
Colgate went up by two just over a minute later, and the goal was again
set up by Cornell's failure to clear the puck. After half a minute of
Red Raider passes, a couple of steals, and a scramble in front of the
net (during which Skazyk came up with three or four big saves), Clayton
Fahey lifted a loose puck over the goaltender's shoulder at 10:59 of
the first. Although the Red Raiders didn't score again in the period,
they controlled the play, and a rattled Cornell team was unable to get
much of anything going. The carnage continued in the second period, as
Colgate took a 4-0 lead with a pair of goals a minute and a half apart.
Brent Wilde circled behind the Cornell net and found Ron Fogarty alone
in front. Skazyk blocked Fogarty's first shot as well as his rebound
try, but the second rebound floated over to Fahey, who stuffed it home
at the 6:48 mark. Craig deBlois then scored at 8:23, and this was the
only goal that I thought Skazyk might have done a better job with.
Andrew Dickson fired a shot that Skazyk, out in the slot, made the pad
save on, and the puck dropped to the ice by his skate. deBlois got to
the loose puck before Skazyk could find it and flipped a shot into the
open net. I suspect it was a bit much to ask Skazyk to kick the puck
away or cover it, particularly with Dickson in his face and no Cornell
player within ten feet. It's the kind of play that Bandurski has made
pretty often this season, but then again, Bandurski has gotten used to
playing with a team that has trouble in its own end, and Skazyk hasn't
had that chance yet.
Well anyway, Cornell woke up a minute later, finally getting on the
scoreboard at 9:33 of the second period, when Andre Doll got the puck
near the blue line, skated into the right circle, and wristed it past a
diving Gates. Blair Ettles then made it 4-2 on the power play at the
11:12 mark, firing one from the left circle that went through Gates'
pads. But the Red Raiders struck again less than three minutes later
with a power-play marker of their own, as freshman Rod Pamenter scored
his first collegiate goal at 14:04. His slapshot from the point went
in the net over Skazyk's shoulder (Skazyk was partially screened by
Cornell defenseman Etienne Belzile, and the puck may have actually
deflected off Belzile).
With 4:15 left in the second, Skazyk had to come up with a great
sliding save to thwart a Colgate 3-on-2 short-handed break. With the
Big Red playing a very disorganized game at this point, it looked like
Colgate's three-goal lead would last until intermission, but Ryan
Hughes cut the deficit to two with 1:15 left on a fluke goal. Geoff
Bumstead flipped a shot from in close that Gates made the save on, but
the rebound came off his blocker, hit Hughes in the upper arm, and
bounced into the net. The Colgate players argued to no avail that
Hughes had hand-passed the puck into the net.
Late in the second period, Cornell's Jason Vogel crashed into the
boards and was helped off the ice, not to return for the rest of the
night. Turns out he dislocated his shoulder, which was a bit of news
the team could have done without -- since moving back to his forward
position a month ago, Vogel has been an integral part of the Big Red's
top line and the power play unit. In the third period, a desperate
Cornell team started pinching its defensemen in to try to generate more
scoring chances, and the move almost paid off a minute and a half in
when McArter came into the slot off a faceoff and fired a point-blank
slapshot at Gates, who deflected it with his blocker. With the
defensemen moving in, Cornell was vulnerable to the breakaway, and
indeed Colgate had several of them in the third period, but Skazyk was
outstanding in the net. At the 5:42 mark, he faced a 2-on-1 short-
handed break and made a beautiful sliding pad save to keep the Red
Raiders off the board.
Cornell had another golden opportunity eight and a half minutes into
the final period, when Gates was sprawled on the ice and Bumstead had
the puck a couple of feet away from him. Bumstead tried to lift the
puck into the empty net, but he didn't get it high enough, and Gates
smothered the shot with his glove. Cornell and Colgate continued to
trade chances through the period, with the Red Raiders coming thisclose
to scoring at the 16:30 mark. With Skazyk coming out of the net, a
Colgate forward fired a shot from the right circle that, almost impos-
sibly, bounced off the right post, slid along the goal line, bounced
off the left post, and came back out (it was reminiscent of what
hppened to Keith Tkachuk in overtime of the NC$$ championship game a
couple years ago). The Red Raiders, of course, thought they had
scored, but referee Dan Murphy signalled for play to continue.
Colgate iced the puck with 1:47 left, so the faceoff was brought back
to Gates' right. At this point, I thought Skazyk should have been
pulled for the extra attacker, but he stayed in until there was about
1:24 remaining. However, Colgate got control of the puck off a
turnover at center ice, and Gardner skated to the Cornell crease for
the empty-netter at the 18:56 mark. Skazyk went back in for the
faceoff and was pulled again with half a minute remaining, but the Big
Red was unable to do much. Skazyk ended up with 22 saves, while Gates
made 27.
Kudos to the Red Raiders, who are playing somewhat better after a horrible
first couple months of the season. As for the Big Red, they have to be
wondering who's mad at them now. Last weekend, after struggling all season,
they finally put together a pair of decent 60-minute efforts against Union
and RPI, and they looked like they had turned the corner -- and then illness
and injury took away three solid forwards and their top goaltender, all in
one week. It's not clear who, if anybody, will be back for this weekend's
games at Yale and Princeton (Bandurski will probably be back; Vogel will
almost definitely be out). But the Big Red is all of a sudden fighting for
their playoff lives. With Colgate a point behind and holding the tiebreaker
edge in head-to-head competition, Cornell can't afford to drop any games to
teams it should beat -- and if the Big Red is at full strength, I'd count
Princeton as one of those teams. With so many players out, the Big Red's
position is far more shaky. Get well quick, guys!
Tonight's Beanpot Tournament marks the return to action of the ECAC-leading
Harvard Crimson, who have been off the ice for the past couple weeks. The
ECAC schedule for this week:
Monday, February 1:
Beanpot Tournament (Boston, MA):
Northeastern vs. Harvard
Friday, February 5:
Brown at Union
Colgate at Princeton
Cornell at Yale
Dartmouth at Clarkson
Harvard at RPI
Vermont at St. Lawrence
Saturday, February 6:
Brown at RPI
Colgate at Yale
Cornell at Princeton
Dartmouth at St. Lawrence
Vermont at Clarkson
--
Bill Fenwick | Send your HOCKEY-L poll responses to:
Cornell '86 and probably '94 | [log in to unmask]
LET'S GO RED!!
"They gave him a year's supply of Turtle Wax -- what the hell is that? Folks,
I bought a bottle of Turtle Wax ten years ago. I've still got it. And I'm
pretty sure it'll last me the rest of my life."
-- Frank Santorelli, on the consolation prizes on "Jeopardy"
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