As expected, and as has already been reported, Maine won the inaugural
Cleveland College Hockey Classic, defeating Ohio State 9-4 in the first
round and Bowling Green 6-2 in the final. Cornell boxes follow, along with
some (Big Red-biased) notes on all the tournament games:
12/29 First round:
Cornell 4 2 1 0 -- 7
Bowling Green 2 1 4 1 -- 8
First period
Scoring:
Cor P.C. Drouin 2 (Jake Karam, Tyler McManus), 1:39 1-0
Cor McManus 3 (Karam, Drouin), 5:22 2-0
Cor Ryan Hughes 1 (Russ Hammond, Jason Vogel), 8:14 3-0
BG Tom Glantz 7 (Jeff Wells), 11:11 PP 3-1
Cor McManus 4 (Hughes), 14:58 PP 4-1
BG Mike Hall 4 (Jamie Williams, Aaron Ellis), 19:20 4-2
Penalties:
Geoff Bumstead, Cor (interference), 9:15; Brandon Carper, BG (cross-
checking), 14:30
Second period
Scoring:
Cor Mike Sancimino 1 (Alex Vershinin, John DeHart), 10:57 5-2
BG Brett Harkins 7 (Sean Pronger, Wells), 11:11 5-3
Cor Brad Chartrand 1, 13:08 SH 6-3
Penalties:
McManus, Cor (high-sticking), 5:24; Drouin, Cor (high-sticking), 11:50;
Hammond, Cor (holding), 19:30; Harkins, BG (roughing), 19:30
Third period
Scoring:
BG Glantz 8 (Hall, Wells), 0:40 6-4
BG Jeff Herman 1 (Paul Basic, Pronger), 3:54 6-5
BG Harkins 8 (Wells, Ellis), 6:20 6-6
BG Wells 4 (Harkins, Herman), 12:09 6-7
Cor Vogel 4 (Hughes, Etienne Belzile), 18:24 7-7
Overtime
Scoring:
BG Pronger 15 (Wells, Harkins), 16:29 7-8
Shots on goal: Cornell 11-9-8-6 -- 34, Bowling Green 8-18-13-7 -- 46
Power play: Cornell 1 of 1, Bowling Green 1 of 3
Goaltending:
Cor Andy Bandurski 2-5-1 (46 shots, 38 saves)
BG Aaron Ellis 8-2 (34 shots, 27 saves)
12/30 Consolation
Cornell 0 0 0 -- 0
Ohio State 0 2 1 -- 3
First period
Penalties:
Rob Peters, OSU (interference), 6:04; Etienne Belzile, Cor (holding),
12:15; Glenn Painter, OSU (hooking), 13:59; Peters, OSU (high-
sticking), 15:08; Ryan Hughes, Cor (roughing), 15:08
Second period
Scoring:
OSU Bill Rathwell 1 (John Graham), 16:42 0-1
OSU Ron White 8 (Steve Richards, Jeff Winter), 19:26 0-2
Penalties:
Andre Doll, Cor (hooking), 3:54; Richards, OSU (checking from behind),
19:46; P.C. Drouin, Cor (roughing, roughing, misconduct), 19:59;
Peters, OSU (roughing, roughing, misconduct), 19:59
Third period
Scoring:
OSU Eddie Choi 5 (Painter, Craig Paterson), 3:43 0-3
Penalties:
Blair Ettles, Cor (holding), 1:42; Belzile, Cor (interference), 3:07;
Winter, OSU (tripping), 7:19; John Graham, OSU (interference), 10:08;
Bryan Riedel, OSU (high-sticking), 11:12; Alex Vershinin, Cor
(holding), 13:59; Choi, OSU (slashing), 15:28; Tyler McManus, Cor
(roughing), 19:55; Russ Hammond, Cor (roughing), 19:55, Winter, OSU
(roughing), 19:55; Kurt Brown, OSU (roughing, served by Gary Hirst),
19:55
Shots on goal: Cornell 7-8-8 -- 23, Ohio State 5-7-7 -- 19
Power play: Cornell 0 of 7, Ohio State 1 of 6
Goaltending:
Cor Andy Bandurski 2-6-1 (19 shots, 16 saves)
OSU Kurt Brown 2-1 (23 shots, 23 saves)
Tournament game notes and observations:
Bowling Green 8, Cornell 7
In retrospect, this wasn't supposed to be a win for Cornell anyway.
Going into the tournament, the Big Red figured to have a hard time
staying close to the Falcons, much less building a three-goal lead, so
Cornell did quite a bit better in this game than they were expected to.
Of course, knowing this does little to diminish how heartbreaking a
loss this was for the Big Red, after they had played a hard, aggressive
game in the first two periods to build that three-goal lead, only to be
caught back on their heels in the third and blow it.
Cornell coach Brian McCutcheon made a number of lineup changes for this
game, the most significant of which was to move Jason Vogel from his
defenseman spot up to the starting forward line with Ryan Hughes and
Russ Hammond. With this move, and with freshman forward Mark Scollan
out of the lineup (injury?), a blue-liner spot opened up, which was
filled by freshman Alex Vershinin, who had seen some action earlier in
the season.
Bowling Green played poorly in the first period, partly because of the
Big Red's aggressive forechecking and partly because the Falcons were
disorganized and having trouble with their passing game. The first
time Cornell ventured into the Falcons' zone, they got a goal out of
it, off a scramble in front of Bowling Green goalie Aaron Ellis. Jake
Karam took a shot which Ellis knocked away, but P.C. Drouin got to the
loose puck and backhanded it toward the net. Ellis got a piece of this
shot as well, but the puck bounced high off him and wound up in the
net, giving the Big Red the 1-0 lead 1:39 into the first period. The
same line combined for the second Cornell goal at the 5:22 mark, with
Karam getting control of the puck in the right corner and feeding it to
a wide-open Tyler McManus in front of the net for the one-timer. The
Big Red's third goal came courtesy of the new all-senior line, as Ham-
mond pushed the puck out of the Cornell zone toward Vogel at the red
line. Vogel broke in on a Falcon defenseman, skated to the left side
of the net, and left the puck for Hughes, who lifted it over Ellis at
8:14. The goal was Hughes' first of the season.
By this time, it was clear that the referees (from the CCHA, I believe
they were one of the Shegoses and Graff?) were going to let a lot of
things go. Midway through the first period, Shaun Hannah and a Bowling
Green player were racing toward a loose puck near center ice when
Hannah grabbed the other fellow's waistband and literally yanked him
down to the ice. Incredibly, though both refs were looking right at
the two players, no call was made. At any rate, Bowling Green finally
pulled together enough to get on the board, taking advantage of a give-
away by Vogel next to his own net. Jeff Wells got the puck over to Tom
Glantz, who skated between the circles and beat goaltender Andy Bandur-
ski through the pads. The Falcons had a couple of opportunities later
in the period to cut further into Cornell's lead. Off a 2-on-1, Craig
Mittleholt caught Bandurski out of position and had an open net to
shoot at, but he bounced the puck off the right side. Seconds later,
another Falcon shot caromed off the left post.
Cornell regained its three-goal lead with 5:02 to go in the first.
Ellis appeared to have control of a Hughes slapshot, but the puck
popped into the air, and McManus was there to bat it home. The way
both teams were playing, it looked like the score would remain 4-1, but
Mike Hall lit the lamp for the Falcons 40 seconds before intermission
with a goal that foreshadowed things to come, as he skated untouched
through the Cornell defense and knocked the puck home. The late goal
seemed to shift the momentum in Bowling Green's favor, and the Falcons
played an inspired second period, putting 18 shots on Bandurski. How-
ever, a series of missed opportunities in the first eight minutes
turned the tide back to the Big Red's favor. In the first minute, the
Falcons' Jason Helbing found himself on a breakaway after blowing by
Cornell defenseman Dan Dufresne, but his shot hit the right post. Four
minutes in, Bandurski came up with a couple of brilliant saves,
sprawling to stop a breakaway attempt and doing it again seconds later
when the Falcons came in on a 2-on-0. Bowling Green might actually
have been robbed of a goal at the 7:30 mark, when the puck was on the
goal line and appeared to have rolled over it, but the Cornell goalie
swept the puck away and play continued.
Big Red freshman Mike Sancimino got the first goal of his college
career at 10:57 of the second, when he followed up his own rebound into
an open net after Ellis had lost control of the puck. It didn't take
long for Bowling Green to cut the lead to two again, as Brett Harkins
rushed up center ice off the ensuing faceoff and blasted a shot through
Bandurski's pads from the slot at the 11:11 mark. But it was Brad
Chartrand putting the Big Red up 6-3 with his first career goal, and a
shorthander at that. Ellis tried to clear the puck out of the Falcon
zone, but Chartrand intercepted the pass, fired a shot, and when the
rebound came loose, he caught Ellis out of position and tipped the puck
into the open net at 13:08.
There was no more scoring in the second, which meant that the Big Red
went into the third period with the lead for the first time this
season. Unfortunately (for Cornell fans), they didn't really know what
to do with it, and they wound up abandoning the aggressive style that
had been so successful in the first 40 minutes. It looked like the Big
Red was trying to slow the game down, relying on their inexperienced
defense, and that was a BIG mistake. The Falcons, who were playing
better and better, lost little time in closing the gap, scoring three
times in the first 6:20. Hall got things started by flying into the
Cornell zone past two defensemen, then centering the puck for Glantz,
all alone near the left circle. Glantz tipped the pass into the open
net with 40 seconds gone in the third.
The Falcons made it 6-5 at the 3:54 mark on a strange goal. Bandurski
kicked aside a shot and at the same time was hit in the head in the
crease by a Bowling Green player. Bandurski wound up sitting on the
ice in front of the net, and there was no call made (which may have
been correct -- the hit wasn't very hard, and the Falcon player may
have been shoved into Bandurski anyway). At any rate, Bandurski was
still sitting there a few seconds later, when Jeff Herman took a
blistering shot from the left circle that hit the goalie's leg and
deflected into the net. McCutcheon immediately called a timeout, and
while it was the correct thing to do, it didn't make a bit of differ-
ence. Harkins tied the game two and a half minutes later, coming into
the Cornell zone, spinning Etienne Belzile like a top, and beating Ban-
durski from in close.
With a rattled Cornell team collapsing in sections and giving the puck
away right and left, Bowling Green came up with several more scoring
opportunities during the period, and it was only a matter of time (six
minutes) before the Falcons would take the lead. Cornell's Dufresne
was caught out of position, enabling Herman to skate unmolested through
the left side of the Big Red zone (a weak spot all night). Facing a
potential 2-on-0, Bandurski dived to poke the puck away from Herman,
but he didn't get enough of it and Wells, who was trailing the play,
got the puck and popped it into the open net at the 12:09 mark. To no
one's surprise, the large contingent of Falcon fans nearly brought down
the Coliseum roof when that happened.
Both teams were tiring fast, and it seemed clear that Cornell had no
chance to tie the game up, but with six minutes left, Drouin was sprung
on a breakaway from the Falcon blue line. He came in too far, however,
and found himself with not much to shoot at -- Ellis easily stuffed his
shot from the left side of the net. Finally, with 1:36 left in the
game, Vogel got to a loose rebound and whacked it between his legs and
past Ellis.
At the time, I thought that goal would only prolong Cornell's agony,
but the Big Red dominated the early part of the overtime period, and
Ellis had to make a point-blank save of a blast from Karam nine minutes
in to preserve the tie. For the first thirteen minutes or so, Bowling
Green had a hard time keeping the Big Red out of their end, but the
Falcons gained control after that, and another defensive breakdown set
up the winning goal. Bandurski made a brilliant leg save on a blast
from the left circle with four minutes to go, but soon after that, Sean
Pronger was left all alone to the right of the net, and Harkins fed him
for the tap-in at 16:29.
Bandurski faced 46 shots and stopped 38 of them. He played brilliantly
at times, particularly in the second period, but some of the goals he
did let in looked a little soft. Then again, the defense wasn't doing
him any favors, particularly in the crucial third period. As for
Ellis, he got off to a shaky start, but he was a wall in the third
period and in overtime, finishing with 27 saves. I'm not completely
sure, but I believe that at 76:29, this was the third-longest game in
Cornell history (a victory over Minnesota-Duluth in the first round of
the 1968 Syracuse Invitational went 78:48, and a tie against Boston
University in the Boston Arena Christmas Tournament went 80 minutes).
Maine 9, Ohio State 4
I once read an article about a Super Bowl some years ago, in which one
team's victory over a thoroughly outclassed opponent was described as
"having all the excitement of a jeweler taking apart a watch." That's
a perfect description of this game, or at least most of it. Maine
dominated Ohio State in every phase of the game, but for the most part,
the action was crushingly boring. We left with about five minutes gone
in the third and with the Black Bears up 6-1 -- after which it presum-
ably got a little more exciting, as each team scored three times.
Maine was without its three sensational freshmen, Kariya and the
brothers Ferraro, so maybe it wasn't fair to expect a lot of flash and
dash... but then, they still had guys like Jim Montgomery and Cal
Ingraham around. Rather than overwhelm Ohio State with superior
talent, Maine seemed to be playing a more methodical game, building a
five-goal lead on things like solid checking and passing. I will say
this, though -- I was impressed, especially after watching Cornell and
Bowling Green slog it up in the first game, with the puck-handling
ability of the Black Bears. These guys literally NEVER lost the puck.
The passes were crisp, and despite Ohio State's best efforts (including
some cross-checking), once a Maine player had the puck, the Buckeyes
could not get it away from him. It's not an exaggeration to say the
only two ways that Ohio State could get the puck were either to win a
faceoff or jump on a rebound of a Maine shot. A tip of the hat to
Shawn Walsh... that's not just talent, that's good coaching.
The game wasn't completely without excitement. Maine's first goal, at
4:11 of the opening period, came when Patrice Tardif got to a rebound
and fired it between his legs into the corner of the net. Ohio State
almost made a game of it with 30 seconds left in the first, cutting
Maine's lead to 2-1 when Eddie Choi went on an end-to-end rush and
rolled the puck off his stick behind a surprised Mike Dunham, who saw
very little action (seven shots total in the first two periods). Maine
responded to this insult 27 seconds into the second period on a goal by
defenseman Chris Imes, which was set up by Ingraham's behind-the-back
centering pass.
All in all, a solid but not spectacular blowout for Maine over an Ohio
State team that knew it didn't have much of a chance and played accor-
dingly.
Ohio State 3, Cornell 0
In the words of Ohio State coach Jerry Welsh, the consolation game is
"a game for losers", but in Cornell's case, this was a game they almost
had to win, if only to put behind them their collapse the night before.
It was not to be, however, as a physically and emotionally drained Big
Red team just ran out of gas against the Buckeyes. Perhaps holiday
tournaments are not such a good idea any more for Cornell; in the last
four they have participated in, the Big Red has a grand total of just
one win.
More lineup changes for the Big Red in this one: defenseman Tim Shean
saw his first action in a Cornell uniform, coming in for Dan Dufresne,
and forward Andre Doll replaced Geoff Bumstead. Aside from a couple of
great saves by goaltender Andy Bandurski, not a great deal happened in
the first period, but things began to pick up a bit in the second.
About three minutes in, Cornell's Shaun Hannah came close to scoring
off a breakaway, but his weak one-hander from the right circle bounced
off the post. Ohio State got on the board with 3:18 to go in the
second, when Big Red defenseman Alex Vershinin fell down while pursuing
Bill Rathwell, allowing Rathwell to skate in on Bandurski unmolested
and beat him between the pads.
The Buckeyes, who prior to this goal seemed more content to stand
around and watch things happen, picked up the pace, and a scramble in
front of the Cornell net produced their second goal at the 19:26 mark,
off the stick of Ron White. The real action occurred a bit later, as
play was stopped with one second left because of a knock-down drag-out
fight between Cornell's P.C. Drouin and Ohio State's Rob Peters (boxing
analysts gave the nod to Peters in this bout, with his five-inch height
and 41-pound weight advantage over Drouin). Neither player was tossed
from the game, although Peters at least should have been, since he
dropped his gloves.
Ohio State had a 5-on-3 power play early in the third, and although
they didn't score on it, Eddie Choi did unleash a blast which found the
back of the Cornell net at the 3:43 mark, one second after the first
penalty expired. A few minutes later, Bandurski took a slapshot off
the top of his helmet, and he crumpled to the ice, but he recovered and
was able to continue. At the other end of the ice, Buckeye goalie Kurt
Brown, who was appearing in only his fourth game, was having an easy
night of it, as the Cornell offense never seriously threatened, even
during a 56-second 5-on-3 later in the third period. With five seconds
left in the game, the Big Red appeared to have scored, but the play had
been blown dead thanks to a delayed roughing call on Tyler McManus, who
had seen fit to whack Brown in the head during a goalmouth scramble.
Brown took offense to that, and Ryan Hughes took offense to Brown's
taking offense, and then Jeff Winter took offense to that -- well any-
way, they were all whistled for roughing. Not necessarily the best
ending to a game, even a consolation game, but at least Brown got his
shutout -- his second in three decisions, as he stopped all 23 shots.
Bandurski finished with 16 saves and presumably a headache.
Maine 6, Bowling Green 2
In contrast to the Maine-Ohio State game the night before, this one
featured a number of spectacular plays by the Black Bears, most of them
coming courtesy of Michel Latendresse, who had four goals including a
pair of short-handers. Going in, however, there was a lot of talk
about how Bowling Green might be able to deal Maine its first loss of
the season, and early on, it looked like that optimism was well-
founded. Four minutes in, the Falcons sprung a 2-on-1, which quickly
became a 1-on-0, but the shot floated wide. Maine responded almost
immediately with a 2-on-1 of their own, but Falcon goalie Angelo Liber-
tucci made a great save.
Jason Helbing put the Falcons on the board at 5:43 of the first with a
wrap-around that surprised Maine goalie Garth Snow, who went down too
late. Snow looked shaky for most of the first period, and Bowling
Green had a couple of other wide-open opportunities which they could
not convert. Latendresse struck for his first goal at 10:32, a short-
hander to tie the game at 1-1. This was a beautiful goal, with Laten-
dresse coming in on a 2-on-1 with Cal Ingraham. The Bowling Green
defenseman went down, and Latendresse skated to the slot, where he
flipped the puck over both the defenseman and Libertucci, who appeared
to be preoccupied with Ingraham. Ingraham himself gave Maine a lead
they would not relinquish at 17:57 of the first period, racing toward
the net off a faceoff and beating Libertucci low.
At 9:25 of the second, a Maine goal was waved off since the whistle had
already blown, but the ensuing roughing call against Bowling Green left
the Black Bears with a two-minute 5-on-3. The Falcons killed it off,
though, helped in no small part by Maine's insistence on passing the
puck around, looking for a perfect setup. Bowling Green was fired up
after that, but it didn't take Latendresse long to regain the momentum
for his team. During a Falcon power play, the puck came loose to
center ice, and Latendresse beat a pair of Bowling Green players to it
near the blue line, proceeded to the slot, and beat Libertucci with a
high shot at the 13:59 mark.
Even though Maine was starting to skate rings around the Bowling Green
players, the score was still only 3-1 when the third period began, but
it didn't take the Black Bears long to take command on the scoreboard
as well. Justin Tomberlin increased the lead to three at 3:07 of the
third, surprising Libertucci with a wrap-around. At 6:24, Latendresse
completed his hat trick with a non-short-handed goal, wristing the puck
into the right corner of the net. There was still some excitement left
for the Bowling Green fans, as at the 13:04 mark, a Maine defenseman
froze the puck in the crease, and the Falcons opted for the penalty
shot. (they sure as hell didn't want to try a power play with Laten-
dresse around!) Brett Harkins took the shot -- Snow came out too far,
and Harkins fired a low shot between his legs. Latendresse, however,
closed out the scoring for the Black Bears with 3:32 to go, beating a
Falcon defenseman to a loose puck, firing at the net, and then tapping
in his own rebound.
If you've read this far, send me some Email :-) The all-tournament team:
GOALIE: Garth Snow, Maine
DEFENSE: Jeff Wells, Bowling Green
Chris Imes, Maine
FORWARD: Tyler McManus, Cornell
Brett Harkins, Bowling Green
Cal Ingraham, Maine
Goalie was perhaps not an easy decision. Other than Andy Bandurski, no
goaltender played in more than one game, and Kurt Brown's shutout may have
gotten him some consideration, although it came against a considerably
easier team than the one Snow faced. I was a bit surprised by the selection
of McManus, although he did have two goals and an assist against the Fal-
cons. No Cornell representative was there to pick up his award, however:
presumably, they were all back at the hotel, or maybe halfway to Ithaca at
that point.
There was no tournament MVP announced, although I'm positive that there was
one and that it was Michel Latendresse of Maine. I can't believe there
could be any other reason for leaving him off the all-tournament team.
--
Bill Fenwick | Send your HOCKEY-L poll responses to:
Cornell '86 and probably '94 | [log in to unmask]
LET'S GO RED!!
"February 2... The troubled airline industry announces that fares will hence-
forth be based on a complex formula involving the outcomes of collegiate
hockey games."
-- Dave Barry, "1992 in Review"
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