Wow! Two double-OT contests -- what a hell of a Phinal Phour weekend in the
ECAC. I wish I had been able to go, but fortunately, NESN's coverage was
quite good. The RPI-St. Lawrence game was the longest in ECAC tournament
history, while Cornell-Clarkson was "only" the fourth-longest. Truly an
unforgettable weekend (in more ways than one, as I managed to break a bone
in my foot Friday night -- shoulda gone to Boston...)
Just a few notes to add to what's already been said on these games. On the
Cornell-Clarkson matchup, Mike Machnik writes:
>On the other side, Cornell can't score a lot of goals (their leading goal
>scorer, Jason Vogel, has only 11 in 28 GP), but their defense was disciplined
>and played superbly. It is easy to see why Duffus has put up the numbers
>that he has - that's not to slight him, because he also played well, but
>Cornell almost always had two guys in front of the net and they rarely got
>drawn away. I was very impressed.
This was by far the best effort by the Cornell defense in about two months.
Normally, turnovers in the defensive zone will force Duffus to face three or
four breakaways in a game, but Friday night, I don't remember him having to
deal with any. Cornell made literally only two mistakes in their own end
all night long, and naturally, they both led to Clarkson goals. In the
first period, Jake Karam tried to flip a pass out of the defensive zone, but
the puck bounced off Hugo Belanger, leading to Marko Tuomainen's 35-footer
at the 9:36 mark. By now, everybody knows about the second one -- Duffus
getting caught out of the net, giving Tuomainen the world's easiest goal.
Duffus never said anything about looking for an icing call, and he certainly
didn't rant and rave at referee Tim MacConaghy afterwards, as almost any
goaltender would do if he felt an icing non-call helped cause a goal to be
scored. Apparently, he was just trying to stop it for Dave Burke, missed
it, and didn't realize Tuomainen was about a foot away from him. NESN
announcers Bob Kurtz and Bob Norton were all over Duffus for that one,
saying he didn't get out of the way fast enough (he did lag behind the net a
little). Maybe Burke could have taken charge a little more down there also.
On Clarkson coach Mark Morris' comments: I think I'd agree with him saying
he might change his mind on his starting goaltender. Despite Chris Rogles'
playoff experience from last year, I'm a little surprised that Morris
decided to go with Rogles exclusively in the tournament, because 1) Jason
Currie had been playing somewhat better than Rogles over the last several
games of the regular season, and 2) in his brief career with the Knights,
Currie has given Cornell quite a bit more trouble than Rogles has. But I
concur with the general opinion that Morris should not have been making what
could be construed as unflattering comments about Rogles in public --
especially in this situation, because neither of the two goals that got
Rogles pulled were his fault. On Todd Chambers' goal with 1:24 left in the
second, Rogles had blocked a shot by Shaun Hannah and was trying to pin the
puck against the goalpost. Chambers wandered in unmolested, whacked at the
puck a few times, and sent it into the net. Then on Tyler McManus' goal 27
seconds later, defenseman Martin d'Orsonnens kicked the puck out of the slot
-- right onto McManus' stick. Give Rogles a little more defensive help
there, and Clarkson wins the game 3-1 with little trouble.
Assuming Clarkson goes to the NCAAs (which I think is likely), it'll be
interesting to see who gets the starting job in the net. Given Morris'
comments, it'll probably be Currie all the way, unless he winds up in the
doghouse for some reason (he's apparently been there a couple times over the
past two seasons).
ECAC Championship: St. Lawrence 4, Cornell 2
Although both teams had less than 24 hours to recover from their semi-
final marathons, this game was reasonably well played, but St.
Lawrence's powerful offense, combined with a few untimely penalties,
finally proved to be too much for the Big Red. The Saints were
contained pretty well in the first period, but after that, they simply
wore down the Cornell defense, with 33 of their 43 shots coming over
the final two periods.
Cornell came very close to drawing first blood in this game, when Ryan
Hughes blistered a shot from the left circle that clanged off the
crossbar inches over Saints goalie Paul Spagnoletti's head. But it was
St. Lawrence lighting the lamp just seconds later, when Lee Albert
unloaded a 30-foot blast from the left circle at 4:26 of the first
period. Cornell goaltender Parris Duffus was partially screened by
defenseman Jim McPhee and didn't react to the shot until the puck was
already through his legs. During the action that followed, the Big Red
began to look a little shaky, but they were able to tie things up with
6:06 to go in the period, on a goal similar to Albert's. Todd Chambers
got control of the puck at his own blue line and skated straight up
center ice through a few Saints. As he hit the St. Lawrence blue line,
defenseman John Roderick started to move out to stand him up, but Cham-
bers unloaded a slap shot that went by Roderick and past a screened
Spagnoletti's left leg.
A defensive miscue led to the Saints' second goal, 1:55 into the middle
period. Mike Lappin stole a Cornell clearing pass, and as four Big Red
players closed in on him, he dumped the puck in front of the goal for
Spencer Meany, who was left all alone. Meany deked Duffus, then beat
him with a low shot. The game started to get away from Cornell at the
9:41 mark, with the boarding call on Ryan Hughes. On the ensuing power
play, Chris Lappin fired a slapper from the blue line that Duffus got
his glove on. The shot was deflected high in the air, and as Duffus
lost sight of it, the puck came down behind him, bounced, and rolled
into the net at 10:14. Speaking of penalties, a word on the offici-
ating here: inconsistent. The renowned John Gallagher was the referee
for this game (I believe that makes FIVE times he did a Cornell game
this year -- who did we piss off?), and while he was not as brutal as
he had been on previous occasions, he let a lot go in the first half of
this game (including Mike Allain dumping Duffus in the crease, not once
but TWICE), then called things considerably closer in the second half.
As I mentioned, Cornell hurt themselves badly with penalties; starting
with Hughes' boarding, eight of the last ten calls in the game went
against the Big Red.
Cornell got back in the game at the 12:47 mark. Albert left a pass
between the circles, and Stephane Gauvin got to it first, flipping a
backhand shot toward the St. Lawrence goal. Spagnoletti kicked the
puck aside, but Phil Nobel charged in and fired the rebound through the
goalie's legs. In the third period, however, St. Lawrence iced the
game thanks in part to another untimely and rather dumb penalty. Joe
Dragon was called for elbowing Spagnoletti at 4:38, and he immediately
protested. I don't know what he was trying to claim, because if
college hockey officials ever needed a textbook example of an elbowing,
that was it. Greg Carvel converted this one for the Saints at the 5:36
mark, firing a shot through Duffus' legs. St. Lawrence kept the
pressure on through the rest of the period, and the Big Red couldn't
pull Duffus until there were 31 seconds left.
Congratulations to the 1992 ECAC tournament champion St. Lawrence team, and
congrats also to the runner-up Big Red, who did quite a bit better in the
ECACs than many fans (including myself!) thought they would. The nine Big
Red seniors who played their last collegiate game Saturday night were under-
standably disappointed with the result, but they can be proud of the fact
that they are the only senior class in Cornell history to go to the ECACs
four years in a row. They will be sorely missed by the Big Red next season.
A few more random notes:
The Saints' win Saturday night gave head coach Joe Marsh his third ECAC
championship (the others came in 1988 and 1989), making Marsh only the
third coach in ECAC history to win that many tournaments. Cornell's
Ned Harkness and BU's Jack Parker each won four.
St. Lawrence has never lost an ECAC playoff game as the #2 seed; they
are now 11-0. As a non-#2 seed, they are 14-22-1 in the playoffs.
Continuing with the unusual stats: Cornell is now 3-0 in ECAC playoff
games played on Friday the 13th, with semifinal wins over Colgate in
1981 (4-3) and Harvard in 1970 (6-5).
Among the seniors suiting up for the Big Red in the championship game
were defenseman Dave Burke and forward Stephane Gauvin, who each played
in their 120th consecutive career game, breaking the Cornell record of
119 set last year by Doug Derraugh and Tim Vanini.
NESN's two Bobs argued that either of the two goaltenders in the
championship game would have been a more deserving tournament MVP than
Dan Laperriere. Unless he did amazing things in the Saints' two
previous playoff games, I would have to agree. He wasn't really that
big a factor in the championship game, although he played well.
Saturday night marked the eleventh time that Cornell has made it to the
ECAC finals, extending their own record; Harvard is next with nine
appearances (the Big Red also holds the record for championships, with
seven). Cornell and Clarkson remain tied for the most ECAC Phinal
Phour appearances, with 21 each.
--
Bill Fenwick | Send your HOCKEY-L poll responses to:
Cornell '86 and probably '94 | [log in to unmask]
LET'S GO RED!!
"We actually got six inches of rain here, although men swore it was eight
inches and women said four inches, tops."
-- Dennis Miller, on the recent flooding in Los Angeles
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