It was a weekend of firsts for Cornell, as the Big Red notched their first
weekend sweep since their visit to Air Force in late January of 1992 and
their first against ECAC foes since a few weeks before that. The eight
goals that Cornell picked up against Yale was their highest total for a game
since the Big Red notched eight in January of 1992 against Union. Also,
Jake Karam and Vincent Auger both recorded hat tricks against the Elis,
becoming the first Cornellians to do so since Trent Andison's effort against
Colgate in the 1991 ECAC quarterfinals. Auger became the first freshman to
score three in a game since Andison's four-goal effort against Dartmouth in
February of 1988. And the last time two different Big Red players got hat
tricks in the same game was against the Elis in February of 1984, when Gary
Cullen and Duanne Moeser did it. You get the idea; this was a bit of a
historic weekend.
Cornell 5, Princeton 2
Last Saturday against St. Lawrence, a nightmarish first period saw the
Saints pounce on numerous giveaways in the Cornell zone en route to a
2-0 lead in the first couple minutes of play and a 4-0 lead by the
first intermission. Things looked disturbingly familiar Friday night
against the Tigers, who took advantage of some misplays on the part of
the Big Red defense to build a 2-0 lead three and a half minutes into
the game. However, thanks in large measure to a terrific performance
in relief by goaltender Andy Bandurski, Cornell was able to turn things
around, racking up five unanswered goals to get an important victory.
The loss ended Princeton's hopes of finishing high enough to get home
ice for the preliminary round.
A fired-up Princeton team was skating through the Cornell defense
almost at will from the opening faceoff, and the Big Red found it
nearly impossible to clear the puck out of their own zone. Intercepted
clearing passes allowed the Tigers to keep the puck in the Cornell end
for over half a minute, ending with Gavin Colquhoun's goal at the 2:53
mark. He got to a loose puck in the left circle and snapped a back-
hander through a screen and just inside the right post behind goal-
tender Eddy Skazyk. The Big Red had hardly recovered from that when
Hartmann Schoebel broke in on a 2-on-1 with Jonathan Kelley. Schoe-
bel's blast from the right point found the back of the net at 3:25 of
the first period, and Princeton had a two-goal lead. Neither Colquhoun
nor Schoebel had scored all season prior to this game.
Cornell's hopes looked faint in this one, but Coach McCutcheon pulled
Skazyk in favor of Bandurski after the second goal, and Bandurski made
a couple of big saves later in the period, including a stuff of a
Princeton breakaway. Cornell's offense seemed to get on track late in
the first period, as the Big Red started swarming around the Tiger net.
It finally paid off at the 18:11 mark, when P.C. Drouin dumped the puck
in from center ice, setting up Brad Chartrand and Mark Scollan on a
2-on-1 break. Chartrand unleashed a high slapper from the edge of the
left circle, and the puck caught the right corner of the net.
Before the start of the second period, the Big Red paid tribute to
outgoing athletic director and former Cornell goaltender Laing Kennedy.
Team captain Shaun Hannah, out with a separated shoulder, presented
Kennedy with a Cornell hockey sweater. This is ordinarily the type of
thing that takes place before the third period, rather than the second,
but perhaps it was done earlier as an attempt to spark the team. If
so, it worked. Thirty-four seconds into the second period, the score
was tied, thanks to a hard shot from the left side by Geoff Bumstead
that beat Princeton goalie James Konte through the pads.
There was no further scoring in the middle stanza, but there was plenty
of action. Four minutes in, Bandurski was forced to come up with a
spectacular pad save off a point-blank shot from the slot. A few
minutes later, a Princeton shot from the left point was deflected into
the air by a sliding Cornell defenseman, and the puck rolled off
Bandurski's shoulder and dropped to the crease behind him, where it
remained for a few seconds until he fell on it. At the 13:44 mark,
Chartrand was hit with a boarding call, but almost immediately, the
Cornell penalty-killers fired the puck down the ice, where Vincent
Auger, in a sensational effort, single-handedly kept it in the
Princeton end for about 30 seconds. In the process, he fought off
three Tiger players who were trying to get the puck away from him,
before finally drawing a holding call on David Scowby.
With 1:46 left in the second period, a high shot bounced off Bandurski
and a Princeton player and wound up in the net, but referee John Murphy
waved the apparent goal off, ruling that the puck had been hand-passed
into the net. I didn't have a good view of the action, but Princeton
coach Don Cahoon was livid after that call (or maybe he was upset that
one of his players got dumped in the crease and nothing was called).
At 7:41 of the third period, Schoebel stopped a breakaway attempt by
hooking Auger down to the ice, but he got called for it, and the Big
Red proceeded to convert the power play. During a scramble in front of
the Princeton net, Konte came out to the edge of the crease to block a
drive by Mike Sancimino, but the rebound came loose to his right in the
crease, and Bumstead stuffed it into the net past diving defenseman
Brent Flahr.
Later in the period, Drouin worked a nice give-and-go with Scollan,
flipping the return pass over Konte and just inside the crossbar with
3:16 left in the game. Princeton called their timeout at that point,
and with 1:08 left to play, Konte left for the extra attacker. How-
ever, Scollan worked the puck out of the Cornell end, then sent a per-
fect headman feed to a streaking Auger, who popped the puck into the
empty net at the 19:06 mark to round out the scoring. Konte stopped 18
shots, while Bandurski had 25 saves and Skazyk recorded four in his
brief stint.
Cornell 8, Yale 2
The Big Red ended its best weekend in two years by tearing apart an
inconsistent Yale team, in a three-hour marathon highlighted by Jake
Karam's and Vincent Auger's hat tricks and lowlighted by all sorts of
chippy play and an exchange of pleasantries between a Cornell fan and
Eli team captain Martin Leroux. Coupled with Vermont's win over St.
Lawrence, the victory guarantees Cornell of finishing no worse than
eighth, and the Big Red still have an outside chance of avoiding the
preliminary playoff round altogether.
Thank goodness the officiating was not a factor in this game, because
it left a great deal to be desired. Our friend Pierre Belanger has
been complained about numerous times on this list, and I see he got it
again this weekend -- but believe me, if you are ever unfortunate
enough to draw the immortal pairing of John Murphy and Peter Dawes for
a game involving your favorite team, you would sell your soul to the
devil to get Belanger in there in place of either or both of them.
Especially Dawes, who totally lost it in the third period of this game
and came up with a call that was not only flagrantly ludicrous but was
also against the rules. This is the second time this season that
Murphy and Dawes have done a Cornell game, and they succeeded in
offering conclusive proof that their rotten performance at Colgate was
no fluke.
For the first time in six games, the Big Red got on the board first, as
Mark Scollan sent the puck from the left corner over to Auger along the
back boards. Auger skated behind the net and, as Yale goalie Todd
Sullivan dropped to try to cover the goalmouth, stuffed the puck inside
the right post at 2:23 of the first period. The Elis did not have much
in the way of scoring chances in the first, mainly because they were
content to take shots from the perimeter, but they were still able to
tie the game at the 7:32 mark. Goaltender Andy Bandurski blocked a
Jeff Sorem drive with his pad, but he slipped and fell while trying to
get to the other side of the net, and Keith Carpenter had a mostly
empty goal to shoot at.
Yale was in this game for exactly 46 seconds, which is how long it took
Cornell to take the lead for good. Chad Wilson wristed one from the
right circle that Sullivan got the pad on, but the rebound floated over
to the left side, where Bumstead was waiting to flip it into the net.
Three and a half minutes later, Brad Chartrand poked the puck through a
Yale defender's legs and skated around him to retrieve it, setting
himself up on a breakaway, but Sullivan was able to smother the shot.
At 13:04 of the first, Murphy called P.C. Drouin for hooking, which was
all well and good, except that he missed the trip by the Yale player
behind Drouin that started the whole thing. It turned out not to
matter, because Andy Weidenbach evened things up a minute later by
getting nailed for hooking at center ice. With the teams skating
4-on-4, Karam gave the Big Red a 3-1 lead at the 14:49 mark. Sullivan
blocked a try by Bumstead, but the puck rolled off his pad to the left
of the goal, where Karam converted on a tough-angle shot.
The Cornell defense was playing better than it had in a while (going up
against a team like Yale didn't hurt), but they lapsed into their old
shakiness at the beginning of the second period, when Blair Ettles lost
the puck to Zoran Kozic between the circles, setting the Eli forward up
on a breakaway. Ettles atoned for his miscue by sliding into Kozic in
front of the net, tripping him up before he could get the shot off.
Cornell killed off the ensuing Yale power play, and the Big Red had a
breakaway of its own three minutes into the period, when Bumstead and
Geoff Lopatka skated in on a 2-on-1. Lopatka whiffed on an attempt to
one-time Bumstead's pass in front, and a Yale defenseman knocked the
net off before Lopatka could try again. It made little difference,
however, because Karam banged home a Mike Sancimino pass at the 3:44
mark to make it 4-1.
Play was stopped for about nine minutes at the 4:15 mark to repair one
of the doors at the Cornell bench. At 8:47 of the second period, the
Big Red got their fifth goal on a play that probably should not have
happened. During a big scramble in front of the Eli net, Sullivan
appeared to have control of the puck, but either Drouin or Auger was
able to hack it loose, and Auger poked it through the goalie's pads.
John Emmons responded by giving Drouin a shot in the back, and a
scuffle broke out in the crease. Ultimately, Emmons wound up with a
double minor for hitting after the whistle, and Drouin and Ettles
joined him in the box. This was merely the undercard, with the main
event taking place just 13 seconds later.
Yale was understandably frustrated, and this frustration boiled over in
a big way at the nine-minute mark along the left boards. James Mackey
belted Dan Dufresne in the back of the head, and those two went at it
for a while, before Leroux skated over and ran Dufresne. Lopatka
thought that was a rather bad idea; in fact, he went after Leroux with
both fists swinging, and the two of them tangled for a good two minutes
before the refs were able to separate them. When Leroux finally made
his way into the (crowded) penalty box, a rather vocal Cornell fan to
my right invited him to "come on and join the party!" Leroux took
exception and hollered a few choice things back, which of course only
served to make this fellow a little louder. It appeared to me (and I
had all too good a view) that Leroux was seriously considering climbing
out of the penalty box and over the scorers' table to get at the guy,
but he was eventually convinced to take a seat. Though I don't think
it was wise for the Cornell fan to challenge Leroux like that, the Yale
captain let the guy get under his skin, and he was a complete non-
factor for the rest of the game. Oh, and Leroux and Lopatka were both
given roughing minors -- a bit of a surprise from the same crew who
once tossed Dufresne and Colgate's Sam Raffoul for what was essentially
ice dancing.
Three straight calls against Cornell gave Yale a 56-second 5-on-3 power
play at the 17:12 mark, but the Elis got off to a dreadful start when
Dan Nyberg took a pass at the blue line, then drew the puck out of the
zone and back in, putting his team offside. Yale coach Dan Poliziani
used his timeout at that point in an apparent attempt to calm his
rattled team down, and the Elis did eventually get a goal shortly after
the 5-on-3 expired. At 18:19 of the second, Brierley fired a long
slapper that a screened Bandurski never saw.
Cornell let up a bit early in the third period, but even so, the Big
Red was able to extend its lead to 6-2 thanks to Karam completing his
hat trick 6:21 in. Bumstead caught Sullivan out of position and had an
open net to shoot at, but he whiffed on the attempt. Karam was right
behind him, though, and with Sullivan still scrambling to get back, the
Cornell center slid the puck across the goal line, and extra hats were
littering the Lynah ice for the first time in three years. The Lynah
Faithful had to wait less than two minutes for the next Cornell hat
trick, as Auger converted at the 8:13 mark thanks to Mark Scollan, who
gets my vote for Unselfish Player of the Year. Scollan had the puck on
the left side on a 2-on-1 with Auger, and he momentarily had what
looked like an open shot, but instead, he sent a pass to Auger under
the defenseman's stick. Auger's high shot from the right circle sailed
over Sullivan's shoulder, and once again, Lynah Rink was raucous, hats
were flying out of the stands...
... and then came the announcement that a bench minor had been called
on Cornell for delay of game, because of "objects on the ice." This
was an absurd call; we're talking HATS, folks. It happens at just
about any rink in the country whenever one of the home guys gets three
in a game. Everybody celebrates, hats fly out of the stands, the rink
attendants pick them up, and play continues without incident. Dawes,
who made the call, simply should have let it go, as he and Murphy had
earlier on Karam's hat trick. But even if you accept a hat as an
object on the ice delaying the game, we have Note 3 under Rule 6-25-b,
which reads, "If fans throw objects on the ice after being warned, a
bench minor may be assessed against the offending fans' team for delay
of game. At the discretion of the referee, a warning may be issued
before the game." Note the phrase "after being warned". A warning is
supposed to be issued at some point BEFORE the delay-of-game penalty is
called, but in this case, there was no announced warning until AFTER
the penalty. Sorry, Mr. Dawes, but that ain't playing by the rules.
Well, perhaps predictably, something else came sailing out of the
stands at the 8:47 mark (I didn't see what it was, but I'd bet on
another hat), and the Big Red got another delay-of-game bench minor,
after which PA announcer Arthur Mintz all but begged the fans to knock
it off. The way things were going in this game, Dawes or Murphy might
have gone for the forfeit if anything else was thrown onto the ice, but
fortunately, we'll never know. At any rate, Mike Kamatovic replaced
Sullivan in goal for the Elis at this point, and Yale was able to mount
some decent pressure on their 5-on-3. It was the Elis' turn to get
annoyed with the officiating at the 9:48 mark, as Emmons flipped one
into the net from the right side, only to have the goal wiped out by a
quick whistle.
At 10:51 of the third period, Sorem was hit with a misconduct, and
oddly enough, with less than ten minutes remaining, he was sent to the
penalty box instead of the locker room. At any rate, Cornell went on
the power play at the 12:55 mark, and it was effectively a 5-on-3
situation, as Weidenbach didn't even participate in the Yale penalty
kill, instead staying at center ice waiting for a clearing pass. This
almost worked once.
Andre Doll got the last goal of this interminable game at the 18:40
mark, when he took a pass from Bumstead and sent a high shot over
Kamatovic's left shoulder. When the game finally did end, the Cornell
team remained on the ice after the post-game handshake and saluted the
roaring crowd with their sticks. The two seniors, Geoff Bumstead and
Shaun Hannah, stayed out a bit longer after their teammates had headed
to the locker room, and they gave the crowd an extra salute before
leaving.
Bandurski had another great effort, stopping 32 of 34 shots; Coach
McCutcheon might just have found his hot goaltender. For the Elis,
Sullivan wound up with 29 saves, and Kamatovic had three in relief.
Also, Geoff Bumstead had five points in this game, pushing his season
total past 30 -- the first Cornellian to break the 30-point barrier in
three years (yes, we've had a bit of difficulty on offense).
One other note: Cornell's two victories this weekend leave Coach McCutcheon
one win shy of 200 for his career.
--
Disclaimer -- Unless otherwise noted, all opinions expressed above are
strictly those of:
Bill Fenwick | Send your HOCKEY-L poll responses to:
Cornell '86 and '94 (.5) | [log in to unmask]
LET'S GO RED!!
Reporter: "What do you think of the team's execution?"
John McKay: "I'm in favor of it."
-- an exchange that occurred while McKay was coaching the 0-14 Tampa Bay
Buccaneers in 1976
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