For the first time in head coach Brian McCutcheon's six-year tenure, the Big
Red will not be going to the ECAC playoffs, as they wound up the season in
eleventh place -- their lowest finish since 1984, when they finished 12th in
the then-seventeen-team ECAC. It could have been worse, though -- Cornell's
win over Vermont Saturday night prevented this team from going down in his-
tory as the first Big Red squad to lose 20 games in a season.
Boxes and notes from the Big Red's final weekend:
Dartmouth 5, Cornell 3
Dartmouth 2 1 2 -- 5
Cornell 0 2 1 -- 3
First period -- Scoring:
D Peter Clark (Mike Stacchi), 14:29 1-0
D Patrick Turcotte (Dax Burkhart, Dion DelMonte), 15:06 2-0
Second period -- Scoring:
D DelMonte (Chris Clancy, Turcotte), 2:17 3-0
C Bill Holowatiuk (Brad Chartrand, Christian Felli),
5:29 (PP) 3-1
C Mike Sancimino (Alex Vershinin, Ryan Hughes), 18:26 3-2
Penalties:
D Mike Loga (slashing), 1:39; C Sancimino (holding), 1:39; D Scott
Fraser (cross-checking), 4:00; D Scott Dolesh (holding), 9:01; D Tony
DelCarmine (kneeing), 11:00; C Geoff Bumstead (roughing), 19:05
Third period -- Scoring:
D DelCarmine (Bill Kelleher, Fraser), 4:39 4-2
D Trevor Dodman (Clark), 9:31 5-2
C Chartrand (Shaun Hannah, Bumstead), 9:46 5-3
Penalties:
C Hannah (boarding), 10:02; D DelMonte (hooking), 13:03
Shots on goal: Dartmouth 15-11-7 -- 33, Cornell 7-11-12 -- 30
Power plays: Dartmouth 0 of 2, Cornell 1 of 4
Goaltending:
D Vern Guetens (30 shots, 27 saves)
C Eddy Skazyk (out at 19:20 of third period, 33 shots, 28 saves)
Notes:
It used to be that you could count on the Big Green not doing much of
anything other than clogging up center ice, because they couldn't skate
with very many of their opponents. You could also count on Dartmouth
losing at Lynah, as they hadn't taken a game there in 13 years. Well,
out the window with all of that. The Big Green showed up with a pretty
solid skating and passing game Friday night, finally taking control of
a rough, slow-paced first period. This is a team that is well-
deserving of its first playoff berth since 1980, and the Big Green
looks like they'll be making the postseason journey for some years down
the road. Again, a nice coaching job by Roger Demment.
The Big Red finally got a bit of good news in this interminable season
when freshman forward Mike Sancimino, out since mid-January with mono,
suited up for this game. He looked a little slow, which was not sur-
prising, but he wound up playing fairly well. Actually, the whole team
was slow early on, and Dartmouth took advantage. The Big Green
appeared to have scored at 3:13 of the first period, when the puck
bounced off Peter Clark's arm or chest and went across the line under
goaltender Eddy Skazyk's legs, but the net had come off its moorings
and referee William Stewart correctly waved the goal off. Another big
opportunity for the Big Green came at the 9:25 mark, when they almost
pulled off a 3-on-1. However, a Dartmouth forward bobbled a pass, the
Cornell defenders raced back, and Christian Felli made a great play
near the Cornell net to block the shot.
By and large, the officiating for this game was pretty bad. I'm all
for "letting the guys play", but there's a fine line between that and
not paying attention, and this crew (Stewart and James Cerbo) crossed
that line several times Friday night. A few minutes after Dartmouth's
near-break, defenseman Mike Loga belted Cornell's Ryan Hughes, then
turned and shoved Andre Doll into the boards, all within clear view of
Cerbo, who made no call. In fact, no penalties were issued in the
first period, despite some rather thuggish play (Dartmouth did more of
that, but only because they were doing a lot more hitting than Cornell
in general).
The Big Green got one that counted at the 14:29 mark, after Skazyk had
stopped a shot and Cornell looked to clear. Mike Stacchi intercepted
the clearing pass and sent the puck toward the net, where a scramble
ensued and Clark chipped the loose puck just inside the crossbar. The
Big Red had been playing all right up to that point, but they sagged
noticeably after that first goal, and it was 2-0 just 37 seconds later.
Dion DelMonte's pass from near the blue line found Patrick Tur-cotte
waiting by the left side of the net to redirect the puck over the
sliding Skazyk's stacked pads.
Sancimino and Loga tangled with each other a minute and a half into the
second period, and both were sent off for the first penalties of the
game. Tony DelCarmine apparently wanted to make sure Sancimino knew
exactly what he thought of him, as he taunted the Big Red forward after
the call until Cerbo skated over and told him to knock it off. Sanci-
mino probably didn't hear him, because he and Loga hollered at each
other all the way to the penalty box, then continued jawing while they
were in the sin bin. There was plenty of bad blood to go around in
this game.
Dartmouth made it 3-0 at 2:17 of the second, on DelMonte's slapper from
the point that beat Skazyk to the glove side. A little over a minute
later, Cornell's Mark Scollan took a hit near the benches and was spun
to the ice, where he lay for a few minutes while trainer Ray Barile
worked on him. I did not see the actual hit, but I suspect there was a
high-stick or something involved, because Coach McCutcheon was infuri-
ated at Cerbo for not making a call. McCutcheon reamed Cerbo out for a
good minute and a half, and I suppose it did something, because Cornell
wound up with its first power play at the four-minute mark. Dartmouth
goalie Vern Guetens did a heck of a job in preventing the Big Red from
scoring in the first minute of the man advantage, coming up with three
big saves during a scramble in front. However, Cornell managed to
light the lamp at the 5:29 mark, after a rush up the ice nearly devel-
oped into a 3-on-1. Brad Chartrand sent a long pass out of the right
corner to Bill Holowatiuk at the left point, and he cut loose with a
bullet that Guetens never saw.
There was a fair amount of uncalled punching (and even kicking) after
that, culminating in a little vignette at the 6:30 mark, in which Cerbo
watched a Dartmouth player slug a Cornell guy not two feet in front of
him, then turned to go up the ice. Finally, at the 9:01 mark, after
Scott Dolesh had pushed Hughes into the crossbar and had held him there
for several seconds, the Big Red got a call. This one was actually a
textbook example of why Division I went to the two-ref system, as
Stewart was busy watching play to the right of the net but Cerbo made
the call from across the ice (he may have been helped on it by the Cor-
nell bench).
Late in the period, Cornell put together a flurry in the Dartmouth zone
that lasted half a minute and paid off with a goal at the 18:26 mark.
The Big Green lost the puck while attempting to clear, and several
Cornell players hacked at it, until Sancimino finally flipped it over a
fallen Guetens. With 55 seconds left in the second period, the fight
everyone had been waiting for took place near the Dartmouth net. It
didn't last long, but it was not a pretty scene, and frankly, it would
not have happened if the refs had clamped down earlier in the game and
had made it clear that the extraneous stuff wasn't going to be toler-
ated. The Big Green had one more salvo before intermission, as Matt
Collins was sprung on a breakaway with under ten seconds left, but he
held the puck too long, and Skazyk sprawled to stop the shot.
Geoff Bumstead had a breakaway of his own a couple minutes into the
third, but with the Dartmouth team in hot pursuit, he got a bit too
much lift on his shot, and the puck flew over the net. The Big Green
made it 4-2 at the 4:39 mark, as Bill Kelleher centered the puck for
Fraser, who lost it while switching to his forehand. The puck dribbled
away from him, but DelCarmine was trailing the play, and he flipped it
over Skazyk from the left side. Trevor Dodman essentially closed the
door less than five minutes later, as his slapper from the point beat
Skazyk (who was screened by three Dartmouth players) to the stick side.
Chartrand brought the Lynah Faithful back to life at 9:46 with a point-
blank shot from the edge of the crease that eluded Guetens, but that
would be Cornell's last hurrah in this one. Skazyk, who left the game
for the final 40 seconds, stopped 28 shots, while Guetens had a
terrific game with 27 saves. The loss, coupled with Princeton's win
over Union a few minutes before, officially ended Cornell's playoff
hopes.
Cornell 5, Vermont 2
Vermont 0 1 1 -- 2
Cornell 3 1 1 -- 5
First period -- Scoring:
C Geoff Bumstead (Shaun Hannah, Bill Holowatiuk), 4:34 0-1
C Brad Chartrand (Bumstead, Christian Felli), 9:52 0-2
C Jiri Kloboucek (Jake Karam, Mike Sancimino), 16:46 0-3
Penalties:
V Mike Larkin (roughing, cross-checking), 10:20; C Sancimino (roughing,
cross-checking), 10:20; V Kevin Monty (tripping), 10:51; C Kloboucek
(slashing), 19:26
Second period -- Scoring:
C Sancimino (Kloboucek, Karam), 3:03 0-4
V Keith Festa (Tom Quinn, Eric Lavoie), 3:58 1-4
Penalties:
V Steve McKell (holding), 2:33; C Ryan Hughes (cross-checking), 2:33;
C Brad Chartrand (charging), 5:09
Third period -- Scoring:
V Matt Johnson (Jason Williams, Nicholas Perreault),
10:02 (PP) 2-4
C Hannah (Bumstead), 14:00 2-5
Penalties:
V Bill Lincoln (hooking), 1:25; C Sancimino (slashing), 9:35;
C Chartrand (hitting after whistle), 9:44; C Dan Dufresne (holding),
19:04
Shots on goal: Vermont 10-17-12 -- 39, Cornell 15-13-4 -- 32
Power plays: Vermont 1 of 4, Cornell 0 of 2
Goaltending:
V Tom Vukota (32 shots, 27 saves)
C Andy Bandurski (39 shots, 37 saves)
Notes:
Well, at the very least, it was nice to send this year's crop of
Cornell seniors (Ryan Hughes, Etienne Belzile, Jason Vogel, and Russ
Hammond, who unfortunately sprained his knee the night before and
couldn't play) off with a win, even if it was over a Vermont team that
had absolutely no reason to show up for this game -- and played like
they were well aware of that fact. All-American goalie Christian
Soucy, who had been in net for all but one of the Catamounts' previous
29 games, rode the bench for this one, apparently resting up for Tues-
day's preliminary round game. It was difficult to tell because Vermont
is such a young team anyway, but it seemed like head coach Mike Gilli-
gan was resting as many of the regulars as he could. Forwards Domi-
nique Ducharme, Nicholas Perreault, and Toby Kearney, who I believe
comprise Vermont's top line, didn't see much action Saturday night. In
goal for the Cats was sophomore Tom Vukota, getting his first-ever
collegiate start.
In addition to Hammond, Mark Scollan and Tyler McManus did not suit up
for this game, and they were replaced by Jiri Kloboucek and Joel
McArter. Vogel, who had been out with a separated shoulder, was seeing
his first action in a few weeks. And one other note: the referees for
this game were James Cerbo and Pierre Belanger, meaning that if Bel-
anger is indeed going to retire after this year, he spent his last
regular-season game in Lynah Rink, where the fans make a special effort
to be extra nice to him... *NOT!* Belanger had to be thrilled when
this weekend's assignments were made. (He and Cerbo didn't do too
badly, though) We got to see a nice bit of referee-linesman support
about a minute and a half into the game, when linesman Mike Andrews was
being roundly booed for blowing a play dead for some reason (inten-
tional off-sides, I think). Cerbo skated up to him and said, "Nice
job, Mike."
The Big Red struck quickly in the first period, as Geoff Bumstead con-
verted a breakaway at the 4:34 mark, deking Vukota and sliding the puck
past the goalie as he was going down. About five minutes later, de-
fenseman Christian Felli started a scoring play with a long pass out of
the Cornell zone. Bumstead got to it and fired a shot that Vukota
blocked, but Brad Chartrand was right there to stuff the rebound home
at 9:52. By this time, it was pretty clear that, although the Vermont
team was trying to hustle, they just were not playing together. Klo-
boucek, seeing his first action for Cornell in about a month, got the
first goal of his career with 3:14 left in the first, hacking at the
puck near the crease and getting off a high shot that caught the top
corner of the net.
Cornell extended its lead to 4-0 (the Big Red's biggest margin since
the Air Force game in January) at 3:03 of the second period, when Mike
Sancimino broke in alone on the Vermont goal, fired one, and then
stuffed his own rebound between Vukota's pads. The Catamounts ruined
goaltender Andy Bandurski's shutout bid 55 seconds later, when Keith
Festa flipped a Tom Quinn rebound past Bandurski's outstretched glove.
At 5:09, Chartrand was called for charging, and when the penalty ex-
pired, he hopped out of the box, headed straight for the puck (setting
up a breakaway), and rifled a shot that clanged off the crossbar. Un-
fortunately, he had neglected to re-establish contact with the defen-
sive zone after leaving the penalty box, so the whole thing was for
naught. It was a nice play, though.
The Catamounts came close to another score midway through the second
period, when Brendan Creagh sent a long pass out of the Vermont zone to
Eric Lavoie, who skated across the Cornell blue line and fired a
slapper that hit the right post and rolled through the crease. A min-
ute later, Cornell defenseman Bill Holowatiuk headed for the training
room with trainer Ray Barile and did not return to the ice. No word on
what happened to him.
Cornell started the third period with an all-senior line, which doesn't
sound unusual until you realize that the Big Red has only three senior
forwards and one of them, Hammond, was not in uniform. Belzile was
moved up to right wing for the face-off, playing a non-defensive posi-
tion for probably the first time in his hockey career. (Hughes later
admitted he had asked Belzile to take the faceoff, which would have
been interesting) Belzile moved back to defense on his next shift.
Vermont started to put some pressure on the Big Red in the third, as
they limited Cornell to just four shots on goal while mounting several
threats of their own. The Cats went on the power play at the 9:35
mark, and nine seconds later, a shoving match developed between Felli
and a Vermont forward. Felli skated away and the whole thing would
have passed without incident, except that Chartrand charged in from
about five feet away and shoved the Vermont player into the glass.
This was rather foolish, especially since Belanger was also standing
about five feet away and immediately called Chartrand for hitting after
the whistle. The crowd booed that one (it being Pierre and all), but
really, how can you argue it? At any rate, this gave Vermont a 5-on-3
power play, and they lost little time in converting it. At the 10:02
mark, Perreault blasted one from the blue line that Matt Johnson got
his stick on in the slot, tipping the puck high over Bandurski's
shoulder and into the net.
With the kind of season Cornell has been having, this was cause for
concern, but the Big Red kept Vermont off the board for the rest of the
night. Cornell padded its lead with six minutes left, on an error in
judgment by Vukota. He came out of the crease and dove to tip the puck
away from Bumstead, but Shaun Hannah was right there to pick it up, and
he skated to his left around the prone goaltender and flipped the puck
into the empty net. And with that, Cornell brought an end to a eleven-
game losing streak and defeated Vermont in the season's final weekend
for the first time since 1987. Bandurski played a great game between
the pipes, finishing with 37 saves and adding further fuel to the
doubts about whether this Bandurski-Skazyk rotation is a good idea.
Vukota stopped 27 of 32 shots.
The Lynah Faithful saluted their team after its last game of the season
with a standing ovation, and cheered loud and long again when the four
seniors remained behind and, except for Hammond, took a victory lap.
It was a nice finish to a very disappointing season for the Big Red.
--
Bill Fenwick | Send your HOCKEY-L poll responses to:
Cornell '86 and probably '94 | [log in to unmask]
LET'S GO RED!!
"There is no use saying that honesty is the best policy to someone who has
charmingly admitted, 'I know I know you, but I just can't quite place you,'
if the reply is 'I was your first husband.'"
-- Miss Manners (Judith Martin)
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