Ten years ago, the Cornell Big Red, a talented squad that would go on to
win the ECAC tournament, came to be known as the "Cardiac Kids" due to
their propensity to play teams close for two periods before deciding the
issue in the third period (or OT -- the 1985-86 Cornell team played a
school-record eleven overtime games, losing just two).  While not as
talented as that 85-86 squad (which after all included players like Joe
Nieuwendyk, Duanne Moeser, Doug Dadswell, and oh yes, a rough-and-tumble
defenseman named Mike Schafer), this year's edition of the Big Red is
rapidly laying claim to the "Cardiac" moniker.  Cornell is currently on a
string of six consecutive games in which they have trailed by a goal in the
second period.  In five of those games, they have rallied to win, while the
other one ended in a tie.  Not coincidentally, the Big Red is also on an
eight-game unbeaten streak, their longest since the 1984-85 season when
they won ten in a row.
 
Cornell seems to be thriving on this edge-of-the-cliff style of play...
and, as this weekend showed, if a game seems to be lacking the suspense
necessary to generate a late charge from behind, then by golly, the Big Red
will provide it :-)  Some more notes on a memorable weekend (boxes posted
to INFO-HOCKEY-L):
 
Cornell 5, Harvard 4
 
The last time a Cornell team swept Harvard in the regular season, dinosaurs
roamed the earth -- or, at least, current head coach Mike Schafer roamed
the defensive zone as a sophomore on the 1983-84 team that turned the
trick.  Rich Hungerford has already posted to INFO-HOCKEY-L on this game
from the Harvard perspective, so I'll pirate from his post and throw in a
few comments of my own :-)  BTW, Rich, I have to side with Greg and
Geoff... while I wouldn't consider the game particularly well-played,
especially in the first period, I didn't think it was all that dull,
either.  I think I might have preferred a duller game, at least after
Cornell grabbed the 2-0 lead :-)
 
Anyway... it was a bit of a surprise that Harvard coach Ronn Tomassoni
elected to give freshman Peter Zakowich the start in this one.  True, #1
goaltender Tripp Tracy had been bombed in the Crimson's last three games to
the tune of 16 goals allowed.  But still, you'd have to go back to the
first game of the 1990 ECAC quarterfinals (when a slumping Chuckie Hughes
got the nod over Allain Roy) to find a game against Cornell in which
Harvard did not start its acknowledged better/best goalie.  The move was
probably intended to shake up the Crimson, but early on, it backfired, as
the Big Red was able to score a pair of goals a couple of minutes apart
despite not playing very well.  Defenseman Jeff Burgoyne got things started
at the 6:06 mark with his first collegiate goal:
 
(from Rich)
> Cornell took the early lead when
>they were able to make a quick transition from defense to attack.  Jeff
>Burgoyne (Jamie Papp, Tony Bergin) finished off the 1-2-3 break play after the
>final set-up pass had caught the Crimson defense out.
 
Burgoyne made what could have been a bad decision when he elected not to
pursue a loose puck in the Harvard end, but he made up for it by stripping
the puck from the Crimson player who did go after it, starting the play
that resulted in his goal.
 
>Big Red went up 0-2 on a power play when Ryan
>Smart (Steve Wilson, PC Drouin) cruised up the left wing, headed for net and
>shot home.
 
This play could have served notice that it was not going to be Zakowich's
night.  Smart made a nice move off a faceoff in the Harvard end, but the
shot itself was a soft, fluttering thing that the Harvard goalie probably
should have stopped.  Then again, it looked like it wasn't going to matter
who was in net for the Crimson, as they proceeded to score three times in
five minutes to erase the deficit.  Jason Karmanos cut the deficit in half
at the 11:56 mark, and then Henry Higdon tipped home a nice pass from
Ashlin Halfnight (who seemed to be everywhere that night) to tie the game
at 14:10 of the first.
 
>At the end of a Cornell power play, Harvard went ahead 3-2 when Joseph Craigen
>(Craig MacDonald) got credit for a goal put in by the Cornell defense.
 
The goal was "scored" by Jason Dailey.  Craigen got off a high shot from
the slot that goaltender Eddy Skazyk got a piece of, but Skazyk lost the
puck behind him.  Dailey skated over to try to tuck the puck under the
goaltender, but he wound up bouncing it off Skazyk's back and into the net.
The goal came at 16:46 of the first, and Cornell coach Mike Schafer
immediately pulled Skazyk, replacing him with Jason Elliott.  Not that
Skazyk was playing particularly badly, but it was clear that *something*
needed to be done.
 
In years past, when Cornell blew a lead in such spectacular fashion (and
especially on a fluke goal like Craigen's), the team tended to pack it in
right there, especially against arch-rival Harvard.  But perhaps the
biggest change in the 1995-96 Cornell squad, even more so than their
aggressive play, is in the team's morale; they play with a lot more
confidence, and they rarely fall apart when the bounces start going against
them.  Vinnie Auger tied the game at 3-3 with 54 seconds left in the
period, tucking a Steve Wilson rebound just inside the left post.
 
That would be all for Zakowich, as Tracy went between the pipes to start
the second period.  It didn't take Harvard long to retake the lead, as
Higdon notched his second of the game just 63 seconds after the
intermission.  But Mike Sancimino tied the game at the 8:11 mark, skating
out from behind the net and bouncing a high shot off the left post and in.
Coming into his senior year off 30- and 28-point campaigns (he was the
second-leading scorer on the team both seasons), Sancimino was expected to
be a big part of the offense for the Big Red, but his season up to this
point had been somewhat disappointing, as he had tallied only 13 points.
He showed some good signs of breaking out of his slump this weekend,
picking up two goals and an assist against Harvard and adding two more
assists against Brown.
 
A holding call late in the second period on Halfnight gave Cornell the
power play to start the third, and they would convert once again, with
Sancimino getting the game-winner at the 1:01 mark.  Once again, he skated
behind the net, this time beating Tracy through the pads with a
wrap-around.  With the lead, Cornell spent the remaining 19 minutes of the
game concentrating on defense, and they did a good job of it, limiting the
Crimson to only four shots on goal for the third period.  Harvard almost
made things interesting late, as they had the puck in the Cornell end and
Tracy heading to the bench for the extra attacker with about 35 seconds
left... but the Big Red got control of the puck and headed back the other
way, and, in a critical miscommunication, Tracy headed back toward the net
after the Crimson's sixth attacker had already taken the ice.  Harvard was
called for too many men on the ice, and that was pretty much it.  Tracy
stopped 16 shots in relief of Zakowich, who had 12 saves.  Skazyk had five
saves, and Elliott 12.
 
>Harvard played a tentative match.  Their passing was dreadful.
 
The one thing that really surprised me about this game was Harvard's
inability to get everybody on the same page.  There were a *lot* of foolish
off-sides called against the Crimson, and at times it seemed like having
the center circle with the puck near the red line while one or both wings
set up on the other side of the blue line was a set play.  Certainly not
the kind of thing I'm used to seeing from the Crimson, even if they've
become more defensively oriented under Tomassoni.
 
And from the How Things Change department:  Two years ago, Cornell lost a
5-4 game to Harvard, essentially because they gave the potent Crimson power
play too many chances and were outscored on man-up chances, four goals to
none.  Friday night, it was the Cornell special teams doing the damage, as
the Big Red power play scored four times while the Crimson went 0 of 6.
 
 
Cornell 6, Brown 4
 
As Yogi Berra reportedly said, "It was like deja vu all over again."
Cornell took a quick 2-0 lead and in fact led 3-1 after the first period,
but gave up three quick goals to the Bears to fall behind 4-3 in the
second.  This time, freshman Kyle Knopp was the hero, picking up a natural
hat trick to propel the Big Red to the weekend sweep.  Knopp's outstanding
performance earned him ECAC Rookie of the Week honors.
 
It didn't look like Cornell was going to have much trouble early on, as
they notched a pair of goals less than a minute apart.  Ryan Smart stole
the puck from Ron Smitko near the blue line, setting up a 2-on-1 with P.C.
Drouin.  Drouin took Smart's pass and snapped the puck past Brown goalie
Jeff Holowaty at 4:15 of the first.  At the 5:03 mark, Jason Dailey made it
2-0 on a wraparound.  Mike Parsons replaced Holowaty at 6:26 of the first,
and the move paid immediate dividends, as Charlie Humber cut the deficit in
half at the 7:12 mark, batting an Adrian Smith rebound past goaltender
Jason Elliott.  Big Red fans might have been a little nervous at this
point, considering what had happened in the first period the night before,
but Drouin restored the two-goal margin at 8:38 of the first, beating
Parsons low.
 
Despite firing 11 shots at the Cornell net, Brown's offense did not look
particularly good in the first period, but the Bears stepped things up in
the second, and all of a sudden the dam broke.  Steve Kathol made it 3-2
with his first goal of the year at the 9:15 mark, after which a rumble
broke out that saw he and Cornell's Mark Scollan head to the bench with
misconducts, among other things.  Another shoving match between Brown's
John Direnzo and Cornell's Steve Wilson was broken up at the 11:07 mark,
and the Bears tied the game three seconds later.  Mike Flynn won the draw
back to Ryan Mulhern, who skated in and fired past Elliott to the stick
side.  The Big Red had hardly recovered from that one when Marty Clapton
gave Brown the lead, tapping home a Mulhern pass at 13:29 of the second.
 
Knopp started the Big Red rally with 3:07 left in the second, deflecting a
Brown clearing attempt over to Drouin.  Drouin returned the puck to Knopp,
who sent a high shot over Parsons' glove and into the net.  Cornell took
the lead for good 2:20 into the third, when Knopp followed up his own
rebound from the slot, and the freshman rounded out the scoring, as well as
his hat trick, by poking a Drouin shot past Parsons at the 11:32 mark.
 
As for all that fun and games in the last two minutes, it seemed to start
with Mulhern and Matt Cooney glaring at each other during a penalty call on
Smart.  Four seconds later, Mulhern and Cooney went at it, starting a
parade to the sin bin which eventually saw eleven penalties whistled over
the rest of the game, including a pair of misconducts.  Included in the
penalties were a pair of coincidental unsportsmanlike conduct calls... for
taunting, I suppose.  Really an ugly mess, and not exactly the kind of
ending that one would hope for in a game like this.
 
Parsons made 25 saves in relief of Holowaty, who stopped four shots.
Elliott had 27 saves.  Cornell returns home this weekend to host Union and
RPI.
 
 
Bill Fenwick
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