The Boston Garden and Cornell hockey have been closely intertwined for the
entire period I've been involved with Cornell, which dates back to 1967
(yes, that's nineteen-SIXTY-seven). Many of my most vivid memories of
Cornell hockey happened at the Gahden. Among them:
 
1970 - ECAC championship tournament final game. Ed Ambis, a little-used
fourth-line forward, scores halfway through the game to tie the score. John
Hughes scores an apparent game winning goal with just under a minute to go,
but referee Giles Threadgold waves it off, calling Cornell offside. Not to
be denied, Hughes takes four whacks at a loose puck in the crease before
knocking the game-winner past Clarkson goalie Bruce Bullock with just 14
seconds to go.
 
1973 - NCAA semifinal. Trailing Cornell by 5-1 with less than 10 minutes to
go in the game, Wisconsin rallied to tie the score on Dean Talafous' goal
with five seconds to go, then won in overtime on another Talafous tally. We
didn't realize it at the time, but this game really marked a change in the
fortunes of both schools. Wisconsin established itself as a national power
and has remained so to this day, while Cornell has been just an occasional
player on the national stage for the past two decades.
 
1981 - ECAC tournament. Cornell beat Colgate in the semis and lost handily
to Providence in the finals, but for me the tournament was memorable
because I was there, not as a fan, but as a broadcaster, providing color
commentary with play-by-play man Chris Moore (who went on to Wisconsin, the
New Jersey Devils, and now the Florida Panthers).
 
1986 - ECAC tournament. The Doug Dadswell show. The most nerve-wracking,
nail-biting pair of games I've ever seen, as Cornell defeated Yale in
double overtime and Clarkson in OT for its seventh (and last, so far) ECAC
title. As Dave Delchamps has already described, Dadswell was unbelievable.
The finest clutch goaltending performance I've ever witnessed.
 
1990 - ECAC tournament semis. RPI goalie Sean Kennedy stops Cornell's
leading goal scorer, Ross Lemon, on a penalty shot, and the Engineers go on
to win. Lemon broke down during an interview and cried in his mother's arms
after the game, one of the most emotional and human reactions I've ever
witnessed.
 
And I forget the exact year, but one of my Boston Garden highlights has to
be the year I met Mike Machnik in the press room. It was either during
Measlefest, or the year after. (Really. No, really....)
 
It was an old barn, it was filthy and dilapidated and a tough place to
watch a game from (especially from the cheap seats on a hot night), but an
awful lot of history was made there. It's time for it to go, though. Just
wish the ECAC would move its tournament back to Boston.
 
 
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Arthur C. Mintz          [log in to unmask]          (607) 255-1487
Operations Officer (Acting)
Cornell Information Technologies / Information Resources
 
"Indecision may or may not be my problem." - Jimmy Buffett
 
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