Ok guys I really want to know what happened in the Clarkson - Vermont
series so I will pay in advance for some information by writing up the
Cornell - Princeton series.

--Steve

Here are my impression--sorry I did not take the time to fill in the
Princeton players names.

These were two great games with similarities and differences.  The scores
of 3-2 and 2-1 were typical playoff hockey scores and the type of games
Cornell can win.

One constant for both teams was excellent goaltending.  On Friday night
Princeton's goalie made several highlight film type of saves and when he
was not good he was just lucky--on his belly from the first shot lifting up
his hand to make a glove save on bullet going top shelf,  sitting on his
bottom waving his blocker at a shot headed for the corner and getting a
piece of it.  He was also very solid Saturday night but not as spectacular
or lucky as Friday night.  Underhill was very good both night but did not
make many of the highlight film saves--his defense was better protecting
from close in shots, deflections, rebounds and he was making the difficult
save look easy.

Both nights Princeton got outstanding offensive flow with great speed,
quickness and superb passing.  Most of this was from 2 of their lines and
first defensive pair.  They were so good that we were seldom able to stack
them up at the blue line or able to smash them into the boards as often as
we do to other teams.  The down side for Princeton was that they were
basically only showing us three lines while we ran our normal rotation of 4
lines and three defensive pairs and I think Princeton's best units were on
the ice too much for very physical, high paced games.  If it had gone three
I think we would have been in a position to dominate a third
game.  Sophomore Doug Murray (our best defender) was back from an injury
absence and clearly improved our overall play.  It is interesting that
although he is not fully recovered from his knee sprain and was step slower
straight ahead and had lost some of his quickness for changes of
direction--but even with the limits he was a factor in the game.  We played
the weekend without steady senior defender Danny Powell called back to
Calgery with a  family emergency again forcing us down the defense depth
chart.  Princeton took to many bad penalties and our power play with the
return of Murray was back in form.  Perhaps the bad penalties were in part
retaliation for all the hitting they had to take.  The Princeton coach
commented after the series about Cornell's hitting taking a toll.  I sort
of felt we could have hit them more and harder but the combination of their
speed and size plus they way they would stay well off the boards on the
rush made then a hard team to hit.   Maybe their coach and I am both
right--they are hard to hit and don't often get hit as much as we hit them.

Game 1

For the first two periods we were really dominating the play although when
ever Princeton got a chance to rush the puck they came up ice with such
authority that it brought you to the edge of your seat.  But as I said
their goalie was having a great night.  The Princeton defense was playing
well but we were pressing them hard enough that they were a bit frantic.  I
remember one occasion where the defender was spun around and flailed
blindly with his stick behind his back and made an inadvertent poke
check.  Other times they we making last second blocks of shots or passes
that were potentially dangerous--the sort where if you miss you screen the
goalie or deflect it past him.  I felt good at the end of two because I
felt some goals would come and that Princeton could not sustain the pace of
the game.

The third period started with a disaster.  Princeton jumped right into the
zone off the face off and  beat the defender enough to get off a perfectly
placed backhand at the crease edge.  I think Murrays reduced quickness cost
us this goal.  Not great defense or goaltending but a great individual
effort on Princeton's part.  Then a few minutes later senior defender
Pierce made a poor shot decision and his shot was blocked for a partial
breakaway.  It was an almost 2 on 1  and the defender played like a 2 on 1
not counting on the backchecker to arrive in time and allowed the shot from
the deep slot.  I think the defender should have moved to the shooter when
he was that deep but I understand why he played it the way he did and may
have expected the shooter to go closer before he shot.  I though it was all
over but the crowd and the team stayed in the game.

Princeton's penalty taking finally caught up with them.  Our first goal was
a bit of a fluke but our power play had been working very well indeed and
an unchallenged in close cross ice Vesce pass to an open player in front of
the net (assists to Stephen Baby & Doug Murray) went off a defender into
the net.  I wonder if the defender was trying to block that pass or if it
just hit him.  At mid-period we were again on the power play and putting
the heat on and senior defender Larry Pierce caught Freshman center
Vesce  in full stride and he roared through the defense to score.  There
was a similar pass for a goal from a Pierce pass last weekend but not on
power play.

In overtime we looked to have the upper hand but of course it was sudden
death.  David Kozier won a face-off to the right of Princeton goalie.  Sam
Paolini slid a pass to Kozier, who skated into the slot behind the defense
and his backhander went top shelf to the goalies right as Kozier was moving
right to left--he shot back against the direction he was moving and the
goalie was moving.

Game 2:

We basically owned the first period outshooting them 16 to 6 and ahead
1-0.  The goaltending and defense (and perhaps our lack of finishers) kept
Princeton in the game.  About 13 minutes into the game a Princeton defender
circled behind the net to start the rush with Ladouceur right at his side
harassing him whacking at his stick.  When he got out front at the face off
circle Sam Paolini who was curling back to forecheck caught him (and his
near by defense partner) with a brutal head on check, both fell down, the
puck squirted free, Ladouceur got the puck out of his skates, took one
stride into the slot forcing Stathos to move and shot it between his legs
as he moved.

Early in the second period we were on power play.  Princeton had calmed
down and after allowing us 2 goals on 9 power plays decided to play a bit
smarter--they only took 4 minors (and a misconduct) to only allow us 3
power plays.  The previous night they had paid close attention to our
points trying to limit Murray's shot opportunities and they had been
somewhat effective.  This was our perfect execution of our point
shot--Vesche to Murray in the high slot, brutal low slap shot so fast that
I could not be see it, deflected into the net at the edge of the crease by
Paolini.  We finished the second period in good shape getting another 16
shots but not a third goal.  Princeton was playing a bit better getting
more offensive flow and more shots.  Princeton got back in the game with a
goal that was a mirror image of a goal from the night before, a player
coming off the boards and a perfectly placed backhander from close in.

The third period started out a lot like the second but a few minutes in
Princeton went on a 10-12 minute surge where they controlled the puck a lot
and I was really worried that they would tie it up.  The would finish with
15 shots in the period but in the final analysis our defense limited them
to shots from distances and angles that Underhill could handle.   There
were a couple of occasions where Underhill had to come out into traffic to
make a save or smother pucks but he is a big, strong, mobile guy who does
this well.  Princeton had one great opportunity on a break with very hard
shot from the slot--I thought it was over the top of the net but a game
recap I read says it was a save and in that case it was a super save.  With
about 6 or 7 minutes remaining Princeton just faded and could not sustain
the intensity.  The play was more even and I felt we had weathered the
storm and would win.  With about 3 minutes remaining Princeton took a
stupid penalty behind the play that I though sealed the game but then
Ladouceur took a penalty with 2 remaining to give them a final power play
with the goalie out for 6 on 4 for the final minute.  Our penalty kill most
of the season and all weekend was very good and we just efficiently killed
it.  In the third period when Princeton was on a roll David Kozier took all
of the key defensive zone face offs and was very effective.




Steven Rockey
Director of the Mathematics Library
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Cornell University
Office: 255-5268
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