Friday night    Harvard 5 - Cornell 4
Saturday night  Harvard 5 - Cornell 3
 
The weekend series held at Bright was a rather slow affair featuring
reaction hockey and endless waiting for a break.  Friday night both
teams were cautious and looked liked they expected to play three
games.  Saturday night the energy level was higher but in the end,
the Crimson put their chances away while Big Red was left waiting for
the perfect time to turn it on.  The highlight of the weekend was
meeting Hockey-L giant Bill Fenwick.
 
Friday night
Cornell scored first on a power play goal when Jake Karam (Geoff
Bumstead, Chad Wilson) was able to tuck the puck in from a wide angle
on a break in.  Harvard had been doing some excellent penalty killing
until Big Red executed a nice pick and roll play.  The play had sucked
the Crimson defense out to center ice and when Cornell hit the quick
roll and go, it provided a good scoring chance.  Why Big Red did not
use this play more, I am not sure.  With Harvard's aggressive defense,
it is a natural counter move.  The Crimson tied the match when Steve
Martins (Tom Holmes, Cory Gustafson) finished a nice 1-2-3 passing
play.  The final pass by Holmes was excellent!  Cornell regained the
lead when Geoff Lopatka (C.Wilson, Brad Chartrand) put in a quick
centering pass from a face-off.  Ian Kennish (Stuart Swenson) tied the
game for Harvard when he put in a rebound.  It was a play driven by
the efforts of Kennish.  In the second period, the Crimson scored a
power play goal when Ashlin Halfnight's (Lou Body, Kirk Nielsen) shot
from the point was tipped in by the Big Red defense.  Martins (Ben
Coughlin, Tripp Tracy) made it 4-2 Harvard on another power play goal.
Martins made a stunning dash up the right wing, went to the net and
flipped his shot up and in.  Super play.  At the start of the third
period, Gustafson (Holmes, Perry Cohagan) tapped in after some good
fore-checking.  Cornell started its come back when Tony Bergin (Andre
Doll, Shaun Hannah) put home a quick 1-2 play after the Harvard
defense gave up a loose puck in its own end.  C.Wilson (Vincent Auger,
Lopatka) made the score 5-4 when Big Red executed a nice 3 on 2 break
which put the Crimson at 6's & 7's.  The remaining 5 or so minutes
were played evenly.
 
Saturday night
Cornell opened the scoring first when Lapatka was able to connect on
an error by the Harvard goalie.  The Crimson came back with a power
play goal when Brian Farrell (Martins, Chris Baird) finished off some
good movement: left point - right low - in front.  Harvard took a 2-1
lead when Sean McCann (Holmes, Martins) drilled his onetime right
point shot high to the far post.  The goal came off a face-off.  Big
Red tied the match on a power play goal by Mike Sancimino (Bumstead).
Sancimino had been left alone in the slot twice and drilled his second
shot home.  The goal was set up by some good fore-checking by Cornell.
We then had a long second period of lifeless hockey.  Finally with 16
seconds left, Coughlin (Martins) slopped in a Harvard goal off a pile-
up in front of net.  At the start of the third period, Martins
(McCann, Maguire) scored the killer power play goal from a rebound off
the back boards.  Big Red made it more interesting when Dan Dufresne
(Lopatka, Chartrand) made the score 4-3 after the Harvard defense had
backed itself just about into their own goal.  Martins (Jason
Karmanos) finished off the scoring when his brilliant individual
effort found him stuffing home to the far side, while sliding along
the ice on his side.
 
Cornell always seemed to be waiting for the next period.  They showed
some very good rushes and attacking ideas.  However they did not often
choose to use those ideas.  I liked the play of Geoff Lopatka.  He has
a lot of promise.  He seems to have the scorers' touch.  Vincent Auger
is a player I like because of the speed he can generate.  I thought on
Saturday night that Bumstead and Sancimino showed some good teamwork.
Andy Bandurski, who played in goal Saturday and for most of the third
period on Friday was a strong stopper.  On defense I liked the pairing
of Chad and Steve Wilson.  They moved and read the play well.  Overall
I expected more out of Cornell.  Harvard gave them a lot of time to
stick it to them, but Big Red seemed to always put off attacking.
 
Harvard started cautious and never really got its game going.  Many of
its "big" players just did not get into this series.  I think of the
Crimson defense as been their strength, but on whole they just did not
play that well.  Chris Baird was out sick Friday night, but returned
for Saturday's match.  Ashlin Halfnight had to leave the game with a
probable back injury in the second period on Saturday when he was hit
from behind with a cross-check.  I might add, cross-checking seemed to
be the penalty of choice this weekend, as both teams used the poor
tactic again and again.  Steve Martins and Tom Holmes were Harvard's
best players this series.  They zipped all over the ice.  Their strong
penalty kill and line work is what gave the Crimson the victory.  I
also liked the play of Cohagan and Coughlin who stepped up to meet the
challenge.  Jason Karmanos had a super weekend.  His skillful reads
and energetic play were good to see.  On defense Brain Lonsinger
played fantastic.  He was the one defender on his game.  His tough
game was critical for Harvard.  In goal I liked how Aaron Israel
returned to his strong form.  He looked real good making saves seem
easy and giving up few rebounds.  All in all, the Crimson got through
the quarterfinals, but will need to turn it on if they hope to do
well from here on.
 
 _____________
/
 good shooting
 rhun
_____________/