The big news from the ECAC quarterfinals is tenth-seeded RPI's win over
regular-season champ Harvard, arguably the biggest upset in ECAC playoff
history.  This is only the third time in the 31-year history of the tour-
nament that the top seed failed to make it to the semifinals.  At #11 or so,
Harvard was not as highly ranked nationally as the other two top-seed quar-
terfinal casualties (as Jim mentioned, RPI beat #2 New Hampshire in 1974,
[now Jim hates me :-) ] and Cornell upset #3-ranked Boston College in 1980),
but then again, those other two upset winners had league records somewhere
around 0.500, while this year's Engineer team was 6-12-4 (0.308) against the
rest of the ECAC during the regular season.  Anyway, congratulations to the
Engineers, as well as the other quarterfinal winners.
 
Results from Saturday night:
 
     CLARKSON 8, Brown 3
     Cornell 4, YALE 1
     Rpi 4, HARVARD 3 (OT)
     ST. LAWRENCE 6, Princeton 3
 
For the second time in three years, all four ECAC semifinalists come from
New York State.  We can probably expect to hear more sporadic rumors that
the ECAC is considering moving its Phinal Phour to Albany or some other
"more central location".  Another note:  five Ivy League teams participated
in the quarterfinals, which is a record number of teams from the Ancient
Eight (well, Ancient Six in hockey).  Only one of them advanced, though...
 
I would guess that someone somewhere might be griping about the change in
the ECAC quarterfinals from the best-of-two-with-minigame format to a single
game.  Well, the best-of-two quarterfinals existed for nine years, and in
those 36 series, only once did the loser of the first game come back to win
the quarterfinals.  (Irony of the day:  Apparently, when the change was
voted on, Yale's Tim Taylor was for it, while Cornell's Brian McCutcheon was
against it)
 
Notes from the action at the Yale Whale:
 
Cornell 4, Yale 1
     Dave sez:
>Hey, Bill Fenwick!  Thanks for picking Yale :-)
 
     Ahem, well, if I'd have known the Yale forwards were going to spend
     most of the game skating like me (not a compliment!), or that the Elis
     were going to come out and play dump-and-chase, I would have gone with
     Cornell in a second.  Going in, Yale's advantages over Cornell were in
     team speed and puck-handling, areas that were almost completely negated
     by the dump-and-chase game.  I have to believe that style was a con-
     scious coaching decision on the part of Tim Taylor and his staff, since
     in the early part of the game, the Elis weren't really being forced to
     do anything by the Big Red.  Cornell was shaky and was not forechecking
     well early, and the Big Red didn't put everything together until the
     third period.  One other question for Yale fans:  did something happen
     to goalie John Hockin?  I believe he was the starter in most of the
     Yale games this season, but freshman Todd Sullivan was getting the nod
     over the past few weeks.
 
     The big question for Cornell was who their starting goaltender was
     going to be, after Andy Bandurski's scintillating performance against
     Vermont in his first start.  Although coach Brian McCutcheon said the
     final decision was not made until last Friday night, it may not have
     been a difficult one in retrospect.  Parris Duffus, who got the nod,
     had started Cornell's first 25 games and had performed very well
     against Yale in the teams' first two meetings.  He had had a couple of
     rough nights near the end of the season, leading to his benching
     against Vermont, but he was back to his surreal self Saturday night at
     the Yale Whale.  He made 28 saves and looked very confident between the
     pipes, which was good to see (for Cornell fans, anyway).
 
     In fond memory of referee John Gallagher's sad performances in the last
     two Cornell games he did, the Big Red fans gave him the kind of welcome
     normally reserved for Pierre Belanger.  His officiating was a bit
     improved in this one, but he didn't earn himself any points with the
     Cornell contingent when he waved off two first-period goals by the Big
     Red.  The first one, at 5:19, was disallowed because of a crease
     violation, and that may or may not have been a correct call (Sullivan
     did get decked on the play).  The lamp went on again at the 13:16 mark
     after a flurry in front of the Yale net, but -- sorry, fellow Cornell
     fans -- this one was definitely not a goal.  Sullivan blocked a shot
     and it wound up under his pads as he slid head first into the net.
     When play was stopped and he got up, the puck was on the goal line, but
     not over it.  Ironically, Cornell should not have been terribly dis-
     appointed with the way Gallagher called this game; Cornell wound up
     with five power plays to Yale's one.
 
     Duffus had an interesting moment early in the second period, when he
     trapped the puck between his pads and raised his glove in the air to
     signal for a stoppage of play.  The whistle blew, but Yale winger
     Stephen Maltby was already flat on the ice and sliding toward Duffus at
     a good clip.  Duffus neatly jumped over him like a second baseman
     making the pivot, and then had a word or two with Gallagher.
 
     Cornell had trouble clearing the puck in the second period, and it
     wound up costing them at the 5:46 mark.  Mark Kaufmann blasted one from
     the left point that Duffus blocked, and the rebound floated out to the
     right point to Peter Allen.  Meanwhile, Kaufmann circled behind the
     Cornell net, and he was in position to tip Allen's blast under Duffus'
     pads.  The Big Red was pretty disorganized after that, but they managed
     to tie the score four and a half minutes later.  Sullivan got a piece
     of a shot by Dave Burke, but Jake Karam got to the rebound first, took
     a few whacks at it, and finally got it past the goalie and into the
     net.  Yale had a chance to regain the lead with about 5:30 left in the
     second, when they broke across the Cornell blue line on a 3-on-1, but
     Burke disrupted the breakaway attempt, and then Duffus made an unbe-
     lievable glove save on an attempt from the left circle.
 
     That may have helped fire up the Big Red, because they came out and
     played considerably better in the third period.  Yale, in contrast, was
     starting to look a little shaky.  Cornell was dominating the faceoffs
     in this game, and it paid off at 8:27 of the third with the Big Red's
     second goal.  Joe Dragon won a faceoff in the Yale zone and directed
     the puck over to Jason Vogel, whose wrister from the edge of the left
     circle beat Sullivan just inside the right post.  It was Yale's turn to
     be disorganized after that goal, and the game got a bit faster as the
     Elis started to press.  However, at 12:02, the Big Red went up 3-1 and
     all but put the game away.  Todd Chambers fired a shot from the point
     that Sullivan went down to block, but the rebound lay loose near the
     crease for a few seconds until Ryan Hughes raced in and flipped a
     sharp-angle shot into the open net.  Sullivan was pulled with under a
     minute to go, but it was Phil Nobel getting the empty-netter on a
     wrister from the red line with 21 seconds to go.
 
A couple of post-game notes:  I overheard an obviously disappointed Yale fan
say, "Well, we won the Ivies, you can't argue with that."  I guess that's
some consolation, although the Ivy League title means about as much as the
alignment of Jupiter as far as the playoffs are concerned.  Then a bunch of
us got to talk to Parris Duffus afterwards, and during the conversation he
said, "It was nice to finally play the last 30 seconds of a game without
worrying -- my head can't take that every game."  It was pretty clear that,
given the state of the Cornell offense of late, four goals made him feel
like he had won the lottery.
 
The ECAC semifinals take place this Friday at Boston Garden, with Cornell
taking on Clarkson in the first game (5:00 pm start), and St. Lawrence
facing RPI in the nightcap (scheduled to start at 8:00 pm).  Unfortunately
for me, I found out after coming back from Yale that I wouldn't be able to
go to Boston this weekend, *sigh*  Anyway, since I've never learned to quit
when I'm behind, here's a couple of previews, predictions, blabberings, etc:
 
Cornell vs. Clarkson
     SEASON SERIES:  Clarkson won twice, 4-1 at Cornell and 3-1 at home.
     OUTLOOK:  The seniors on the Cornell team have a nice tradition going,
     as this is the fourth straight year that the Big Red has made the ECAC
     semifinals.  However, the down side of this is that Cornell has lost in
     the semis three years in a row.  When the game at Yale was over, the
     Cornell players, upon hearing that the Harvard-RPI game was tied in
     overtime, were openly rooting for the Crimson -- an unusual sight.
     They were a little disappointed when RPI won and set up the semifinal
     with Clarkson, and while this is not exactly the attitude you want your
     team to have going into the Phinal Phour, it is understandable.  Clark-
     son is a very talented team, and they've played like one in both games
     against Cornell this season.  Cornell's strength is defense and goal-
     tending, but, as they showed against Brown, the Golden Knights have the
     kind of offense that can make anybody look bad.  Given Clarkson's up-
     and-down season, it's quite possible that the Big Red may catch them
     looking past the semis to a possible rematch with St. Lawrence -- but I
     don't think that will happen.
     PREDICTION:  Clarkson.
 
RPI vs. St. Lawrence
     SEASON SERIES:  St. Lawrence beat RPI at home, 8-4.  RPI won at home,
     4-3 in overtime.  St. Lawrence also defeated RPI in the finals of the
     RPI Invitational, 4-1.
     OUTLOOK:  RPI has already shown themselves to be the ringer in this
     year's playoffs with their upset wins over Vermont and Harvard.  Their
     hard-hitting style has caused a lot of trouble for many of their oppo-
     nents, including the Saints a few weeks ago.  Also, Neil Little, off
     his 42-save performance against Harvard, might prove to be that very
     valuable commodity that virtually all playoff teams are looking for --
     a hot goaltender.  However, the Saints have also been getting some
     pretty good goaltending out of Paul Spagnoletti, and in disposing of
     Princeton, they showed that they can handle a team that plays a frus-
     trating, grab-and-slow-down style.  The Saints also have some big guns
     on offense, and they received even more of a boost in that department
     when Martin Lacroix returned from a wrist injury for the playoffs.  RPI
     can't afford to leave Little alone against these guys.
     PREDICTION:  St. Lawrence, but it's likely to be a close one.
 
If I'm right, not only would it be a big surprise, but it would set up a
Clarkson-St. Lawrence dream matchup in the finals.  This would be a rematch
of last year's championship game, won by Clarkson 5-4, and it would pit
perhaps the ECAC's two bitterest rivals against each other.  This is a tough
one -- both teams have plenty of talent on offense, both are pretty solid in
goal, and yet both are capable of coming up empty for no particular reason.
However, I wouldn't expect either of them to have any trouble getting up for
this game.  It's so close that I'm not sure I should make a pick on this
game, (there's some question as to whether I should pick ANY of the games --
thank God I'm not trying to make a living at this!) but I'll play a hunch
and go with St. Lawrence.
--
Bill Fenwick                        |  Send your HOCKEY-L poll responses to:
Cornell '86 and probably '94        |  [log in to unmask]
LET'S GO RED!!
"We actually got six inches of rain here, although men swore it was eight
 inches and women said four inches, tops."
-- Dennis Miller, on the recent flooding in Los Angeles