[ Ah, well, better late than never... ]
The Crimson took a big step toward their second straight regular-season
title by sweeping the North Country teams on the road last weekend and
preserving its seven-point margin over nearest pursuer Yale. If there's any
bad news for Harvard in all this, it's that they may have built up this
momentum at exactly the wrong time. Harvard will play Union this Friday and
then will take a break from ECAC action for three weeks while they deal with
finals (they'll be back on the ice February 1 for the Beanpot).
At the other end of the spectrum, the Red Raiders finally joined the club.
Colgate, which back in December became the last Division I team to enter the
win column, ended their winless streak against other Division I competition
Saturday night with a 6-5 victory over Vermont. And speaking of the Cats --
what happened to that great home-ice advantage they had? Vermont's losses
to Cornell and Colgate mark the first time the Catamounts have been swept at
Gutterson since the opening weekend of the 1990-91 season, when St. Lawrence
and Clarkson turned the trick.
Finally, kudos to Dartmouth coach Roger Demment and his players for the
winning streak they are working on, which stands at four games -- the
longest streak since the 1988-89 season. As Bob says, the program does
indeed seem to have turned the corner, although there's plenty of season
left. Still, the Big Green is in good shape to get themselves a playoff
berth, which is something they haven't had in 13 years.
ECAC weekend results:
Friday, January 8:
Brown 5, CLARKSON 5 (OT)
Cornell 4, VERMONT 3
DARTMOUTH 5, Colgate 4
Harvard 10, ST. LAWRENCE 4
Princeton 4, RPI 4 (OT)
Yale 4, UNION 2
Saturday, January 9:
Brown 3, ST. LAWRENCE 3 (OT)
Colgate 6, VERMONT 5
DARTMOUTH 3, Cornell 2
Harvard 4, CLARKSON 1
UNION 3, Princeton 1
Yale 4, RPI 1
ECAC standings as of 1/11/93:
League Overall
Team W L T Pts GF GA W L T Pts GF GA
------------------------------------------------------------------------
Harvard 11 0 1 23 61 31 12 1 1 25 69 37
Yale 7 1 2 16 48 30 8 4 2 18 63 50
RPI 5 3 1 11 34 26 7 5 3 17 56 46
St. Lawrence 5 4 1 11 37 31 9 5 2 20 70 51
Brown 4 4 2 10 43 39 5 7 2 12 60 67
Vermont 4 5 0 8 28 29 6 9 2 14 51 60
Cornell 3 4 1 7 22 30 3 7 1 7 29 48
Princeton 3 6 1 7 33 46 5 8 1 11 48 57
Clarkson 2 5 3 7 39 35 6 7 3 15 72 46
Dartmouth 3 5 0 6 23 33 5 7 0 10 36 54
Union 2 6 0 4 17 36 2 9 0 4 26 49
Colgate 1 7 0 2 28 47 3 9 3 9 65 72
Some notes on the Cornell action:
Cornell 4, Vermont 3
Raucous Gutterson Field House is generally not the place you want to go
when your team has lost three straight and four of its last five, but
the Big Red snapped out of its recent doldrums with a three-goal third
period to steal the victory from the Cats. For Cornell, freshman
forward Geoff Lopatka returned to the lineup after missing the
Cleveland tournament, while classmate Mark Scollan, who was playing
sensationally on the second line earlier in the season, is still
missing in action.
This was the Battle of the Bad-Period teams, as Vermont came into the
game having been outscored 15-6 in the first while Cornell had a 15-4
deficit in the second. Based on that, the Catamounts had to be happy
with the scoreless first period of this game, and indeed they had the
better of the play. Cornell was sloppy and lethargic, and although
they put a good number of shots on Vermont goalie Christian Soucy (11
saves in the first period), they really had only one good opportunity.
That came early on, when Ryan Hughes caught Soucy out of position, but
his shot flew over the top of the net. Soucy and the Vermont defense-
men were also doing a good job at keeping the Big Red from getting much
in the way of second shots.
Then the second period arrived, and the jinx continued for Cornell, as
the Catamounts outplayed them for a good portion of it. Vermont's
first goal, at the 3:17 mark, was the result of Hughes and Bill Holo-
watiuk trying to force the puck out of the Cornell zone during a
Catamount power play. Dominique Ducharme wound up with the puck, and
he rolled it behind the net to Nicholas Perreault, who skated out and
snapped one past goaltender Andy Bandurski. Sloppy penalty-killing set
up the Cats' second goal, at 8:50 of the second, when Ducharme went
unmolested through the Cornell zone, using Etienne Belzile as a screen.
As Bandurski went down to try to find the puck, Ducharme unleashed a
high wrister over the goalie's shoulder.
Cornell finally got a break of their own later in the second, as
Vermont already had Ducharme in the box and there was a delayed call on
Jason Williams. While Bandurski was leaving for the extra attacker,
Jason Vogel got the puck over to Russ Hammond in the left circle, and
Hammond beat Soucy through the five-hole at 13:39. P.C. Drouin came
oh-so-close to tying the game with five minutes to go in the period, as
he had a wide-open net to shoot at, but he bounced the puck off the
post. A giveaway by Vogel in the Vermont end led to the Cats' third
goal, as Aaron Miller wound up with the puck and raced down the ice.
Bandurski came out to cut down the angle, and he got a piece of
Miller's shot with his leg pad, but the puck wound up resting on the
goal line, where Eric Lavoie had the easy tap-in.
I've wondered at times this season what goes on in the locker room
between the second and third periods when the Big Red is trailing, as
they had been in all but one game before Friday night. Cornell has
sometimes come out flat for the third period, and at other times they
have been fired up. The latter was the case against Vermont, and the
Big Red turned it up another notch after Jake Karam scored to bring
them to within one. Karam got the puck near the Vermont bench (nearly
colliding with Tyler McManus in the process) and skated toward the
right side of the net. He had McManus to his left but elected to take
the shot himself, and the puck sailed between Soucy's pads for a goal
at the 4:01 mark. A terrific play by Hughes set up Vogel's game-tying
score at 9:54. Dan Dufresne took a weak shot from the point that was
fluttering high to Soucy's left, but Hughes knocked the puck down and,
as he was being leveled, backhanded a centering feed to Vogel, who
flipped it past Soucy.
Vermont called a timeout immediately, and it must have helped, because
they stepped up the pace themselves, and most of the rest of the game
featured end-to-end action. The Catamounts came within a few molecules
of regaining the lead with five and a half minutes left, as a shot by
Perreault went through Bandurski's pads and rol-l-l-led along the goal
line before finally going past the net. Toward the end of regulation,
the Big Red began to get a little sloppy, but a terrific play by Blair
Ettles set up the game-winner with 1:08 to go. On a rush up the ice
from his own blue line, Ettles started to go behind the Vermont net,
then spun around and left the puck for Hughes, who was coming in from
the bench. Hughes' low shot beat Soucy to the stick side.
The Big Red was not out of the woods yet, though, as Soucy was pulled
for the extra attacker with 50 seconds left, and Vermont came up with a
flurry in the game's last half-minute. But Bandurski was equal to the
task, stopping half a dozen Catamount shots before covering the puck in
the crease. He wound up with 31 saves in the game to Soucy's 21.
Dartmouth 3, Cornell 2
It's getting to the point (happily for Dartmouth) where a result like
this isn't an upset. The Big Green's winning streak has only recently
gotten them noticed, but this has been building for some time, as
young, talented Dartmouth players like Tony DelCarmine, Scott Fraser,
Dion DelMonte, and Patrick Turcotte have started to come together.
Dartmouth has also been getting some quality goaltending from Vern
Guetens (an alternate captain for the Big Green -- presumably an
honorary position) and Mike Bracco, and it's been a few years since the
Big Red could count on the team from Hanover being a patsy.
Not a whole lot to add to what's already been said about this game,
except that the referees, John Gallagher and Richard Cinetti (sp?),
gave a rather interesting display of the two-ref system. It wasn't
just that they let things go (which they did), but on several
occasions, something happened directly in front of one ref, who would
let it go, and all of a sudden the other ref, who was on the other side
of the ice, would call the penalty. Well, whatever works, I guess --
except that it didn't always.
There was yet another lineup change for the Big Red Saturday night, as
Jiri Kloboucek, who has been bothered by a knee problem for several
weeks, was once again taken out of the lineup, to be replaced by John
DeHart (who has had knee problems of his own). Dartmouth got on the
board first at 5:52 of the opening period, as a result of Cornell's
inability to clear the puck out of their own zone during a penalty
kill. DelMonte got to the loose puck and, with goaltender Andy Ban-
durski down on one knee holding his stick along the ice, flipped it
into the net over Bandurski's right shoulder. It looked like the 1-0
lead would hold up until intermission, with Dartmouth clogging things
up at center ice and frustrating the Big Red, but Jason Vogel was able
to knot the score with just 18 seconds left in the first. Russ Hammond
caught the Dartmouth defensemen pinching in at the Cornell blue line,
and he was able to get the puck out to Ryan Hughes, who drew Guetens to
the left side of the net before centering to Vogel in front of the now-
empty net.
There was no scoring in the second period, which in itself was a
victory for Cornell -- the first time all season that the opposition
has been kept off the board in the middle period. Vogel came close to
scoring on a breakaway at about the 2:40 mark, but Guetens came up with
a terrific pad save to kill that threat. Actually, Vogel should have
been called on this one, since he had come out of the penalty box and
had neither gone to the Cornell bench nor re-established contact with
the defensive zone, instead proceeding right across the Dartmouth blue
line. This was not the first botched non-call by the refs, and it
would not be the last. With about eight minutes to go in the second,
Shaun Hannah speared Turcotte in front of the Cornell bench and, aston-
ishingly, Gallagher looked right at both players and called nothing.
The Big Green went ahead to stay five minutes into the third period,
when Yannick Roussin's rebound lay loose in front for a few seconds
until Peter Clark got to the puck, spun around, and rolled a weak shot
between Bandurski's legs. Mike Stacchi got the game-winner at the 9:45
mark, with the Big Green already on the power play and another delayed
call on Dan Dufresne. Bandurski came out of the crease, either to play
the puck or cut down the angle, but Stacchi fired the puck past him and
into the net.
Cornell closed to within one with 4:16 remaining in the game, as a
giveaway by Dartmouth's Dax Burkhart wound up on Brad Chartrand's stick
and he lifted the puck over Guetens' shoulder. However, that was as
close as the Big Red would get, even with Bandurski off for the extra
attacker for the final 37 seconds. The Big Red netminder had 27 saves,
while Guetens stopped 20 shots in a pretty good effort.
The ECAC takes a break for the next three weeks, with only sporadic action
between league teams and a fair number of non-conference games. Here are
the upcoming games involving ECAC squads:
Tuesday, January 12
Boston College at Yale (NC)
Wednesday, January 13
Colgate at Cornell
Friday, January 15
Dartmouth at Brown
Harvard at Union
Air Force at Cornell (NC)
Clarkson at Maine (NC)
St. Lawrence at Providence (NC)
Alabama-Huntsville at RPI (NC)
Saturday, January 16
Air Force at Colgate (NC)
Clarkson at Maine (NC)
St. Lawrence at Providence (NC)
Alabama-Huntsville at RPI (NC)
Sunday, January 17
Dartmouth at Union
--
Bill Fenwick | Send your HOCKEY-L poll responses to:
Cornell '86 and probably '94 | [log in to unmask]
LET'S GO RED!!
"It's THREE million dollars. If you're going to insult me, get it right!"
-- Stanley Roberts of the Los Angeles Clippers, to a fan heckling him for
being paid $2 million to sit on the bench
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