The ECAC emerged from the weekend with nine teams laying claim to playoff
berths, and the tenth (Princeton) is just one point short of clinching.
Dartmouth was mathematically eliminated Saturday night with its loss to
Colgate. Also on Saturday, a tie in The Game prevented Cornell from
clinching a home-ice berth.
ECAC scores from the weekend:
Friday, 2/8:
CLARKSON 4, Yale 1
CORNELL 2, Dartmouth 0
Harvard 5, COLGATE 5 (OT)
Rpi 7, ARMY 4
ST. LAWRENCE 8, Brown 5
Vermont 4, PRINCETON 2
Saturday, 2/9:
CLARKSON 7, Brown 5
COLGATE 8, Dartmouth 3
Harvard 2, CORNELL 2 (OT)
Rpi 8, PRINCETON 5
ST. LAWRENCE 5, Yale 1
Vermont 3, ARMY 1
Monday, 2/11:
Beanpot Tournament
Consolation:
Northeastern 5, Harvard 0
Championship:
Boston University 8, Boston College 4
ECAC Standings as of 2/11/91:
League Overall
Team W L T Pts GF GA W L T Pts GF GA
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
@ Cornell 13 2 3 29 80 53 14 5 3 31 97 68
@ Clarkson 13 4 1 27 89 67 19 6 1 39 142 98
$ St. Lawrence 12 5 1 25 81 66 15 10 1 31 109 95
$ RPI 12 6 0 24 99 76 17 9 0 34 146 113
$ Harvard 10 6 2 22 114 64 10 10 2 22 117 83
$ Vermont 9 7 2 20 68 67 13 11 2 28 103 104
$ Yale 8 8 2 18 70 71 9 11 2 20 83 94
$ Brown 7 9 2 16 68 85 7 12 3 17 83 111
$ Colgate 5 9 4 14 70 73 11 10 4 26 106 97
Princeton 6 11 1 13 72 84 7 14 1 15 83 102
Army 2 14 2 6 47 87 7 15 3 17 95 102
Dartmouth 0 16 2 2 37 102 1 21 2 4 53 141
$ - Clinched playoff spot
@ - Clinched qualifying round bye
# - Clinched home ice
Scores involving Division III teams:
Friday, 2/8:
Colby 6, Hamilton 2
Elmira 6, Canisius 0
Fredonia State 3, Potsdam State 2
Geneseo State 14, Binghamton State 3
Mercyhurst 16, St. Bonaventure 0
Plattsburgh State 8, Cortland State 5
RIT 8, Oswego State 5
Saturday, 2/9:
Assumption 3, Trinity (CT) 1
Connecticut 7, New England College 3
Cortland State 6, Potsdam State 5
Hobart 10, Binghamton State 4
Nichols 9, Framingham State 4
SE Massachusetts 8, Tufts 5
Notes on some of the games:
Elmira 6, Canisius 0
Six different players scored for the Soaring Eagles, and freshman
goalie Bob Delorierme recorded 19 saves to pick up a shutout in his
first career start. Mike McNamara and Bob McGee scored a minute apart
late in the first period to put Elmira up 2-0, and then Joe Caswell, a
transfer from Merrimack, flipped in a Joey Spinelli feed with 3:16 left
in the second. (Caswell has 10 goals and six assists in his eight
games at Elmira) Bobby Holmes gave the Soaring Eagles a four-goal lead
on the power play midway through the third, and Scott Doherty and Peter
Feola scored nine seconds apart in the closing minutes of the game.
Clarkson 7, Brown 5
Hugo Belanger scored once and added four assists as the Golden Knights
came from behind to win this one. Steve King put the Bears on the
board at 12:28 of the first. Martin D'Orsennens tied the score at
14:05, but Mike Ross answered for Brown a minute later. Belanger
picked up his 20th goal of the season four minutes into the second, but
Brown took the lead once again at the 5:29 mark, thanks to Kelly Jones.
Clarkson's Ed Henrich and Dave Trombley each scored later in the second
to give the Golden Knights their first lead of the night. With 1:25
left in the game, King tied it up with his second goal -- the third
consecutive game in which he has scored twice.
The Golden Knights took the lead for good on a pair of goals by Mark
Green and one by Trombley. Green notched a power-play tally with 37
seconds left in period two, and he and Trombley lit the lamp about a
minute apart in the third to put Clarkson up 7-4. Jones' goal at 3:06
of the third completed the scoring. Geoff Finch made 19 saves for
Brown; Jason Currie started for Clarkson and made 13 saves in the first
two periods before being replaced by Chris Rogles, who stopped eight
shots in the third.
St. Lawrence 8, Brown 5
Mike Lappin picked up his second hat trick of the season and Eric
Lacroix also scored twice for the Saints.
St. Lawrence 5, Yale 1
Mike Lappin and Lee Albert scored 42 seconds apart near the end of the
first period to put the Saints up 2-0, and then Spencer Meany deflected
a shot past Yale goalie Ray Letourneau 2:37 into the second period.
James Lavish put the Elis on the board on the power play with 1:11 left
in the second, but Albert notched his second goal at 14:56 of the third
to put St. Lawrence up by three again. Andy Pritchard rounded out the
scoring with three minutes left, picking up a goal on a 2-on-1 break
with Chris Lappin. Letourneau made 43 saves, while Saints goalie Les
Kuntar finished with 27.
Vermont 3, Army 1
Well, they say a good referee is invisible -- there were NO penalties
called in this game, making it the fourth penalty-free game in ECAC
history, and the first since Brown and Pennsylvania turned the trick
during the 1972-73 season. The Cadets struck first on John Griffin's
goal midway through the opening period, but Vermont's Kevin Monty tied
it up at 10:23 of the second, and David Browne got the game-winner four
minutes later. Mike McLaughlin rounded out the scoring at 6:06 of the
third. Army's Brooks Chretien stopped 21 shots, while Vermont's Mike
Millham earned ECAC Player of the Week honors for his 18-save
performance in this game and his 30 saves the night before, against
Princeton.
RPI 7, Army 4
RPI broke open a tie game with four goals in the third period, and Joe
Juneau posted a hat trick. Juneau finished with six points on the
weekend, and moved into the lead in the NCAA scoring race with 2.47
points per game. Rick Randazzo scored twice for the Cadets, and both
goalies -- Brandon Hayes for Army and Neil Little for RPI -- finished
with 22 saves.
RPI 8, Princeton 5
Bruce Coles led the way for the Engineers with a goal and four assists.
Jeff Gabriel also had a pair of goals, while Princeton's Rob LaFerriere
scored twice in a losing cause. Andy Cesarski scored at 3:11 of the
third to give the Tigers a 5-4 lead, but the Engineers stormed back for
the second night in a row with four goals. Princeton captain Sean
Murphy separated his shoulder and will miss the rest of the season.
RPI is just 14 minutes away from breaking the ECAC team penalty record
of 592 minutes, set by Cornell in the 1986-87 season.
Colgate 5, Harvard 5 (OT)
According to Mike Machnik's study from last year, the five-minute
overtime has not appreciably increased the number of ties in college
hockey, but it's interesting to note (I think) that in the years before
that change, only four ECAC teams had as many as four ties in a season,
while Colgate just became the fourth ECAC team to do so after the
change. Well, anyway, Craig Woodcroft scored twice as the Red Raiders
built up a 4-1 lead in the second, but Harvard got two goals later in
the period to cut the lead to one. Mike Vukonich took a pass from
Peter Ciavaglia, skated in alone on Colgate goalie Greg Menges, and
fired the puck past him with 6:36 left in the second period. A minute
later, Gus Gardner intercepted a sloppy pass in front of the net by
Colgate defenseman Alan Brown and stuffed it in.
The Crimson's Tim Burke tied the game at 3:10 of the third, poking home
a crossing pass from Scott Barringer, and Ciavaglia's power-play goal
at 5:06 gave Harvard the lead. Bob Haddock got the game-tying goal for
the Red Raiders with 4:45 left in regulation. Ciavaglia almost put the
Crimson ahead again with 51 seconds left, but his shot was one of those
laws-of-physics-defying ones, hitting the left post, rolling through
the crease, and then bouncing off the right post. Menges made 33 saves
for Colgate, while Harvard's Chuckie Hughes recorded 38.
Colgate 8, Dartmouth 3
The Red Raiders took a 4-0 lead in the first 6:03 of the period, as
they scored on four of their first six shots. Dale Band's three
assists in the first period gave him 100 points in his college career,
and Ken Baker stopped 29 shots for the Red Raiders.
Cornell 2, Dartmouth 0
The concession stands at Lynah Rink sell hot dogs, sodas, popcorn,
cookies, and other assorted munchies, but they may have to consider
laying in a supply of Vivarin if there are going to be many more games
like this one. Perhaps the Big Red looked at the Dartmouth squad and
said, "Ha! We're so much better than you, we could beat you at half
speed", because that's exactly how they played. To their credit, Dart-
mouth had a strategy to force this frustratingly slow pace, clogging up
the neutral ice area a lot. Actually, if their offense had clicked a
little better and had been able to generate some kind of pressure, the
Big Green could have pulled off the biggest upset in college hockey
this season. As it was, Cornell goalie Jim Crozier picked up his third
career shutout and second of the year, starting this game after missing
some time due to an illness in his family.
There was not much going on at either end of the ice early in the game,
as both teams were playing sloppily. Later in the first, the Big Green
stepped up their forechecking and were able to generate several chances
in the Cornell end. Cornell also had a number of opportunities on the
power play in the first period, but Dartmouth goalie Vern Guetens came
up with several big saves. The game was scoreless until the second
period, and the closest anyone came to a goal was when Dartmouth's
Kevin Kiley backhanded the puck into his own net during a stoppage in
play. (After watching the Dartmouth players, I have to concur with Bob
Gross that their morale seems to be pretty good) At any rate, the Big
Red finally broke through with 6:35 left in the second period, on a
goal by Kent Manderville. Off a faceoff in the Dartmouth zone, both
Manderville and Joe Dragon rushed the net. Dragon took a high shot
that was blocked by Guetens, but Manderville was there to tap in the
rebound.
Dartmouth mounted some pressure early in the third, and the Big Green
had quite a few chances right in front of the Cornell net, but they
just couldn't buy a break, as their shots would go wide, or would be
tipped over the net, or the setup passes would go too far. At the 8:18
mark, the Big Red notched their second goal. Dan Ratushny hit Phil
Nobel with a headman pass at the blue line, and Nobel split two
defenders and skated in on a breakaway, beating Guetens between the
pads. With 8:20 remaining in the game, the Big Green's Mike Sylvester
was called for slashing, which he disagreed with -- rather loudly.
Sylvester started hollering at referee Tim MacConaghy, who immediately
hit him with a misconduct. Well, Sylvester disagreed with that also,
and when he reached the penalty box, he kicked the boards a couple of
times. MacConaghy disagreed with THAT, and ejected Sylvester from the
game.
The only suspense left in the game was whether the newly-christened HAD
line of Ryan Hughes, Trent Andison, and Doug Derraugh would score a
goal, as they had done in every other game this season. They certainly
had their chances, as Dartmouth pulled Guetens with about a minute
left. The Big Red got control of the puck and took no less than five
shots at the empty net, but none went in. Derraugh's personal streak
of 20 consecutive games scoring at least one point was also snapped.
Guetens had a very good game between the pipes, as he finished with 33
saves, while Crozier stopped all 16 shots he faced.
Harvard 2, Cornell 2 (OT)
This was the latest chapter in one of the fiercest and sometimes
ugliest rivalries in college hockey, and it was a typical Cornell-
Harvard hockey game, featuring the usual amount of bad blood between
the players, objects being thrown on the ice, and yes, the chicken --
well, sort of. Cornell was playing without defenseman Dan Ratushny,
who was out with a bruised wrist he suffered in the Dartmouth game, and
they definitely missed him, especially on the special teams.
The Big Red got on the board just 58 seconds into the game, as Joe
Dragon bumped a Crimson defender off the puck behind the net and fed
Kent Manderville out in front. Manderville wristed a low shot over
Harvard goalie Allain Roy's leg. That would be the only goal of the
first period, but Roy did not look as sharp as he usually does, giving
up a lot of rebounds. Cornell's physical style was frustrating the
Crimson, and they began to retaliate with some rough play of their own.
At 12:22, Harvard's Greg Hess cross-checked Stephane Gauvin head-first
into the penalty box, bent over him, and from my vantage point (admit-
tedly across the rink) appeared to punch him a few times, although
maybe he was trying to get his stick back. Well, as you might expect,
the fans howled for the major/ejection/public hanging, but referee
Harry Ammian only benched Hess for two minutes. More dirty play
followed later in the first, especially by some of the Harvard players,
who were pulling a number of sneaky things with their sticks.
It looked for sure like there was going to be a fight in this one, but
things calmed down after the first period. The second period opened
with several fans tossing fish onto the ice, followed by the usual
warning about the referee calling a bench minor for delay of game (this
announcement was made three times, to be sure that everybody heard it).
Doug Derraugh skated over, and it looked like he was pleading with the
fans to knock it off. Thankfully, nothing else was thrown out there
for the rest of the game. Cornell slacked off a little on their
forechecking in the second, and Harvard was able to pick up the pace.
The Crimson tied the game at the 7:40 mark on the power play. Mike
Vukonich hit Peter Ciavaglia in the slot, and Ciavaglia wristed the
puck past goaltender Corrie D'Alessio.
Traditionally, before the third period of this game, someone ties a
live chicken to the Harvard goal, but this time, there was a bit of a
twist. Some guy dressed in a chicken suit went out onto the ice and
tied a rubber chicken to the goal post. Strange, to say the least.
Anyway, the Cornell players came out on an emotional high, and were
stirring up the fans by banging on the boards in front of the bench,
gesturing out on the ice, and so forth. All the cheering appeared to
go for naught when, with 5:30 left in regulation, the Crimson pulled
ahead 2-1. During a scramble in front of the Cornell goal, Steve
Flomenhoft corralled a loose puck and took a shot from the right side.
D'Alessio thought he had made the save, but the puck rolled into the
net.
With 53 seconds left in the third, D'Alessio on the bench for the extra
attacker, and the Lynah Faithful going absolutely crazy, the Big Red
won a faceoff to the right of Roy and, three seconds later, worked the
puck over to Tim Vanini at the blue line. Vanini blasted a low shot
that Roy never saw, and the game was tied. Vukonich nearly won it for
the Crimson 40 seconds into the extra session when his wrist shot hit
the left post, but both goalies came up big in OT to preserve the
deadlock. D'Alessio later stopped Flomenhoft on a 2-on-1 break, while
Roy denied Bruce Frauley from point-blank range. Roy finished the game
with 36 saves, and D'Alessio had 21.
Next weekend's games:
Feb. 15
Army at Clarkson
Colgate at Yale
Cornell at Brown
Dartmouth at Vermont
Harvard at RPI
Princeton at St. Lawrence
Feb. 16
Army at St. Lawrence
Colgate at Brown
Cornell at Yale
Dartmouth at RPI
Harvard at Vermont
Princeton at Clarkson
Bill Fenwick
Cornell '86
LET'S GO RED!!
"He'll scream from the 60th row of the stands that you missed a marginal call
in the interior line, then he'll go out in the parking lot and won't be able
to find his car."
-- Football referee Gene Tunney, on the average fan
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