With three teams now tied for first place in the ECAC, the race should get
REAL interesting. The teams are now all even-up, each having ten league
games remaining, and there is very little "distraction" from non-ECAC oppo-
nents (two games this Tuesday, and then the Beanpot starting next week).
Here are the scores from the ECAC's abbreviated weekend:
Friday, January 24:
Vermont 6, DARTMOUTH 2
Cornell 4, AIR FORCE 2
Saturday, January 25:
COLGATE 7, Brown 3
Rpi 5, UNION 3
[By the way, I'm with Wayne on this one. I've never seen so many
"predictions" for a non-playoff game. So who won the fake dog,
anyway?]
ST. LAWRENCE 5, Clarkson 0
VERMONT 9, Dartmouth 2
Cornell 4, AIR FORCE 1
ECAC standings as of 1/26/92:
League Overall
Team W L T Pts GF GA W L T Pts GF GA
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
Harvard 8 1 3 19 55 32 8 3 3 19 57 38
Yale 8 1 3 19 59 43 9 3 3 21 71 55
St. Lawrence 9 2 1 19 64 37 13 5 2 28 102 67
Clarkson 8 3 1 17 55 38 14 5 1 29 104 60
Cornell 7 3 2 16 43 28 9 5 2 20 55 39
Colgate 6 6 0 12 58 55 9 10 1 19 101 93
Brown 5 5 2 12 48 50 5 11 2 12 70 91
Vermont 4 7 1 9 44 46 8 9 1 17 73 60
Princeton 4 8 0 8 46 55 6 9 0 12 61 69
RPI 4 8 0 8 38 50 10 10 0 20 78 79
Union 1 10 1 3 33 63 2 12 1 5 54 83
Dartmouth 1 11 0 2 25 71 1 15 0 2 35 97
A few game notes:
Colgate 7, Brown 3
The Red Raiders struck for two quick goals in the first period, cour-
tesy of Bruce Gardiner and Dale Band, but Brown recovered to close the
gap to within 3-2 after two periods. However, Colgate exploded for
four goals in the third period to salt the game away. Ken Baker made
29 saves for the Red Raiders, while Brett Haywood was credited with 23
for the Bears.
Cornell 4, Air Force 2
Thanks to Charlie, Tom, and Mark for their votes of confidence! The
Big Red got away with one here; they had a dismal forecheck and gener-
ally played pretty badly, but thanks to some great goaltending by
Parris Duffus and several blown opportunities by Air Force, Cornell was
able to gain the victory. Things started out looking good for Cornell,
as they had several short-handed opportunities during the Falcons'
first power play. Then, just after Ryan Hughes came out of the penalty
box, he put the Big Red on the board at the 5:26 mark. Alex Nikolic
hit him with a pass along the right boards, and the junior center
skated in, seemingly wanting to pass the puck himself. Instead, he
took a high, tough-angle shot that Falcon goalie Mark Liebich waved at.
Bob Ames was the referee for this game, and he had a bit of a shaky and
inconsistent night. A harbinger of things to come occurred at 11:33 of
the first period, when Joe Dragon pushed an Air Force player out of the
Cornell crease and was called for roughing. Anyway, Cornell took a 2-0
lead with 37 seconds left in the first, as Karl Williams set up behind
the Falcon net and centered to Dave Burke, who one-timed a blast low to
the stick side of Liebich. A few seconds into the second period, Burke
threw a great hip check, flipping the Air Force player to the ice, but
Ames felt differently and called Burke for kneeing -- a rare penalty,
to say the least. Mr. Ames did not win himself many fans among the Air
Force faithful either, as later in the period, Stephane Gauvin skated
in, whacked Liebich in the crease, and did not draw a penalty. It
seemed that Ames was going back and forth between calling very marginal
things and letting virtually anything go.
Air Force got back into the game at 13:32 of the second period. With
Cornell on the power play and all five skaters in the Air Force zone,
Marc Deschamps misplayed the puck at the blue line, enabling Brett
Gallagher to skate up the ice on a breakaway. Duffus never came out to
challenge Gallagher, who drilled a shot between the pads.
The Falcons dominated the third period, particularly in the early
stages, when they mounted a lot of pressure in the Cornell end and had
a number of shots that barely missed the net. Air Force tied the game
at 5:31 of the third, as Tramonte (sorry, I don't have his first name)
won a faceoff and drew the puck back to Beau Bilek. Cornell's Etienne
Belzile came out after Bilek and forced the shot from the left point,
which was OK, except that Duffus completely missed it as it sailed
between his legs. Cornell seemed to be back on their heels after that,
but they eventually took the lead for good,courtesy of Jason Vogel.
After firing the puck into the Air Force zone, Vogel regained it from
Joe Dragon off the back boards, deked Liebich, pulled the puck to his
backhand, and popped it into the open net. Air Force didn't fold,
however, as they continued to play aggressively, while the Big Red
still looked a little shaky. With under a minute to go, the Falcons
pulled Liebich for the extra skater, but it was Vogel getting the
empty-netter to put the game out of reach. He and Hughes broke in on a
2-on-1 attempt; Hughes had the puck and could have scored the empty-
netter himself, but he rolled the puck over to Vogel, who tapped it in
with 29 seconds left. Duffus' 25 saves helped keep Cornell in the
game, while Liebich played pretty well himself, finishing with 22
saves.
Cornell 4, Air Force 1
One of head coach Brian McCutcheon's stated goals for Cornell's trip to
Colorado was for the team to work on the power play. Instead, it was
the penalty-killing unit that saw a lot of action, as this game
featured three 5-on-3 opportunities for Air Force -- including one that
lasted a full two minutes. Referee Bob Ames was, if anything, even
worse than he had been Friday night, as he showed with a pair of calls
in the first period. About eight minutes in, Air Force's John Decker
rode Jason Vogel into Falcon goalie Mark Liebich. Ames was over at the
side boards and had his back to the play, yet he called Vogel for
illegally checking the goalie. I'm guessing he consulted with a lines-
man on that one, but it was still a bad call. The Falcons promptly got
screwed a minute later when Mantaro was called for high-sticking.
Cornell's Todd Chambers had his stick under Mantaro's, and when
Chambers fell down, he lifted Mantaro's stick at the same time. Ames
was watching the whole thing, and made the call -- it probably should
have been let go.
Air Force showed they were going to be a threat only a few seconds into
the game, when leading scorer Eric Rice unleashed a hard blast from 35
feet out that goaltender Parris Duffus gloved. Midway through the
period, Vogel and Hughes took a couple of stupid after-the-whistle
penalties to set the Falcons up in their first 5-on-3, and Bob Ingraham
capitalized on it. Ingraham, the top-scoring defenseman in Air Force
history, padded his total with a 30-foot slap shot over Duffus' right
shoulder.
Not much else happened in the first period, as Cornell was having
trouble getting out of their own end. I'm sure McCutcheon gave his
charges a little talking-to during the intermission, because the Big
Red came out a lot better in the middle stanza. Phil Nobel tied the
score at the 1:05 mark just after coming off the bench. He took a Jim
McPhee pass at the Air Force blue line, broke down the right wing,
deked Liebich, and backhanded a shot just inside the right post. Later
in the period, Geoff Bumstead left a drop pass along the left boards
for Stephane Gauvin, who fired the puck across the ice to a wide-open
Karl Williams at the right goalpost. Williams tipped it home to give
Cornell the lead at the 9:49 mark. Ryan Hughes made it 3-1 with 4:05
left in the second, thanks in part to a great individual effort by Dave
Burke. Air Force lofted the puck down the ice, apparently trying to
set up a line change, but Burke knocked the puck down and fired it
toward the Falcons' zone. Hughes took the pass and skated in, faked a
forehand shot which drew Liebich to the side of the net, and then
switched to the backhand and poked it in.
All sorts of amusing things began to happen after that. With Shaun
Hannah already off for tripping, Ames made a marginal slashing call on
Hughes to give Air Force their second 5-on-3. Less than a minute
later, Ames called yet another penalty, this time to Etienne Belzile
for cross-checking. Belzile was trying to move a Falcon forward out of
the crease at the time, and the call moved radio color man Pete Tufford
to note, "If this isn't a home job, I don't know what is." (In fair-
ness, though, Air Force was getting hit with some pretty lousy ones too
-- just not all at once) Anyway, the Falcons' 5-on-3 opportunity wound
up lasting a total of two minutes, but Duffus made some brilliant saves
to keep them off the board.
Cornell benefitted from a screw-up by the timekeeper, which shortened
the Air Force power play at the beginning of the third period. The
call on Belzile was made at 18:15 of the second, but there were already
two men in the penalty box for the Big Red, and Hannah was not
scheduled to come out until 18:48. Thus, Belzile's two minutes should
have started at 18:48 and left 48 seconds to be served at the beginning
of period three. Instead, only 15 seconds were left on the clock, as
the penalty was apparently started from the 18:15 mark.
The Big Red survived another 5-on-3 Falcon power play (this one lasting
"only" 56 seconds), and then closed out the scoring at 14:15 of the
third when Russ Hammond took the puck at center ice, weaved his way
through the Air Force defense, put a couple of moves on Liebich, and
scored from in close. Cornell wound up with a 5-on-3 of its own with
about three minutes left, thanks to a probable make-up call, but they
didn't do anything with it. Duffus had an outstanding game, finishing
with 25 saves, while Liebich had 27. This was Air Force's twelfth
consecutive loss, dating back to a November 23 victory over St. Olaf.
All twelve ECAC teams return to action this weekend, as the stretch run
begins. Here's this week's schedule:
Jan. 28
Brown at Boston University (NC)
New Hampshire at Yale (NC)
Jan. 31
Clarkson at Dartmouth
Princeton at Colgate
RPI at Harvard
St. Lawrence at Vermont
Yale at Cornell
Union at Brown 8:00
Feb. 1
St. Lawrence at Dartmouth 3:00
Union at Harvard 3:00
Clarkson at Vermont
Princeton at Cornell
RPI at Brown
Yale at Colgate
This is a Big Weekend for the Big Red. If Cornell, which is currently in
fifth place, is to have much hope of getting home ice for the ECAC quarter-
finals, they are going to have to beat at least one of the four teams ahead
of them, and their best chance to do so is this Friday when they host Yale.
Despite beginning the season with a seven-game unbeaten streak and holding a
share of first place with Harvard, the Elis are not regarded as a strong
ECAC team, in part because they haven't beaten any of the other top four
teams. Also, Cornell faces the other three (Clarkson, St. Lawrence, Har-
vard) on the road, and they'll have a very tough time winning any of those
contests. Saturday's opponent is Princeton, a team that Cornell often has a
lot of trouble with (the Tigers outshot the Big Red 46-14 in the first game
of this season).
--
Bill Fenwick | Send your HOCKEY-L poll responses to:
Cornell '86 and probably '94 | [log in to unmask]
LET'S GO RED!!
"But I'm glad I'm married now, because dating has gotten really expensive.
Like I finally had to ask this girl, 'Listen, how come every time we go out, I
end up spending hundreds of dollars?' She said, 'Because I'm a prostitute.'"
-- Drake Sather
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