The Big Red emerged from the opening weekend of ECAC play with a 2-0 league
record and a share of first place, coming from behind in both games.  It took a
while for Cornell to get started Friday night, but after taking a 2-1 lead on a
pair of goals half a minute apart late in the first, the Big Red never looked
back, cruising to a relatively easy victory over the arch-rival Harvard
Crimson. It was a different story the next night against Brown, as a hot
goaltender helped the Bears build a 3-1 lead.  The Big Red kept pressing,
however, and scored three times in the last four minutes to pull out the
improbable win. Notes on the games:
 
Cornell 5, Harvard 2
 
This one had just about all the elements of the Cornell-Harvard rivalry... fish
decorating the ice prior to the game (including some impressive-sized ones!),
physical play from a pair of teams that truly don't like each other, a rash of
penalties (the entire second period saw just over four minutes of 5-on-5
play)... and, at least in recent years, a Cornell win, which from the Lynah
Faithful point of view is a welcome change from the ten straight years of
watching the Crimson celebrate after the final buzzer.  Cornell has now won its
last five regular-season meetings with Harvard, and including playoff games,
the Big Red has gone 7-0-1 against the Crimson since head coach Mike Schafer
took over.  Also with this win, Cornell regains the all-time series lead, at
47-46-6.
 
The usual exchange of pleasantries between these two started just 17 seconds
into the game, when Cornell freshman Dan Svoboda headed to the box for
elbowing; Harvard's Craig Adams responded at the 55-second mark with a
hitting-from-behind penalty.  Cornell's Doug Stienstra had the game's first big
scoring chance seven minutes in, skating in on Harvard goalie J.R.
Prestifilippo and faking a shot, causing Prestifilippo to drop to the ice.
 Stienstra lifted a shot over the fallen goalie, but the puck went over the net
as well.
 
Harvard struck at the 14:56 mark of the first period.  During a scramble in
front of the Cornell net, Ben Storey got off a shot that goaltender Jason
Elliott stopped, but Brett Chodorow was able to scoop up the rebound and flip
it over Elliott's shoulder.  From my vantage point (center ice), it looked like
Chodorow was in the crease long before the puck showed up; whether he was
pushed or held there, I don't know.  Anyway, the goal stood.
 
Cornell was sluggish for most of the first period, but the Big Red suddenly lit
the lamp twice in a 29-second span to take the lead for good.  Late in the
period, Dan Powell sent the puck out of the Cornell zone toward the center-ice
faceoff circle, and Vinnie Auger beat Harvard defenseman Graham Morrell to it,
skating into the Harvard end.  Morrell followed and tried to block Auger's
progress toward the net, but the senior forward faked him down to the ice and
got off a shot.  Prestifilippo kicked the puck aside, but Ryan Moynihan, who
was trailing the play, lifted the rebound into the left corner of the net at
the 18:32 mark.  Mike Rutter and Keith Peach then combined to give the Big Red
the 2-1 lead.  Rutter fought his way past defenseman Mark Moore and, as he was
falling down, managed a one-handed pass through the slot to a streaking Peach,
who made a nice move on Prestifilippo and fired the puck home top-shelf.
 
The second period demonstrated that both teams have strong penalty-killing
units... or dreadful power-play squads.  It was probably a combination of both.
 Each team had a lengthy 5-on-3 chance during the period (Cornell's lasted
1:26, Harvard's was 43 seconds) and did nothing with it.  The only goal of the
period came at the 17:53 mark, after Harvard had had a big opportunity at the
other end of the ice.  Defenseman Matt Scorsune was left all alone, and he
fired a bullet that Elliott was able to stop.  The puck caromed over to Cornell
defenseman Larry Pierce, who sent it ahead to Kyle Knopp.  Harvard's
backchecking totally broke down, and all of a sudden, the Big Red were off on a
4-on-1 rush.  Knopp skated deep to the right side before flipping a pass over
to Jeff Oates in the left circle.  Prestifilippo committed way too early,
dropping to the ice, and Oates simply skated around him and rolled the puck
into the open net.
 
Sheer hustle created Cornell's fourth goal, at 2:15 of the third.  Jason Dailey
cleared the puck out of the Cornell zone past Harvard's Liam McCarthy, and with
icing waved off, Svoboda tore down the ice, beating McCarthy to the puck at the
back boards and sending a pass out in front of the Harvard net.  Svoboda was
down the ice so fast that it was hard to believe he had a trailer on the play,
but he did.  Stienstra was wide open in the slot and rifled a shot inside the
right post.  Cornell made it 5-1 at the 6:47 mark, on a play that started when
the Big Red's Darren Tymchyshyn stole a lazy Crimson pass to the right of
Prestifilippo.  This led to Stienstra's taking the puck behind the Harvard net,
and his quick pass out front found Tymchyshyn alone at the edge of the crease.
(If you get the idea that the pass-from-behind-the-net-to-somebody-out-front
was open all night for Cornell, you're right)  Tymchyshyn quickly lifted a shot
over Prestifilippo's shoulder.
 
Harvard's second goal, at 12:24 of the third, came courtesy of some good
penalty-killing pressure combined with a couple of misplays by Dailey, who lost
control of a pass at the Harvard blue line, corraled it at center ice, and
retreated to the Cornell end.  Harvard's Clayton Rodgers chased after him and
forced a turnover deep in the left circle, then skated around Dailey and fired
over Elliott into the right corner of the net.  The Crimson opened things up
after that, but they would never threaten again.
 
Elliott had a very solid game in net for the Big Red, finishing with 35 saves.
 His counterpart, Prestifilippo, came up with some big stops, but was shaky
overall, ending up with 18 saves.
 
 
Cornell 4, Brown 3
 
Much has already been made of the final few minutes of this game (and with good
reason), but Brown put up a pretty strong performance in taking the 3-1 lead
that led to those final few minutes.  Bear goalie Jeff Holowaty was especially
impressive, as he was an absolute wall for most of the game despite the barrage
of shots the Big Red was firing at him.  And the Brown defense, while they
allowed Holowaty to face a lot of rubber, did a good job with rebounds, cutting
down on the number of second and third shots Cornell was able to put on the
net.
 
Thanks to injuries, Cornell dressed only four defensemen for this one, with
forwards Kyle Knopp and Jeff Oates seeing significant action on the blue line.
This, along with the inevitable letdown following the always-emotional Harvard
game, probably explains why the Big Red were a little lackluster for most of
the night.  Cornell had their chances though, particularly Vinnie Auger in the
first period, who could have notched a hat trick on two breakaways and another
hard shot.  But Holowaty stoned him all three times, serving notice that goals
would be difficult for the Big Red to come by.
 
Jimmy Andersson got the only goal of the first period, snapping a nice feed
from Damian Prescott past goaltender Jason Elliott with 6:34 gone.  Cornell
finally solved Holowaty -- well, sort of -- at 1:02 of the second, when Knopp
fired a slapper that hit a Brown defender's skate and deflected into the net.
 But the Bears held fast and regained the lead with 3:11 remaining in the
middle period, when Brian O'Neill's long shot beat a screened Elliott.
 
The Big Red stepped things up in the third period and played with more inten-
sity, but they still couldn't get the puck past Holowaty, and it was the Bears
scoring the goal that seemingly put the game away.  John DiRenzo skated into
the Cornell zone on a 2-on-1 break with Paul Giblin, started to look to pass,
then wristed a high shot over Elliott's shoulder to give Brown the 3-1 lead
with 6:20 remaining in the third.
 
Almost unnoticed in all the talk about the end of this game is the goal that
started Cornell's rally at 15:59 of the third.  Auger, who would assist on all
three of the Big Red's third-period goals, took the puck deep into Brown's end,
then threaded a nice feed to Ryan Moynihan in front of the net.  Moynihan
slammed the puck home to cut the lead to one, getting his team and the
previously subdued Lynah Rink crowd back into the game.
 
Then came the game-tying goal, which Bill Corrigan has already described in
detail.  Auger won the faceoff back to Jason Dailey, and each of the other
Cornell skaters took a Brown player, leaving Dailey one-on-one with Holowaty.
 It was a well-executed play, and Holowaty really didn't have much of a chance
on the high shot, which hit the back of the net at the 18:38 mark.  Twenty
seconds later, Jeff Burgoyne fired a slapper from the right point; the puck hit
the back of Knopp's stick and deflected into the net past Holowaty.  It was
Brown's turn to pull the goalie after that, but Cornell held on for the win.
 Elliott had 27 saves to Holowaty's 42.
 
Certainly a pair of very different wins for the Big Red this weekend.  The
solid win over Harvard was very encouraging for this relatively young team
(five seniors and four juniors), and Cornell showed a lot of heart and
character in their come-from-behind win over a very tough Brown team.  Next up
for the Big Red is a trip to Vermont and Dartmouth.
 
--
Disclaimer -- Unless otherwise noted, all opinions expressed above are
              strictly those of:
 
Bill Fenwick
Cornell '86 and '95
LET'S GO RED!!                                                  DJF  5/27/94
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