Well, that was worth flying 2000 miles for (it's always nice
to know that a three-week trip is justified within 60 hours of
arrival).  The Cornell pep band picked exactly the right weekend to
record their CD, although as was obsereved after Saturday's game,
they'd have to put out a boxed set to do the weekend justice.
 
        Just a few comments, since I'm short on time, and others have
provided extensive commentary.  (I'll quote from Bill Fenwick's
recap.)
 
        Harvard goalie and 1996-97 ECAC Rookie of the Year JR
Prestifilippo should have realized it would be a long night when he
made the mistake of coming out of the locker room for a pre-game
stretch wearing a Pete's Wicked Ale T-Shirt which said "Let's Get
Wicked Tonight".  I mean, the abuse heaped upon him by the Cornell Pep
Band was to be expected, but when they make fun of your T-Shirt, it's
a bad omen.  (Later in the, when things had begun to turn against the
Crimson, the band would remind Presto not only of his goaltending
shortcomings, but also of his dubious fashion sense.  The rest of the
capacity crowd at Lynah might not have understood the taunt "Hey JR,
let's get wicked tonight", but to those of us who got there early
were cracking up.
 
> 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.
 
        That goal really sums up the evening.  Jeff Oates, who--let's
face it--is hardly a scoring phenom, "took [Presto] to school", to
quote a pep band alum.  And you can believe that gave people a lot to
chant about.
 
>Elliott had a very solid game in net for the Big Red, finishing with 35 saves.
 
        When discussing players of the game, of course Elliott's name
came up, plus Steinstra with two points and Auger, who was an
important part of the offense all weekend.  But I had to put in a word
for Jeff Burgoyne, who had one of those great defensive games which
don't show up on the scoresheet.  I don't know what his +/- was, and
penalty minutes is a ridiculous stat, but he was just there doing the
little things all night.
 
        After the game, people who'd seen the win over Northeastern
told me the team looked much, much better against Harvard.  They were
completing long tape-to-tape passes all weekend, even when they had
trouble finishing plays early in the Brown game.  Moynihan's goal
which tied the Harvard game at 1 was set up by a blueline-to-blueline
pass from Powell to Auger.
 
>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.
 
        The first 55 minutes of the game were so frustrating because
the Red had a number of scoring opportunities, but missed the net as
often as not.  And speaking of Holo
 
>  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.
 
        Ah, that explains why Holowaty was so far out of position;
from my vantage point at the opposite end of the ice, there seemed to
be feet of open net for the puck to find.
 
>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.
 
        Are you sure that's how it went?  My recollection is that
Auger fired a hard shot that went wide left of the net, Peach went
behind and flipped it out to Moynihan.  Of course, I was getting kind
of emotional at that point.
 
        I have more to say, but since I'm on the road, that'll have to
do for now.
                                        John Whelan, Cornell '91
                                        <[log in to unmask]>
        <http://www.cc.utah.edu/~jtw16960/jshock.html>
 
Cornell Men's Ice Hockey: Back-to-back ECAC and Ivy League Champions
 
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