Last night at Thompson Arena, Cornell pulled out a 4-1 victory
over Dartmouth.  Once again, the Red started slow; their passing,
which was crisp even in the low points of the Harvard and Dartmouth
games last weekend, looked atrocious.  Most of the night was spent
dumping and chasing, usually losing the race to the puck.  And the
defense seemed to be lacking hustle, even from senior co-captain Jason
Dailey.  Cornell's one good attack in the first came on a power play,
but the Big Green opened the scoring shortly thereafter with a goal by
Bob Cancelli.  (I'm sorry I don't have notes on the goals; in the race
to the rink--a three-hour trip from Kingston to Dartmouth took almost
six in the snow and ice--I left my microcassette in the car.)
(Cornell had an apparent goal early, but it was clearly kicked in from
the crease.)
 
        Even after the intermission, the Red looked flat, but managed
to gain life after Jeff Burgoyne knotted the score early in the
period.  Two minutes later, Doug Steinstra teamed up with newly
dressed freshman Tyler Sutherland and Darren Tymchyschyn for the
eventual gamewinner.  But the second period proved to be costly, as
co-captain Kyle Knopp went hard into the boards with an apparent right
knee injury.  The loss is a big one, as top-line forward Knopp has
been filling in on the blue-line--especially during the power
play--due to Cornell's injuries on defense.  The reconstituted first
line of Vinnie Auger, Ryan Moynihan and Jeff Oates was kept off the
boeard, and much of the third period was spent in the Cornell end with
the Red icing the puck every minute or two.  For a while it looked
like Cornell would try to ride out the game like they did the 1997
ECAC championship game against Clarkson, but youngsters Dan Svoboda
and Keith Peach gave the Red breathing room with five minutes two go.
(This led to a spontaneous cheer of "Good Peach...Bad Peach" in
reference to Dartmouth Junior forward Scott Peach, who had been on the
ice for one of Peach's recent shifts--don't know if he got the '-' for
the goal.)
 
        Dartmouth went on the power play with three minutes remaining
and first year coach Bob Gaudet pulled netminder Eric Almon for the
5-on-4, and Smart put the game away a minute later when he and a
linemate got behind the Dartmouth defense and skated in for the
empty-netter.
 
        Thompson had a reasonable-sized crowd, although they seemed
unsure what to make of these boisterous red-clad folks in their midst.
There were some kids in front of us who were inspired to raise their
voices in support of the home side, although that mostly consisted of
yelling "Let's Go Green" whenever we said "Let's Go Red".  But I went
up to them after the game and told them to come to the game at Cornell
on Valentine's Day.  (The more noisy fans we can breed at other ECAC
schools, the more fun it'll be for everyone.  I know, be careful what
you wish for...)
 
        Interesting doings in the ECAC this weekend, as the news of
Colgate's 7-0 rout of Vermont was well-received by both Red and Green.
Tonight Cornell faces an 0-3 Catamount team; the frustrated Cats could
be a dangerous opponent for the banged-up Red.  The SLU-Clarkson
battle will also be an interesting one to watch, with the defending
regular season champion Knights going 0-3-1 in their last two
weekends.
 
                                        John Whelan, Cornell '91
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        <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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