Fresh off a big win over Hockey East rival New Hampshire, the Northeastern
Huskies had a much tougher time than anticipated with the Cornell Big Red,
finally prevailing on a late goal. Once again, Cornell gave a nationally-
ranked opponent all they could handle, and while the Big Red's performance
wasn't enough to pick up a point or two this time, it was still impressive.
Box score (from the radio) and some notes below:
Northeastern 5, Cornell 4
Cornell 0 2 2 -- 4
Northeastern 0 2 3 -- 5
First period -- Penalties:
C Vincent Auger (interference), 5:44; N Tom Parlon (charging), 12:53
Second period -- Scoring:
C Jamie Papp (Dan Dufresne, Jake Karam), 4:14 1-0
N Jordon Shields (Mike Collett), 14:51 1-1
N Francois Bouchard (Shields, Collett), 15:17 1-2
C P.C. Drouin (Geoff Lopatka, Geoff Bumstead), 17:25 (PP) 2-2
Penalties:
C John DeHart (holding), 6:13; N Bench (too many men on ice, served by
David Penney), 7:16; N Dan McGillis (interference), 7:41; N Eric
Petersen (slashing), 15:39; C Shaun Hannah (hooking), 19:23; C Chris-
tian Felli (slashing), 20:00
Third period -- Scoring:
N Bouchard (J.F. Aube, Mike Taylor), 1:15 (PP) 2-3
C Steve Wilson (Jake Karam), 3:40 3-3
N Tomas Persson (Taylor), 5:50 3-4
C Karam (Papp), 6:44 4-4
N Tom O'Connor (Collett), 15:53 4-5
Penalties:
C Matt Cooney (cross-checking), 7:56; N Darryl MacNair (slashing),
12:59; C Blair Ettles (hooking), 16:19; C Drouin (roughing), 19:31
Shots on goal: Cornell 10-11-6 -- 27, Northeastern 10-8-11 -- 29
Power play: Cornell 1 of 5, Northeastern 1 of 7
Goaltending:
C Eddy Skazyk (out at 19:20 of third period, in at 19:31 of third
period, out at 19:40 of third period, 29 shots, 24 saves)
N Mike Veisor (27 shots, 23 saves)
The shots on goal for Northeastern (and thus the saves for Skazyk) may not
be accurate. Cornell radio announcer Grady Whittenburg gave Skazyk's third-
period save total as 14 but the game total as 24.
Game notes:
The Big Red took the ice with a lineup similar to the one that was so
successful (more or less -- hey, a point's a point) against RPI a week
ago, and they played quite well and gave the Huskies a rough time of
it. Defenseman Jason Kendall injured his shoulder last week and did
not make the trip; in his place was fellow freshman Jason Zubkus,
making his first appearance for the Big Red. By the way, has anybody
got any ideas on what happened 20 or so years ago to make "Jason" such
a popular name? Cornell's got three of them: Kendall, Zubkus, and
Weber, and they were recruiting eventual Black Bear Jason Dekker.
Northeastern counters with a pair of their own, Kelly and Melong. Did
the first Friday the 13th movie come out back then or something? :-)
Anyway, the first period was scoreless, but that didn't mean there
wasn't plenty to watch. At the 5:44 mark, just after ignoring a Dan
McGillis right hook to P.C. Drouin's head, referee Ned Bunyan whistled
Cornell's Vincent Auger for interference. (In fairness to Bunyan and
his mate, Scott Levitt (sp?), it sounded like they did a pretty good
job in this one) This gave Northeastern their first power play of the
night, but almost immediately, Brad Chartrand and Shaun Hannah were
streaking up the ice on a 2-on-1 short-handed break, forcing goalie
Mike Veisor to come up with a great save. He made a few more midway
through the period, as play began to get a little chippy. The Big Red
had a golden opportunity with about six and a half minutes left in the
period, as Chartrand caught Veisor out of position and had most of the
net to shoot at, but the puck went wide.
Cornell was on the power play at the time, and it's worth noting that
the Big Red was using a five-forward power play unit. As far as I can
tell, that's the first time Cornell has used such a configuration since
the RPI game at Lynah last year. In that one, the five-forward unit
made three appearances, resulting in a pair of short-handed goals by
the Engineers. That didn't happen on Sunday, although the Huskies did
have a few opportunities. Shortly after Chartrand's attempt, Dan Lupo
and Jason Kelly had a short-handed 2-on-1 break, and Lupo got off a
blast from the right circle that Skazyk stopped with the leg pad.
The Big Red controlled much of the first period, but the Huskies came
out fired up after the intermission and played a better game in the
middle stanza. Even so, it was Cornell who broke the scoreless tie at
the 4:14 mark. Seconds earlier, Jamie Papp had Veisor going the wrong
way, but his wrister hit the side of the net. Cornell worked the puck
back to him in the slot, and as he was being leveled by Rick Schuhwerk,
Papp got off a backhander that flew by Veisor. Northeastern had a
chance a couple minutes later on the power play, but a horrendous Husky
line change (which announcer Grady Whittenburg swore resulted in ten
players on the ice) resulted in a bench minor which wiped out the man
advantage.
Jordon Shields tied the score at 14:51 of the second. A screened
Skazyk lost sight of the puck and dropped to the ice, apparently to try
to find it. This left the top portion of the net open, and Shields'
blast from the left circle sailed through a clump of players near the
crease and caught the net just inside the crossbar. It took the
Huskies just 26 seconds to put themselves in the lead, as Mike Collett
swiped the puck from Chad Wilson in the right corner and centered it
for Francois Bouchard, whose one-timer beat Skazyk low to the glove
side.
Cornell went on the power play again 22 seconds later, and the five-
forward unit made another appearance. This time, the strategy worked,
as Drouin scored his first goal of the season to tie the game. Veisor
stopped a drive by Blair Ettles, but the Big Red worked the rebound out
to Drouin at the right point, and his blast flew past a couple of
Northeastern defenders and over a surprised Veisor's shoulder. A
couple of penalties near the end of the second period put the Huskies
on a 5-on-3 advantage to open the third, and they lost little time in
converting. J.F. Aube threaded a pass to Mike Taylor, whose hard
slapper was blocked by Skazyk. Bouchard was there to corral the re-
bound, however, and he flipped the puck over the goaltender with 1:15
gone in the period.
This goal sparked a scoring outburst that would see the teams combine
for four scores in the first seven minutes of the third. Jake Karam
and Steve Wilson teamed up to even the score at the 3:40 mark, as Karam
dug the puck out along the left boards and spotted Wilson breaking down
the slot. Karam's pass hit Wilson on the stick, and he flipped the
puck over Veisor's left shoulder. Northeastern responded two minutes
and ten seconds later, after a Cornell headman pass bounced off the
back of Hannah's skate. Taylor grabbed the loose puck at center ice
and found Tomas Persson, who beat Skazyk for his first goal of the
season. Less than a minute later, McGillis picked off an Ettles pass
in the Husky zone, but as he tried to clear the puck, he lost control
of it. Papp stole it near the blue line and fired it ahead to Karam,
who was all alone near the crease. Karam's wrister flew over Veisor's
glove at the 6:44 mark, and the game was tied for the fourth time.
The end-to-end action continued for most of the third period, and both
goalies came up with some spectacular saves, but it was the Huskies
coming up with the eventual game-winner with 4:07 remaining. Collett
started the play with a rush into the Cornell zone, and as he was in
the process of getting decked, he fired a pass over to Tom O'Connor.
O'Connor worked his way through the Big Red defense, cut between the
circles, and unleashed a low slapper which bounced in off the right
post.
Cornell wasn't dead by any means, but a couple of dumb penalties
severely hurt their chances at getting the equalizer. Ettles went off
for hooking half a minute later, and almost immediately, Hannah and
Chartrand had another short-handed break. However, this one was
snuffed out when Hannah's pass hit Bouchard in the leg. Skazyk left
for the extra attacker with 40 seconds to go, but Drouin got called for
roughing at the 19:31 mark, and Skazyk had to go back in for the face-
off. He waited between the circles and headed off again when the Big
Red got control of the puck, but a last-ditch attempt went wide as time
ran out, and the Huskies had themselves a hard-fought victory. Skazyk
stopped 24 of 29 shots (maybe), while Veisor had 23 saves.
The loss put Cornell's non-league record at 0-5. This year's non-
league schedule was one of the Big Red's toughest ever, featuring three
nationally-ranked opponents (Northeastern, Maine, and Boston Univer-
sity) as well as an up-and-coming Minnesota team on their own ice.
Still, this marks the first time that Cornell has gone winless in out-
of-league contests since the ECAC was formally organized in 1964.
Oddly enough, however, the Big Red struck for at least one power-play
goal in each of the five non-league game, while they have converted
just one man-up chance against ECAC foes so far.
Cornell will next see action Wednesday night, when they host travel
partner Colgate in a home-and-home series that will conclude on
Saturday.
--
Disclaimer -- Unless otherwise noted, all opinions expressed above are
strictly those of:
Bill Fenwick | Send your HOCKEY-L poll responses to:
Cornell '86 and '94 (.5) | [log in to unmask]
LET'S GO RED!!
"Why is it whenever you break up with somebody, they always say, 'You'll
never meet anyone else like me'? I should hope not! If I don't want to
go out with YOU, why would I want to go out with someone JUST LIKE YOU?"
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