I'm pleased to announce that I've reached an agreement with RPI's SID to reproduce his hockey recap of RPI games rather than write my own.  The only assurance I made to him was that I would attribute the game recap to him and carefully delineate my editorial commentary so it should be clear which part is his and which part is mine. Thanks Kevin; so here goes:

  FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: NOVEMBER 11, 2000

  MEN’S HOCKEY BEATEN, 3-2, BY CORNELL
  Big Red earn first victory of the season

  Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute (RPI) hosted Cornell in an Eastern
  College Athletic Conference (ECAC) Division I men’s ice hockey game at
  the Houston Field House and the Engineers fell, 3-2, before a crowd of
  3,840.  RPI is now 3-3-0 overall and 1-2-0 in the ECAC while Cornell is
  1-2-0 overall and 1-1-0 in the league.

  It took only 56 seconds for the home team to get on the board when
  sophomore center Marc Cavosie deflected the puck past Cornell netminder
  Chris Gartman.  For Cavosie, who was assisted by his older brother,
  Eric, and Jim Vickers, the goal was his team-leading fifth of the
  season.  About five minutes later, David Kozier tied the game on a wrist
  shot from the right circle.  Kozier was assisted by Brian McMeekin and
  Sam Paolini.  The Engineers grabbed the lead back at 14:20 of the second
  period when captain Steve Munn slammed home the puck from the right side
  with his team in the midst of a five-minute power play.  Munn, a
  defenseman, took a pass from Ryan Shields, who earned his first
  collegiate point on the goal and beat Gartman.

  The second period belonged to the Big Red, who outshot RPI, 10-5.
  McMeekin knotted the game on a shot from the bottom of the right
  face-off circle 2:03 into the period and Paolini gave Cornell their
  first lead 13 minutes later.  Paolini earned his first of the season
  when he took a feed from Mark McRae and beat Nathan Marsters from the
  right circle.  Kozier also earned an assist on the goal.

  The Engineers, who finished 1 for 8 on the power play, outshot the Big
  Red, 10-6, in the third period but they could not even the game.
  Cornell, who was 0 for 3 on the power play, saw Gartman stop 26 shots.
  RPI freshman goalie Nathan Marsters made 16 saves for Rensselaer.

  Rensselaer returns to action next Saturday night at 7pm when they host
  UMass of Hockey East at the Houston Field House.  Cornell is in action
  again on Friday night at 7pm when they’ll take on Harvard in an ECAC
  game at Lynah Rink in Ithaca, NY.

  --
  Kevin Beattie
  Sports Information Director
  Rensselaer
  AS + RC
  Troy, NY  12180-3590

Lewin's Commentary:
I apologize for not including the stats in this post but I just
didn't bring any writing implements to the game. This was a typical RPI/Cornell game; hard fought and physical. The early advantage had to go to RPI. Cornell was already down 2 men due to game disqualifications the night before in Schenectady.
When RPI scored just 56 seconds into the game,the Field House crowd was elated.  Although Cornell tied the score 1-1 a few minutes later, RPI got a double advantage when, halfway through the first, another Cornell forward was given a major hitting from behind call and a game misconduct.  This gave RPI a 5 minute power play (they scored with :57 left in the power play) as well as forcing Cornell to skate the rest of the game two forwards  short on their roster.

Then came the second period which is already shaping up to be the problem for RPI again. For the second night in a row, the RPI team came out so flat in the second period that the crowd was taken out of the game. Things got so bad that whenever RPI went on a power play in the second period, the crowd started chanting "Defense, Defense".  On one power play, there were only two shots on goal. Both shots were quality chances and both were from Cornell.  This second period doldrum allowed Cornell to re-establish their standard blue-collar type game; they were tenacious in checking the RPI forwards in the neutral zone
forcing the Engineers to dump and chase. They also were relentless in digging the puck out of corners and transitioning the play back the other way.  Once the first period was over and Cornell established their checking game, RPI never regained their balance. Although they did come out of the second period funk and came back to play pretty well in the third period, Cornell maintained their defensive discipline (especially after they got the 3-2 lead) and the Engineers got very few quality scoring opportunities. RPI didn't play a bad game overall, Cornell just played better; Cornell maintained their cool and
discipline throughout the game. It wasn't a pretty game to watch
but Cornell had their game plan and executed it efficiently.

As far as RPI goes, I have an idea to help them out for the remainder of the season: they should shorten each game to two periods only,  the first and the third.

Meanwhile, the big local story is Union. They took 4 points this weekend to go 3-0 in the ECAC and are in sole possession of first place.  Whether they can keep this up through the season remains to be seen. But in the meantime, I'll keep quiet and let them bask in the limelight.


Mark Lewin
RPI
class of '69