Two remarkably different Cornell teams showed up at Lynah last weekend, as
the Big Red lost a stinker to previously-winless-in-the-league Union, then
rebounded in a huge way to earn a tie against the Engineers. Some thoughts
below:
Union 6, Cornell 2
I'll go along with the general opinion of the Cornell contingent and
say that this was about the worst performance by a Big Red hockey team
that I have ever seen or heard on the radio. In a word, bad. Except
for a six- or seven-minute burst of almost-decent hockey in the second
period, during which the Big Red scored their first goal, there was
nothing going on out there. I counted exactly one good check thrown by
a Cornell player -- and that one may have included a wayward elbow.
Other than that, the forecheck was mostly a fore-shove. The real
tragedy (from a Cornell standpoint) was that Union didn't play much
better as far as talent goes, but they had the determination and hustle
that the Big Red seemed to lack for the most part.
History probably could have told us that this would happen, since a
number of the Dutchmen's high moments in the ECAC have come at Cor-
nell's expense. In February 1992, Union journeyed to Lynah Rink and
came away with their biggest win of the season. A year later, the Big
Red went to Achilles Rink, played what was then the worst game I had
ever seen, and became the first ECAC team to lose to Union more than
once. Friday night, Cornell became the first ECAC team to have a
losing record (2-3) against the Dutchmen, and as far as I can tell,
Chris Ford became the first Union player to score a hat trick against
ECAC competition. All of Union's goals were scored by freshmen.
The Dutchmen's first power play, which started thirty seconds into the
game, foreshadowed things to come, as Union spent most of the time in
the Cornell zone and forced goaltender Andy Bandurski to come up with
three or four good saves. The Dutchmen failed to convert that one but
succeeded in their next opportunity, when Troy Stevens was left alone
in the right circle. He took a pass from Russell Monteith, skated
toward the crease, and flipped the puck over a sliding Bandurski with
5:17 gone in the first period.
Cornell began to get frustrated, as Union's style of clogging up center
ice and tying players up along the board was keeping the Big Red from
getting much of anything going. The Dutchmen looked like they were
gaining more and more confidence as the period went on, and they
boosted their lead to 2-0 at the 11:47 mark. Bandurski got a pad on a
shot by Monteith, but the rebound was left loose until Ford skated in
and wristed it just inside the left post. This was a big problem all
night for the Big Red; Bandurski would give up long rebounds and no one
from the Cornell team would clear them. In contrast, at the other end
of the ice, when Union goalie Mike Gallant made a save, the Dutchmen
were almost always able to get to the loose puck first.
The Big Red had a desultory remainder of the first period, but things
picked up a bit early in the second. Thirty seconds in, Brad Chartrand
streaked down the right side and fired one that Gallant just managed to
get his skate on, deflecting the shot wide. When Cornell went on the
power play a couple minutes later (thanks in part to a Vincent Auger
dive), they skated harder than they had at any point in the first
period and had the Dutchmen back on their heels a bit. The Big Red
finally got one past Gallant at the 7:08 mark, when Geoff Bumstead's
shot deflected off the left pad and trickled across the goal line. It
appeared that Cornell had pulled themselves together and was ready to
make a game of it.
But that didn't happen. The Big Red fell back into listlessness midway
through the period, and Union lit the lamp again with 6:39 to go in the
period, when Ford's high floater beat a screened Bandurski to the stick
side. Union made it 4-1 at the 17:09 mark on a shot that went through
a cluster of players in front of the net and rolled through Bandurski's
pads. This one caused a bit of controversy when the officials couldn't
figure out who had actually scored it. The first call was "#12 Union",
which would have been great for #12, except that the Dutchmen haven't
got one. It was then changed to "#24 Union" -- sorry, they still
haven't got one. On the third try, they came up with "#21 Union",
which would be Cory Holbrough. Sounds good, except it turned out he
wasn't out there when the goal was scored. It was finally credited to
Jay Prentice.
Whatever, it was still a goal, and Cornell started to sag even farther.
At 3:34 of the third period, Ryan Donovan took a feed high in the slot
and blasted one that a screened Bandurski never saw, putting the
Dutchmen in front by four goals. About three minutes later, Cornell
appeared to catch a break when Shaun Hannah blew by Andrew Will on a
short-handed breakaway, but Will hooked Hannah in the arm and the puck
rolled harmlessly past the Union net. No penalty shot was forthcoming,
although Will got the minor for hooking.
Ford completed his hat trick at the 10:44 mark, banging a Monteith
rebound past Bandurski. Cornell was able to make the final score a bit
more respectable (?) with 2:34 remaining, as Auger somehow got the puck
past Gallant. I say "somehow" because most of the fans still in the
rink were more engrossed in watching Chad Wilson get flipped into the
penalty box by a Union player, and nobody seemed to know exactly how
the goal was scored. Even the officials got into the act, erroneously
crediting the goal to Mike Sancimino -- who was in the box serving a
cross-checking penalty.
The Big Red came up with the surprisingly high total of 38 shots on
goal, their second-highest shot count of the season, but Gallant played
quite well in stopping 36 of them. Bandurski had 32 saves for Cornell.
RPI 3, Cornell 3 (OT)
Then again, it's important to remember that one game usually does not
make or break an entire season. Whatever was wrong with the Big Red
Friday night got fixed in a hurry, as Cornell played about as well as
they are capable of playing and held nationally-ranked RPI to a tie.
An infusion of new blood into the lineup seemed to help, as five play-
ers who hadn't dressed for the Union game took the ice on Saturday.
Three of them -- Matt Cooney, John DeHart, and Joel McArter -- had not
seen much action with the Big Red all season prior to this game. They
comprised the fourth line and did quite well.
This was not a case of the Engineers pulling one of the el foldos that
have plagued them all season long; RPI played a good game themselves,
though they kept getting into penalty trouble. They were able to shake
off an early high-sticking call on Jon Pirrong, and they lit the lamp
at 9:50 of the first period, when Wayne Clarke beat goaltender Eddy
Skazyk to the stick side from the right circle. Three more Cornell
power plays followed, the last two of which overlapped enough to give
the Big Red a 34-second 5-on-3. I remarked to someone that Cornell
wouldn't score on this one because it always seems to take them about
30 seconds of power-play time to set up a shot -- which it did. But
then, there wasn't much to complain about, since the shot went in.
Geoff Bumstead bounced one off goalie Neil Little, and the puck
trickled across the line at 16:18, one second after the 5-on-3 ended.
This was Cornell's first power-play goal of the season against an ECAC
opponent (in 39 chances), and it's no surprise that Bumstead scored it;
the goal was his fifth of the season, and three of his previous four
have come on the power play.
Cornell was flying after that one, but they were brought back to earth
quickly when Andre Doll, after holding on to an RPI player near the
penalty box for ten or fifteen seconds, was finally called for it with
2:47 left. It took the Engineers just eight seconds to convert, as
Jeff Gabriel got control of the puck near the Cornell crease and popped
it over Skazyk's shoulder. Little came up big seconds later, as he got
the pad on a shot from the right side when the Big Red found themselves
on a 2-on-1 after the ensuing faceoff.
Two more RPI penalties gave the Big Red another 5-on-3 with three
seconds left in the first period, and while Cornell was apparently able
to get the puck across the goal line after a faceoff deep in the RPI
zone, the time had expired before that happened. Skazyk came up with
a nice blocker save to thwart an RPI breakaway early in the second
period, and after that it was Cornell's turn to get into penalty
trouble. A foolish interference penalty on Jason Kendall (he grabbed
an RPI guy by the throat and wrestled him to the ice) gave the Engi-
neers a brief 5-on-3, but some inspired play by the Big Red penalty
kill kept RPI off the board. Halfway through the period, the Engineers
almost got a cheap goal when a Cornell defender tipped the puck back
toward the net and caught Skazyk by surprise. The RPI team thought the
puck had gone in, but it went off Skazyk's knee and rolled through the
crease.
A big Cornell flurry in the RPI end with three minutes left produced a
few shots that went wide, but the Big Red managed to tie things up
moments later. Dan Dufresne dumped the puck into the Engineer zone in
preparation for a line change, and Jake Karam caught up to it and found
himself all alone in the right circle. His low slapper caught the net
inside the left post to make it 2-2 with 1:25 remaining in the second.
Cornell continued their aggressive play into the third period, but RPI
responded with some heavy pressure in the Big Red zone, and it paid off
at the 6:39 mark. Jeff Brick took a shot from the right faceoff dot
that went through defenseman Steve Wilson's legs (it might have been
deflected along the way) and found the back of the net. The Engineers
had another flurry half a minute later, but that one was ended on a
quick whistle by referee Rob Hearn.
The Big Red tied the game at 10:40 of the third on a nice play by Jiri
Kloboucek and Shaun Hannah. As Kloboucek went behind the net to
retrieve the puck, Hannah stationed himself near the crease and
hollered for the pass. Kloboucek obliged, and Hannah sent a low
wrister past Little's leg. The non-call of the game (and perhaps of
the season) came with 8:19 left, when referee Peter Dawes watched an
RPI player take a run at Vincent Auger and nail him with a vicious
crosscheck. Auger crumpled to the ice in front of the Cornell bench
and stayed there for a few scary minutes, while Dawes, who was about
four feet from the play and was looking right at it, called nothing.
I don't know whether he froze up or what, but he immediately had his
ear chewed off by a livid Coach McCutcheon. Dawes did not endear
himself to the Cornell team or the Lynah crowd when he hit Kloboucek
with a boarding minor a minute later (though that call was probably
legit), and he then proceeded to infuriate the Engineer players and
fans with a ticky-tack holding call on RPI's Kelly Askew moments after
that. That one had "make-up call" written all over it.
The end-to-end action continued for the rest of the period and into the
overtime, during which each team had one good flurry. Both goaltenders
had outstanding performances, with Little coming up with 32 saves and
Skazyk recording 27. Cornell thus salvaged a point on the weekend and
has been able to scare the hell out of three of the four nationally-
ranked teams it has faced this season (the exception being Maine at the
Mariucci Classic).
--
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?"
-- Larry Miller
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