Cornell took three of a possible four points on the road this weekend in the
same way they took three of four the last time they ventured out on the
road: by relying on the strong goaltending of Eddy Skazyk and Andy
Bandurski. The Big Red remains the only team in Division I that is winless
at home (0-3), but they are also, at 2-0-2, one of only two teams that are
undefeated on the road this season (Alaska-Fairbanks, at 2-0-1, is the
other). That's a rather odd combination, although it's easily explained by
looking at Cornell's schedule so far; the Big Red have played two
nationally-ranked teams at Lynah while facing competition from the bottom
half of the ECAC on the road.
One other unusual note: Saturday at Princeton marked the first time the Big
Red picked up a point in a game in which they allowed fewer than 40 shots on
goal. Prior to that, Cornell had gone 0-3 in such games while posting a
2-0-1 record in games where they had allowed 40 or more shots. Maybe the
defense *doesn't* have to improve...
More notes on the games:
Cornell 2, Yale 1
Real Cornell Goaltenders are born in situations like this. Think back
to Corrie D'Alessio saving 50 in a 3-2 overtime win at RPI in his
freshman year; or Parris Duffus making 44 saves in his first start, a
3-2 win at Princeton; or Andy Bandurski earlier this season with 41
saves in a 1-1 tie at Vermont. Friday night, Eddy Skazyk had a perfor-
mance worthy of any of those, stopping 44 of 45 Eli shots and back-
stopping the Big Red to the win. You have to feel for Todd Sullivan,
(unless, of course, you're a Cornell fan :-) who played more than well
enough to win himself with 26 saves, but in accordance with what Rob C.
said earlier, the Yale team just couldn't convert their opportunities.
Having been there last year, I think we Cornellians can smugly say,
"Well, that's the way it goes." :-) (at least, until these two teams
meet again in February)
Some good forechecking enabled Cornell to break out of their zone on a
3-on-2 early in the game, and this led to a Jake Karam backhander
during a pileup in front of the Yale net. Sullivan dropped to the ice
to stop that one, but he gave up the rebound to Karam, who tried to
send the puck over to linemate Mike Sancimino on the other side of the
crease. The pass rolled off the heel of Karam's stick, but Sancimino
got to it anyway and poked the puck past Sullivan's legs to light the
lamp at 6:27 of the first period. Skazyk preserved the 1-0 lead
through the rest of the period, turning aside Yale's most serious
threat at about the 13-minute mark, when Zoran Kozic and Martin Leroux
came in on a 2-on-1 and both had point-blank shots.
However, at 9:31 of the second period, after a number of flurries in
the Cornell end, Yale tied the score on the power play. This one was a
little odd, as from the (admittedly partisan) radio description, the
Cornell team thought that the puck had wound up on the back of the net
and was pulling up, expecting a whistle and a faceoff. Instead, the
puck popped out to James Mackey, who fired one that Skazyk blocked.
John Emmons jumped on the rebound and wristed it in for his first goal
of the season.
Karam was called for high-sticking at the 10:11 mark, but it was
actually Cornell that had the best scoring chance during the Eli power
play, as Brad Chartrand and Shaun Hannah almost immediately skated in
on a 2-on-1 break, forcing Sullivan to come up with a terrific sliding
save to keep the score even. Once Karam came out of the box, however,
it didn't take the Big Red very long to retake the lead. Vinnie Auger
carried the puck into the right corner of the Yale zone, then sent it
back to the right point where Jason Kendall was waiting all alone.
Kendall uncorked a low slapper that Sullivan got a pad on, but Jason
Weber was right there to whack the rebound into the empty net at the
12:58 mark. This was the first goal of the season for Weber, a second-
semester freshman seeing action in only his second game.
As Rob mentioned, a gouge in the ice (I think it was near the Cornell
blue line) caused the second intermission to begin a few minutes early.
A good portion of the third period was played in the Cornell end, as a
scrambling Big Red team had trouble clearing the puck (though they did
manage 12 shots on Sullivan in the period). Yale's best chance to tie
the game came on their last power play, beginning at the 17:19 mark
when Hannah went off for hitting from behind, but the Elis were a
little shaky, and Auger effectively broke up the power play threat with
a pair of big clearing passes. Sullivan came out for the extra skater
with 40 seconds left, and almost immediately the puck was rolling down
the ice toward the empty Eli net, with Cornell's Andre Doll and Yale's
Dan Brierly in hot pursuit. Doll dove to knock the puck into the net,
but it bounced and he missed it. Brierly was able to catch up with the
puck, and meanwhile, Doll crashed into the goalpost, apparently in-
juring his left knee. No word on the severity of the injury, if there
was one, but he did not play the next night against Princeton. Anyway,
Cornell hung on for a hard-fought victory, their first over the Elis
since the 1992 ECAC quarterfinal game between the two.
Cornell 1, Princeton 1 (OT)
Well, if it ain't broke, don't fix it. Saturday, the Big Red used the
same recipe that had worked so well against Yale the night before --
namely, outstanding goaltending -- and while the results weren't quite
the same, Cornell did come away with a point. This time it was Andy
Bandurski in net for the Big Red, and he had a superb game, turning
aside 34 shots. Once again, though, the opposing goalie also had a
great outing, as Princeton's James Konte recorded 32 saves.
There were a couple of lineup changes for the Big Red, as forwards Tony
Bergin and John DeHart skated in place of Jiri Kloboucek and Andre
Doll, and defenseman Tim Shean saw his first ice time of the year
(replacing Chad Wilson, I believe). Anyway, Princeton appeared to have
gotten on the board about eight minutes into the game off a 2-on-1
break, but Cornell's Geoff Bumstead and a Princeton player slammed into
the net and dislodged it, and referee Jim Cerbo ruled that the net had
come off before the puck went in. The game was scoreless through two,
and both goaltenders had to come up with some big ones to keep it that
way. Konte came up with a pair off shots by Blair Ettles and Jake
Karam early in the second period, and then with about one minute left
before the intermission, Bandurski denied John Fust twice from point-
blank range after Fust had stolen the puck behind the Cornell net.
There was also a very scary moment about eight minutes into the second,
when Princeton's Jon Kelley blasted Steve Wilson from behind, and
Wilson went flying into the boards in front of the Tiger bench, hitting
his neck on the edge. Wilson was down for a few minutes while trainer
Ray Barile worked on him, but the defenseman got up and was able to
keep playing. Despite the howls from the Cornell end of the pressbox,
Kelley received only a minor for boarding.
The way both goaltenders and both offenses were playing, this one
seemed like a real threat to become the first-ever regular-season
scoreless tie in ECAC history (Cornell and Clarkson played one in the
1989 ECAC quarterfinals), but the action picked up in the latter part
of the second period, and the Tigers finally dented Bandurski at 7:07
of the third. Kelley eluded an Ettles check and fired toward the Cor-
nell net, where Bandurski made the shoulder save but lost track of the
rebound. Mike Bois corralled the loose puck, went behind the net, and
stuffed it in the other side.
It seemed like that would be enough for Princeton to win the game, but
the Big Red responded less than three minutes later. Bergin got con-
trol of the puck, spun in the left circle, and dropped a pass behind
his back to Jason Weber, who unleashed a 35-foot rocket that beat Konte
to the glove side. This goal fired up the Big Red, and they kept the
pressure on for most of the rest of regulation, but Konte didn't crack.
The momentum seemed to shift to Princeton in the overtime, as the
Tigers had a golden opportunity to end the game just 30 seconds into
the extra session. Ian Sharp skated in with the puck, and Bandurski
came way out of the net to follow him. Sharp had a shot at the empty
net, but he missed it, and Gavin Colquhoun's try was deflected out of
play by Ettles. Bandurski redeemed himself on the ensuing faceoff,
when he came up with a great save on J. P. O'Connor's quick shot from
the point.
Not much else happened in the OT, except for a shoving match between
Wilson and Fust with three seconds to go. Princeton then called a
timeout and pulled Konte for the last faceoff, but nothing developed
from that, and the game ended in a tie. Bandurski's numbers on the
season now look positively Drydenesque: in three games, he has a GAA
of 1.81 and a save percentage of 0.947. Skazyk, of course, is no
slouch either, with a 3.86 GAA (most of that coming in the Big Red's
dreadful third period against Brown) and a 0.899 save percentage.
This Yale-Princeton trip was much more successful than the one last Febru-
ary, in which the Big Red suffered a pair of heart-breaking overtime losses.
A couple of other minor injury notes: Jason Weber suffered a mild con-
cussion shortly after scoring in the Princeton game but is expected to play
Tuesday night when Cornell hosts Hockey East foe Boston College. Also, Mark
Scollan re-aggravated the injured hip that caused him to miss the Brown and
BU games, but he is not expected to be out of the lineup either.
--
Bill Fenwick | Send your HOCKEY-L poll responses to:
Cornell '86 and '94 (.5) | [log in to unmask]
LET'S GO RED!!
"What do you do? Nothing? If you do nothing, how do you know when you're
finished?"
-- Charles Fleischer
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