Lest anyone think that all the College Hockey action this weekend took
place in Madison and Wooster, I submit the following report on the
game between the Caltech Beavers and the MIT Alumni Beavers for the
9th annual Beaver Cup:
 
MIT 5, Caltech 2
 
CIT   0   0   2   --   2
MIT   4   0   1   --   5
 
First period -- Scoring (15 min periods):
     M Rick Russell (unassisted), 2:16
     M Gary Zentner (Marshall Jackson, Joe Minahan), 5:05
     M Minahan (unassisted), 5:20
     M Zentner (Pat Foley), 7:18
 
   Penalties: none
 
Second Period -- Scoring: none
 
   Penalties:
     M Foley (tripping), 1:21
     C Chris Claypool (tripping), 5:30
 
Third Period -- Scoring:
     M Dennis Clarke (Mike Westphal, Zentner), 7:26
     C Mike Slessor (Pavel Svitek, Claypool?), ~8:50 [I didn't write
down the exact time, since I was busy trying to get the Caltech fans
to start a "sieve" chant :-)]
     C Kobie Boykins (unassisted), 10:37
 
   Penalties:
     M Minahan (hooking) 12:35
 
Power plays: Caltech 0 for 2, MIT 0 for 1
 
Goaltenders (sorry, no shots/saves):
     M Pete Gasparini
     C Frank Monzon (out at ~13:00 of the third)
 
     I found myself in Pasadena this weekend, and discovered that the
MIT-Caltech hockey game was happening Sunday morning.  It was a fairly
different scene than my last College Hockey game (Colgate at Cornell),
to say the least.  The bleachers at the Pasadena Ice Skating Center
seemed to hold about 100 or so people, who were pretty much evenly
divided in loyalty.  The Caltech squad is a club team, and about half
of them are staff.  In 1987 and 1988, they played MIT's varsity squad
and were demolished.  Every year since then, they've played MIT's
alumni team in Pasadena, and have yet to win (a 2-1 defeat in 1992 was
the closest they came).  As an MIT alum pointed out to me, the MIT
squad could easily claim the greater number of PhDs.
 
     As the game started, the teams' talent levels seemed to be as
different as their makeup.  Early in the first, MIT captain Russell
skated in from center ice and effortlessly shot the puck past Monzon
to open the scoring.  A third of the way into the period Jackson fed a
wide open Zenter on the doorstep at Monzon's right.  When Minahan
scored fifteen seconds later, it looked like a blowout.  Caltech
calmed down after Zentner's second goal, though, and things were
pretty even from there.  (I'm guessing MIT relented a bit, as well;
Russell looked early on like he could have skated circles around
everyone else on the ice.)
 
     In the second, home side started to give signs they weren't going
to be shut out.  Play started being evenly distributed in both ends,
and Caltech got Gasparini down on the ice a few times, but couldn't
get to the key rebounds.  (Although the over-anxious scorekeeper put
up a non-goal or two for each team on the board over the course of the
game.  Twice I had to explain to the fans next to me--who were
cheering "Point!  Point!"--that the goal couldn't have counted since
the faceoff was in the MIT zone.)
 
     The final MIT goal came on a bit of acrobatics.  Monzon came out
of the goal to try to stop an attack, and both the puck and Clarke
himself went over the top of Monzon, and it was academic from there.
When Caltech finally lit the lamp (figuratively; there was no actual
lamp), it was a hard one-timer from the blue line that I didn't even
see.  A few minutes later, Boykins (who my program says plays "real"
college hockey for RPI) fired one home from behind the *red* line.  I
joked that perhaps Caltech's problem was that they were trying to get
close to the goal before shooting.  The game ended with a bit of
comedy, as the officials called a hooking penalty with 2:25 remaining.
Minahan started to skate over to the penalty box (well, the bench,
actually; there was no penalty box), but the penalty went up on the
board for Caltech, and when play resumed they were down a man.  About
thirty seconds later, the officials stopped play and held a conference
at the scorer's table.  The resolution was that the penalty was
actually on MIT, Minahan came back off, and they put the clock back to
2:25.  Once Caltech had gained control, they pullen Monzon to try to
make the game respectable.  They failed to convert on the 6-on-4, or
on the thirty seconds of 6-on-5 that followed, but I was impressed
that they avoided giving up an empty-netter (although one shot from
the MIT zone missed by just a yard or so).