(Apologies in advance if any of this is redundant)
 
Certainly one can't argue that referee Bill Doiron was a PART of the
Cornell/Princeton game at Lynah Rink this Saturday night.  However, from
someone who saw the game, I saw just about as many penalties as he did,
and would strongly disagree with anyone who thought he was trying to
influence the outcome of the game or any such nonsense.  Basically, if
you did it, it was called, and with the kind of stuff that players were
trying to get away with, I can't argue with that.
 
A brief story of the turnaround that many of you, perhaps, are finding
hard to believe...  15 minutes into the first period, Princeton had taken
a 3-0 lead which left my friends and me thinking it would be a long
night.  Two of these goals came on the power play, and Cornell had
already failed to score on almost a full minute of 5x3 skating.
Princeton's Scott Bertoli was called for charging at 16:51, and on the
ensuing power play, Darren Yopyk was assessed a delay of game penalty for
knocking off the net with Cornell threatening to score.  At this point,
Cornell coach Mike Schafer took his time-out.  We could all tell that the
power play to follow would be a turning point one way or another.  On the
ensuing 5x3, Denis Ladouceur scored on, IIRC, a rebound of a Ryan
Moynihan shot, and just over a minute later, Frank Kovac redirected a
point shot from Jeff Burgoyne to bring Cornell within one goal with less
than a minute remaining in the first.  Just sixteen seconds later,
Cornell's Jeff Oates became entangled with Princeton's Jeff Halpern near
the benches, and both were given roughing minors and 10-minute
misconducts.  Halpern's absence, IMO, certainly helped Cornell get back
into the game.  Some fifteen seconds later, Cornell's Kyle Knopp was
pulled down from behind while on what appeared to be a clean breakway up
the left boards; we were expecting a penalty shot to be called as Knopp
certainly seemed to have a full step on the defender.  Jeff Burgoyne
recovered the puck, and was decked by Scott Bertoli with 2 seconds
remaining in the period, at which point the whistle blew.  Now here comes
the confusion.  At this point, the crowd was making so much noise that
the timekeeper must not have heard the whistle, because the final two
seconds ticked off the clock and the buzzer sounded.  Princeton's team
began to leave for the locker room, with the head coach yelling furiously
at the referee about something.  Whether the bench minor given to
Princeton at 20:00 of the first period was for vacating the bench early
or for yelling at the referee is unclear to me, but coupled with the
penalty given to Bertoli, Cornell was looking at a full 2:00 of 5x3 at
the beginning of the second period.  (Aside:  For those of you who think
Doiron was trying to steer the game, if he had been, then a penalty
certainly would've been given to the player who pulled down Knopp as
well, but none was.)
 
Well, I don't know what was said in the locker rooms, but Cornell
certainly did come out for the second period in a hurry.  David Kozier
scored a goal 5x3, and Dan Svoboda scored 10 seconds after Princeton
returned to even strength to give Cornell a 4-3 lead.  The Cornell players
continued to push for more through the second period, and were rewarded
at 16:38 when, with Cornell defenseman Jeff Burgoyne out two minutes on a
tripping call, Jeff Oates converted a beautiful 2-on-1 feed from Frank
Kovac for Cornell's first SHG in conference play, and a 5-3 lead.
 
The teams left the ice after the second with that score.  Cornell scored
another SHG early in the third period.  With Dan Svoboda serving a
cross-checking minor, Doug Stienstra and (I think) Jeff Oates broke up
ice 2-on-1.  Stienstra attempted to pass the puck to Oates for the
finish, but the puck deflected off the Princeton defender's skate, past
goalkeeper Nick Rankin, and into the net for Cornell's second shortie of
the night.  Stienstra added another near the midway point of the third,
at which point Rankin was pulled in favor of Craig Bradley.  Cornell
welcomed Bradley with a PPG by Kyle Knopp at 13:05 to stretch Cornell's
lead to 8-3.  Chris Corrinet scored for Princeton on the power play just
over a minute later, but Princton was unable to mount a further comeback,
and the final score was 8-4 Cornell.
 
The box score shows that only 3 of the 12 goals were scored at even
strength.  2 were scored 5x3, 5 of them 5x4, and 2, 4x5.  The penalties
were plentiful but even.  Cornell simply capitalized on a momentum change
to get back into the game, and scored both power play AND shorthanded
goals to put it away.
 
-Josh Herman
Cornell '99
 
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