Following are the results for the ECAC semi-finals played last
night in Boston Garden.
St. Lawrence 4, Cornell 3 OT
Just a quick few observations on the game, which I watched
on TV. I'll let Bill Fenwick provide all of the details.
In the scoreless first period of play, SLU lokked quite
good and were going to give the Big Red trouble. The
forwards were back checking well, allowing the defensemen
to stand up at the blue line and hamper the Cornell offense. There
were a couple of good chances for both teams. Cornell applied
pressure at the end of the period on several face-offs in the SLU
zone.
In the second period Cornell stormed out. They look a lot better
than in the first and were able to score twice. However a couple of
penalties cost them their momentum and allowed SLU to score on 2 of
3 chances to tie the game up.
Cornell came out strong again in the third period. Like the second,
the forechecking was keeping the play in the SLU zone, they were
also getting some good rushes out of their zone. Cornell scored
again to go up 3-2. It took SLU about 2 minutes to even the game up
at 3. For the remaining 8 minutes of regulation SLU had the better
chances.
In OT SLU contimued to dominate the play and Daniel Laperriere
scored on a wierd shot from the point. It was wierd because Cornell
defenseman Manini came out in front of the net as the shot was taken
and screened and bumped goalie Crozier, thus allowing the winning
goal.
Clarkson 3, Harvard 2
While the previous game was a smooth flowing game, this one was
punctuated by a lot of stoppages in play due to icings and off
sides. The key to the game was Clarkson's fore-checking that
applied pressure on the young Harvard defense for most of the game.
This resulted in numerous icings and set up Clarkson's first goal.
In the first 5 minutes of the game Harvard controlled the play.
Clarkson wasn't able to apply too much offensive pressure. Harvard
had two real good scoring chances but missed the net both tiems. In
fact Harvard only had 4 shots on goal, 1 quality shot. Clarkson was
able to calm down and settle into their game. This consisted of
marking the Ciavaglia, Donato and Vukonich line heavily, clearing
their own zone quite effectively, fore-checking and shooting the
puck whenever possible. Clarkson worked hard and was able to
control the play and stymie most of Harvard's rushes.
The second period went the way of the first. Before the first goal
of the night at 19:31 of the period, both teams had two pp
opportunities and there wer two 2 minute periods of 4-on-4 skating.
Harvard had two good chances on their second pp. However Rogles
stopped both close range tries, the first coming from Ciavaglia.
Clarkson was finally able to score a big goal (the first of the
game) with 29 seconds left in the period. With Harvard applying
pressure, Clarkson was able to get the puck into the Harvard zone.
This caused a face-off to the left of Hughes. The puck went behind
the goal to the right of Hughes. DeFreitas tried to play it but was
check into the boards at the goal line by Scot Thomas. Craig Conroy
of Clarkson picked up the loose puck and fed it past a Harvard
player to Dave Tretowicz at the point. Tretowicz took a shot that
went wide through the slot. However, Thomas had picked himself up
off of the ice and positioned himself in front of the goal. All
Thomas did to beat Hughes was redirect the puck wit the heal of his
stick into the net. This was a timely goal since Harvard had been
pressing and there was such little time left in the period. Harvard
had 10 shots on goal this period (14 for 2) while Clarkson had 7 (17
for 2).
As it was in Potsdam in January, it was one of Harvard's "other"
lines that were being most effective. Harvard scored at 4:39 of the
third period to tie the game at 1. Burke made a clearing pass to
Barringer who picked it up at the red line and came in on
d'Orsonnens with Flomenhoft. Near the top of the face-off circles
Barringer passed it across to Flomenhoft on the right wing.
d'Orsonnens had committed to Barringer and couldn't intercept the
pass. Flomenhoft was able to beat Rogles on his stick side.
However, Clarkson would finally get its pp going after being
scoreless for 10 tries. Mike Casselman penetrated the Harvard zone
on the left wing, working the puck down the boards. He took it into
the corner and started heading behind the net but never got there.
He saw Thomas skating in alone a passed it out to Scott who one
timed it past Hughes on the stick side. Hughes had no chance since
Thomas wasted no time on getting the shot off. Hughes would come up
with some real nice glove saves throughout the game. He nabbed
several great scoring chances right out of the air. As I had
mentioned to my friend, all we needed now was for Trombley to waltz
in on his own and score, like he did for the first goal of the game
at Walker. This he did. Unassisted, Dave Trombley picked up a
loose puck at mid ice and skated down the right side. He got around
a Harvard defenseman and flicked a back handed shot high to the
left over Hughes' shoulder. Hughes had been following the play to
the left and couldn't reverse directions and get Trombley's shot the
went the opposite way of the play. Now it was 3-1 Clarkson with an
eternity's worth of 5 minutes to play. (Thomas's second goal had
come at 8:05.) As in Walker, it was Mike Vukonich who was to score
from the big line of Harvard. (Thomas had the game winner in
Potsdam.) He came in on a 2-on-2 rush with DeFreitas. Vukonich
shovelled the puck past Rogles' right skate as Rogles went down and
Vukonich cut right, just in front of the goal, all at 18:12.
Clarkson was able to hang on and not allow any scoring chances.
Harvard pulled Hughes with 20 seconds left in the game but couldn't
direct any of the crossing passes on net. Hughes finished with 28
saves (10-6-9) while Rogles had 20 (4-10-4). The announcers on NESN
were amazed that Harvard was only able to get 22 shots off in the
game. A lot of the credit has to go to the Clarkson defense who
covered everything and kept the play out of the center as much as
possible. It was a great game for the Clarkson defense, which was
thought to be suspect at the beginning of the year. They were
allowing 15 shots or so in the first period alone during the first
two months of the season. The offense also did a good job of
fore-checking and keeping the puck in the Harvard zone. It was just
a matter of time before they would beat Hughes.
Now tonight it's Clarkson vs. Saint Lawrence, too bas they had to travel
to Boston when they're only 10 miles apart. I'm glad that it's SLU and
not Cornell. In the first meeting in Canton, Clarkson had a 5-1, or 4-1
lead in the second period that they blew and lost to SLU in OT, 6-5. At
Walker, Clarkson shut-out a talented SLU offense 3-0. If Clarkson does
not go flat, and plays with the same intensity, especially the defense,
they'll be able to beat SLU. Hopefully they can get to Kuntar early and
rattle him. I believe that it was the year that SLU went to the NCAA
finals that these two teams last met. I'm pretty sure that SLU shut-out
Clarkson in that game. So it's pay-back time. Mike will no doubtfully
know if I'm correct or not. After eight seasons, some things tend to
blur together, like the RPI victory.
By the way, Clarkson is 17-0-1 (I think) in their home jerseys.
Mike Zak
Clarkson '87, '90,... (Fall '91 !?!)
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