With their weekend sweep of Cornell and Colgate, the Saints continue to be
all but impossible to beat at Appleton -- St. Lawrence has now gone 17
straight games without a loss at home, a streak that dates back to their
first game of last season (October 25, 1991, when they were beaten at home
by Boston College). The Saints have gone 16-0-1 at Appleton since then,
with the tie coming against Yale.
While we're discussing home and road games, how about those schizophrenic
Catamounts of Vermont? They continue to be a team with a severe case of
homesickness; how else to explain a sweep of the North Country teams at
Gutterson versus a loss to Union on the road? The Skating Dutchmen's vic-
tory was a big one -- not only was it their first league win at home since
joining the ECAC, but it also meant that for the first time, some other team
would take up residence at the bottom of the ECAC (Colgate, at 0-4).
Friday, 11/20:
CLARKSON 9, Colgate 1
Harvard 6, PRINCETON 5 (OT)
RPI 4, Vermont 1
ST. LAWRENCE 5, Cornell 0
YALE 7, Brown 4
Saturday, 11/21:
Brown 8, PRINCETON 3
Cornell 3, CLARKSON 3 (OT)
RPI 3, Dartmouth 1
ST. LAWRENCE 3, Colgate 2
UNION 3, Vermont 2
YALE 5, Harvard 5 (OT)
ECAC standings as of 11/23/92:
League Overall
Team W L T Pts GF GA W L T Pts GF GA
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
Harvard 4 0 1 9 22 15 4 0 1 9 22 15
Yale 3 0 1 7 25 17 3 0 1 7 25 17
St. Lawrence 3 1 0 6 16 9 6 1 0 12 35 18
Brown 3 2 0 6 24 18 3 2 0 6 24 18
RPI 2 2 0 4 13 11 3 2 2 8 23 19
Vermont 2 2 0 4 10 12 3 3 1 7 17 21
Clarkson 1 2 1 3 17 11 3 3 1 7 38 17
Cornell 1 2 1 3 10 15 1 2 1 3 10 15
Dartmouth 1 2 0 2 8 11 1 3 0 2 9 19
Union 1 2 0 2 5 11 1 3 0 2 10 17
Princeton 1 3 0 2 16 20 2 3 0 4 24 20
Colgate 0 4 0 0 10 26 0 6 0 0 15 34
Notes on a few of the games:
St. Lawrence 3, Colgate 2
The Saints had a rougher time than expected against a winless Colgate
squad that had been mutilated by Clarkson the night before. St. Law-
rence had a 2-1 lead in the third period, but Bruce Gardiner scored on
the power play at 13:49 to tie the game up. However, Lee Albert
answered with a power-play goal of his own, beating Colgate goalie
Shawn Murray with 4:22 left.
St. Lawrence 5, Cornell 0
Not a whole lot to add to Tim's summary. As he mentioned, Cornell was
able to keep the lid on St. Lawrence defensively through the first two
periods (although the Saints did outshoot the Big Red 30-16 during that
time). Cornell had a number of opportunities in the first period,
including the game's first three power plays, but they could not solve
Saints goalie Brady Giroux, who was playing very well. With about ten
minutes gone in the first, Cornell sprung a 2-on-1 with Ryan Hughes and
P.C. Drouin, the two players on the team you would most want in that
situation, but Giroux played the shot perfectly and covered up the
rebound.
At the other end of the ice, Cornell goaltender Andy Bandurski was also
having a superb night through the first two periods, despite being left
all alone a number of times by the Cornell defense. He appeared to
have gained a lot of confidence during the week, as he was not dropping
down so much and was easily kicking away rebounds. St. Lawrence's
first goal, at 9:09 of the second, probably should never have happened,
as the Big Red was doing a good job of killing a penalty before then.
The play was set up deep in the Cornell zone when defenseman Christian
Felli lost his stick and, as he tried to retrieve it, Spencer Meany
skated around him and hit Ted Beattie on the doorstep with the pass.
Then the third period arrived, and the St. Lawrence players skated out
and said, "The hell with this." Two goals in the first 1:17 of the
period broke the game open, the first coming on a breakaway by Lee
Albert 25 seconds in. Burke Murphy then got the Saints' third goal,
coming from behind the net and stuffing the puck between Bandurski's
leg and the right post. The Saints were solidly in control of the
third period, and any thoughts Cornell had of coming back were wiped
out at the 15:19 mark. With Beattie off for interference, Hughes won
the faceoff near the St. Lawrence blue line and tried to direct the
puck back to Jason Vogel, but it bounced over his stick, allowing Greg
Carvel to pick it up and skate in on a short-handed breakaway.
As for the Allain penalty Tim writes about, it occurred with 3:44 to go
in the game:
> Mike Allain, who was
>carried out of the Boston Garden on a stretcher in last year's
>final, was hauled down by a Cornell defender while referee Tim
>McConaghy watched passively. When Allain got up and checked a
>Red skater into the boards, he was rewarded with a trip to the
>sin bin. Needless to say, this was upsetting to the fans and
>the players as well.
The referees for the game were Tim MacConaghy (yes, THE Tim MacConaghy)
and Rob Hearn, and although overall they weren't too bad, there were
some inconsistencies here and there. (why is that not a surprise?)
Cornell's Dan Dufresne was the guy who hauled Allain down, and Allain
got up and whacked Dufresne from behind, which is what he was called
for. But Dufresne responded by slugging Allain, and the refs never
called that one. Actually, a Cornell player was sent to the box with
Allain, but it was Brad Chartrand, not Dufresne (well, at least they
were close -- Dufresne wears #22, Chartrand #21). Bill Holowatiuk, who
must be used to being called for something-or-other by now, also went
to the box, but Hughes skated over and told him the call was not on
him, so Holowatiuk came back out. An unusual sequence, to say the
least.
John Roderick rounded out the scoring with 2:32 to go. Bandurski
finished the game with 38 saves, while Giroux made 22 in earning the
shutout. St. Lawrence was the first team to keep Cornell off the board
since the Big Red's 5-0 loss to Harvard in December of 1989.
Cornell 3, Clarkson 3 (OT)
This was one for the cliche-users. A tie is never just a tie --
depending on the circumstances, it could be considered either a win or
a loss. In this case, it could be considered each for both teams.
Cornell was not expected to come away from Cheel Arena with any points
at all, but they came oh-so-close to getting their first win at Clark-
son since the 1989 playoffs. For Clarkson, it has to be a disappoint-
ment that they were not able to beat an inferior Big Red team (and
avenge last year's semifinal loss), but they should be happy they
didn't fold in the third period when Cornell took the lead, as they
have in other games this season.
After Friday night's whitewashing 10 miles up the road, Cornell coach
Brian McCutcheon shuffled his lines around. Among other things, he
sent Jiri Kloboucek, who had seen his first action in a Cornell uni-
form against the Saints, to the bench, and he inserted Tyler McManus,
out since the Waterloo exhibition with a bad back. The moves seemed to
have some effect, as Cornell was getting shots off on their power
play -- something that plagued them against St. Lawrence. Clarkson
started off back on their heels, as the Big Red had five shots in the
game by the time Clarkson got their first (with six and a half minutes
gone in the first period).
However, it wasn't long before the Golden Knights found themselves with
a 5-on-3 power play, when Etienne Belzile went off for cross-checking
(the box score in the paper says this happened at 6:33, though I have
6:53). At any rate, Cornell had an opportunity for a short-handed
tally about a minute later, as Ryan Hughes and Jason Vogel broke out on
a 2-on-1, but Hughes' pass went five feet behind Vogel. This imme-
diately set up Clarkson's Craig Conroy and Hugo Belanger on a 2-on-1,
and Belanger scored an apparent goal off it, but referee Tim MacConaghy
waved it off, apparently for a crease violation. It turned out not to
make much difference, because Todd Marchant put the Knights on the
board with a 5-on-3 goal anyway. Using Blair Ettles as a screen,
Marchant fired the puck through his legs and over Cornell goaltender
Andy Bandurski's shoulder at the 8:21 mark.
It looked for sure like Cornell was going to have a 5-on-3 of its own
when Patrice Robitaille was called for hooking, but during the delayed
call, forward Mike Sancimino made a freshman mistake. Clarkson's
Martin d'Orsennens was hanging around near the puck, not touching it
(he may have been trying to kill time before the penalty was whistled),
and Sancimino belted him, earning himself a trip to the box. Cornell
got the game-tying goal anyway, with one second left in their original
power play. Hughes waited at the point, faked a shot, then waltzed
past a defenseman and passed over to Blair Ettles, who one-timed it by
Clarkson goalie Jason Currie. The goal was the first of Ettles' Cor-
nell career.
With 5:17 gone in the second period, Marchant got control of the puck
and looked to start a breakaway, but Christian Felli hooked him to the
ice, which was about all he could do to prevent Marchant from streaking
up the ice. No penalty shot was called, but it didn't really matter,
because Conroy scored on the ensuing power play anyway. In a scene
reminiscent of St. Lawrence's first goal the night before, he skated
around Cornell defenseman Bill Holowatiuk, who had lost his stick, and
popped the puck into the net over Bandurski's shoulder from between the
circles at the 5:50 mark.
Cornell pressed the attack later in the second period, but Currie came
up big several times, so the Big Red entered the third period down by
one for the fourth consecutive game (fifth straight including last
year's ECAC championship game). However, the Big Red was starting to
take control of the corners and slow the Knights down, and at 10:56 of
the third, they tied the game. Etienne Belzile blasted a shot from
near the blue line that was redirected between Currie's pads by Russ
Hammond. Shaun Hannah proceeded to take a dumb penalty about 40
seconds later, shoving Clarkson's David Seitz into the crossbar after
Bandurski had already stopped play by gloving the puck. Fortunately
for the Big Red, they managed to kill off that penalty, and then they
took the lead with 5:31 left in the third period. Jake Karam, who had
missed on several previous opportunities in the game in almost every
way possible (he bounced one off the left post, another off the right
post, another off the crossbar, and shot one over the net), finally
converted off a 2-on-1 break with Russ Hammond. Knight defenseman
Brian Mueller tried to cut off a possible pass and fell down, allowing
Karam to fire the puck over Currie for the game's first even-strength
goal. Both teams were very tired by this point, and Clarkson in
particular started to scramble around. With 1:15 to go, Currie left
the net in favor of a sixth attacker.
I think a number of coaches are going to want to make copies of the
video of Clarkson's third goal and play it over and over for their
teams while repeating, "See what can happen if you'll just take a
shot?" This goal was a bit of a fluke -- it's not often that someone
scores while flat on his stomach on the ice. Clarkson won a faceoff
with under a minute to go, and d'Orsennens got control of the puck. He
fired what should have been a harmless shot; it was drifting wide, and
Bandurski was moving over to cut it off. However, the puck ricocheted
off the skates of Steve Dubinsky (who had been knocked down) and into
the corner of the net with 54 seconds remaining.
Cornell was deflated after that, but they regrouped, and both teams
played well in the scoreless extra session. Both goaltenders were
terrific -- Currie wound up with 27 saves, while Bandurski made 34.
Most of the ECAC spends Thanksgiving weekend playing non-league contests,
with only a home-and-home tilt between Vermont and Dartmouth and the return
engagement of Harvard and Brown counting in the league standings. Here's
the schedule for the holiday weekend:
Tuesday, 11/24:
Dartmouth at Vermont
Harvard at Boston University (NC)
Thursday, 11/26:
Great Alaska Faceoff at Alaska-Fairbanks:
Yale vs. Maine
Bowling Green vs. Alaska-Fairbanks
Friday, 11/27:
St Lawrence at Boston College (NC)
Duracell Classic:
Lake Superior vs. York
Colgate vs. Toronto
Great Alaska Faceoff:
Bowling Green vs. Maine
Yale vs. Alaska-Fairbanks
Saturday, 11/28:
Harvard at Brown
Vermont at Dartmouth
Boston University at Princeton (NC)
Providence at Cornell (NC)
Union at UMass-Lowell (NC)
Duracell Classic:
Colgate vs. York
Lake Superior vs. Toronto
Great Alaska Faceoff:
Yale vs Bowling Green
Maine vs. Alaska-Fairbanks
Sunday, 11/29:
Clarkson at Boston College (NC)
Vermont at UMass-Lowell (NC)
And may all of you out there on HOCKEY-L (as well as your friends, neigh-
bors, relatives, and whatevers) have a very happy Thanksgiving!
--
Bill Fenwick | Send your HOCKEY-L poll responses to:
Cornell '86 and probably '94 | [log in to unmask]
LET'S GO RED!!
"Where do you go to school?"
"Yale."
"Okay -- WHERE DO YOU GO TO SCHOOL??"
-- source unknown, or forgotten
|
