The way Clarkson, Cornell, and St. Lawrence were treating the first place
spot this weekend, you would have thought the ECAC required its top seed to
start the postseason tournament on the road blindfolded with their hands
tied behind their backs or something, as these three took turns blowing
opportunities to salt away the regular season title. Who would have thought
that Clarkson would clinch first place (and their first number one seeding
since 1982) with a one-point weekend, and a tie with lowly Dartmouth at
that? The 32 points that the Golden Knights amassed in league competition
is the lowest for any ECAC champion since the league split before the
1984-85 season.
Scores from the ECAC's final weekend:
Friday, 2/22:
ARMY 3, Brown 2
COLGATE 5, Vermont 2
HARVARD 5, Clarkson 3
PRINCETON 5, Yale 2
Rpi 5, CORNELL 4
St. Lawrence 7, DARTMOUTH 2
Saturday, 2/23:
Brown 4, PRINCETON 2
Clarkson 3, DARTMOUTH 3 (OT)
COLGATE 3, Rpi 2
HARVARD 4, St. Lawrence 2
Vermont 7, CORNELL 4
Yale 4, ARMY 2
Final ECAC regular season standings:
League Overall
Team W L T Pts GF GA W L T Pts GF GA
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
# Clarkson 15 5 2 32 113 77 21 7 2 44 166 108
# Cornell 14 5 3 31 93 69 15 8 3 33 110 84
# St. Lawrence 15 6 1 31 101 79 18 11 1 37 129 108
# Harvard 13 7 2 28 130 74 13 11 2 28 133 93
@ RPI 14 8 0 28 118 93 19 11 0 38 165 130
@ Vermont 12 8 2 26 89 83 16 12 2 34 124 120
$ Colgate 9 9 4 22 93 81 15 10 4 34 129 105
$ Brown 9 11 2 20 78 99 9 14 3 21 93 125
$ Yale 9 11 2 20 80 89 10 14 2 22 93 112
$ Princeton 7 14 1 15 84 106 8 17 1 17 95 124
Army 3 17 2 8 56 106 8 18 3 19 104 121
Dartmouth 0 19 3 3 52 131 1 24 3 5 68 170
$ - Clinched playoff spot
@ - Clinched qualifying round bye
# - Clinched home ice
It's unusual for the ECAC to have so many teams tied in the final standings,
but that's what tiebreaking rules are for. I managed to miss one of the
procedures that the ECAC uses in my "permutations" posting last week. The
league's actual tiebreakers are:
1. Head-to-head record in ECAC games (non-conference meetings, such as in
tournaments, do not count).
2. Record against the top four teams in the conference.
3. Record against the top eight teams in the conference.
4. Goal differential (net goals) in head-to-head games.
5. Goal differential against the top four teams in the conference.
6. Goal differential against the top eight teams in the conference.
Cornell clinched second place over St. Lawrence on the basis of their 2-0
record head-to-head against the Saints.
Harvard clinched fourth place over RPI with a better record against the
ECAC's top four teams, as they split head-to-head. Harvard was 3-2-1
against the other top four teams while RPI was 1-5.
Brown's 2-0 record in games against Yale enabled the Bruins to clinch the
eighth-place spot over the Elis.
Final Ivy League standings:
Team W L T Pts GF GA
------------------------------------------
Brown 6 2 2 14 40 39
Cornell 6 3 1 13 40 30
Harvard 6 3 1 13 59 25
Princeton 5 5 0 10 39 40
Yale 4 6 0 8 32 41
Dartmouth 0 8 2 2 20 55
OK, so these don't really mean anything, but it IS the first time in ten
years that Harvard has not had at least a share of the Ivy League hockey
title. This is also Brown's first Ivy crown since 1976.
Notes on some of last weekend's games:
Harvard 5, Clarkson 3
Ted Drury and Ted Donato each scored twice as the Crimson beat Clarkson
at Bright Hockey Center for the seventh time in a row, ending the
Golden Knights' five-game winning streak. Harvard goalie Allain Roy
had 34 saves in the game, while Clarkson's Chris Rogles finished with
26.
Colgate 5, Vermont 2
Colgate's Jamie Cooke led his team with two goals and an assist, and
Red Raider goaltender Greg Menges made his bid for the full-time
starting job with 35 saves. Mike McLaughlin had both of Vermont's
goals, and Mike Millham stopped 23 shots. Vermont lost considerably
more than a game, however, as senior forward Ricker Love went down with
a severed left Achilles tendon, apparently from a skate blade, two
minutes into the second period.
Colgate 3, RPI 2
In a rare afternoon game at Starr Rink, RPI jumped out to a 2-0 first-
period lead on goals by Kevin Mazzella and Bruce Coles. Colgate's Dale
Band scored twice (giving him 20 points in his last eight games) to tie
it up, and then Craig Woodcroft picked up the game-winner. Greg Menges
had another superlative effort in goal for the Red Raiders, stopping 35
shots, while RPI's Sean Kennedy had 19 saves.
RPI 5, Cornell 4
The Engineers have a well-deserved reputation of being the dirtiest
team in the ECAC, so they must have been salivating when they found out
who the referee was going to be for this game. Marty McDonough's
officiating style could best be described as "Well, boys will be boys",
in that not only does he not call a penalty unless it happens right in
front of him, he doesn't call anything unless it happens TO him. There
has certainly been a lot of hue and cry on this list about the ECAC's
infamous Pierre Belanger (to which I have, uh, contributed), but if the
league is going to dump any officials this season, they ought to take a
long, hard look at this guy. Several times during the game, there were
hookings, shovings, or skirmishes/fights between players that McDonough
had a clear view of (at least, that's where his eyes were), and there
were no calls made -- not even the ever-popular offsetting minors.
This was not just a bad night by McDonough; things like that have
happened just about every time I've seen him do a game, whether it was
a physical contest or not.
Now, I would dearly love to fix the entire blame for Cornell's loss
squarely on McDonough's shoulders, but the fact is, the Big Red stunk
up Lynah Rink for most of the first two periods, and when they finally
did pull together, they were not able to rally from a four-goal
deficit. It looked like RPI's rough play intimidated Cornell, which is
the one thing you cannot allow the Engineers to do. The Big Red
actually did come out fired up, with some good forechecking on the RPI
forwards, but they slacked off and started playing listlessly early in
the first period.
Going into the game, Cornell was concerned primarily with RPI's big
guns: forwards Joe Juneau, Bruce Coles, and Derek DeCosty. Well, the
Big Red shut those three down, holding them to a combined two points on
the night, but someone forgot to mention the Engineers' fourth line of
Tim Roberts, Phil Kenner, and Dave Casalena, which accounted for two of
RPI's goals. This line put the Engineers on the board at 5:04 of the
first period, after Cornell goalie Corrie D'Alessio tried to poke the
puck away from the side of the net and wound up out of position.
Roberts took the loose puck behind the net and sent a pass through a
defender to Kenner in front, who slapped it past a scrambling D'Ales-
sio. A few minutes later, Roberts skated at full speed right into
D'Alessio and sent both him and the net tumbling to the back boards.
Since no one pushed or even touched Roberts (where the HELL was the
defense?!), and since D'Alessio was in the crease at the time, this
should have been a penalty, but Marty called nothing. Roberts was just
having fun, y'know.
RPI went up 2-0 at the 12:12 mark of the first, as freshman Jeff
Gabriel skated past a defenseman and fired a quick backhander inside
the right post. True to form, Coles started stirring matters up after
the goal by getting into a shoving match with a Cornell player (Trent
Andison, I think). Coles is the ECAC leader in penalty minutes for the
second straight year, and he was able to pad his statistics in that
area during the game with a few little shots that even McDonough
couldn't ignore. Despite their lackluster play, the Big Red did manage
a goal with 4:05 left in the first period. Doug Derraugh brought the
puck into the Engineer zone and fired a slap shot from the circle. RPI
goalie Neil Little blocked the shot, but gave up the rebound to Ryan
Hughes, who was trailing the play and who flipped the loose puck into
the net.
The Engineers' Gary Woolford made it 3-1 at 2:54 of the second period,
taking a Kevin Mazzella rebound at the bottom of the right circle,
spinning around, and suddenly unleashing a quick shot that caught
D'Alessio by surprise. Cornell came alive for a bit a few minutes
after that goal with an incredible flurry in front of Little during a
power play. They could not beat the RPI goalie, however, as Little
came up with several big saves -- including one where he literally flew
across the mouth of the goal, his body stretched parallel to the ice
and three feet above it, to deflect a high shot. A bit later in the
period, Coles went down and lay sprawled on the ice, and I have to take
the time here to reassure any RPI fans who were in attendance that you
do not often hear cheers at Lynah Rink when an opposing player gets
injured, and it's even rarer that you hear booing when he gets up.
Coles was all right, and he returned to action soon afterward.
A beautiful play put RPI up 4-1 at the 8:33 mark, as the fourth line
struck again. Roberts won a faceoff deep in the Cornell zone, drawing
the puck back to Casalena, who one-timed it right by D'Alessio. This
goal also pretty much took the crowd out of the game. Later in the
period, Cornell showed an annoying tendency to look for the pass
entirely too much, instead of taking the open shot. This was parti-
cularly true with about six minutes left, when Derraugh skated into the
RPI zone with the puck. He was alone, with no RPI man within ten feet
of him, and with a clear shot at the goal -- and he passed. Backwards.
I suppose it was a set play, but when you're down by three, you have to
try to take advantage of the openings. With 4:50 left, Joe Dragon was
hit with a questionable interference penalty (on his way to the penalty
box, he showed his opinion of the call by "demonstrating" what the RPI
guy did, dropping quickly to one knee), and RPI converted a minute into
the ensuing power play. During a scramble in front of the goal, Xavier
Majic was able to poke the puck past D'Alessio.
Near the end of the second period, with DeCosty already in the box,
Coles picked up a delayed slashing call off a faceoff to Little's left.
Hughes corralled the loose puck and sent a low shot past the screened
goaltender with just six seconds left in the period. There was a
little confusion about the penalties after this goal, as it took the
officials a few minutes to agree that DeCosty should come out of the
box and Coles should go in, but they eventually got it straightened
out. At the other end of the ice, it was clear that D'Alessio was not
having a good night between the pipes (part of the problem was he was
trying to play the puck too much), and he was replaced by Jim Crozier
at the start of the third period. The move fired up the Big Red for a
while, as they came out with an aggressive forecheck and bottled RPI up
in their own end. RPI seemed to go into a stall, as they did not
manage a single shot on goal for the first half of the third period and
wound up with only three in the final 20 minutes. At 5:05 of the
third, Hughes fed Derraugh from the right corner, and the senior
forward slid the puck between Little's pads. Two and a half minutes
later, freshman Geoff Bumstead got the first point of his Cornell
career, beating the RPI defense and putting a shot on Little. The
goalie blocked it, but the long rebound came out to Shaun Hannah, who
wristed it into the net to cut the deficit to one goal.
RPI called timeout immediately, and after play resumed, Coles was hit
with another penalty. He argued with McDonough for a while, but I
suppose he got the last laugh, as he came out of the penalty box two
seconds early without being caught. Despite the chippy play in the
remainder of the third period, this was the last penalty that McDonough
called. Cornell continued to press the attack, but despite the voci-
ferous support of the fans (and RPI head coach Buddy Powers said after
the game that the fans at Lynah were as explosive as the crowd at Joe
Louis Arena during the finals of the CCHA a few years back), the Big
Red was not able to get the equalizer. Much of the credit for that has
to go to Little, who made 33 saves in the game. Crozier had three for
Cornell, to go along with D'Alessio's 15.
One side note: Understandably, the Lynah Faithful were keeping close
tabs on the Clarkson-Harvard game, and when the final score was
announced (with several dramatic pauses by Arthur Mintz), the fans
cheered wildly as they were leaving the rink. That's one of the rarest
things you'll ever see: Cornell fans cheering for the Harvard team.
Vermont 7, Cornell 4
Question: Speaking of the Mustache of Doom, the Cornell fans had yet
to see Mr. Belanger put in an appearance at Lynah Rink this
season. Could it be possible that we'd get through an entire
slate of home games without having Pierre officiate any of them?
Answer: Guess.
Everybody's favorite referee, Pierre Belanger, did indeed show up for
this game, and was roundly booed as usual by the Cornell fans.
Actually, Belanger had a reasonably good game. Not GREAT, but good.
At least he wasn't grandstanding and starting arguments with players, a
marked improvement over some of the games he's done in the past. A
Vermont station was televising the game, and Belanger did not appear
too happy with the way they were handling it; they held up the start of
the game for over two minutes (while Pierre glared), and they later
called for a TV timeout just as the puck was dropped for a faceoff.
This one was almost a reverse of the RPI game the night before, as
Cornell played well in the first period and crumbled later. The Big
Red took a 1-0 lead 4:10 into the game, as off a scramble in front of
the Vermont net, Doug Derraugh stuffed Trent Andison's pass behind
Catamount goalie Mike Millham. (Millham was pretty angry after this
one, perhaps feeling that Derraugh was in the crease) The Catamounts
were flat-out ROBBED at the 6:54 mark, and I'd be interested to know if
there are any TV re-plays that show this. There was a scramble in
front of the Cornell goal, and the puck was almost a foot across the
goal line before goal-tender Corrie D'Alessio got his glove on it and
brought it back out. None of the Vermont players saw it, and neither
did the goal judge (I think his view was obscured by a player skating
behind the net), but some of the fans behind the net had all too clear
a view of it, including yours truly. It turned out not to matter,
though, because Vermont got a "real" goal at 10:33 of the first period
anyway. Toby Kearney blew past the Cornell defense on the right side
and fired the puck over D'Alessio from near the right post.
A disorganized Cornell power play helped set up Vermont's second goal
at the 12:30 mark, when John LeClair came into the Big Red zone and
passed back to Mike McLaughlin to set up a 1-on-0 break. McLaughlin's
shot fluttered over D'Alessio's shoulder for a short-handed goal.
However, Cornell retook the lead with a pair of power-play tallies.
Less than a minute later, with the Big Red on a 5-on-3, Kent Mander-
ville redirected Derraugh's blast from the right circle into the empty
left side of the net. On the ensuing 5-on-4, Cornell made it 3-2. The
play was set up by Ryan Hughes, who held the puck in the right corner.
Bruce Frauley was at the blue line begging for a pass, but Hughes sent
the puck across the ice to Joe Dragon instead, who fired a wrister from
the left faceoff dot for the goal at 14:09 of the first.
Cornell killed off a couple of Vermont 5-on-3's near the end of the
first period, thanks mainly to some excellent goaltending by D'Alessio.
In the second period, however, a suspect defense which was clearly
missing the presence of Dan Ratushny (who sat out both games last
weekend with a badly bruised wrist) gave the Cornell goalie very little
help, allowing the Catamounts to do virtually anything they wanted.
Vermont tied the score at 9:37 of the second, as Jeremy Benoit passed
to Rob Pattison at the blue line to set up a breakaway attempt.
D'Alessio made the initial save, but Pattison fired his own rebound
into the net. Six minutes later, the Catamounts took a lead they would
never relinquish, when Travis Lehouiller scored off a goalmouth
scramble. Another Big Red defensive mixup allowed Vermont's John
LeClair to skate unmolested down the right side of the Cornell zone
with the puck; he came across the front of the goal and, as D'Alessio
went down to block the shot, LeClair flipped it over him with 40
seconds left in the second.
Although D'Alessio was playing somewhat better than the night before,
he was replaced at the beginning of the third period by Jim Crozier
once again. This time, the move failed to ignite the Big Red, as a
breakdown in the Cornell zone allowed Jim Fernholz and Scott Jagod to
set up a 2-on-0. Fernholz rolled a pass through the slot to Jagod, who
one-timed it past a helpless Crozier. Cornell was not playing a cohe-
sive game, scrambling around a lot, but they did manage a goal with
5:06 left, as Manderville scored on his second redirection, this time
of a Dave Burke shot. The Big Red could not get any closer, however;
Crozier was pulled with 1:35 left, but it was Vermont scoring an empty-
netter when LeClair picked up a loose puck at the red line and wristed
it in with 19 seconds left in the game. Crozier made only one save in
the third period, to go along with D'Alessio's 23 in the first two.
Millham stopped 28 shots for Vermont. In case you're interested, this
was the first time that Cornell had lost consecutive games at home
since February of 1987.
The ECAC postseason:
Tuesday night, the Division I leagues' postseason tournaments will get
rolling when seventh-place Colgate hosts tenth-place Princeton and ninth-
place Yale journeys to eighth-place Brown. The two winners of these first-
round games will be seeded seventh and eighth for the quarterfinals, which
begin on Friday, March 1. (The higher-remaining seed will face Cornell,
while the lower one will play at Clarkson) Here's a preview of the two
first-round games:
Princeton at Colgate:
SEASON SERIES: Colgate won at home, 6-5, and the two teams played to a
2-2 tie at Princeton.
OUTLOOK: If you believe in backing the team that has the momentum
going into the playoffs, you might want to put your money down on Col-
gate, because they are 5-0-1 in their last six games. The Red Raiders
have had a tough time after last year's NCAA runner-up performance, but
things seem to have come together for them in the latter stages of this
season. In particular, Greg Menges has finally emerged as a capable
starting goalie after a largely inconsistent season. Surprisingly,
Colgate was only slightly better than .500 at Starr Rink (5-4-2), after
going something like 43-6-1 in the previous three seasons. Even so,
Princeton, which in contrast to Colgate has lost six of its last seven
games, is going to have a tough time of it in Hamilton -- especially
without Rob LaFerriere (What do you think? College hockey's Stupid
Move of the Year award?)
PREDICTION: Colgate.
Yale at Brown:
SEASON SERIES: Brown won both games, 3-1 at home and 8-6 at Yale.
OUTLOOK: You don't have to look far to find out where Yale's season
turned sour. On January 19, Yale was 8-3-1 in the ECAC and 9-4-1 over-
all, just one point out of first place. That night, they got beaten by
Brown at Meehan Auditorium, and it was all downhill from there. The
Elis went on a horrendous 0-10-1 skid before finally getting a win
against Army in the last game of the season. Brown had its slide in
the early part of the season, as they started their 1990-91 campaign
with a 1-6-1 record, but they have rebounded pretty solidly since the
end of December. Both of these teams tend to rely heavily on their
goaltenders, but the Bruins usually give Geoff Finch more support than
Yale manages for Ray Letourneau. Incidentally, freshman Finch, having
survived a shaky start this season, should be a shoo-in for the ECAC's
Rookie of the Year award; he has won Rookie of the Week four times.
PREDICTION: Brown.
Bill Fenwick
Cornell '86
LET'S GO RED!!
"I want to know one thing about those wanted posters in the post office: why
didn't they hold onto the guy when they were taking his picture?"
-- Jerry Seinfeld
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