Thanks to Andy for posting the stats and summary from Cornell's annual Red-
White scrimmage.  I'll just add a few notes of my own.
 
Goaltending:  The story here is Corrie D'Alessio.  One of the ECAC's premier
goalies during his first two years, he came down with mono at the beginning
of last season and never completely returned to form.  He did play
brilliantly on occasion during the 1989-90 campaign, but he was benched for
the ECAC playoffs as Jim Crozier assumed the role of number one stopper.
D'Alessio played very impressively in this game, stopping 14 of 15 shots for
the White team over the first two periods, and seems well on the road back
to stardom.  Crozier did not do too badly himself for the Red team, with 25
saves.  Third-stringer Steve Coultes, who did not see a single minute of
action last season and figures to ride the pine this season as well, never-
theless made a bid for a starting job by stopping 9 of 10 shots in the third
period.  As for freshman Parris Duffus, I think he suffered from the same
problem as many freshman goalies do upon seeing their first college action,
which is that he was used to a somewhat slower-paced game.  I got pretty
angry with some of the people sitting behind me at the game, who were
deliberately referring to the guy as "Doofus" (it's pronounced DUFF-us, a
short U).  He isn't the second coming of Ken Dryden by any means (though he
wears number 1, Dryden's old number), but he didn't look THAT bad.  He's got
quite a bit to learn, and should benefit from the playing time he'll likely
get with the JV squad.
 
Defense:  I was particularly impressed with freshman Todd Chambers.  I could
not believe it when I heard in the preseason that Chambers was expected to
break into the defensive lineup (all eight players return from last season's
strong unit), but he probably will.  He's a smart player who handles the
puck well.  Blue-line leader and team co-captain Dan Ratushny, always the
perfectionist, said he was a little unhappy with the way the defense played
in the scrimmage: "We've got to tighten up our defensive game this week....
it should never have been a 5-3 game.  We've got to keep the goals down --
that's too high."  The high-tempo game that coach Brian McCutcheon is
installing should mean more scoring by defensive players, as evidenced by
Bruce Frauley's four-point night.
 
Offense:  The Red team seemed a little slow for most of the game, but the
White team showed a great deal of speed.  It looks like Cornell will be able
to skate two or perhaps three very quick lines.  There was a little
scrambling at the beginning of the game, but the White team offense started
to click midway through the first period and exploded for three goals in
2:03.  The power play, a sore point with Cornell teams in the past, put up
some good numbers as the White team went 3 for 5 and the Red went 1 for 5.
(Of course, this may indicate a problem with the penalty-killing units, but
I doubt it)  One freshman who looks like he will make a lot of noise this
season is Dan Hughes (apparently no relation to sophomore center Ryan
Hughes), particularly if he stays on a line with Joe Dragon and Kent
Manderville.  Dan Hughes was actually recruited by Cornell two years ago,
but a knee injury forced him out of hockey for a while.  Although he didn't
score, his puck handling and quickness were impressive.  Sean Hannah was
another freshman forward who excelled, particularly on the power play.
 
Some Saturday night scores (Home team in CAPS where known):
     Boston University 9, RPI 7
     Colgate 4, NORTHEASTERN 2
     Cortland State 7, Villanova 3
     LOWELL 10, Alabama-Huntsville 4
     Providence 7, VERMONT 3
 
Also, Mike Zak writes:
>One note about Northeastern:  Brian Sullivan of Northeastern is from a
>hockey playing family.  He has a brother who is one of the better players
>at Princeton.
 
That would be Kevin Sullivan, who I believe is a forward.  He tied for fifth
in scoring for the Tigers last season with 12 goals and 13 assists in 27
games.
 
>Note about perhaps why THN really favored Cornell for the regular season
>title and Clarkson for the league champions:  Clarkson has a permanent
>reservation for post-season play and more times than not make it to Boston
>Garden.  Maybe THN felt that it was this experience/tradition that will
>give Clarkson an edge along with their tendency for peaking for the
>play-offs.
 
THN actually favored Clarkson for the regular season title while saying that
"maybe Cornell is the best team".  That was the part that puzzled me.  (It
was a different writer who listed Cornell as second in the nation in THN's
earlier preview -- also a bit of a reach)  Clarkson is a definite playoff
threat even if their goaltending doesn't come around, and they may very well
take the regular season title, or the ECAC torunament championship, or both.
At the very least, the Golden Knights pose the biggest threat to Cornell's
hopes for an ECAC title.  However, stubborn ol' me is still sticking with
the Big Red. (At least until the season starts :-)
 
Next week's ECAC games (the league season will FINALLY start on November 9):
 
Nov. 2
     Lowell at St.Lawrence (NLG)
     Northeastern at Clarkson (NLG)
     Vermont at Boston College (NLG)
     US Air Tournament at Providence, RI:
          Providence vs. Ottawa
          Concordia vs. RPI
 
Nov. 3
     Colgate at Boston University (NLG)
     Lowell at Clarkson (NLG)
     Northeastern at St. Lawrence (NLG)
     Waterloo at Cornell (Exhibition)
     US Air Tournament:
          Consolation and Finals
 
Bill Fenwick
Cornell '86
LET'S GO RED!!
 
"BARNEY's gonna cry too, after I get through breaking every bone in his body!
 Throw your voice at ME, will ya?!"
"Now-now-now don't get mad, Fred."
"Who's mad?  I just want to congratulate you on being such a good ventrilo-
 quist.  I JUST WANNA SHAKE YOUR THROAT!!"
-- "The Flintstones"