RPI 3 Cornell 2
 
Scoring:
 
RPI             3       0       0       -       3
Cornell         1       0       1       -       2
 
First period
 
RPI     2:38    sh      Perardi (Majic)
RPI     9:35            Matthews (Askew, Cuthbert)
RPI     12:35   sh      Askew (Pasco, Kummu)
Cor     14:04           Lopatka (Doll, DeHart)
 
Third period
 
Cor     19:32   xtra    Hughes (Shean, Scollan)
 
Saves:
 
Little, RPI     6       10      7       -       23
Bandurski, Cor  8       13      10      -       31
 
Cornell lines:
 
LW              C               RW
 
Vogel           Hughes          Hammond
Hannah          Chartrand       Scollan
Doll            DeHart          Lopatka
Drouin          Karam           McManus
 
LD              RD
 
Holowatiuk      Ettles
Belzile         Shean
Felli           Dufresne
 
G
 
Bandurski
 
Comments:
 
Two mistakes spoiled an otherwise solid effort, as Cornell dropped their
third ECAC home loss in five games. With the north country teams and
Harvard still to go, this could turn out to be Cornell's worst home season
in 30 years.
 
This game started terribly for the Red - that's not a misprint in the box,
RPI got two shorthanded goals in the first thirteen minutes. Both were on
very bad mistakes in the CU end. Bandurski almost saved the second one,
but the rebound off his great save came right out to Askew.
 
Down 3-0, Cornell played with the Engineers for the rest of the way.
Bandurski had very strong second and third periods, but Cornell just
didn't help him in the middle game by closing the score. The score stayed
3-1 for 46 minutes until the whole Cornell team crashed the net with the
extra skater and Hughes somehow put one in.
 
Shaun Hannah (who, I'll admit, I think of as the team captain, Ryan
notwithstanding) skated around center ice smashing his stick on the ice
and exhorting the crowd to stand and shout after the second Cornell goal,
and the result was the classic Lynah Roar within which you can't hear
yourself scream at the top of your lungs. RPI iced the puck with 10
seconds left, but Cornell couldn't win the face in the opposing end, and
that was that.
 
Misc:
 
Anybody realize that the ECAC middle of the pack is so tight that, had
Cornell won this game, they would have been tied (by percentage) for
FOURTH?! As it is, the Big Red sink back into the miasma of 8th place.
 
The Dehart line (all freshmen) got A LOT of ice time in the clutch. This
was more than a little surprising, given Brian McCutcheon's history of
skating his first, most experienced line on virtual triple shifts down the
stretch in close games.
 
Pleeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeease take Hughes off the point on the power-play! He
looked awful, and repeatedly made mistakes that made my skin crawl. Cornell
has one extremely effective offensive defenseman, Blair Ettles, and one
who has impressed me in limited action, Tim Shean, so there's no reason to
put five forwards (including two-way Jason Vogel) on the advantage, and
any mistake is devastating with nobody who can get back.
 
Hannah = Nieuwendyk? The Point of No Return in this game may have been
when Shaun Hannah broke in on a clean breakaway and just couldn't get the
puck over Neil Little. One hour after the game, Anne and I were sitting in
a local restaurant (The Chariot) and watched as ESPN cut away from their
Rangers-Kings game for Joe Nieuwendyk's penalty shot. His miss was
IDENTICAL to Hannah's, and Calgary also went on to lose by one goal!
 
Cornell Grades:
 
Offense:        B-      a fair # of shots, didn't when it mattered
Defense:        A-      certainly wasn't their fault
Goaltending:    A       Bando held them in it; great job on 3-on-5
Special teams:  F       net -2 on pp!, blew a 5-on-3; awful!
 
 
Greg
Somerville, MA
Let's Go Red!
 
p.s. Anybody know anywhere nice to stay around Hamilton?