After a surprising three-point opening weekend, the Big Red came crashing
back to earth against two of the ECAC's better teams, as Harvard and Brown
journeyed to Lynah and both came away with wins. Cornell played a
nationally-ranked Harvard team very tough, so much so that the Big Red wound
up not having enough left for the latter stages of the game against Brown
the next night. Notes on the two games:
Harvard 5, Cornell 4
This wound up being a far better game than expected, as the Big Red
showed the kind of heart they have by nearly rallying from a 5-1
deficit. As Harvard-Cornell games frequently do, this one had a bit of
everything -- including, unfortunately, the antics of referee Tim "I'm
not inconsistent, just unpredictable" MacConaghy. If you happened to
catch his memorable performance in the 1992 NC$$ championship game, you
would have recognized him on style alone at Lynah Friday night. I
later heard that MacConaghy, who also works in the AHL as a linesman,
tried out for a spot as a replacement official for the NHL, but was
rejected. Hmm. Of course, part of the reason MacConaghy got so much
heat in this game was that the other ref, Dan Murphy, didn't do a whole
lot. In retrospect, I don't know whether that was good or bad.
Cornell took a few dumb penalties on its own, however (as did Harvard),
which leads us to our Lesson for the Day, class. It's been said
before, but it bears repeating -- if you are in a game against the
Crimson, DO NOT put them on the power play. At even strength, Harvard
appears to be at best a hockey team that's a bit above average, but in
man-up situations, they are *deadly*. The Crimson struck for four
power-play goals in nine chances Friday night, including two in 5-on-3
situations. Had Cornell's power play been similarly productive, or
even productive at all, this game would have had a different result,
but the Big Red went 0 of 7, and failed to get even a shot on goal in
two of them.
The pre-game introductions included one of the best (or more accu-
rately, worst) displays of fish-tossing seen at Lynah in years, which
prompted the usual announcement warning about bench minors being called
if any more objects were thrown out of the stands. Typically for a
Cornell-Harvard game, it didn't do any good. Anyway, Cornell was
blessed with the game's first power play a couple minutes in, but they
appeared a bit nervous and were unable to do anything with it. Never-
theless, the Big Red was disrupting Harvard's game and kept the Crimson
bottled up in their own end for long periods of time early on.
Harvard got a break at the 5:41 mark, when Cornell's Shaun Hannah got
called for hooking (I had to wonder about this one, since Hannah was in
front of the Harvard player and it looked like the guy had ahold of
Hannah's stick) and at the same time, Steve Wilson was called for
cross-checking. The Crimson thus wound up with a two-minute 5-on-3,
but Big Red goaltender Eddy Skazyk was playing terrifically, coming up
with some great saves to keep Harvard off the board. Well, for a
while, anyway, as the Crimson's Brian Farrell finally broke through at
6:42, with a blast from the left point that sailed through a two-man
screen and beat the Cornell goaltender.
A few minutes later, the Crimson threatened a 2-on-1 break, but Steve
Wilson made a great play at center ice, blocking and nearly leveling
the guy with the puck. The puck popped loose into the Cornell zone,
and the Big Red came back the other way, with Jake Karam leading the
charge. He left the puck at the edge of the left faceoff circle near
the net, where Wilson found it and snapped a tough angle shot behind
Harvard goalie Aaron Israel to tie the game at the 9:59 mark. Both
goalies hung tough the rest of the way, with Skazyk making some unbe-
lievable stops to keep the game tied.
On to the second period, which did not get off to a good start for the
Big Red, as they found themselves a man down immediately thanks to some
single-digit-IQ fan who felt it necessary to toss a banana, of all
things, toward the Harvard goal. The Cornell bench was called for
delay of game. (OK, technically it didn't delay the game, since the
incident occurred during intermission, but hey, what do you expect the
officials to do??) Predictably, this whole situation didn't sit too
well with Cornell head coach Brian McCutcheon, who has been trying to
tone down this rivalry ever since he got here. McCutcheon was later
quoted in the _Cornell Daily Sun_ as saying, "It frustrates the heck
out of me. We come out to start the second period and we are all
revved up to get going, and some fool throws something on the ice." PA
announcer Arthur Mintz read the warning again: (paraphrasing from
memory) "...as has just been demonstrated, the officials WILL call a
delay-of-game penalty against Cornell!" I guess the message FINALLY
got through, because nothing else came out of the stands until the game
was over.
Fortunately for the Big Red, they were able to kill off that penalty,
and Cornell got what appeared to be a big break at the 4:01 mark, when
Farrell got himself a major for hitting Dan Dufresne from behind. I
didn't really have a clear view of what happened, and I'm not sure if
the call was warranted or not, but Dufresne was down on the ice for a
few minutes before being helped to his feet. (At the same time, the
Harvard bench requested a security guard. I'd love to find out what
the heck was going on over there -- the Cornell faculty and staff that
sit behind the benches are not known for their ferocity)
The Big Red, however, was unable to do much on their power play, which
was wiped out at 6:47 when Mark Scollan got a major of his own for
slashing. This was, of course, not a popular call with the Lynah
Faithful, and the circumstances were to say the least strange.
Harvard's Chris Baird got the puck at the Cornell blue line and came in
on a short-handed break, with Scollan in hot pursuit. Scollan did
about the only thing he could do -- he reached out with his stick and
tripped Baird up, dropping him to the ice and sending him sliding into
the boards, where he remained for a few minutes. The initial call was
a minor for tripping, but MacConaghy took a look at Baird and changed
it to a slashing major. Now, it's not unusual for a minor to be
changed to a major "after further review" (the same thing may have
happened with Farrell's major earlier), but it *is* out of the ordinary
for the actual call to be changed. Though I'll admit Baird was
probably injured when he slammed into the boards (blood would have been
enough to up the penalty to a major), the whole thing reeked of a make-
up call. Needless to say, Mr. MacConaghy did not win a lot of brownie
points for that one.
At any rate, when a line change got mixed up and Cornell was called for
too many men on the ice at 8:45, the Crimson found themselves with a
5-on-3, and once again, they capitalized. Fresh out of the box,
Farrell took a whack at the puck and the shot went through a clump of
defenders, deflected off a stick or two, and trickled in near the left
post at the 9:58 mark. Harvard still had a 5-on-4 thanks to the major,
and Steve Martins proceeded to convert that one a couple minutes later
off a scramble in front of the Cornell net, when he got off a high shot
that hit the twine behind the crossbar.
The Big Red was down 3-1 at this point, but they were able to regroup
and hang on, preventing Harvard from doing any further damage. Even
though Cornell didn't score, the momentum seemed to be changing, thanks
in part to the Big Red not having to face a Harvard power play for the
rest of the period. However, three seconds away from intermission,
disaster struck. Two sticks came together on the puck at the same time
near center ice, and the puck was lifted into the air and sailed back-
wards into the Cornell zone. Dufresne reached up and grabbed it, but
in the process of dropping it to the ice, he lost control of the puck
and it rolled off his leg and wound up behind him. The Crimson's Cory
Gustafson, who was hanging around the blue line seeing what would
happen, charged in, grabbed the loose puck, skated to the slot, and
flicked it past Skazyk. You could just feel the life go out of the
Cornell team when that happened, and it looked like the straw that
would break the Big Red's back. When Tom Holmes stuffed a rebound
through Skazyk's pads at 2:35 of the third to put Harvard up 5-1, it
appeared that the door was slammed on Cornell's hopes.
WRONG! Just eighteen seconds later, Karam took the puck deep into the
Harvard zone, where he kicked it over to Mike Sancimino, who swatted it
past Israel. A minute later, Cornell got themselves a 5-on-3 power
play, which they proceeded to do nothing with, but at the 8:32 mark,
Scollan dumped a pass from behind the Crimson net to linemate Brad
Chartrand, who slapped the puck into the open left side of the net.
Skazyk then came up big with two great saves off back-to-back Harvard
breakaways midway through the period, and then at 12:33, Karam and
Sancimino combined again to bring the Big Red to within one. This
time, Karam skated down the left side and dropped the puck off for
Sancimino, whose rising slapper from the circle eluded Israel.
Cornell was flying, and when Martins got nailed for tripping with 3:06
left, it seemed like a golden opportunity for the Big Red to tie the
game. Cornell called their timeout, but they were unable to convert.
The Big Red's last chance came in the last half-minute of play, when
Skazyk was pulled for the extra attacker, but the Harvard defenders
were able to prevent Cornell from setting anything up.
Israel was not stellar in net for the Crimson, but he was as good as he
had to be, finishing with 19 saves. Skazyk had a terrific outing for
the Big Red despite allowing five goals, as he stopped 26 shots. Har-
vard's win apparently puts them in the lead in the all-time series -- I
say "apparently" because while the media guide lists the record between
these teams as 40-40-5 going into this season, a check of the all-time
game results listed in the guide turns up only 39 Harvard wins. If
Harvard does in fact have the lead in the series, it would be the first
time that has happened since the 1969-70 season.
One more note -- whoever said that Ethan Philpott would be the Harvard
player opponents love to hate was right on the money. Philpott showed some
speed, and I'm sure he has scoring touch, playmaking ability, etc., but on
this night, he was six feet four inches and 235 pounds of pure NHL-style
goon. Not content with belting a few people in the first and second
periods, he took a running leap at Skazyk from about 20 feet out in the
third period after Skazyk had made a save, decking the goalie. This is not
a terribly smart move, even for a player of Philpott's size (though he held
his own against the other five Cornell players quite well). The resultant
penalty wound up being the first of the two that gave the Big Red a 5-on-3.
While Philpott is certainly big enough to do whatever he wants, Harvard
would benefit a lot more if he were to stick to folding opponents into new
shapes while going for the puck, rather than taking needless and stupid
penalties.
Brown 7, Cornell 3
The Big Red hung tough for a little over two periods in this one, but
they were fatigued after the highly emotional game with Harvard the
night before, and a much quicker Brown team exploited that in the third
period. Brown came in on a bit of a downer themselves, with the memory
of a spectacularly blown 4-goal lead against Colgate still fresh.
Brown is a FAST team, considerably faster than they were last year.
This speed also gives them the capability to make the opposition pay
for mistakes, which is how the Bears got their first goal. A sloppy
Cornell team lost the puck right in front of their own net, and Mike
Flynn was right there to poke it past goaltender Andy Bandurski at the
3:14 mark. Bandurski appeared to have recovered from his hip pointer
(though he was still favoring one leg a bit), and he made a great pad
save on a point-blank shot from the slot about five minutes in to keep
the Bears from increasing their lead.
Cornell looked flat and disorganized on their first two power plays,
but they tied the game just after the second one ended, when Mike
Sancimino picked up a pass from Steve Wilson, deked twice, and sent a
low shot past Brown goalie Geoff Finch at the 14:11 mark. It took only
44 seconds for the Big Red to take the lead, as Vinnie Auger followed
up Sancimino's effort by stealing the puck and spotting Tyler McManus
breaking for the net. The feed was right on McManus' stick, and he
flipped the puck over Finch's shoulder. An ugly-looking Brown power
play followed shortly thereafter, during which Auger and Sancimino
nearly combined for a short-handed goal off a 2-on-1 break. Sanci-
mino's pass led Auger just a bit too far, however, and Auger's shot
went behind the net.
Brown's Tony Martino tied the game at 3:09 of the second period with a
rising slapper from the left circle that Bandurski could not get the
pad on. Kelly Jones put the Bears in the lead at the 12:53 mark. With
a delayed call on Cornell and Finch streaking for the bench, Jones got
the puck during a scramble in front of the Big Red net and popped it
home. The Big Red responded less than three minutes later, when Geoff
Bumstead lifted a soft shot between the circles that Jake Karam got his
stick on, redirecting the puck over Finch's leg.
The Bear's Brendan Whittet was called for tripping at the 16:25 mark,
and this led to the game's most ludicrous moment about a minute later,
when Brown made a wholesale line change. Their four skaters came off
the ice, and five went in. The Bears actually played with the extra
man for ten or fifteen seconds before the referees caught it and called
a bench minor. Upon sorting out who was going to serve the penalty,
Brown sent *four* (not three) skaters out to take the ensuing faceoff!
Well, it got straightened out eventually.
A scary moment occurred with two seconds left in the period. During a
scramble behind the Cornell net, someone got shoved into it, and the
next thing anybody knew, the cage was down on top of Bandurski, who
slid out and lay flat on the ice for a few minutes. He was able to get
up and go back between the pipes for the last two seconds, but he did
suffer some sort of injury, because he gave way to Eddy Skazyk for the
third period. The first shot Skazyk faced came off the stick of Brian
Jardine from near the left circle, and the screened goaltender never
saw it, as Brown took the lead 30 seconds into the third.
This goal was only the beginning of what would be a nightmarish period
for the Big Red, as they started coming apart at the seams after
playing five hard periods over the weekend. Some weak checking allowed
Mike Traggio to get to a loose puck, and he spotted Jones behind the
Cornell defense. Traggio's long pass set Jones up on the breakaway,
and Jones deked to his left and flipped the puck behind Skazyk at 5:39
of the third. Skazyk did everything he could to keep the Big Red in
the game, including a pad save on a 2-on-0 break during a half-minute
Brown flurry a few minutes later, but he was getting almost no help.
The Big Red was eventually able to ice the puck and get a new line out
there, but Brown wasted little time in taking pot shots at the Cornell
goal again.
A dispirited Big Red team went for about two minutes without being able
to get the puck across the center ice line (except once, when Brown
back-passed to set up a play), and this ended with Brown's sixth goal
of the night, courtesy of Ryan Mulhern at the 13:02 mark. A poor
clearing pass bounced off Mulhern's leg at the blue line, and he simply
skated in on the breakaway and wristed a shot between Skazyk's pads.
Jardine closed out the scoring with his second goal of the night, flip-
ping the puck over Skazyk's shoulder with 2:15 left in the third.
Skazyk stopped 9 of 13 shots in relief of Bandurski, who had 14 saves.
Finch, although not outstanding, was adequate in net for the Bears, as
he finished with 17 saves.
The scoreboard results were certainly not what the Big Red was hoping for,
but the team can take heart in the fact that they played five pretty good
periods against tough competition before fatigue set in during the third
against Brown. Cornell jumps out of the frying pan and into the fire Tues-
day night, as they will host nationally-ranked Boston University.
--
Bill Fenwick | Send your HOCKEY-L poll responses to:
Cornell '86 and probably '94 | [log in to unmask]
LET'S GO RED!!
"Last night I had a premonition that tonight I would have deja vu."
-- Bruce Morton
|
