The Cornell men's hockey team held their Red-White scrimmage on Saturday
night, with the Red team eking out a 4-3 victory.  The game, which was
played in three 14-minute periods, was pretty ragged at times, but there
were some performances worth noting:
 
OFFENSE
 
Good news for Cornell fans:  after missing last season with a back injury,
former Ivy League Rookie of the Year Vinnie Auger is back in action.
Understandably, he looked a little rusty, but it was good to see him in
skates again.  His return seemed to help linemate P.C. Drouin, who had a
decent season last year but looked more comfortable skating with Auger when
the two were paired back in 1993-94.  Drouin scored twice for the Red team
on Saturday.  Auger did show some signs of the flash and dash that made him
a player to watch during his rookie season, and a full recovery would give
the Cornell offense a BIG lift.  Another noteworthy performance was turned
in by Mike Sancimino, who set up defenseman Steve Wilson for the first Red
goal of the game and scored the last one himself, pouncing on a turnover in
front of the White net and quickly wristing the puck home.  Possible
injury-or-something note:  Mark Scollan did not play Saturday night.
 
DEFENSE
 
Needs work, but then, Cornell fans knew that from last year.  Part of the
problem may be that, as Steve Wilson mentioned after the game, the Big Red
defense will be taking the man more, rather than playing zones as they did
last year.  If this works out, it will be a welcome change.  The defense
did look more aggressive than they have in the past, and the White team was
able to hold the Red team to only 15 shots on goal in 42 minutes, which
projects out to about 21 shots for a full game.  (Except for Steve Wilson,
the White team had the better defensemen -- but the Red team appeared to
have more talent on offense)  As Tark mentioned, Jason Dailey had a nice
goal in the second period, as he took a pass at the right point and fired a
slapper that found its way into the net through a crowd.  There were a few
defensive zone turnovers and breakaways given up, which were real problems
last year.  Hopefully, the change in style will take care of those as well.
 
GOALTENDING
 
The real standout performance of this game has to be the one turned in by
Jason Elliott between the pipes.  Elliott burst on the scene last year with
a win over nationally-ranked Vermont in his first collegiate game and
proceeded to own Cornell's goaltending spot for the first half of the
season, before a slump ultimately put him on the bench for the stretch run.
He looked very confident in the scrimmage and had a solid game, stopping 16
of 18 shots.  (One of the goals Elliott allowed was Dailey's, on which he
had at least three people in front of him)  In contrast, Eddy Skazyk had
some troubles.  Skazyk, on the strength of his performance when he took
over for Elliott last season, was the #3 goalie in the ECAC for 1994-95 and
probably came into camp this year as the guy to beat.  I think he's still
part of the rotation, if not the #1 guy outright, but his stint as the
White team goalie (first period) was shaky at best, as he allowed two goals
on five shots.  He looked better playing for the Red team in the third
period, stopping five of six, but he came out of the net a LOT, which made
me kind of nervous.  The new guy, Jean-Marc Pelletier, still needs to
adjust to the college game, but he showed some potential.  He faced only
two shots in the second period, stopping both, but one of them was a
terrific save of a point-blank wrister from Auger.  The Red offense got to
him a little more in the third, and the game-winning goal he gave up to
Sancimino was a weak one right through the five-hole.  Barring injuries, I
don't expect Pelletier to see much action this year, but he should be ready
to play next season after Skazyk graduates.
 
SPECIAL TEAMS
 
Here's a power-play unit I hope to see again in the future:  Ryan Smart,
P.C. Drouin, Mike Sancimino, and Vinnie Auger, along with a defenseman
(Steve Wilson, mostly)  This unit was responsible for the only power-play
goal of the game (a 5-on-3, with Drouin knocking home a pass from Smart
deep to the left side) and also showed up a couple of times when the teams
were playing at even strength.  The penalty kill looked very aggressive.
(Either that or the power play was mostly dreadful -- having seen the
latter for the past eight years, I prefer to consider it a case of the
former :-)
 
FRESHMEN
 
None of the new guys really stood out, which is probably not a fair state-
ment, since the team has only had coaches present at practice for a week
and everybody is learning a new system anyway.  I already mentioned Pelle-
tier as showing some potential between the pipes.  Keith Peach contributed
a goal on assists from a pair of walk-ons, and his size should be a help to
a Big Red team that's been getting beat up regularly over the past few
years.  Kyle Knopp looked good, though small.  He was on the Auger line
several times during the game.
 
CROWD
 
This was the big difference between this game and Red-White scrimmages in
the past.  Head coach Mike Schafer brought in a lot of ideas about how to
promote this game in the community (door prizes, a couple of exhibition
games during the intermissions, etc), and while his stated goal of a
sellout didn't happen, there were easily 2,000 fans in attendance.  That's
at least four times as high as attendance usually is at a Red-White game,
and I would bet on a continued increase in the popularity of this event.
The Ithaca and Cortland youth hockey travel teams played a five-minute
exhibition during the first intermission (Ithaca won, 1-0), and two intra-
mural fraternity teams, SAE and ZBT, played during the second intermission.
(The teams were not identifiable, so I have no idea who won, but the score
was 2-0.  The kids looked a LOT better!)
 
Unofficial (and somewhat incomplete) box score:
 
Red 4, White 3
 
Red        2    0    2  --  4
White      1    1    1  --  3
 
First period -- Scoring:
     R Steve Wilson (Mike Sancimino), approx. 2:00 (I missed this
       goal, so I don't know if there was a second assist)            1-0
     R P.C. Drouin (Kyle Knopp, Vinnie Auger), 4:06                   2-0
     W Andre Doll (Jamie Papp, Brad Chartrand), 6:44                  2-1
 
     Penalties:
     R Jason Kendall (hooking), 10:07; R S. Wilson (throwing puck), 11:55
 
Second period -- Scoring:
     W Jason Dailey (Tony Bergin), 1:04                               2-2
 
     Penalties:
     W Papp (holding), 3:52
 
Third period -- Scoring:
     R Drouin (Ryan Smart), 2:12 (PP)                                 3-2
     W Keith Peach (Damian Rocke? LaRoque?  Second assist went to
       a walk-on whose name I don't know), 7:41                       3-3
     R Sancimino, approx. 10:00                                       4-3
 
     Penalties:
     W Chartrand (elbowing), 0:46; W Tim Shean (high-sticking), 1:47;
     R Auger (holding), 5:31
 
Shots on goal:  Red 5-2-8 -- 15, White 7-11-6 -- 24
 
Power plays:  Red 1 of 3, White 0 of 3
 
Goaltending:
     R Jason Elliott (16 saves, 18 shots), Eddy Skazyk (in at beginning of
       third period, 5 saves, 6 shots)
     W Skazyk (3 saves, 5 shots), Jean-Marc Pelletier (in at beginning of
       second period, 8 saves, 10 shots)
 
Next up for Cornell is an exhibition game Saturday night against Western
Ontario.
--
Disclaimer -- Unless otherwise noted, all opinions expressed above are
              strictly those of:
 
Bill Fenwick
Cornell '86 and '95
LET'S GO RED!!
Rebuild the Tradition                                           DJF  5/27/94
"'Does he talk?'  'Uh, no.'  'Does he walk?'  'Uh, no.'  'Does he crawl?'
 'Uh, no, he doesn't do any of those things.  YOU try dragging him away from
 the computer.'"
-- Monica Piper, on handling competitive my-baby-is-better-than-yours parents
 
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