Well, folks, with four overtime games and two other one-goal affairs, the
ECAC East and West quarterfinals was the place to go for college hockey
excitement on Tuesday night. Wish I had more details, but here are the
results:
ECAC East:
(1) Middlebury 4, (8) Bowdoin 3 (OT)
(2) Babson 3, (7) AIC 2 (OT)
(3) Salem State 8, (6) UConn 7 (OT)
(5) Williams 3, (4) UMass-Boston 2
ECAC West:
(1) Mercyhurst 5, (8) Cortland State 2
(2) Elmira 7, (7) Oswego State 6 (OT)
(3) Geneseo State 6, (6) Fredonia State 5
(4) RIT 6, (5) Union 3
Notes on the Elmira game:
Elmira 7, Oswego State 6 (OT)
In their two meetings in the regular season, Elmira had beaten Oswego
by a combined score of 20-1, and they had outscored the Lakers by a
38-4 margin over their last five games, so you can't blame the Soaring
Eagles for looking past their quarterfinal opponent last night. Elmira
played sloppily and came very close to handing the game to Oswego. In
the first period alone, the Lakers fought back to tie the score three
times, as Elmira fell victim to a host of giveaways and to a solid
Oswego forecheck.
Things looked to be going Elmira's way when Joey Spinelli notched his
team-leading 32nd goal just 1:09 into the contest, but Jim Thomas drew
Oswego even with a power-play tally at the 3:55 mark. Elmira's Bob
McGee made it 2-1 at 12:16, but Thomas struck again two minutes later.
Then the Soaring Eagles' Tom Moses and the Lakers' Mark Carpenter
traded goals (Carpenter scoring with 55 seconds left in the period) to
leave the score tied at 3-3. It looked like that was how the period
would end, but with one second left, McGee corraled a rebound off the
back boards (after the Oswego defense, perhaps thinking the clock had
run out, failed to play the puck) and punched a shot past Oswego goalie
Rob Moore.
Despite the lead, Elmira coach Glenn Thomaris replaced goalie Tom
O'Brien (eight saves in the first) with little-used backup Bob Delori-
miere at the start of the second period. The teams seemed to calm down
a bit, as only one goal was scored in the second, by Greg Moore at the
11:05 mark to put Elmira up 5-3. However, a pair of giveaways in the
Elmira end allowed Oswego to score goals 16 seconds apart in the third
period to tie the game once again. John Schierbaum intercepted a
clearing pass and fired a 20-foot slapshot over the glove of Delori-
miere 4:15 into the period. Then, on what looked like an instant
replay, it was Rob Madia's turn to pick up a bad Elmira pass and score
on a 20-footer. The Soaring Eagles had barely recovered from this when
they were hit with a bench minor a couple minutes later for too many
men on the ice, and the Lakers took a 6-5 lead just 14 seconds into the
resulting power play, on a goal by Gregg Pechmann. Ironically, Oswego
had six skaters on the ice later in the period for about 30 seconds,
and the officials never detected it. Apparently, shaky refereeing is
not limited to Division I.
Scott Doherty tied the score for Elmira at the 10:03 mark, redirecting
Spinelli's blast behind Rob Moore. The Soaring Eagles then had several
opportunities to score the game-winner in regulation, but they couldn't
convert. However, it took Elmira only 58 seconds of the extra period
to settle the issue. Mike McNamara's shot bounced off an Oswego
defenseman's shin pad and rolled over to Bobby Holmes, who backhanded
the puck into the net. Rob Moore made 30 saves for the Lakers, while
Delorimiere stopped 31 shots in his just-over-two periods of work.
In both leagues, the Final Four takes place at the home rink of the highest
remaining seed, if that rink is useable. The Mercyhurst facility is not
available this weekend, so the ECAC West semifinal and final games are
expected to take place at Elmira. The ECAC East's Final Four will likely
happen at Middlebury.
Although the sites have not been announced, the pairings for the semifinals
in each league are set, and the games will be played Friday night. In the
ECAC East, Babson will meet Salem State and Middlebury will take on
Williams, while in the West, Elmira faces off against Geneseo State and
Mercyhurst plays RIT. Both leagues' championship games will take place on
Saturday.
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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