Boy, did Empire Sports Network pick a great ECAC game of the
week this week.  Vermont erased a 3-1 deficit in the last four minutes
of regulation to tie RPI 3-3 and knock the Engineers a point back of
Cornell and Clarkson atop the ECAC.  From the notes I scrawled in a
sports bar in Salt Lake City:
 
        RPI looked very strong early on, outshooting Vermont 14-10 on
the period.  The line of Eric Healey, Allain St. Hillaire and Matt
Garver in particular seemed to be always on the offensive.  Garver put
the puck in the net in the first minute of the game, batting in a
rebound off UVM goalie Tim Thomas's glove, but it was clearly done
with a high stick.  Garver scored for real on a very pretty play at
5:47.  On a 3-on-2, Healey made a backhand pass between his skates to
St. Hillaire on the left wing; St. Hillaire fed Garver on the edge of
the crease for the goal.  I'm glad I got the chance to see that on the
replay, since I wouldn't have believed Healey's pass otherwise.  RPI
then had some good chances on the power play without scoring.  Late in
the period, things seemed to turn around a bit after the Engineers had
another power play, this one pathetic.  Vermont had a power play for
the last two minutes of the period, but RPI held firm, with Joel Laing
stopping Martin St. Louis point-blank.
        UVM tied it up early in the second when Benoit Lampron bounced
in a reboung off Laing's chest.  I don't have much to note on this
period (there were penalties, but I didn't record them), but at around
the fifteen minute mark, Thomas seemed to lose hold of his goal stick
on an attempted sweep check.  He managed to save and smother the next
shot sans stick, but I was a bit surprised referee John Murphy didn't
award a penalty shot.  Thomas didn't seem to throw the stick on
purpose, but I've seen the call made for less in the olympics.  (I
couldn't hear the announcers by this point, so I don't know if they
mentioned it.)  RPI went up 2-1 about three minutes later when
St. Hillaire, double-teamed, made a Vermont defenseman lose his stick,
then passed across the goal mouth to a wide-open Healey for the score.
        The third period started slow, with a delay in the second
minute to repair a post hole on the Vermont goal, then another a
minute later as Laing straighten his equipment.  Play became quite
physical in this period, with UVM's Pavel Navrat being flattened a
center ice to kick things off.  Healey was tripped up shortly
thereafter and was down long enough to stop play.  At around the
four-minute mark, RPI went up 3-1 on what looked like kind of a weak
shot from a bit inside the point by Doug Battaglia.  Vermont got a
power play at around fifve minutes, and didn't score, but JC Ruid
started a trend by trying to hack at a puck under a prone Laing, and
ended up scrapping with three or four Engineers.  Rensselaer's Mark
Murphy (jeez, does everyone in the ECAC have a Murphy?) got a 1-on-0
break at around 7:40, but Thomas stopped him low with the right pad.
The impact knocked the net off, causing another delay.  The physical
play picked up further; Catamount BJ Kilbourne, trying to leap over
Brian Pothier's stick, landed on Laing's head, shaking him up and
starting one of a series of scuffles.  The French Connection even got
into it, when St. Louis landed in the net, Healey hit him in the back,
and Eric Perrin returned the favor.  And the scrummage was not limited
to the RPI end of the ice, with Murphy being stood up by Jan Kloboucek
in from of Thomas.  I may have been seeing things, but it looked like
Thomas himself skated over to the outer edge of the faceoff circle to
check a lone RPI attacker.  (Don't ask me what he was doing there; I
just saw him come into the picture, check the guy, then skate back
into the net.)
        Finally, at 16:04 John Murphy decided to call a penalty; BJ
Kilbourne got two minutes for elbowing Mark Murphy along the boards.
This just seemed to fire up the Cats more, though, as Stephan Piche
stole the puck behind the RPI net and fed a wide open Eric Lundin for
the shorthanded goal to make it 3-2 RPI.  UVM's Jonathan Sorg decked
Pete Gardiner in front of the Catamount net later in the power play,
but RPI did not get the 5-on-3.  Then, right after the penalty
expired, the Gutterson Elves, held scoreless for nearly four games
against RPI and Union this year, finally broke the spell (or at least
one of them did).  Piche came down the right side, passed across to
Perrin, who went five-hole on Laing for the tying goal with around a
minute and a half on the clock.
        RPI put on the early pressure in the overtime, getting Thomas
down on the ice a couple of times in the first two minutes.  Both
teams had chances in the extra session, but neither scored and the
game ended 3-3.  With Cornell and Clarkson winning, that puts RPI one
point back of the leaders and Vermont three.
        Even without sound, this was a really great game to be able to
see.  I can't say that I'm too excited about next week's Colgate-Union
contest (important though it is for the last top-six spot), but boy I
hope Cornell-Clarkson in two weeks is this much fun.  (Although I
obviously don't want to see the same result!)
 
                                        John Whelan, Cornell '91
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        <http://www.cc.utah.edu/~jtw16960/jshock.html>
 
Cornell Men's Ice Hockey: 1996-7 Ivy League Champions
WE WANT MORE!  WE WANT THE ECAC!
 
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