A few notes scribbled while watching the ECAC semifinals in a
sports bar (Fiddler's Green, for anyone in Salt Lake City).
 
        Game 1: Princeton vs Clarkson
 
P 1 2 0 -- 3
C 3 1 1 -- 5
 
Princeton played the Knights pretty even in the first.  Princeton had
three power plays, including 29 seconds of 5-on-3, and Clarkson had
two, but neither team could score, despite some good chances.
Princeton's best chance came when Scott Bertoli shot the puck across
the goal mouth behind Clarkson's Dan Murphy at the start of the first
Tiger power play, but on the 5-on-3, Princeton could only manage one
shot.  Late in the period, Matt Pagnutti and Aaron Gates had good long
shots in succession after Princeton failed to clear the puck out of
their zone.
 
        The first period ended with a boarding call to Clarkson's
Scott Ricci, but the Knights scored shorthanded 32 seconds into the
second, when Dominique Auger coughed up the puck at the Clarkson blue
line.  Todd "Hobey" White took it and skated in alone on Princeton's
Esarmo Saltarelli.  Saltarelli came out way too early to try the poke
check, missed, and White skated around him to deposit the puck in the
empty net and make it 1-0 Clarkson.  Clarkson made it 2-0 around seven
minutes later when Salterelli failed to cover the puck during a
scuffle in front of his net, the puck came out to White, and he
flipped it over the prone goaltender.  Princeton almost had a 2-in-0
at the halfway mark, but Jason Given overskated the puck.
Jean-Francois Houle made it 3-0 on a wraparound; Salteralli was all
over the near post, and Houle managed to send it past him
(Saltarelli's stick was not along the ice) and in off the far post.
The period ended 3-0 despite three more powerplays, with Princeton
having a good shorthanded rush.  Things also started to get rough in
the second period, including Clarkson's Nick Windsor decking
Princeton's Keith O'Brien right in front of referree John Murphy, who
made no call.  Down 3-0 after two, defensive-minded Princeton seemed
to be in trouble.
 
        In the third, Saltarelli, who had a fairly poor game, began to
come way out of the net to cut down angles on shots, leaving himself
open for rebounds or passes (most of Clarkson's goals were scored by
simply shooting around Saltarelli rather than through him).  He did
manage to deny Houle on another 1-on-0 break, prbably his best save of
the game.  At around the five minute mark, Chris Clark and O'Brien
came to blows, with the end result being four minutes for Clark, two
for O'Brien and a Princeton powerplay.  (Clarkson had received a
powerplay under similar circumstances at the end of the second.)  The
Tigers got their only goal of the game on a questionable play.  Jason
Given and O'Brien skated in on a 2-on-1 with Ollila defending.
O'Brien went down to block Given's initial shot, but in the process
took his own goalie Dan Murphy out of the play; Given shot again over
their bodies for the goal, but O'Brien was skating through the crease
behind Murphy, and was still there when the puck went in.  Referree
Noeth asked for help from John Gallagher, who was the replay judge in
this, the ECAC's first experiment with instant replay.  Although the
replay we saw on Empire seemed pretty clearly to indicate that O'Brien
was in the crease, the goal stood, 3-1 Clarkson.  (Empire showed a
shot of the Cornell band taunting Murphy after the goal.)  White
completed a hat trick at 12:09 when Saltarelli came out beyond the top
of the crease to defend against a shot from the point; the would-be
shooter instead passed to White at the bottom of the right face-off
circle, and White had the easy goal behind Saltarelli.  I could
clearly read the lips of the Clarkson fans chanting "Ho-bey Ba-ker".
Pagnutti capped the scoring at 5-1, once again catching Saltarelli out
of position.
 
        Game 2: RPI vs Cornell
 
R 1 2 0 -- 3
C 3 1 1 -- 5
 
        My notes for this game are rather more sparse, as I was more
preoccupied. :-) Chad Wilson opened the scoring for Cornell, going
five-hole on Joel Laing from the top of the crease.  Kyle Knopp made
it 2-0 about six minutes into the game, with Moynihan getting the
assist.  (Let me point out here that Knopp is a sophomore and Moynihan
a freshman.  This is a team with a present *and* a future.)  RPI
scored thanks to three straight powerplays in the middle of the
period.  Tony Bergin got caught retaliating with a high stick, and
Jason Kendall went off for hooking right after that one ended.  With
27 seconds left in that one, Jason Dailey took a dumb roughing
penalty, and while Cornell killed off the 5-on-3, Danny Riva and Doug
Battaglia combined to make it 3-1.  (I can't decipher my notes, but
Riva was behind the net and Battaglia in front.)  Cornell went on the
power play ten seconds later, but their best chance came when Vinnie
Auger shot one through the crease.  They did go up 3-1 at 19:15 when
Jamie Papp fired point-blank on Laing, who went down to stop it,
allowing Papp to roof his own rebound.  (Cornell seemed to do a good
job of staying around for rebounds, and sending a second man in on the
doorstep to look for opportunities.  All three losing goaltenders
seemed to be overcommitting themselves.  On the other side, Jason
Elliott, when he wasn't standing on his head, did a good job of
keeping his feet to defend second shots.)
 
        Scott Prekaski replaced Laing in the Engineer net at the start
of the second period, but fared little better, as Moynihan drew him
out of the net on a 2-on-1, then passed to Papp, who put the Big Red
up 4-1.  Again RPI came back courtesy of three straight Cornell
penalties.  Dailey committed a foolish cross-check a minute into a
penalty kill, but Cornell managed to escape both penalties.  But Chad
Wilson went off for elbowing shortly thereafter, and Gardiner fed
Battaglia for the power play goal to make it 4-2.  RPI came within one
on a goal that gave Gallagher more work in the replay booth.  We
watched this many times, and here's what happened, as best as I can
figure it.  Elliott and RPI's Matt Garver were on the ice in the
crease, with Garver prevented from leaving by Jason Kendall (or was it
Dailey) punching him in the head.  Eric Healey shot the puck along the
ice three times, and each time it bounced back off Garver.  Finally
Garver got up on his hands and knees as Healey went behind the goal
line.  A second later the puck came flying into the net under Garver.
Now, if Healey had shot as soon as Garver lifted his midsection, he
could have sent it in at the angle we saw.  But by the time the puck
came out (we couldn't see it until it was past Garver), Healey looked
to me to be too far back to have shot it.  So we had to conclude that
Garver had tossed it in with his right hand.  Two problems with that:
the announcers thought it came in too fast to have been thrown, plus
how could Garver have held himself up without both hands.  So I have
no good theory; can someone who saw it from another angle in person
clear this up.  We were left concluding that the ghost of Adam Oates
scored that goal.
 
        Whatever the source, it made for a tense start to the third
period, until Ryan Smart got an insurance goal just around the end of
a Cornell power play.  In fact, Cornell had several power plays in the
third, and while they didn't score, it interfered with RPI's attack.
Papp almost set up another goal with Oates looking for the rebound,
but Prekaski covered it.  My notes on the third were almost
nonexistant, but I remember Elliott making some spectacular saves; he
stopped over 30 shots on the night, as the Big Red were badly outshot
in the 5-3 victory.
 
        I'm looking forward to watching the final (2pm MST at
Fiddler's Green for you Salt Lakers!), hopefully after catching part
of the consolation on Audionet.  Cornell and Clarkson meet for the
third time, with the Big Red looking to beat the Golden Knights for
the first time since last year in Lake Placid.  They'll need to play
their best game of the season, and hope Hobey White has an off night.
And after a night of meandering goalies, both teams will need to alter
their approach; Dan Murphy's weakness is 5-hole, and Elliott looked
solid against second shots.  The large ice surface will also hurt
Cornell when it comes to containing White and Houle.  But this is the
most important game of Cornell's season (as opposed to Clarkson, whose
season may culminate in Milwaukee), and Mike Schafer's team has a
habit of rising to the big challenges.
 
                                        John Whelan, Cornell '91
                                        <[log in to unmask]>
        <http://www.cc.utah.edu/~jtw16960/jshock.html>
 
Todd White can have the Hobey; we want the Whitelaw.
LET'S GO RED!
 
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