Maybe not so bad as (from UVM hockey archives)……. Biggest Rally vs. Princeton (2/10/90) “Princeton scored the first goal in the third period at 1:04 and built a 7-1 lead against UVM. Vermont scored eight unanswered goals to win 9-7 in what is considered to be the biggest comeback in college hockey history, as only 18:56 remained in the game. Beginning at 1:18 of the third period on a goal by Leif Selstad, UVM rattled off eight goals in 18:30, highlighted by Scott Jagod’s game-winner at 16:58. Mike McLaughlin added an empty-netter at 19:48.” -------Sean Keller From: - Hockey-L - The College Hockey Discussion List <[log in to unmask]> on behalf of Bill Fenwick <[log in to unmask]> Reply-To: - Hockey-L - The College Hockey Discussion List <[log in to unmask]> Date: Sunday, December 5, 2021 at 11:17 PM To: "[log in to unmask]" <[log in to unmask]> Subject: Cornell at Clarkson 12/4 Argh. Argh argh argh argh argh. Pardon me, but I feel the need to vent a little bit. You might want to skip this one. I'm trying to distract myself by remembering Great Sports Collapses of the past in the hopes that I'll feel better by comparison. How about the Red Sox in 1986 in Game 6, one strike away (twice, I think) from their first World Series victory since Babe Ruth was a pitcher? Or Atlanta up 28-3 in the Super Bowl five years ago? Or how about my own beloved Big Red in 1973 against Wisconsin, up 4-0 early in the second and 5-2 in the third before bowing 6-5 in OT? That one was an NCAA semifinal, for crying out loud! Nope, this ain't working. I'm not up for much commentary on this one, so let's just consider the box score and see how things were going relatively swimmingly for Cornell at Cheel on Saturday night: First period: Cor Jack Malone (Tim Rego, Brenden Locke), 10:29 1-0 Second period: Cor Sam Malinski (Locke, Matt Steinburg), 2:30 (PP) 2-0 Third period: Cor Max Andreev (Ben Berard), 7:44 (PP) 3-0 Cor Andreev (Locke, Malinksi), 11:53 4-0 Cla Chris Klack (George Grannis), 14:43 4-1 Oh well, lost the shutout, that's the way it goes. Still, it was looking quite good for the Big Red when, with a little over four minutes remaining, Clarkson pulled goalie Ethan Haider for the extra attacker. Now, we all know what happens when a team who is down by multiple goals desperately yanks its netminder with four minutes left. Like maybe, in your wildest dreams (or worst nightmares, depending on which side you're on), something like this: Cla Lucas Kaelble (Mathieu Gosselin, Alex Campbell, 17:07 (EA) 4-2 Cla Anthony Romano (Gosselin, Kaelble), 18:27 (EA) 4-3 Cla Zach Tsekos (Kaelble, Gosselin), 19:59 (EA) 4-4 And if that's not enough of a gut-punch, that last one was off a face-off with four stinkin' seconds left. Yeesh. Cornell goaltender Nate McDonald is likely to get roasted for this one, and he did let in a couple of what-the-frippety-fripp-was-that goals, but he also put up 34 saves, including some pretty stellar ones over the first 50+ minutes to keep the Golden Knights off the board. And this meltdown was, as they say, a total team effort. McDonald may have dumped a rebound or three right there in the slot, but it’s really not asking too much for some of his teammates to try and make sure there isn't an unmolested opponent somewhere nearby, casually skating over and flicking the puck toward the net Yet Again. These were efforts that were being made fairly consistently by the Big Red earlier in the game, but over the last four minutes not so much – really, hardly at all. Grumble, grumble –- even the officials got into the act. Or, what in the world constitutes icing these days? When I was relatively new to watching hockey, I didn't really get what icing was, and I used to thing (half- seriously) that it was a call made when the official felt that the game was getting away from him, so everybody would stop and he could catch his breath. Let's just say that, toward the end there, this particular group of officials was not doing a great deal to disprove that theory. Clarkson deserves full credit for this one. They kept pressing and absolutely did not back down despite the unpleasantness on the scoreboard, and it obviously paid off. And yes, I'm far enough off the ledge to realize that, as bad as the taste left by this one is, it wasn't quite a total collapse. It goes into the books as a tie, so the Big Red got one point anyway. (Yes, that means they lost the shoot-out. Shut up and go away.) Another silver lining from the Cornell standpoint would be that at least this one was relatively early in the season, and the Big Red does have a coach who is capable of saying "See, I told you so!" in a variety of ways to his charges over the next month they'll have off before taking on Arizona State in the new year. But if the Big Red ends up, say, one point out of fourth place (or victimized by the ECAC's god-forsaken tiebreakers), or thousandths-of-an-RPI-point away from an at-large postseason bid – well, I know exactly where my mind is going to go. Argh. Bill Fenwick [log in to unmask]