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
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