Scores from Tuesday 1/29: Boston College 5, CORNELL 4 Lowell 7, YALE 2 Babson 5, UMass-Boston 2 Connecticut College 6, Bentley 3 Salem State 10, Bowdoin 6 Notes on the game at Lynah: Boston College 5, Cornell 4 This one started out looking very much like last season's meeting between these two teams at Conte Forum, which was an 8-3 laugher for BC. However, Cornell was able to rally from a three-goal deficit and made a pretty exciting game of it, although they never led. Ryan Hughes scored all four goals for the Big Red, recording a natural hat trick in the process. Corrie D'Alessio started in goal, appearing in the 84th game of his career and breaking the Cornell record for goal- tenders, which was previously held by Ken Dryden. BC played without forwards Steve Heinze and Jeff O'Neill (both out with injuries), but that didn't seem to matter, as the Eagles came out on fire in the first period. Conversely, the Big Red played rather tenta- tively in the opening stanza; they could not keep up and were unable to establish much of a forecheck, playing almost as if they were afraid to hit the BC players. The Eagles threatened several times in the first period (including a couple of breakaway attempts), and they finally struck pay dirt at the 10:36 mark on freshman John Joyce's first career goal. Joyce's initial high shot was blocked by D'Alessio, but Joyce picked up the rebound on the left side and fired a shot over the goalie's leg from a tough angle. Two and a half minutes later, David Emma put the Eagles up 2-0 with the first of his two goals, both on the power play. Emma skated around the net to D'Alessio's left and let fly with a shot that rolled across the goal mouth and crossed the line just inside the left post. Cornell continued to play sloppily for the rest of the first period, and things did not get any better for the Big Red at the beginning of the second period when Joe Dragon took an idiotic penalty. During a stoppage of play, BC's Joe Cleary hooked Dragon's arm (one of several instances in the game where BC players were pulling some sneaky things after the whistle blew), and Dragon took offense, skating up to Cleary, jawing with him a little, and elbowing him in the head. Referee Tim MacConaghy saw it (the refs *always* see the retaliation, don't they?) and called Dragon for hitting after the whistle. This gave BC their second power play of the game, and Emma did not take very long to convert, blasting one through D'Alessio's pads from the right side at 2:08 to put the Eagles up 3-0. The Big Red began their comeback at 4:44 of the second period -- or rather, Hughes did, redirecting Doug Derraugh's soft shot under BC goalie Scott LaGrand's leg. A little later in the period, the Eagle players got pretty angry about something -- probably the officiating, as MacConaghy has a reputation for inconsistency. LaGrand was upset about the net at the BC end of the ice, which comes off its moorings easily (most goalies seem to LIKE that), and several of the other players were huddling around the ref and having some apparently heated discussions. The game started to get very rough, with all kinds of elbowings, holds, trips, and so forth. To MacConaghy's credit, he managed to get the game back under control without calling a lot of cheap penalties. He did whistle BC's Matt Glennon for hooking, and when Glennon skated up to him and hollered at him, MacConaghy immediately hit him with a ten-minute misconduct. At any rate, Hughes scored his second goal on the ensuing power play, at the 9:20 mark, on a wrist shot from the bottom of the right circle. Cornell suddenly mounted a great deal of offensive pressure, and they were able to bottle BC up in their own end -- even when the Eagles went on the power play a couple minutes later. This pressure paid off at 13:48 of the second period, as Hughes tied the game up with his third straight goal. Derraugh tracked down the puck behind the BC net and sent a perfect feed to Hughes, who was skating in front of the goal. Hughes one-timed the puck into the air and over LaGrand. There was some more rough play between the teams later in the second, and the officials kept the teams separate as they left the ice for the second intermission. Cornell's Phil Nobel was whistled for interference at the end of the second period for running into LaGrand -- a call I have to question, since it was not made immediately. It looked suspiciously like LaGrand and others complained to MacConaghy, and he gave them the penalty. At any rate, it took only 54 seconds of the third period for BC to retake the lead, on Ted Crowley's hard slapshot from the right point that flew by D'Alessio, who was screened on the play. But Ryan Hughes tied the game up again for the Big Red at 3:01, taking a pass from Trent Andison, rushing up the ice, and beating LaGrand with a 15-foot back- hander. Hughes' stellar performance wound up going for naught, as BC's David Franzosa took a pass from Scott Zygulski and fired the puck at the Cornell net. D'Alessio kicked aside the shot, but Franzosa one- timed his own rebound under D'Alessio's foot for what would prove to be the game-winner with 12:09 left in the third period. Cornell had some chances to get the equalizer during the rest of the third period, but with 2:14 left, MacConaghy made a questionable call that all but decided the game. LaGrand went behind the BC net to play the puck, and Trent Andison ran into him. MacConaghy's arm shot up, and he whistled Andison for hitting from behind. Now, I don't have a problem with the call itself (it was technically a correct one -- Andison did hit LaGrand from behind), but it was a serious inconsis- tency on MacConaghy's part. He had been calling a pretty loose game up to that point, letting a fair amount of extracurricular activity go (including, yes, a few other instances of hitting from behind). Why crack down all of a sudden in the last couple minutes of the game? It's unfortunate that this is exactly the type of inconsistent officiating that MacConaghy is known for -- and in many ways, an inconsistent ref is far worse than a merely bad one. The other thing I don't like about this call is that it seems to be an instance of preferential treatment of a goalie who is out of the crease. You cannot touch a goalie in the crease, but if he leaves that area, he becomes just another player. I guarantee you that if it had been a BC forward or defenseman with the puck, that call would not have been made. Well, as you might expect, Cornell coach Brian McCutcheon was as livid as the fans were, coming thisclose to earning himself a bench minor. Once the game resumed with BC on the power play, the Eagles went into a frustratingly effective stall, holding the puck behind their own net, skating slowly up the ice, and so forth. They didn't even bother taking a shot on goal, electing instead to play keep-away, and it worked. Cornell was unable to get control of the puck until there was less than half a minute left, and they didn't get the extra attacker on the ice until there were five seconds remaining. Although this game, like the one against Lake Superior at the SIT, showed that the Big Red is capable of playing with the top squads in the country, it also pointed out a glaring problem that has haunted Cornell all season -- the inability to put together 60 minutes of solid hockey. If Cornell had played in the first period the same way that they played in the last two, they most likely would have beaten BC. Lapses like that have already cost the Big Red some other games that they should have won (Princeton, Colgate twice). With the always-tough North Country teams coming to town this weekend, and with Cornell probably now in the position of having to win either the ECAC title or the tournament championship to get an NCAA bid, the Big Red is going to have to pull together and play consistently at the high level that they've shown they're capable of. It's certainly too early to write them off, but despite having plenty of talent, they are not yet a serious NCAA championship threat. Bill Fenwick Cornell '86 LET'S GO RED!! From the "I never thought of that" department: "To open, use can opener" -- Printed on the top of a can of Furmano's spaghetti sauce