As promised, here are a few volumes of notes on the Colgate and Cornell
games that took place last weekend:
Colgate 6, Princeton 4
Helped out by a pair of goals from Dan Gardner, the Red Raiders built
up a 4-3 lead in the third period. Craig deBlois scored what proved to
be the game-winner with 4:13 left. The Tigers were not done, however,
as Terry Morris netted one 19 seconds later to cut the deficit to one
goal. Late in the game, Princeton pulled goalie Craig Fiander, but
Colgate's Andrew Dickson iced the game with an empty-netter at the
18:52 mark.
Aside to Carl Lindberg: Yes, I've seen two teams switch ends halfway
through the third period before -- when Maine played at Boston College
for the 1990 Hockey East tournament championship (thanks to Measlefest
'90, this game was not held at Boston Garden, as originally scheduled).
Apparently, it's not all that unusual for teams to do this at BC's
Conte Forum, where the penalty box is somewhat deeper into one team's
zone than it is at Starr Rink.
Yale 6, Colgate 3
Colgate looked like they were going to have their second weekend sweep
of the year, as they scored three straight first-period goals after
Yale had taken a quick 1-0 lead. Jason Greyerbiehl tied the game at
3:26 of the first, followed by goals from Dale Band (9:17) and Andrew
Dickson (19:37). However, the Elis tied the game in the second period
and ran away with it in the third. Center John Sather put Yale ahead
for good with his second goal of the game midway through the third
period, and Jamie Lavish (13:57) and Mark Kaufmann (16:55) added the
insurance.
Cornell 4, Yale 3
WHAT A GAME!! Cornell and Yale got together Friday night to produce
one of the most entertaining, well-played, and fast-paced affairs that
I have ever seen, college or pro. I can honestly say that even if the
Big Red had wound up losing, I would have enjoyed this one -- it was
that exciting. The Lynah crowd was incredible, probably even louder
than they were for the Harvard game.
Yale has got a LOT of team speed -- they're the fastest squad I've seen
this season, and that includes perennial speedsters Harvard and St.
Lawrence. The action was end-to-end all night long, and several times,
it appeared that the Elis were just on the edge of running Cornell
right out of the rink. It was the Big Red getting off to the quick
start, though, as they lit the lamp just 27 seconds into the first
period. Ryan Hughes took the puck at center ice and skated to the Yale
blue line, where he was stood up, but he somehow managed to get off a
pass to a streaking Joe Dragon. Yale goalie John Hockin was able to
block Dragon's slap shot, but the rebound rolled off to his right, near
Jason Vogel. Vogel's try was deflected by a Yale defender, but Dragon
got hold of the puck again, and this time he made it pay off.
The Elis drew even at 7:29 of the first. Defenseman David Cochran took
away a Cornell clearing pass at the blue line and fired a high, soft
shot that forward Jeff Blaeser got the end of his stick on. The
deflected puck sailed over goaltender Parris Duffus' shoulder and into
the net. Duffus was upset after that one, but it took his teammates
less than three minutes to regain the lead. Karl Williams got off a
high shot that Hockin stopped, but during the ensuing goalmouth
scramble, Dave Burke got his stick on the puck and popped it into the
net at the 10:07 mark. Just seconds later, the Big Red appeared to
have scored again, but referee John Gallagher waved the goal off due to
a man in the crease. One side note here: I would not have wanted to
be responsible for officiating this game, because it was so fast-paced
and so much was going on all over the ice that I'm sure the officials
had a lot of trouble keeping track of everything. Despite some shaki-
ness at times, I think Gallagher did a creditable job overall.
Duffus played brilliantly during the first period, keeping Yale from
doing further damage with some unbelievable saves. He robbed Cochran
with about three minutes left in the first, somehow gloving a hard
blast while he was fully extended on the ice. A little later, during
an Eli power play, Duffus came up with three saves in a row on point-
blank shots. However, things were a bit different in the second period
-- Yale had only four shots on goal, but two of them got through.
Hockin caught Cornell off-guard with a long outlet pass to Martin Le-
roux, who skated deep into the Cornell zone and fired the puck over to
John Sather on the other side of the crease. Sather slid the puck
under Duffus' leg, and the game was tied again 89 seconds into the
middle period.
Karl Williams fired a blast from the left circle that found the right
corner of the net at 13:14 of the second period. Cornell nearly went
up by two several seconds later, as Shaun Hannah came in on a breakaway
and blasted one from the slot. Hockin made the save, and the rebound
bounced straight out in front of him, whereupon (there's a word you
don't see very often) another Cornell player took a mighty swing at the
puck and... missed it. The Big Red again appeared to have scored at
the 13:50 mark, but Gallagher had blown the play dead for a holding
call on Geoff Bumstead. Yale tied the game for the third time with
1:35 left in the period, as Stephen Maltby skated in from the circle,
shifted to his backhand, and flipped a shot in from the slot.
The third period was, if anything, even more high-tempo than the first
two, as both goalies came up big several times. Duffus in particular
was having a fine game, but it looked like Cornell was going to be in
trouble when he took a slashing penalty with 6:22 to go (IMHO a border-
line call -- there was a Yale player in the crease, Duffus' stick was
caught between the guy's legs, and he was trying to get it back). But
Cornell put together an aggressive penalty-kill, resulting in their
first short-handed goal all season. Duffus stopped a shot and cleared
the puck up the ice to Stephane Gauvin, who set up a give-and-go with a
soft pass to Williams. Gauvin streaked to the left side of the Yale
net, picked up the return pass, and flipped the puck over a prone
Hockin. Duffus also got an assist on the play (the answer to Dave
Delchamps' riddle).
The Elis appeared to catch a break later in the period, when Cornell's
Joe Dragon took a very stupid hitting-after-the-whistle penalty, but it
was Cornell who got lucky when Maltby was also called for hitting after
the whistle (I didn't see him hit anything other than the ice). Yale
kept the pressure on, pulling Hockin with under a minute left. With
six seconds to go, and with their net empty, the Elis got control of
the puck off a faceoff in their own end and raced up the ice. Had
there been seven seconds left, they probably would have gotten a good
shot off, but as it was, the puck floated wide of the Cornell goal as
the buzzer sounded, and the Big Red had a hard-fought victory. Hockin
stopped 26 shots, while Duffus recorded 23 saves. This was the sixth
consecutive game, and seventh in the past eight, that the Cornell
offense had scored exactly four goals.
Princeton 3, Cornell 2
After a game like Friday night's, it was probably predictable that the
Big Red would come out half-dead for the contest against Princeton, and
they did. Which was bad news, because Princeton is a team that has
given Cornell a lot of trouble in recent years, with their clutch-and-
grab style. The game was sloppy and boring, and referee Frank Cole's
officiating didn't help matters any. He let far too much cheap stuff
go (he didn't swallow his whistle, he DIGESTED it), and then on those
rare occasions when he did make a call, it was usually a questionable
one at best. If Cole is indeed on loan from Hockey East, perhaps the
ECAC could return the favor by sending Mike St. Louis over for an HE
game.
Princeton dominated the first period of play, outshooting the Big Red
16-7, and the Tigers almost scored at the eight-minute mark when they
came in on a breakaway. Duffus stopped the shot, but it would not be
the last time he would see Princeton players steaming toward him
unmolested. At 9:02 of the first period, Cole whistled Dave Burke for
hitting from behind -- a bad call, since, as Burke said later, "I hit
him on the shoulder." Anyway, Princeton capitalized on the ensuing
power play when Andre Faust got the puck at the blue line and rifled it
over to Mike McKee, whose slapper from the right circle beat Duffus
high to the stick side. A few minutes later, Cole allowed Burke to get
away with a cross-check to the throat of a Princeton player, maybe as
some sort of make-up non-call or something.
Cornell evened the score at the 13:25 mark on their first power play of
the game. Ryan Hughes tracked down the puck in the right corner and
was apparently trying to fire it through the crease to Joe Dragon on
the other side of the net -- but the puck bounced off Princeton goalie
Craig Fiander's leg and rolled across the goal line. Mike McKee put
the Tigers ahead to stay with his second power-play goal, which was
again set up by an awful call by Mr. Cole. Princeton forwards Ian
Sharp and Scott Sinson were skating near Cornell's Etienne Belzile when
Sharp tripped over Sinson's stick -- and Belzile got whistled for
holding. Sigh. A few seconds into the power play, Burke made a rare
and costly mistake when he got control of the puck near the Cornell
goal and attempted to clear it -- instead sending it directly toward
McKee, who intercepted the pass 20 feet away and snapped a shot between
Duffus' pads from the edge of the right circle.
The second period belonged to Cornell, as they outshot the Tigers by a
17-4 margin, and the Big Red had several opportunities to tie the game
up. Fiander was caught out of the net with about 2:45 gone, but Russ
Hammond's tough angle shot was deflected away from the net. Other than
that miscue, Fiander was flawless between the pipes, coming up with
some great saves to keep Cornell off the board. A humorous moment
occurred at 6:39 of the second, when Princeton's Jack Craig was called
for tripping. He was obviously not pleased with the call (though it
looked like a correct one), and rather than go to the penalty box, he
took his place in the faceoff circle, apparently feeling that if he
didn't leave the ice, the penalty would not count. Hey, what the hell,
in a game like this, it was worth a try. Cole did eventually get Craig
over to the box, and that was the only penalty of the second period.
Cornell continued to dominate the game well into the third period, but
another defensive miscue led to the game-winner for Princeton. A bad
pass was intercepted near the Cornell blue line by Sinson, who shook
off a half-hearted check by Marc Deschamps (not to pick on Deschamps;
most of the team was forechecking like that) and broke in on a 2-on-1
with Sharp. As Sinson reached the slot, he slid the puck over to
Sharp, who tapped it past Duffus at the 12:23 mark. The Big Red was
able to draw within one three minutes later, when Phil Nobel took a
long outlet pass from Karl Williams, skated in, and backhanded the puck
past Fiander as he was being hooked by a Princeton defender. Cornell
pulled Duffus with about a minute left, but the Tigers hung on for the
win. Finader had a superb game, finishing with 34 saves, while Duffus
had 22. This was the first time in eleven years that Princeton had won
a game at Lynah.
Personal note: I had an interesting experience at the Cornell Hockey
Boosters' Afterglow after Saturday night's game. I got to talk with Dave
Burke's parents, and Mr. Burke mistook me for Parris Duffus. Well, we do
look a lot alike, at least off the ice. We started talking about Dan
Ratushny and Kent Manderville at the Olympics, and about last season, but I
didn't really realize what was going on until he asked me how many years of
eligibility I had left. By the way, Dave does not have a broken finger. He
fractured a knuckle playing box lacrosse some time back, and the knuckle
sometimes swells up and gives him problems, but that's it (he does have a
thigh bruise, though).
--
Bill Fenwick | Send your HOCKEY-L poll responses to:
Cornell '86 and probably '94 | [log in to unmask]
LET'S GO RED!!
"I'd call you a sadistic bestial necrophiliac -- but that would be beating a
dead horse."
-- source unknown