The word "ECAC" must be Swahili for "tie" or something. Not only did five
of the twelve weekend games end in no-decisions, but both Harvard and Yale
broke the ECAC record for ties in a single season (both now have five), and
there are ties in the standings for first, third, fifth, seventh, and ninth
place. Too bad Dartmouth and Union didn't tie their game, or there would
have been a tie for eleventh as well. Here's a league which might benefit
from a return to the ten-minute overtime...
Scores from this weird weekend:
Friday, February 7:
Brown 8, PRINCETON 4
CLARKSON 3, Cornell 1
Dartmouth 5, RPI 5 (OT)
Harvard 5, YALE 5 (OT)
ST. LAWRENCE 9, Colgate 3
Vermont 5, UNION 2
Saturday, February 8:
Brown 5, YALE 5 (OT)
CLARKSON 8, Colgate 2
Dartmouth 8, UNION 3
Harvard 4, PRINCETON 4 (OT)
ST. LAWRENCE 5, Cornell 3
Vermont 2, RPI 2 (OT)
ECAC standings as of 2/9/92
League Overall
Team W L T Pts GF GA W L T Pts GF GA
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
Harvard 10 1 5 25 76 45 11 3 5 27 84 55
St.Lawrence 12 3 1 25 83 48 16 6 2 34 121 78
Clarkson 11 4 1 23 75 48 17 6 1 35 124 70
Yale 9 2 5 23 78 60 11 4 5 27 95 76
Brown 7 5 4 18 66 63 7 12 4 18 90 112
Cornell 8 6 2 18 53 42 10 8 2 22 65 53
Colgate 7 9 0 14 72 82 10 13 1 21 115 120
Vermont 6 7 2 14 53 51 12 9 2 26 90 67
Princeton 5 10 1 11 61 75 7 11 1 15 76 89
RPI 4 9 3 11 47 63 10 11 3 23 87 92
Dartmouth 2 13 1 5 43 90 2 17 1 5 53 116
Union 1 13 1 3 42 82 2 15 1 5 63 102
$ - Clinched playoff berth
Brian Farenell has already posted notes on the Clarkson-Cornell game, and
here's a few quick thoughts on Cornell's other North Country disaster:
St. Lawrence 5, Cornell 3
The first goal of the game came on a penalty shot. With St. Lawrence's
Spencer Meany in the box, Greg Carvel raced into the Cornell zone as
part of a 2-on-1 short-handed break. Todd Chambers hooked him down to
the ice, and referee Dan Murphy signalled the penalty shot option.
With his team down a man, coach Joe Marsh elected to take the shot, and
Carvel made it pay off, faking goaltender Parris Duffus to the ice and
flipping a backhander into the open net at 5:05 of the first period.
Chambers atoned for his miscue just 40 seconds later. With Cornell
still on the power play, he got the puck from Ryan Hughes and beat St.
Lawrence goalie Paul Spagnoletti high to the left side.
The Big Red took their only lead of the game at the 13:26 mark, when
Alex Nikolic banged home a rebound of a Geoff Bumstead shot. Cornell
controlled most of the rest of the period, and it looked like the one-
goal lead would stand up until intermission, but St. Lawrence managed
to do what Clarkson had done the night before -- tie the score late and
kill the Big Red's momentum. Duffus blocked a shot by Dan Laperriere
and Laperriere fanned on the rebound, but Mike Lappin was right behind
him to fire the puck home.
Three minutes into the second period, the Saints took the lead for
good. Duffus stopped Laperriere's drive, but kicked the rebound
straight out into the slot, where Mike Lappin picked it up and beat the
goalie between the pads. Lappin then set up Lee Albert with a drop
pass at the blue line, and Albert's 35-footer went through Duffus' pads
at the 10:10 mark. Duffus did not have a particularly good night; it's
rare that he gets beaten through the 5-hole, but it happened rather
regularly against St. Lawrence.
Cornell's Rick Davis got the Big Red back to within one with his first
career goal, on a truly awful shot from the slot that Spagnoletti never
saw. However, Cornell was trailing going into the third period, and
this year that has been bad news. The Big Red went into this game with
an 0-6-1 season record when trailing after two periods, and this night
would be no different. Near the end of the second, Cornell picked up a
5-on-3 power play when Laperriere was called for delay of game (for
pushing the net off its moorings -- a call that is practically never
made but should be), and the 5-on-3 lasted into the third, but the Big
Red did nothing with it. St. Lawrence was able to clear the puck
repeatedly, and Cornell could not generate any pressure. The Saints
closed out the scoring at 4:40 of the third period, when Teddy Dent
took a shot that Duffus blocked. The puck lay loose in the crease, and
with a goal-mouth scramble going on, Cornell's Russ Hammond tried to
clear the puck but wound up knocking it into the net instead. And that
was pretty much it. Duffus was pulled with 1:46 left, but Spagnoletti
came up with at least five big saves to keep Cornell from scoring
again.
Games this week:
Feb. 10
Beanpot Tournament:
Consolation:
Northeastern vs. Boston College
Championship:
Harvard vs. Boston University
Feb. 14
Clarkson at RPI
Colgate at Brown
Cornell at Harvard
Princeton at Vermont
St. Lawrence at Union
Yale at Dartmouth
Feb. 15
Cornell at Brown 3:00
Princeton at Dartmouth 3:00
Clarkson at Union
Colgate at Harvard
St. Lawrence at RPI
Yale at Vermont
--
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