This has been a strange year for the ECAC. Usually, there is a dominant
team or two in the league, such as Harvard and St. Lawrence in the late '80s
or Colgate in 1990. This year, however, the top four teams are all taking
turns not moving into first place, and none of them really seem ready to
take control of the top slot. Harvard has somehow remained in first place
despite not having a particularly talented team (except for the goal-
tending). St. Lawrence does have a lot of talent, but if the Saints hope to
unseat the Crimson, they are going to have to stop blowing games against the
likes of Vermont and RPI. As for Clarkson and Yale, they've both been in
near-disastrous slumps lately, but they're still not out of the race. It
looks like the ECAC regular-season title will be won by the team that screws
up the least, rather than by the most talented team or the one that's on the
hot streak.
Results from league play last weekend:
Friday, February 14:
Colgate 9, BROWN 8 (OT)
Cornell 2, HARVARD 2 (OT)
Dartmouth 4, YALE 4 (OT)
RPI 4, Clarkson 3 (OT)
St. Lawrence 5, UNION 1
VERMONT 4, Princeton 3
Saturday, February 15:
Clarkson 6, UNION 3
Cornell 4, BROWN 3
HARVARD 2, Colgate 1
PRINCETON 6, Dartmouth 3
RPI 4, St. Lawrence 3 (OT)
VERMONT 4, Yale 1
ECAC standings as of 2/17/92:
[These should be up to date. I neglected to include the Vermont-
Union result in last week's standings.]
League Overall
Team W L T Pts GF GA W L T Pts GF GA
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
@ Harvard 11 1 6 28 80 48 12 4 6 30 90 63
@ St. Lawrence 13 4 1 27 91 53 17 7 2 36 129 83
$ Clarkson 12 5 1 25 84 55 18 7 1 37 133 77
$ Yale 9 3 6 24 83 68 11 5 6 28 100 84
$ Cornell 9 6 3 21 59 47 11 8 3 25 71 58
$ Vermont 9 7 2 20 66 57 15 9 2 32 103 73
$ Brown 7 7 4 18 77 76 7 14 4 18 101 125
$ Colgate 8 10 0 16 82 92 11 14 1 23 125 130
$ RPI 6 9 3 15 55 69 12 11 3 27 95 98
Princeton 6 11 1 13 70 82 8 12 1 17 85 96
Dartmouth 2 14 2 6 50 100 2 18 2 6 60 126
Union 1 16 1 3 48 98 2 18 1 5 69 118
$ - Clinched playoff spot
@ - Clinched preliminary round bye
(The ECAC playoffs start with a preliminary round in which the #7 and #8
teams host the #9 and #10 teams on Tuesday, March 3. The survivors
advance to the quarterfinal round, held on Saturday, March 7.)
In other news, Yale has clinched the Ivy League championship, its first
since sharing the title with Harvard and Cornell back in 1985. This is the
Elis' third Ivy title, their first coming back in 1981. The Ivy League
standings have no bearing on the ECAC playoff picture, which makes them kind
of pointless, but there are some bragging rights involved at least. Here
are the current Ivy League standings:
Team W L T Pts GF GA
------------------------------------------
Yale 5 1 4 14 45 38
Cornell 4 2 3 11 28 24
Harvard 3 1 5 11 38 27
Brown 4 3 2 10 46 39
Princeton 3 6 1 7 39 47
Dartmouth 0 6 1 1 16 37
Cornell, Harvard, and Brown each have a game remaining against Dartmouth.
Notes on some of the games:
Dartmouth 4, Yale 4 (OT)
The Elis were fortunate to escape with the tie in this one, as Dart-
mouth played surprisingly well and led for most of the contest. Yale's
Craig Ferguson struck first just 2:22 into the game, but Yannick
Roussin tied it midway through the first period. The Big Green had a
3-1 lead after two periods on goals by Tony DelCarmine and Shawn Burt.
However, the Elis fought back in the third, with Martin Leroux netting
one at the 6:53 mark and Mark Kaufmann tying the game at 11:07. Dart-
mouth appeared to regain control of the game when Mike Stacchi poked
home a Roussin rebound with 4:33 left in regulation, but Yale's Peter
Allen got the game's final goal with 1:53 to go in the third. Dart-
mouth's Vern Guetens stopped 34 shots, while John Hockin had 30 saves
for the Elis.
Vermont 4, Princeton 3
Princeton had a 2-0 lead after one period, thanks in large part to the
play of Terry Morris. He got an unassisted tally at the 11:21 mark,
then fed Matt Zilinskas for a goal with 50 seconds remaining in the
first. The Catamounts tied the game up in the second on goals from
Nick Perreault (5:19) and Rob Pattison (12:32), but Princeton's Dan
Slatella put his team up 3-2 at the 14:10 mark. Travis Lebouiller
evened things up a minute and a half later, and he then got the game-
winner nine minutes into the third period. Vermont's Christian Soucy
recorded 26 saves, and Princeton's Craig Fiander had 25.
Colgate 9, Brown 8 (OT)
As you can tell from the score, this was a wild one. Brown outshot
Colgate by a 41-22 margin, but the Bears fell victim to a bad perfor-
mance by goaltender Brett Haywood, who made only 13 saves (I'm
surprised he played the whole game). Dale Band and Dan Gardner gave
the Red Raiders a 2-0 lead in the first, but Brown's Eric Trach cut the
deficit in half with 1:43 to go in the period. The second period
opened with Brent Wilde putting Colgate up 3-1 at the 1:54 mark, but
Mike Ross brought the Bears back to within one at 4:08. The two teams
then combined for four goals in two minutes, starting with Gardner's
second one of the night at the 6:12 mark. Derek Chauvette scored for
the Bears just 17 seconds later, and then Joe Verderber tied the game
at 7:48 before Jason Greyerbiehl put the Red Raiders ahead again, 5-4,
at 8:10. Joe Beck scored for Brown nine minutes later to end the
second period goal-fest.
Midway through the third, Colgate regained the lead on a goal by Clay-
ton Fahey, but Mike Brewer evened things up yet again at the 14:37
mark. When Andrew Dickson gave the Red Raiders the lead less than a
minute later, and then Ron Fogarty tallied with 2:51 left to put
Colgate up by two, it looked like it was all over. But Tim Chase got a
pair of goals in the next two minutes to send the game into the extra
period. Dickson's goal with just eleven seconds remaining in OT
decided the issue. Colgate goalie Shawn Murray made 33 saves.
Harvard 2, Colgate 1
The Crimson got a quick 2-0 lead when Chris Baird and Perry Cohagan
scored 49 seconds apart in the first period, and then goaltender
Chuckie Hughes did the rest, allowing only a goal by Craig deBlois at
the 1:43 mark of the second. This was the first time in their last
four meetings that a game between Harvard and Colgate did not go into
overtime.
Cornell 2, Harvard 2 (OT)
Dave Smith writes:
> Also, the Friday 2-2 tie between Harvard and Cornell is
>the third consecutive 2-2 final produced by these teams--two at Lynah and one
>at Bright. We'll take the tie. I don't know how long it's been since we've
>gotten any points at Harvard's barn.
All of a sudden, Cornell-Harvard is starting to look like Cornell-
Clarkson a couple of years ago, when those two skated to four consec-
utive ties. While it's certainly been a while since a Cornell team
left Bright Hockey Center with any points at all (seven years), I was
not entirely happy with this result. Cornell could have and probably
should have won this game -- not that the Big Red played particularly
well, but Harvard played worse. In years past, the Crimson have been a
high-tempo, slick-passing team, but that doesn't appear to be the case
this season. Harvard had an inordinate number of flubbed passes, mis-
played pucks, and the like on Friday night, although they did come up
with 40 shots on goal.
The story of the game was two-fold: goaltending and officiating.
Harvard's Allain Roy and Cornell's Parris Duffus are 1-2 in the ECAC
goaltending stats, and they showed why. About the only thing Duffus
hadn't done during his superlative season was show that he could come
back from a sub-par effort. Well, after his less-than-stellar per-
formance in the game against St. Lawrence last Saturday, Duffus came
out and played brilliantly, stopping 38 shots including a number of
head-shakers. Not to be outdone, Roy had a terrific game at the other
end, finishing with 29 saves and withstanding some intense Cornell
pressure. The officiating was just as unbelievable as the goaltending
was, but, in a, um, different way. In other words, it was horrendous.
I generally like referee John Gallagher's style, and I thought he did
quite well in the Yale game (which was a tough one to officiate), but a
number of the calls he made Friday night made me think he was punch-
drunk from getting hit too many times during games. Speaking of which,
he got decked again, a couple minutes into the overtime period. This
guy isn't on top of the action, he's IN it.
The Big Red got on the board first at 4:10 of the opening period, when
Joe Dragon intercepted a pass and sent the puck behind the net to Ryan
Hughes, who beat Roy through the pads on a wrap-around. That would be
the only goal of the first period, although Harvard had a couple of
chances to tie it, thanks in part to some Cornell defensive miscues.
With about five minutes left in the period, a Harvard forward had a
clear shot at an empty net, but Christian Felli hooked him out of
harm's way. Then with 1:55 left, Harvard's Jim Coady caught Duffus out
of position with a wrap-around attempt, but the puck fluttered across
the crease and Duffus fell on it to preserve Cornell's lead.
The second period was scoreless but not uneventful, especially for the
fellows in the black-and-white shirts. Gallagher had a couple of
interesting calls, one coming on Ryan Hughes three minutes into the
period. It looked like a legitimate check, but Gallagher felt
otherwise and hit Hughes with a minor. I was sitting next to the
Cornell bench and got as much of an earful of coach Brian McCutcheon's
reaction as the ref did. "Boarding?" he hollered. "BOARDING!?" and
then came an expletive indicating that he felt the call was in error.
Cornell had a number of opportunities in the second period to increase
their lead, including a short-handed breakaway attempt by Karl
Williams, but Roy was equal to the task. A scary moment occurred about
eight minutes in, when Roy went down in the crease under a pile of
players and stayed on his back for several minutes, but he recovered
and was OK. (Cornell was crashing the net much more often than usual in
this game -- Roy got hit a number of times) Late in the period, play
was stopped due to a Harvard off-sides, but Cornell's Geoff Bumstead
went after the puck anyway, bumping a Harvard player, and wound up with
a misconduct.
The way Duffus was playing, it looked like Cornell's 1-0 lead would
stand up all night, but the Crimson finally lit the lamp at 2:01 of the
third period. Rich DeFreitas fired the puck over to Ben Coughlin and
Coughlin skated in on a mini-break. Coughlin's first attempt bounced
off defenseman Dave Burke, but Coughlin corralled the puck and back-
handed it high inside the crossbar over Duffus' glove. The tie lasted
all of 37 seconds, though, as Jason Vogel blasted one from the right
circle that Joe Dragon deflected past Roy.
In the game between these two last December, Cornell trailed Harvard
2-1 in the third period and got the tying goal on a bit of a fluke, as
Crimson goalie Chuckie Hughes covered the puck and Ryan Hughes slapped
at his glove, popping the puck into the net. Virtually the same thing
happened in reverse Friday night. Harvard got the game's final goal at
10:11 of the third period, when Duffus stopped a drive by Steve Flomen-
hoft and went to cover the puck. He got his glove on it at the same
time as Tim Burke's stick arrived, and the puck flew loose and into the
net.
The game was far from over, and the real fun started 16 seconds after
Burke's goal. During one of Cornell's rushes into the Harvard net,
Alex Nikolic was called for cross-checking (I didn't see it, but there
was a clump of players in front of the net), and all sorts of pushing
and shoving started. Roy got Nikolic's attention with a nice left
hook, and those two went at it for a minute or two. Then, while
Nikolic was being dragged away, Perry Cohagan went after him. Galla-
gher tried to restrain Nikolic from Cohagan, knocking Nikolic's helmet
off in the process. The whole mess was summed up nicely by a photo-
graph in the _Boston Globe_, which showed Cohagan being grabbed by a
linesman, Cohagan's stick resting on Nikolic's head, Nikolic hollering
at Cohagan (presumably advising him to up the amount of his life insur-
ance policy), and Gallagher grabbing Nikolic by the throat. The fight
was bad enough, but in pushing Nikolic away from all the action,
Gallagher managed to steer him directly into the boards in front of the
Harvard bench. Now, the Harvard team dislikes Nikolic just as much as
Nikolic dislikes the Harvard team (which is a considerable amount), and
they didn't miss the opportunity to berate him. Nikolic responded, of
course, and for a moment I thought he was going to take on the whole
bench, but fortunately nothing further happened. Not surprisingly,
Nikolic was hit with a misconduct and a game misconduct, in addition to
a pair of minors (the second was for hitting after the whistle). Roy
also got a minor for hitting after the whistle, while Cohagan was not
called for anything. Somehow, in all the confusion, no one from either
team went into the box to serve the hitting-after-the-whistle minors.
Both goalies had to make a number of great saves in the third period to
preserve the tie, and Duffus particularly shined in the overtime,
during which Harvard outshot Cornell 5-1. When it was all over, after
an uneventful post-game handshake (well, you never know, with these two
teams), McCutcheon sought out Gallagher and had a somewhat heated dis-
cussion with him -- probably not about the New Hampshire primary.
Cornell 4, Brown 3
The Bears outshot Cornell by a 30-15 margin, but they were once again
done in by bad goaltending -- Geoff Finch stopped only 11 shots.
Duffus was once again the Big Red's hero, making 27 saves and keeping
Brown's sometimes explosive offense from getting on track.
The game was a tough, physical one, as eight of the eighteen penalties
called were for roughing. Both offenses got off to slow starts -- in
fact, Cornell's first shot on goal didn't come until almost eight
minutes into the game. Brown took advantage of a Cornell miscue in the
defensive zone to score the game's first goal, as Mike Ross stole the
puck from Dave Burke. Ross fluttered the puck over to Steve Hanley,
and as Duffus came out of the net toward Hanley, he quickly fired the
puck to Derek Chauvette, who popped it into the open net at 8:43 of the
first period. Later in the period, Brown's Chris Kaban plowed into
Duffus and slammed Duffus' head into the crossbar. Duffus dropped to
the ice and stayed there, hardly moving, for several scary minutes, but
he recovered and was able to continue. Kaban could very easily have
been called for a major on that one, but he wound up with a roughing
minor. I suspect the NCAA is going to emphasize roughing and hitting-
after-the-whistle penalties next year, because it seems to me that a
lot of that stuff is being called pretty loosely this season.
On the ensuing power play, Cornell tied the score, as Phil Nobel poked
home a rebound at the 14:50 mark. With two minutes left in the first
period, Stephane Gauvin and Karl Williams broke into the Brown zone on
a 2-on-1. Gauvin faked a pass to Williams, and as Finch started to
move across the crease, Gauvin wristed the puck behind him. Brown had
three power plays in the second period, and a goal was scored on each
of them, but the Bears didn't do all the scoring. Brown's Eric Trach
poked home a Hanley rebound to tie the game just 25 seconds into the
middle period. About five minutes later, the Bears were on the power
play again, but it was Cornell coming up with a short-handed goal to
pull ahead. Mike Brewer won a faceoff to Finch's left but lost the
puck to Cornell's Shaun Hannah, who fed Jason Vogel for a goal at the
6:34 mark. Later, James O'Brien sent a cross-ice pass to Tim Chase,
who one-timed it into the Cornell net at 16:14 of the second.
The teams traded chances in the third period, but the score remained
tied until there was 3:55 left in regulation. Alex Nikolic dumped the
puck behind the net to Russ Hammond, who spotted Hannah in front and
centered the puck to him. Hannah's quick wrister sailed over Finch's
glove and into the corner of the net. (I guess the Hannah family had
mixed emotions on that one. It turns out that Shaun's sister Kim is a
freshman at Brown.) The Bears pulled Finch in the game's final minute,
but Duffus gloved the puck with about 30 seconds left, forcing a
faceoff, and Brown would not get close again.
Next weekend's games:
Feb. 21
Clarkson at Yale
Dartmouth at Harvard
RPI at Cornell
St. Lawrence at Princeton
Union at Colgate
Vermont at Brown
Feb. 22
RPI at Colgate 3:00
Union at Cornell 4:00
Clarkson at Princeton
Dartmouth at Brown
St. Lawrence at Yale
Vermont at Harvard
--
Bill Fenwick | Send your HOCKEY-L poll responses to:
Cornell '86 and probably '94 | [log in to unmask]
LET'S GO RED!!
"I'm not allowed to say anything about the officiating, even if it's bad. I'm
not allowed to talk about the officiating, even if it's pathetic."
-- BU head coach Jack Parker after the Feb. 14th game between BU and Lowell,
in which the officiating did leave a little to be desired