This was the ECAC's Yogi Berra weekend -- it was like deja vu all over
again. Last year, going into the last weekend of the season, Clarkson was
chasing Cornell for first place. The Big Red lost its last two games,
enabling Clarkson to get the regular-season title with a tie against Dart-
mouth. This year, the Golden Knights were chasing Harvard, which obligingly
lost ITS last two games of the year, one of them at Clarkson's Cheel Arena.
Clarkson thus had a clear path to its second consecutive ECAC title, needing
only to tie Brown. This time, however, the Knights couldn't pull it off.
Just like last year, the top three teams in the ECAC finished with 32, 31,
and 31 points.
Harvard, St. Lawrence, and Clarkson regularly wind up with home ice for the
ECAC quarterfinals, but this is the first time Yale has had that honor in
five years. Going a little farther down, Brown's sixth place finish means
the Bears will avoid the preliminary round for the first time since it was
introduced three years ago. Sixth place is also the highest that Brown has
finished in the ECAC since 1978.
Results from the ECAC's final weekend:
Friday, February 28:
CLARKSON 4, Harvard 2
DARTMOUTH 3, Cornell 2
Princeton 4, UNION 1
ST. LAWRENCE 3, Brown 2
VERMONT 7, Colgate 6 (OT)
Yale 7, RPI 7 (OT)
Saturday, February 29:
Brown 4, CLARKSON 3
Colgate 5, DARTMOUTH 3
Cornell 2, VERMONT 2 (OT)
Princeton 5, RPI 3
ST. LAWRENCE 4, Harvard 0
Yale 5, UNION 4 (OT)
Final ECAC standings:
League Overall
Team W L T Pts GF GA W L T Pts GF GA
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
# Harvard 13 3 6 32 90 59 14 6 6 34 100 74
# St. Lawrence 15 6 1 31 104 66 19 9 2 40 142 96
# Clarkson 15 6 1 31 101 63 21 8 1 43 150 85
# Yale 11 4 7 29 103 90 13 6 7 33 120 106
@ Cornell 10 8 4 24 70 59 12 10 4 28 82 70
@ Brown 10 8 4 24 93 86 10 15 4 24 117 135
$ Vermont 10 9 3 23 78 74 16 11 3 35 115 90
$ Colgate 11 11 0 22 105 108 14 15 1 29 148 146
$ Princeton 9 12 1 19 84 91 11 13 1 23 99 105
$ RPI 6 12 4 16 70 89 12 14 4 28 110 118
Dartmouth 3 17 2 8 60 116 3 21 2 8 70 142
Union 2 19 1 5 61 118 3 21 1 7 82 138
$ - Clinched playoff spot
@ - Clinched preliminary round bye
# - Clinched home ice for quarterfinals
St. Lawrence clinched second place over Clarkson because of the Saints' 2-0
record in head-to-head competition.
Cornell finished in fifth place ahead of Brown due to a 1-0-1 record in
head-to-head competition.
Final Ivy League standings:
Team W L T Pts GF GA
------------------------------------------
Yale 5 1 4 14 45 38
Harvard 4 1 5 13 42 29
Brown 5 3 2 12 51 41
Cornell 4 3 3 11 30 27
Princeton 3 6 1 7 39 47
Dartmouth 1 8 1 3 23 48
My notes on the Cornell action won't be as voluminous as usual, since
several people have already summarized both games. Just a few (thousand)
things to add:
Dartmouth 3, Cornell 2
This was an unexpected and numbing loss for the Big Red -- it offi-
cially killed Cornell's flickering home-ice hopes -- but Dartmouth had
been building up to this victory for a while. In February of '91, when
the teams met at Lynah, the Big Green clogged up the neutral zone and
almost thoroughly frustrated Cornell's offense, and if Dartmouth had
had some firepower of its own, the Big Red would not have gotten away
with a 2-0 victory. When the teams next met a month and a half ago,
the Big Green again clogged things up, throwing a scare into the Cor-
nell team before coming apart in the third period and allowing the Big
Red to win 4-1. Well, this time, Dartmouth forced Cornell into a
number of miscues, disrupted the Big Red's offense (not that that takes
much doing anymore), and scored a couple late goals to get the win. At
least one positive thing did happen for Cornell in this game: freshman
blue-liner Blair Ettles finally returned to action after being out
since January 3 with an ankle injury (they kept saying "sprained", but
it was more likely broken).
The Big Green opened the scoring with the only goal of the first
period, at the 13:44 mark. Dion DelMonte centered from behind the net
to Patric Turcotte, who blasted one over goaltender Parris Duffus'
shoulder. Referee Jim Cerbo had waved off an apparent goal by Cor-
nell's Joe Dragon earlier in the period, calling the Big Red for a
crease violation. Despite playing sloppily in the second period,
Cornell was able to tie the score at 13:18. Stephane Gauvin won a
faceoff in the Cornell end and fed Jim McPhee, who raced up the left
wing and fired a blast from the faceoff circle that caught Dartmouth
goalie Vern Guetens off guard.
The Big Red came out aggressively in the third period, and Dartmouth
began to scramble a bit. Dave Burke put Cornell ahead 5:02 into the
period with a one-timer from the point that Guetens never saw, and even
though the score was only 2-1, it looked like the Big Red finally had
control of the game. But this was not the Dartmouth team of years
past, and they didn't roll over and die. Cerbo had been calling a
loose game all night, and he was really looking the other way during
the third period, as the two teams took turns hauling each other down.
When he finally did make a call, it was on Cornell's Karl Williams for
hooking; there was no doubt that Williams was guilty of the violation,
but it was relatively clean considering what Cerbo had been letting go.
Cornell played the penalty kill pretty well, until a defensive break-
down led to the game-tying goal at 14:22. The whole Cornell team was
caught on the right side of the zone, leaving Etienne Belzile alone on
the left side with three Dartmouth players. One of them, Scott Fraser,
got the puck and skated to the left faceoff dot. Duffus came out to
challenge him, but Fraser's shot caught the far corner of the net.
Seconds after this goal, a rather frightening moment occurred, when one
of the arena's Plexiglass panels broke in half and a piece of it fell
on a child who was sitting in the first row. Fortunately, he was OK,
and the glass was replaced. A Cornell turnover led directly to the Big
Green's game-winning goal with 2:08 left. The puck was left loose
between the circles, and Turcotte pounced on it and left a drop pass
for Mike Stacchi, who was left all alone by the Cornell defense.
Stacchi wheeled around and fired a backhander that beat Duffus between
the pads, and that was it. Duffus had a good game, finishing with 24
saves, but Guetens was outstanding, as he stopped 34 shots. Guetens is
a good one, and he should get a lot more recognition than he has so
far. And while I am certainly not happy with Cornell's loss Friday
night, I have to agree with Bob Gross that this is an up-and-coming
Dartmouth team. Yes, the Big Green's season is over, but I think next
year, Dartmouth fans can *expect* their team to make the ECAC playoffs,
rather than *hoping* that they will. I admit I'm getting a little sick
of congratulating Cornell's opponents, but the Big Green deserved the
win.
Cornell 2, Vermont 2 (OT)
Really nothing to add to Greg Berge's eyewitness account -- just a few
comments on the "aftermath". Already, some of the so-called "Faithful"
are calling for coach Brian McCutcheon's head on a platter after the
Big Red team managed a paltry one point in their final three games --
the third straight year that Cornell has finished the regular season
with a thud. Well, say what you will about McCutcheon's coaching, his
ability to motivate, or whatever, but one thing you have to admit: the
guy's got guts. He shook the entire Cornell team up on the night of
perhaps its most important game of the season -- a loss here would have
dropped the Big Red to seventh place and consigned them to a berth in
the preliminary round. The biggest and most obvious change was putting
freshman Andy Bandurski in goal for Parris Duffus; prior to this game,
Bandurski had seen all of 28 minutes of action the whole season. Ban-
durski responded with a terrific game, making 34 saves; Vermont fresh-
man sensation Christian Soucy also stopped 34 shots. McCutcheon's
strategy did not work as well as it might have -- Cornell managed only
a tie, and the offense was still stuck on two goals -- but the team did
play better. This creates all sorts of interesting questions for the
playoffs. It's not likely that Bandurski will start against Yale, but
then again, McCutcheon benched starter Corrie D'Alessio in favor of
backup Jim Crozier for the playoffs the last two seasons...
One final note on Cornell's regular-season performance: It is often said
that in football, "offense sells tickets, but defense wins games." This
year's Cornell team shows that the same is not necessarily true in hockey.
The Big Red allowed just 59 goals against ECAC competition this season (an
average of 2.68 per game), and you'd have to go back to 1972-73 to find a
Cornell team that went through the regular season giving up fewer goals than
that. It's been said over and over again: the Big Red needs an offense in
the worst way. Duffus has shown he can win games with very little help; the
problem is that the team has been asking him to do that every damn week.
Aside to Dave Smith: A hundred and eighty-five lines? Get outta here, you
lightweight! :-)
The ECAC playoffs begin Tuesday night, when #7 Vermont hosts #10 RPI and #9
Princeton travels to #8 Colgate. Both games are scheduled to start at 7:30.
The winners of these two games will be seeded seventh and eighth and will
travel to St. Lawrence and Harvard for the Saturday night quarterfinal
games; the other q-final matchups will feature Brown at Clarkson and Cornell
at Yale.
Here's a preview of Tuesday night's preliminary round games. Keep in mind
that since I started predicting the ECAC playoffs, I've put up a sterling
11-5 record. Eleven wrong, five right...
RPI at Vermont:
SEASON SERIES: Vermont won at home, 4-1, and the two teams played to a
2-2 tie at RPI.
OUTLOOK: It isn't difficult to pinpoint the main factor in RPI's 12-
point, five-place drop in the standings from last season. Once upon a
time, the Engineers could be counted on to score about six goals
against anybody, but that offense pretty much fell by the wayside this
year -- RPI averaged just over three goals a game. That does not bode
well for their trip to raucous Gutterson Field House, where the
Catamounts are all but impossible to beat. Vermont hasn't exactly been
an offensive powerhouse themselves, but the goaltending of Christian
"Be sure you spell my name right on your Rookie-of-the-Year ballots"
Soucy should carry them to the quarterfinals.
PREDICTION: Vermont.
Princeton at Colgate:
SEASON SERIES: Colgate won both games, 4-3 at Princeton and 6-4 at
home.
OUTLOOK: This is a rematch of a preliminary round game from last year,
in which the Red Raiders bounced Princeton out of the playoffs by a 5-2
count. Things are a little different now, as both teams have new
coaches. Under Don Cahoon, the Tigers have been a tough team at times,
as shown by a 4-4 tie against Harvard and a 5-1 victory over St. Law-
rence. They generally play a clutch-and-grab style, but guys like
Andre Faust, Ian Sharp, and Matt Zilinskas can make things exciting.
As for Colgate, it's amazing that Brian Durocher got a 0.500 record out
of this team after the hard times they've had this season. But center
Dale Band has been a steady presence on this team, and Shawn Murray has
emerged from the shadows to become a good goaltender for Colgate.
Playing the game at Starr Rink also has to tip the scales in favor of
the Red Raiders.
PREDICTION: Colgate.
--
Bill Fenwick | Send your HOCKEY-L poll responses to:
Cornell '86 and probably '94 | [log in to unmask]
LET'S GO RED!!
"This is my favorite part: As a worldwide television audience looks on, the
most powerful nation on the face of the earth is reduced to watching a
referee explain to fellow Americans which side of a coin is heads and which
is tails. I hate to imagine what the Japanese were thinking."
-- Norman Chad, on the coin toss before the Super Bowl