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Another home loss for the Big Red, as Boston College comes to Lynah Rink for the first time in three seasons and picks up the victory... Boston College 5, Cornell 2 The late Pete Axthelm used to refer to games like this as "Smashed Windshield specials", because if you were to leave two tickets to the game on the dashboard of your car, someone would smash the windsheld and leave four more. This one was Just Plain Awful. It really looked like neither team was terribly interested in being on the ice: there was no forechecking to speak of, the passing was unbelievably sloppy (constantly off the heels of the sticks), and both teams seemed to be playing at about one-eighth speed. If BC has been doing this all season, it amazes me that they came into this one with a record above 0.500 and a split against a pretty good New Hampshire team. As for the Big Red, I hope it was just a downer after a highly emotional weekend at Yale and Princeton, or perhaps the players were preoccupied with finals (this is Cornell's study week), but this was a vivid flashback to the latter stages of last season. The Cornell players were doing a lot of poking at the puck and avoiding contact, and it seemed almost like the Big Red was worried about mixing it up with the Eagles. Yes, BC has quite a few more players in the above- 200-pound range than Cornell does, but the Big Red's game goes nowhere without some decent checking -- as last night proved. On at least two occasions, a Cornell player was skating with full control of the puck (which in itself was a rare sight to see for either team, but I digress), and when a BC player charged toward him, the Cornell guy backed away from the puck, giving it up. Even the somewhat diminished crowd got into the mood of this game, as with few exceptions they were lethargic from the opening faceoff. I admit to not having gotten much sleep the past few nights, but I don't think I have ever yawned so much at a Cornell game -- that's how bad it was. There was some action in the first period, due mainly to some rotten puck-handling by BC which gave the Big Red a number of scoring oppor- tunities. With 3:45 gone in the first, a Vinnie Auger shot wound up right on the goal line, just begging to be tapped home. A BC defender got to it at the same time Auger did, however, and the puck was cleared out of the crease. A few minutes later, Brad Chartrand was all alone in the slot, but his point-blank shot glanced off goalie Greg Taylor's leg and fluttered wide of the net. Speaking of Taylor, has this guy perfected the save-with-the-back-of-the-leg-as-the-puck-goes-through- the-five-hole, or was he just insanely lucky? I lost count of how many times that happened in this game. Anyway, the Eagles' first power play came at 9:03 of the first, when Geoff Lopatka was sent off for high-sticking, but Cornell started off the penalty kill with a huge flurry in the BC end, forcing Taylor to make three or four of those back-of-the-leg saves. The Eagles finally worked the puck out of their own end, however. BC had an odd power play, sometimes winding up with three or even four guys behind the Cornell net, but whether that was by accident or design, they did manage to get on the scoreboard. Rob Canavan took a shot from in close that goaltender Eddy Skazyk got a pad on, but Jerry Buckley picked up the rebound and flipped it into the top of the net at the 10:09 mark. Another Cornell flurry later in the first produced a few scoring chances that Taylor turned aside, and BC extended their lead to 2-0 three minutes and four seconds into the second period. Don Chase skated out of the Eagle zone on a 2-on-1 with Buckley, and with de- fenseman Tim Shean between them to cut off the potential pass, Chase elected to take the shot from the right circle, beating Skazyk low. Skazyk redeemed himself with a good sliding save of a point-blank shot a minute and a half later, but at the 8:26 mark, BC scored again. This time, John Joyce skated in with the puck, and the Cornell defense was able to force him off it, but Ryan Haggerty picked it up, skated to his left, and unleashed a low slapper that bounced in off Skazyk's pad. The rest of the period was low-lighted by the occasional officiating snafu, including a shot which clearly went out of play by hitting the net above the glass. It dropped to the ice, everybody just sort of looked at each other and shrugged, and play continued. Oh, well. Any- way, the Big Red came out a little more fired up for the third period, and they proceeded to fire up the crowd as well by finally getting the puck past Taylor. As a Cornell power play neared expiration, Blair Ettles blasted one from near the blue line that bounced off Taylor's pad, and during the ensuing scramble near the goal mouth, Mike Sanci- mino got his stick on the puck and popped it in from the left side at the 1:07 mark. Lynah rocked -- for all of 19 seconds, which is how long it took BC to respond. Jeff Connolly skated behind the Cornell net with the puck, and as Skazyk looked over his left shoulder to see where he was, Connolly came out to the goaltender's right and scored on the wrap-around. A hooking and a tripping call on BC set Cornell up with a 53-second 5-on-3 power play, but it looked like the Big Red was going to spend the whole time passing around the perimeter. Finally, however, Geoff Bumstead rang one off the left post, and Mark Scollan was right there to flip it in over Taylor at the 7:09 mark. The action started to pick up, though the game was still being played sloppily. With about ten minutes remaining in the game, BC's Clifton McHale doubled over in front of the Eagle bench (in the manner of somebody who has just been speared, though I didn't see any Cornell players near him). McHale was helped to the banch, where I believe he remained for the rest of the game. At any rate, BC's Joe Harney closed out the scoring with 6:34 remaining, on a fluttering shot from the blue line that a screened Skazyk never saw. BC head coach Steve Cedorchuk proved himself to be a sadist, as he called for a timeout in this already interminable game with 2:44 left. Whatever for? I thought maybe he was going to give a backup goaltender some work, but no, Taylor stayed in the game. He wound up with 30 saves on the night; Skazyk, who had a bad game but got absolutely no help from his teammates, stopped 19 shots. Lost in the general malaise of this game were two relatively bright spots for Cornell. They had a 32-24 edge on BC in shots on goal, the first time that the Big Red has had the lead in that department since the season opener at Dartmouth. Also, both Cornell goals came on the power play, which despite an inconsistent performance managed to go 2 of 9 on the evening. This means that the Big Red's power-play unit has converted 23% (3 of 13) of its chances against non-league opponents BU and BC, while going scoreless in 30 opportunities against ECAC com- petition. Cornell takes a three and a half week break before going to Minnesota to play in the Mariucci Classic on December 31 and January 2. The Big Red will play the host Minnesota team on New Year's Eve, while Maine and Lake Superior battle it out in the other first-round game. -- Bill Fenwick | Send your HOCKEY-L poll responses to: Cornell '86 and '94 (.5) | [log in to unmask] LET'S GO RED!! "What do you do? Nothing? If you do nothing, how do you know when you're finished?" -- Charles Fleischer