[ Haven't seen anything from HOCKEY-L in a couple of days, so hopefully this won't repeat too much... ] The Big Red made their annual North Country pilgrimage over the weekend and, in a bit of a surprise, managed to come away with two points, thanks to a victory over St. Lawrence at Appleton. Cornell's winless streak was thus snapped at nine games. The Big Red was unable to complete the sweep against a tough Clarkson team, but still, their performance on the weekend may ulti- mately prove to be a turning point in this up-and-down season. It was particularly noteworthy that Cornell was able to come from behind against the Saints and almost duplicated the feat the following night against the Golden Knights. More notes on the weekend games below: Cornell 5, St. Lawrence 3 OK, the Big Red had been playing considerably better since the Union fiasco a few weeks ago, with three ties in their last four games, and the Saints were in the midst of a slump that had seen them lose nine of their last ten games. Still, this one was kind of a shocker. Cor- nell's offense finally came to life, as the five goals they notched in this one was their season high. The stars of the game were freshman forward Vincent Auger, who assisted on Cornell's first three goals before picking up an empty-netter, and sophomore goaltender Eddy Skazyk, who had another terrific game, finishing with 40 saves. One other bit of good news for Big Red fans was that the Geoff Bumstead- Jake Karam-Mike Sancimino line, which had made some noise earlier in the season, was put back together for this game. Overall, the game was rather sloppily played by both teams, and in spite of junior Blair Ettles' return to the lineup, the young Cornell defense had some rough times early on. St. Lawrence, however, squan- dered some early opportunities, and the first period remained scoreless until the 18:25 mark, when Mike Allain, fresh out of the box after serving a high-sticking penalty, stuffed home a Burke Murphy rebound. Mark McGeough followed that with his first goal of the season at 2:07 of the second period, and it appeared that St. Lawrence was well on its way to taking control of this one. But Joel McArter blasted an Auger feed past Saints goalie Paul Spagnoletti at 8:05 of the second for his first career goal, and P.C. Drouin tied the score at 2-2 with 13:12 gone in the period. A turnover deep in the St. Lawrence zone led to Drouin wristing one off Spagnoletti's glove and into the net. The tie lasted all of 1:17, however, as Ken Ruddock fired a low shot that eluded Skazyk, giving St. Lawrence the one-goal lead they enjoyed for the rest of the second period. All season long, the Big Red has had trouble playing consistently and converting their scoring opportunities into goals, and these problems plagued them again in the first two periods of this game. In the third, however, things finally started to click for Cornell, starting with a slashing call on McGeough at the 1:07 mark. Coach McCutcheon sent out his five-forward power-play unit, and the Big Red tied the score at 2:30 of the third. Auger took a long shot that Spagnoletti blocked, but Bumstead was right there to poke the rebound home. Bum- stead also figured in the game-winner two and a half minutes later, as he started Cornell on a 3-on-1 break which ended with Karam pouncing on a Sancimino rebound and wristing it over Spagnoletti. The Big Red did not slack off after taking the lead, as they were able to keep the pressure on the Saints' defense for most of the rest of the game. Cornell wound up with 17 shots on goal in the third period, an astonishing total when you consider the difficulties that the Big Red has had on offense this season. St. Lawrence tried to generate some scoring chances of their own later in the period, but an interference call on Joel Prpic with 4:54 left was a crucial blow. The Saints did pull Spagnoletti with 1:40 left and were able to bottle Cornell up in their own end for a time, but Geoff Lopatka was finally able to work the puck across the blue line, leading to Auger's empty-netter with ten seconds left. The win boosted Cornell to the 0.500 mark in league play at the halfway point, with a 3-3-5 record. Spagnoletti wound up stopping 33 of the 37 shots he faced. Clarkson 6, Cornell 3 Cornell entered this game gunning for its first North Country sweep in eight years, but the Golden Knights put an end to that dream with three goals in under two minutes midway through the second period. The Big Red is now winless against Clarkson in their last five regular-season meetings. The Big Red was considerably more inspired at the start of this game than they were the previous evening at Appleton, and they had a pretty solid forecheck going in the first period (Clarkson, surprisingly, did not). Neither team had much of a territorial advantage in the first 20 minutes, but Clarkson did a lot more with their opportunities than the Big Red did with theirs. The Golden Knights wound up with a 13-4 shots-on-goal advantage for the first period, and Cornell didn't get its first shot on goal until seven minutes into the game. Clarkson came out on fire for the second period and was all over the Cornell zone in the first couple minutes. The Knights missed a few chances, however, and all of a sudden, Vincent Auger was going the other way and firing a low slapper toward Clarkson goalie Jason Currie from 25 feet out. Currie was equal to the task, and the Golden Knights worked the puck back up the ice. Linemates Kevin Murphy and Dave Seitz criss-crossed at the Cornell blue line (almost going off-side in the process), and Seitz got the puck over to Murphy in the slot. Murphy took a low shot from in close that beat goaltender Andy Bandurski to the stick side at 2:25 of the second period. (the radio announcers said that Murphy was credited with the goal, his first of the season, but Bri Farenell's posting indicated that Seitz scored on the rebound) Cornell had a golden opportunity to tie the score a minute and a half later, when Shaun Hannah blew into the Clarkson zone on a 2-on-1 break with Matt Cooney, but Hannah's shot rolled behind Currie and harmlessly out the other side of the crease. The action was end-to-end at this point, and Joel McArter came very close to a clean breakaway at the seven minute mark. The puck rolled toward him at center ice, but he overskated it and was promptly levelled by Clarkson's Josh Bartell. The Knights took over after that, and they made it 2-0 at the 11:57 mark. Cornell defender Jason Zubkus stood Steve Palmer up in the right circle and kicked the puck off his stick, but Craig Conroy was trailing the play, and he got the loose biscuit and whacked it into the net to Bandurski's right. The goal opened the floodgates for Clarkson, as they lit the lamp again a minute and eleven seconds later. This time, Seitz dug the puck out of the right corner and worked it over to Murphy, who snapped a shot that Todd White deflected into the net. The Big Red called their timeout at this point, but it did no good, as Patrice Robitaille made it 4-0 24 seconds later. Zubkus corralled the puck at the back boards and tried to clear it, but Ed Henrich inter- cepted the pass at the left point and dumped it in front for Robi- taille. The goal ended the night for Bandurski, who was replaced by Eddy Skazyk. Over the past few years, the Golden Knights have had the annoying, and sometimes costly, habit of taking a big lead and then sitting on their heels, allowing their opponent to get back into the game. For whatever reason, they had never done this against Cornell -- at least, not until Saturday night. Murphy went off for hitting from behind at the 16:02 mark, and the Big Red's five-forward power play struck for the second time on the weekend at 17:49. After a brief flurry, Brad Chartrand's try was blocked by Currie at the edge of the crease, but the rebound floated over to Hannah on the other side, and he backhanded the puck into the net as Currie was diving back. Still, with the Golden Knights holding a 4-1 lead, the Cheel faithful had little reason to be nervous at the end of the second period. However, it didn't take much time in the third for Cornell to make it a whole new game. The Big Red won the opening faceoff and dumped the puck into the Clarkson zone, where Jake Karam dug it out and worked it over to Geoff Bumstead behind the net. Bumstead came around the net and bounced one in off Currie's left pad to make it 4-2 twenty seconds into the third. Bumstead struck again minutes later, as he got to a loose puck and fired it under Currie while Karam was busy taking a Clarkson defenseman out of the play. It looked for sure like a flying Big Red team would erase a multi-goal deficit for the second straight night, but Clarkson finally woke up, and Robitaille got a momentum-killing goal at the 7:18 mark. Cornell defenseman Dan Dufresne pinched in at the Clarkson end to take a shot that Currie blocked, and the next thing anyone knew, Robitaille and Chris DeRuiter were steaming back the other way on a 2-on-1. DeRuiter got the puck over to Robitaille, whose quick shot eluded Skazyk. The goal was a bit controversial, as Dufresne was unable to get back into the play due to being knocked down and possibly held. At least, that was the prevailing opinion on the Cornell bench, where coach Brian Mc- Cutcheon spent a good thirty seconds hollering at referee Dan Murphy about the situation. Robitaille's goal seemed to take the life out of the Big Red, and although they created some opportunities the rest of the way, they never seriously threatened again. Skazyk left for the extra attacker with about 40 seconds left, but Jean-Francois Houle rounded out the scoring with an empty-netter with 10 seconds remaining. Currie had a solid game in net for the Golden Knights, finishing with 21 saves, while Bandurski had 20 and Skazyk stopped eight shots in relief. -- Disclaimer -- Unless otherwise noted, all opinions expressed above are strictly those of: Bill Fenwick | Send your HOCKEY-L poll responses to: Cornell '86 and '94 (.5) | [log in to unmask] LET'S GO RED!! Reporter: "What do you think of the team's execution?" John McKay: "I'm in favor of it." -- an exchange that occurred while McKay was coaching the 0-14 Tampa Bay Buccaneers in 1976