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It was a weekend of firsts for Cornell, as the Big Red notched their first weekend sweep since their visit to Air Force in late January of 1992 and their first against ECAC foes since a few weeks before that. The eight goals that Cornell picked up against Yale was their highest total for a game since the Big Red notched eight in January of 1992 against Union. Also, Jake Karam and Vincent Auger both recorded hat tricks against the Elis, becoming the first Cornellians to do so since Trent Andison's effort against Colgate in the 1991 ECAC quarterfinals. Auger became the first freshman to score three in a game since Andison's four-goal effort against Dartmouth in February of 1988. And the last time two different Big Red players got hat tricks in the same game was against the Elis in February of 1984, when Gary Cullen and Duanne Moeser did it. You get the idea; this was a bit of a historic weekend. Cornell 5, Princeton 2 Last Saturday against St. Lawrence, a nightmarish first period saw the Saints pounce on numerous giveaways in the Cornell zone en route to a 2-0 lead in the first couple minutes of play and a 4-0 lead by the first intermission. Things looked disturbingly familiar Friday night against the Tigers, who took advantage of some misplays on the part of the Big Red defense to build a 2-0 lead three and a half minutes into the game. However, thanks in large measure to a terrific performance in relief by goaltender Andy Bandurski, Cornell was able to turn things around, racking up five unanswered goals to get an important victory. The loss ended Princeton's hopes of finishing high enough to get home ice for the preliminary round. A fired-up Princeton team was skating through the Cornell defense almost at will from the opening faceoff, and the Big Red found it nearly impossible to clear the puck out of their own zone. Intercepted clearing passes allowed the Tigers to keep the puck in the Cornell end for over half a minute, ending with Gavin Colquhoun's goal at the 2:53 mark. He got to a loose puck in the left circle and snapped a back- hander through a screen and just inside the right post behind goal- tender Eddy Skazyk. The Big Red had hardly recovered from that when Hartmann Schoebel broke in on a 2-on-1 with Jonathan Kelley. Schoe- bel's blast from the right point found the back of the net at 3:25 of the first period, and Princeton had a two-goal lead. Neither Colquhoun nor Schoebel had scored all season prior to this game. Cornell's hopes looked faint in this one, but Coach McCutcheon pulled Skazyk in favor of Bandurski after the second goal, and Bandurski made a couple of big saves later in the period, including a stuff of a Princeton breakaway. Cornell's offense seemed to get on track late in the first period, as the Big Red started swarming around the Tiger net. It finally paid off at the 18:11 mark, when P.C. Drouin dumped the puck in from center ice, setting up Brad Chartrand and Mark Scollan on a 2-on-1 break. Chartrand unleashed a high slapper from the edge of the left circle, and the puck caught the right corner of the net. Before the start of the second period, the Big Red paid tribute to outgoing athletic director and former Cornell goaltender Laing Kennedy. Team captain Shaun Hannah, out with a separated shoulder, presented Kennedy with a Cornell hockey sweater. This is ordinarily the type of thing that takes place before the third period, rather than the second, but perhaps it was done earlier as an attempt to spark the team. If so, it worked. Thirty-four seconds into the second period, the score was tied, thanks to a hard shot from the left side by Geoff Bumstead that beat Princeton goalie James Konte through the pads. There was no further scoring in the middle stanza, but there was plenty of action. Four minutes in, Bandurski was forced to come up with a spectacular pad save off a point-blank shot from the slot. A few minutes later, a Princeton shot from the left point was deflected into the air by a sliding Cornell defenseman, and the puck rolled off Bandurski's shoulder and dropped to the crease behind him, where it remained for a few seconds until he fell on it. At the 13:44 mark, Chartrand was hit with a boarding call, but almost immediately, the Cornell penalty-killers fired the puck down the ice, where Vincent Auger, in a sensational effort, single-handedly kept it in the Princeton end for about 30 seconds. In the process, he fought off three Tiger players who were trying to get the puck away from him, before finally drawing a holding call on David Scowby. With 1:46 left in the second period, a high shot bounced off Bandurski and a Princeton player and wound up in the net, but referee John Murphy waved the apparent goal off, ruling that the puck had been hand-passed into the net. I didn't have a good view of the action, but Princeton coach Don Cahoon was livid after that call (or maybe he was upset that one of his players got dumped in the crease and nothing was called). At 7:41 of the third period, Schoebel stopped a breakaway attempt by hooking Auger down to the ice, but he got called for it, and the Big Red proceeded to convert the power play. During a scramble in front of the Princeton net, Konte came out to the edge of the crease to block a drive by Mike Sancimino, but the rebound came loose to his right in the crease, and Bumstead stuffed it into the net past diving defenseman Brent Flahr. Later in the period, Drouin worked a nice give-and-go with Scollan, flipping the return pass over Konte and just inside the crossbar with 3:16 left in the game. Princeton called their timeout at that point, and with 1:08 left to play, Konte left for the extra attacker. How- ever, Scollan worked the puck out of the Cornell end, then sent a per- fect headman feed to a streaking Auger, who popped the puck into the empty net at the 19:06 mark to round out the scoring. Konte stopped 18 shots, while Bandurski had 25 saves and Skazyk recorded four in his brief stint. Cornell 8, Yale 2 The Big Red ended its best weekend in two years by tearing apart an inconsistent Yale team, in a three-hour marathon highlighted by Jake Karam's and Vincent Auger's hat tricks and lowlighted by all sorts of chippy play and an exchange of pleasantries between a Cornell fan and Eli team captain Martin Leroux. Coupled with Vermont's win over St. Lawrence, the victory guarantees Cornell of finishing no worse than eighth, and the Big Red still have an outside chance of avoiding the preliminary playoff round altogether. Thank goodness the officiating was not a factor in this game, because it left a great deal to be desired. Our friend Pierre Belanger has been complained about numerous times on this list, and I see he got it again this weekend -- but believe me, if you are ever unfortunate enough to draw the immortal pairing of John Murphy and Peter Dawes for a game involving your favorite team, you would sell your soul to the devil to get Belanger in there in place of either or both of them. Especially Dawes, who totally lost it in the third period of this game and came up with a call that was not only flagrantly ludicrous but was also against the rules. This is the second time this season that Murphy and Dawes have done a Cornell game, and they succeeded in offering conclusive proof that their rotten performance at Colgate was no fluke. For the first time in six games, the Big Red got on the board first, as Mark Scollan sent the puck from the left corner over to Auger along the back boards. Auger skated behind the net and, as Yale goalie Todd Sullivan dropped to try to cover the goalmouth, stuffed the puck inside the right post at 2:23 of the first period. The Elis did not have much in the way of scoring chances in the first, mainly because they were content to take shots from the perimeter, but they were still able to tie the game at the 7:32 mark. Goaltender Andy Bandurski blocked a Jeff Sorem drive with his pad, but he slipped and fell while trying to get to the other side of the net, and Keith Carpenter had a mostly empty goal to shoot at. Yale was in this game for exactly 46 seconds, which is how long it took Cornell to take the lead for good. Chad Wilson wristed one from the right circle that Sullivan got the pad on, but the rebound floated over to the left side, where Bumstead was waiting to flip it into the net. Three and a half minutes later, Brad Chartrand poked the puck through a Yale defender's legs and skated around him to retrieve it, setting himself up on a breakaway, but Sullivan was able to smother the shot. At 13:04 of the first, Murphy called P.C. Drouin for hooking, which was all well and good, except that he missed the trip by the Yale player behind Drouin that started the whole thing. It turned out not to matter, because Andy Weidenbach evened things up a minute later by getting nailed for hooking at center ice. With the teams skating 4-on-4, Karam gave the Big Red a 3-1 lead at the 14:49 mark. Sullivan blocked a try by Bumstead, but the puck rolled off his pad to the left of the goal, where Karam converted on a tough-angle shot. The Cornell defense was playing better than it had in a while (going up against a team like Yale didn't hurt), but they lapsed into their old shakiness at the beginning of the second period, when Blair Ettles lost the puck to Zoran Kozic between the circles, setting the Eli forward up on a breakaway. Ettles atoned for his miscue by sliding into Kozic in front of the net, tripping him up before he could get the shot off. Cornell killed off the ensuing Yale power play, and the Big Red had a breakaway of its own three minutes into the period, when Bumstead and Geoff Lopatka skated in on a 2-on-1. Lopatka whiffed on an attempt to one-time Bumstead's pass in front, and a Yale defenseman knocked the net off before Lopatka could try again. It made little difference, however, because Karam banged home a Mike Sancimino pass at the 3:44 mark to make it 4-1. Play was stopped for about nine minutes at the 4:15 mark to repair one of the doors at the Cornell bench. At 8:47 of the second period, the Big Red got their fifth goal on a play that probably should not have happened. During a big scramble in front of the Eli net, Sullivan appeared to have control of the puck, but either Drouin or Auger was able to hack it loose, and Auger poked it through the goalie's pads. John Emmons responded by giving Drouin a shot in the back, and a scuffle broke out in the crease. Ultimately, Emmons wound up with a double minor for hitting after the whistle, and Drouin and Ettles joined him in the box. This was merely the undercard, with the main event taking place just 13 seconds later. Yale was understandably frustrated, and this frustration boiled over in a big way at the nine-minute mark along the left boards. James Mackey belted Dan Dufresne in the back of the head, and those two went at it for a while, before Leroux skated over and ran Dufresne. Lopatka thought that was a rather bad idea; in fact, he went after Leroux with both fists swinging, and the two of them tangled for a good two minutes before the refs were able to separate them. When Leroux finally made his way into the (crowded) penalty box, a rather vocal Cornell fan to my right invited him to "come on and join the party!" Leroux took exception and hollered a few choice things back, which of course only served to make this fellow a little louder. It appeared to me (and I had all too good a view) that Leroux was seriously considering climbing out of the penalty box and over the scorers' table to get at the guy, but he was eventually convinced to take a seat. Though I don't think it was wise for the Cornell fan to challenge Leroux like that, the Yale captain let the guy get under his skin, and he was a complete non- factor for the rest of the game. Oh, and Leroux and Lopatka were both given roughing minors -- a bit of a surprise from the same crew who once tossed Dufresne and Colgate's Sam Raffoul for what was essentially ice dancing. Three straight calls against Cornell gave Yale a 56-second 5-on-3 power play at the 17:12 mark, but the Elis got off to a dreadful start when Dan Nyberg took a pass at the blue line, then drew the puck out of the zone and back in, putting his team offside. Yale coach Dan Poliziani used his timeout at that point in an apparent attempt to calm his rattled team down, and the Elis did eventually get a goal shortly after the 5-on-3 expired. At 18:19 of the second, Brierley fired a long slapper that a screened Bandurski never saw. Cornell let up a bit early in the third period, but even so, the Big Red was able to extend its lead to 6-2 thanks to Karam completing his hat trick 6:21 in. Bumstead caught Sullivan out of position and had an open net to shoot at, but he whiffed on the attempt. Karam was right behind him, though, and with Sullivan still scrambling to get back, the Cornell center slid the puck across the goal line, and extra hats were littering the Lynah ice for the first time in three years. The Lynah Faithful had to wait less than two minutes for the next Cornell hat trick, as Auger converted at the 8:13 mark thanks to Mark Scollan, who gets my vote for Unselfish Player of the Year. Scollan had the puck on the left side on a 2-on-1 with Auger, and he momentarily had what looked like an open shot, but instead, he sent a pass to Auger under the defenseman's stick. Auger's high shot from the right circle sailed over Sullivan's shoulder, and once again, Lynah Rink was raucous, hats were flying out of the stands... ... and then came the announcement that a bench minor had been called on Cornell for delay of game, because of "objects on the ice." This was an absurd call; we're talking HATS, folks. It happens at just about any rink in the country whenever one of the home guys gets three in a game. Everybody celebrates, hats fly out of the stands, the rink attendants pick them up, and play continues without incident. Dawes, who made the call, simply should have let it go, as he and Murphy had earlier on Karam's hat trick. But even if you accept a hat as an object on the ice delaying the game, we have Note 3 under Rule 6-25-b, which reads, "If fans throw objects on the ice after being warned, a bench minor may be assessed against the offending fans' team for delay of game. At the discretion of the referee, a warning may be issued before the game." Note the phrase "after being warned". A warning is supposed to be issued at some point BEFORE the delay-of-game penalty is called, but in this case, there was no announced warning until AFTER the penalty. Sorry, Mr. Dawes, but that ain't playing by the rules. Well, perhaps predictably, something else came sailing out of the stands at the 8:47 mark (I didn't see what it was, but I'd bet on another hat), and the Big Red got another delay-of-game bench minor, after which PA announcer Arthur Mintz all but begged the fans to knock it off. The way things were going in this game, Dawes or Murphy might have gone for the forfeit if anything else was thrown onto the ice, but fortunately, we'll never know. At any rate, Mike Kamatovic replaced Sullivan in goal for the Elis at this point, and Yale was able to mount some decent pressure on their 5-on-3. It was the Elis' turn to get annoyed with the officiating at the 9:48 mark, as Emmons flipped one into the net from the right side, only to have the goal wiped out by a quick whistle. At 10:51 of the third period, Sorem was hit with a misconduct, and oddly enough, with less than ten minutes remaining, he was sent to the penalty box instead of the locker room. At any rate, Cornell went on the power play at the 12:55 mark, and it was effectively a 5-on-3 situation, as Weidenbach didn't even participate in the Yale penalty kill, instead staying at center ice waiting for a clearing pass. This almost worked once. Andre Doll got the last goal of this interminable game at the 18:40 mark, when he took a pass from Bumstead and sent a high shot over Kamatovic's left shoulder. When the game finally did end, the Cornell team remained on the ice after the post-game handshake and saluted the roaring crowd with their sticks. The two seniors, Geoff Bumstead and Shaun Hannah, stayed out a bit longer after their teammates had headed to the locker room, and they gave the crowd an extra salute before leaving. Bandurski had another great effort, stopping 32 of 34 shots; Coach McCutcheon might just have found his hot goaltender. For the Elis, Sullivan wound up with 29 saves, and Kamatovic had three in relief. Also, Geoff Bumstead had five points in this game, pushing his season total past 30 -- the first Cornellian to break the 30-point barrier in three years (yes, we've had a bit of difficulty on offense). One other note: Cornell's two victories this weekend leave Coach McCutcheon one win shy of 200 for his career. -- 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