Some more comments on the CU/UVM game from last Friday night. Lateness due to being out of town, and then my phone went dead for all of yesterday. This was defineitely one of the most exciting hockey games I've had the pleasure to witness. Excellent play by the Big Red and interesting hockey the whole night long. The game satrted with a questionable penatly called just 6 seconds into the game. A Vermont player went down (I honestly didn't see how, so I guess questionable is unwarranted, but 6 seconds in ...) crossing the Cornell blue line in the middle of the surface, and Noeth blew his whistle. So, we had to open this early season big game down a man. The question was which penalty kill would show, the one that had trouble with Brown the previous Fri, or the one that played excellently against Harvard. To Gilligan's credit, Perrin & St. Louis play on the same PP line now, unlike for much of last year. To his detriment they play way too much, and end up spent for much of the game. They were out there almost the entire two minutes, but Cornell managed to kill of the penalty. After the last dump, as UVM brought up the puck Steve Wilson leveled a UVM player with a gorgeous puck. Unfortunately, he did so, practicly at the Red line, a bad place for a defensemen to be taking out a player who no longer has the puck. As a result UVM #21 (Killbourne) took the puck into the zone and beat goaltender Elliott to give the Cats a 1-0 lead. The rest of the period was played with no scoring, with Tim Thomas making some excellent saves to keep it that way. An interesting situation occurred on a wraparound late int the period where Thomas appeared beaten as the puck crossed the goal, and may or amy not have crossed the line at the shooters far post (I forget who took the shot). A UVM player then covered the puck inside the crease with his glove before coming to the conclusion that could be potentially dangerous for his team, and then shoved it out of harms way. Very frustrating. The period ended with Jamie Papp destroying a UVM ion the near corner and the leveling another good check on the second player to touch the puck. After that mayhem ensued, and was resolved with Tony Bergin taking on all comers, namely 4 UVM players at one. The result was a initiativeless coincidental minor call by Noeth. The second period was another game. The first period might as well have been played last year for all that it resembled the rest of the game. Perrin & St. Louis started to become ornery. In my opinion they've become snitty little brats this year, taking a large number of penalties, and jabbing at players with their fists and sticks a whole lot more than you'd expect disciplined players to do. Frustrated by Cornell's huge & skilled checking line? Perhaps, but I thought the stars of a team should play a little more disciplined. The second period was a wide open hockey game. In a span of seven minutes or so, five goals were scored. The game went back and forth, the crowd taken on a roller coaster ride of emotion. I personally didn't see the delay call on Thomas, I'd like to know what happenned. He was visibly upset by the call, and Gilligan spent several minutes jawing with Noeth on it. In fact Gilligna was at the refs most of the game, attemoting to slide in extra line changes after Cornell had sent their players onto the ice, and having his players make several formation moves before every face-off. It was very annoying, and took away from the flow of the game. But, I guess that's their strategy. Bergin appears to have finally found the scoring touch. On one of his goals he mad a nice move to get out in front of Thomas by himeslef and then shoved the puck home. The second goal, he was left the puck in the slot and lay every bit of his 6-4 225 pound frame into a slap shot that rocketed over Thomas' shoulder. Two goals in this game was double his total from last year, and the checking line is going to be a tough line for other teams to stop. 4 goals from them, aided in part by Perrin & St. Louis' inability to play any sort of defense. In fact, Vermont seemed to have a problem playing any kind of defense at all. The ice was wide open, the excellent defensive system from last year a ghost lost somewhere in the summer, nowhere to be found. And Tim Thomas was heavily rattled. He bowed to the crowed as the serenaded him during pregame warmups, 6 goals later he gestured his feelings to them a little more graphically. At the end of the game he threw his stick across the ice in a display of digust. Whether that was a result of frustration at himself, his team's shoddy defensive play, or the crowd, I don't know, I suspect mostly the first. All American goaltenders can't enjoy giving up 6 goals. Especially the last, an amazing breakaway as Kovac, who, standing at the UVM blueline, received a pass from Dailey standing somewhere in his own slot then took it in and beat Thomas five-hole for the clincher. It was very nice to see a breakaway finally put away, especially by the Freshman center of the checking line. The Slovakian menace can put the puck and the net. Nice to see. I was thoughrally impressed by the team, and by everything about the game, from a Cornell perspective. On the UVM side, they're in trouble. No team defense, Thomas looks penetrable, and more importantly, appears to get frustrated and deteriorate when he or his team plays badly. And Perrin & St. Louis, on the ice almost every other shift, cannot play defense, and take too many penalties. If they come up against more checking lines that can handle the puck, Vermont is going to lose every one of those games. And they get penalized a lot, for chippy, snitty play. Are they trying to look tough for the pros? or are they just frustrated? I don't know, but it's going to be a problem for the Cats if Gilligan doesn't control this. Lastly, Cornell won this game without two senior stars: Vinnie Auger & Chad Wilson, both of whom were late unexplained scratches. I've heard rumors as to why they were scratched, but I won't repeat them in this forum unless they're substantiated. So, if anyone does know for sure, or if it was reported in todays Daily Sun, please post. And please post the reason Thomas was hit with the penalty. I'm guessing he pushed the net off its morings, no one else was in front. That might incur a penaly, but I've never see it called before. Larry Weintraub '98 Let's Go Red HOCKEY-L is for discussion of college ice hockey; send information to [log in to unmask], The College Hockey Information List.