That'll teach me to post from a new account over a holiday weekend. Here are reports on both days of the Syracuse Invitational tournament, sort of in the persona of my college radio alter ego, Joe Schlobotnik, but not really. Yesterday's was to have gone out last night, but I tried posting it from a different account, so it wasn't automatically approved. John Whelan, Cornell '91 <[log in to unmask]> <http://www.cc.utah.edu/~jtw16960/jshock.html> 1996 Cornell Hockey: Ivy League Women's Champions Ivy League Men's Champions/ECAC Men's Champions STRANGE DOINGS AT THE SYRACUSE INVITATIONAL an eyewitness account by Joe Schlobotnik The full moon came three days too early. That's the only way I can explain the events which I have just seen occur. Others who took better notes can (and I'm sure will) provide the factual details, so here are my impressions. The evening began normally enough. My mother and I arrived at the Onondaga County War Memorial in Syracuse, NY for the Syracuse Invitational Tournament. Colgate and Merrimack were to play the first semifinal at 5:15, followed by Cornell and Providence at 8pm. Shep Harder started in net for the Red Raiders, spelling Junior standout Dan Brenzavich. Colgate looked in the first like a team that hadn't played in a couple of weeks, as the Warriors outshot them 22-10 and won most of the physical battles as well. Harder did a good job to keep them in it, but got beat twice, once on the power play, and the period ended with Merrimack up 2-1 and 1:24 into a powerplay (caused when Brian Owens rode a Merrimack player into Harder at the end of a furious series that involved Harder at one point losing his catching glove.) Between periods Mom and I went off to look for the Cornell hospitality room and were a little too late getting back, as we heard, but didn't see, Colgate score the equalizer shorthanded and 32 seconds into the period. This seemed to wake the Red Raiders up, and they played with much more intensity, outshooting the Warriors 15-13 (and being called for four penalties). They had an apparent goal waved off at the 12-minute mark (which led to coincidental roughing minors and an unsportsmanlike conduct penalty), but the period ended with the score tied at 2. Then the hospitality room opened up; we heard Cornell coach Mike Schafer say a few words, met up with Mark Anbinder and met Cornell PA Announcer (and HOCKEY-Ler) Arthur Mintz, and enjoyed pizza and wings courtesy of the Cornell Hockey Boosters and the Alumni Association of Central New York. It was quite nice, but as might be expected, the first 15 minutes of the third period elapsed before we made it back. We were just in time to see Merrimack score their second goal of the period and go up 4-2. It seemed that the game had been decided in our absence and would simply run its course. But that was when the strange occurrences began. Merrimack coach Ron Anderson used his time out, and whatever he had to say didn't work, since Colgate scored shortly thereafter, with 2 or 3 minutes to go. Then Red Raider skipper Don Vaughn called his timeout, and with a minute and a half remaining called for a measurement on a Merrimack stick. I guess Mike Schafer made an impression on him when he used that trick in the Cornell-Colgate game back in January. The stick was indeed illegal (Has anyone ever seen this fail and result in the delay of game call? I can think of four instances where I've heard of it, and they were all successful.), giving Colgate a power play, but they were unable to score, and Merrimack advanced with the 4-3 win. By this point it was nearly 8:00; by the time Cornell and Providence had warmed up and they'd re-surfaced the ice, it was 8:30 or so when the late game started. The Cornell crowd was a strange mix of straggling students and recent alums with older alumni from Syracuse. The Cornell Pep Band was not on hand, since there were only eight of them in attendance, which means I'm going to go over a year without seeing the "Hooligans with Horns" in action. In fact, none of the four schools brought a band, which was a real shame given the cheesy modern rock they piped into the arena between plays. There was a cowbell which appeared much later on, but I'm getting ahead of myself. A small group, which seemed to consist of Jeff "Beeeej" Anbinder and the eight bandies, split off from main Cornell section at center ice and parked themselves on the Providence goal line. Cornell started sophomore Jean-Marc Pelletier, whom I saw play in last season's embarrassing losses to BU and Colorado College, but who has started 1-1-1 this year. The game began well for Cornell, with two goals a minute apart in the first. But Providence struck back on the power play to make it 2-1. Cornell also failed to help their power play numbers, failing to convert, despite a couple of shots off the post on the same opportunity in the second. They did manage to get some insurance and go up 3-1. Things seemed to be getting late when the Nine Standers (who had moved to the opposite corner of the arena) called out, "It's 10pm; do you know where your goalie is?" Little did we know. I hope I'll be forgiven if my memories of the third period are a little hazy, in light of what happened later. I do remember vividly the sight of the second Friar goal of the period sailing over Pelletier's left shoulder into the net to tie the game at 3. Regulation expired with the score thus knotted and here I was, having never attended an overtime game in any sport before last week's 3-2 Blackhawks loss, staring at another five minutes of sudden death. This time I managed to dash to the bathroom in the brief pause (a ritual of mine from watching OT on television). The entire period was overshadowed by one of the strangest things I've seen in any sporting event. With a minute and a half remaining and a faceoff coming in the Cornell end, the players began yelling at the officials and pointing at the Providence goal. There was a long brown puddle in front of Friar goalie Dan Dennis, and I thought someone had thrown a cup of coffee at him. But then he lifted his mask and vomited again. Again, it was very strange. I don't know if he was sick or just nervous, but after the long delay to clean the ice (during which we all tried to make sense of what we'd seen; Mom asked Mark Anbinder if he would be including this in his report for 14850 magazine and he showed her the note recording the event at 3:24 of the first overtime), he was back in goal. Providence coach Paul Pooley complained that his team shouldn't have been charged a timeout because of the incident, and Mark pointed out that as a timeout is not supposed to be assessed in case of injury, he had a point. At any rate, Dennis managed to avoid facing any shots before the period ended. I asked Beeeej during the intermission why his party hadn't come up with any chants for the occasion, but he said they'd felt sorry for the guy. Not to mention that they were closer to it than most. A few people sitting near us had had no such compunctions, and chanted "You just puked!" When the overtime ended, we learned that the contest would not be settled on penalty shots (I can only imagine how Dennis would have handled that), but by 20-minute sudden death periods. Mid-way through the first of these, Cornell managed a powerplay. All four teams were playing fairly physical hockey, and the Colgate-Merrimack game showed some danger of becoming chippy. Then in the late game, 6'6" Providence captain Hal Gill seemed to dedicate himself to baiting Cornell's Tony Bergin. During the end of the game and the overtime, a series of Providence infractions (those were of course the ones I noticed) went un-called, but referee Gallagher decided that one of them was too egregious, and re-asserted control at that point. Cornell nearly gave up a short-handed chance towards the end of the power play, and played very poorly for the rest of the period, turning the puck over in the neutral zone numerous times. Pelletier came up big to help the Red survive the period. As the clock ticked past midnight, we entered the third overtime and I began to ask all the questions I'd heard from the Maine-Michigan semifinal: does the period indicator have two digits? Does the shot indicator have three? I also reckoned that finishing the period would make the game 105 minutes long, and the longest in men's college history. But then came the following play: a Cornell player (I want to say it was Knopp or Papp) skated across the blue line and wound up for a slap shot, but broke his stick. Seeing Merrimack gain control, I watched him skate over to the bench for fresh lumber; suddenly everyone yelled and when I looked back at the goal the light was on and the game was over. Beeeej tells me David Adler made a beautiful, gutsy shot from the point to score his first goal and give Cornell the 4-3 victory. If the scoreboard is to be trusted (and given that the announcements of times, saves, etc. were often inconsistent, that's by no means certain), Pelletier finished the game with 52, and Dennis, despite his adversity, with 40. So, there you have it, two completely different 4-3 scores, 155 minutes of hockey, curved sticks, goalies becoming ill... Tomorrow Colgate faces Providence in the consolation and Cornell takes on Merrimack for the title. After what went on tonight, I'm afraid to guess what the future will bring... _________________________________________________________________ Last Modified: 1996 December 28 Joe Schlobotnik / [log in to unmask] ECAC TEAMS TRIUMPH IN DAY TWO OF SYRACUSE INVITATIONAL By Joe Schlobotnik Day Two of the Syracuse Invitational Tournament, held tonight at the Onondaga County War Memorial in Syracuse, NY, once again pitted Hockey East against the ECAC, with Colgate taking on Providence in the consolation game and Cornell playing Merrimack for the title. The Red Raiders came out like a team with a mission in the early contest, making up for the previous evening's performance with double-digit shots in each period against a Providence team still showing the effects of last night's marathon session with Cornell. Perhaps the strangest sight was Friar goalie Dan Dennis still between the pipes. We were imagining how that must have made his backup Mark Kane feel; Dennis plays 95 minutes Friday night and tosses his proverbial cookies during the game (the reporter for the Syracuse Post-Standard put it best when he said Dennis "literally left everything he had on the ice"), and coach Paul Pooley still didn't start Kane in the consolation game? Perhaps he was trying to build his starter's confidence, but you'd think Dennis, after playing a one and a half post-vomit 20-minute overtimes, could have sat the game out with no loss of face. All of the Cornell fans near me showed their appreciation for Dennis's determination in playing the second game. Colgate, for their part, did change goalies, starting Junior Dan Brenzavich in net. Providence spent much of the first period on the penalty kill, with three consecutive penalties, and Colgate took the lead on a 5-on-3 goal from the point by Jack McIntosh at the 6:22 mark. They added another at 13:33 of the first to take a 2-0 lead into the locker room. Providence drew to within one in the second, with Stefan Brannare beating Brenzavich high to the glove side on a power play. Brenzavich had a rough period, as he lost his stick a minute or so later, then got called for tripping at 13:02. Brenzavich was also not given the traditional goalie advantage in the other direction as an apparent slash directed at him a few minutes later went uncalled. I only saw him go down out of the corner of my eye, but those next to me said a Providence player got his stick up under Brenzavich's pads. Not only did Dupree (who had been a lines--er, assistant referee the night before; Gallagher, who reffed the late game, was an assistant for this game, wearing a jersey with no name on it) not call it, he apparently lectured the Colgate netminder during the next stoppage about taking a dive. But Colgate began to take over soon thereafter, going up 3-2 at 15:37 of the second and putting the game out of reach with a couple of nice goals in the third. At 5:16, Todd Murphy fired a shot through traffic from the right point, and Andy McDonald knocked home the rebound. Poor Dave Debusschere, part of the tangle in front of the net, not only went off with an injury on the play, but lost his assist on a scoring correction. Murphy also took part in the next goal, feeding Darryl Campbell from behind the net to put the Red Raiders up 5-1 at 6:19. Providence called its timeout just as we were reaching for our keys to tell them to start the bus, and the Friars did manage a goal a minute later, but could not score again despite two more power plays. Dennis was pulled at around 18:30 to set up a 6-on-4 on the power play, but then Mike Harder got the short-handed empty-netter to make it 6-2 Colgate. Between games we had an hour or so to kill in the Cornell hospitality room, but this time there was no hot food, only lots of cheese, veggies with dip, chips and the like. But Mom and I had a nice chat with a couple of Ithacans who've been going to Cornell games for 12 years or so. For the final, Mom decided we'd have a lot more fun standing with the instrumentless Cornell bandies, who had taken in the first game to occupying the opposing goal line on the empty side of the arena. The group continued to make an impression during this game, starting with O Canada. (As an aside, it was nice that the tournament had both national anthem performed, but there was no Canadian flag in the arena, just two US ones at one end. So I ended up looking at the maple leaf in the LaBatt's ad at the other end of the rink.) About halfway through the Canadian anthem, the PA system gave out. We had all been singing along anyway, and so we all just belted it out as loud as we could for the rest of the song. The Cornell section across the ice went wild. The Star Spangled Banner was a bit trickier, since we had to read the singer's lips to figure out where in the song he was, not to mention lowering our voices at "...were so gallantly streaming" so that "And the rockets' RED glare..." would stand out. Unfortunately, the PA did recover a few minutes into the game to resume its presentation of Dave Matthews's greatest hits. Merrimack goalie Eric Thibeault was shown no mercy, I suspect because Providence's Dan Dennis had earned some sympathy the night before after his unfortunate accident. The best early remark from one of the bandies was "The only good thing about you is your name!" Cornell returned to Junior Jason Elliot for this game, and once again gave up the first goal, on a Merrimack powerplay. (I believe last night's Providence game was only the second time all year that Cornell has scored first.) But that would not end up mattering, as Cornell tied it up later in the period, and added two pretty goals in the second. Darren Tymchyshyn put on a beautiful display, skating the puck in from the blueline and deking Thibeault completely out of the net before depositing the puck. Doug Steinstra made in 3-1 on a similar if slightly less impressive play. Jamie Papp and Mike Rutter also had a couple of breakaways each in the game, but neither of them found the back of the net. We were of course wary of the 3-1 lead after the team had given up a similar advantage against Providence, but the Red were playing like a team in command for the second half of the game, and the Hooligans without Horns had time to get down to some serious insults. A few Merrimack fans seemed to take offence to the current addition to the "your mom called" cheer, which was "Hey Eric, your sheep called. It said 'baaa'." I thought it was a hoot myself, but then I was doubtless in a better mood. At any rate, this was at the end of the second, and we soon fled the scene of the crime. In the third, Thibeault began to suffer for the misfortunes of his predecessor, with taunts like "Hey Eric, at least you didn't puke...yet!" These are the Lynah Faithful folks. Consider them offensive if you like, but you can't accuse them of not being enthusiastic. Getting back to the game itself, it was even more loosely called than the consolation, with no penalties from the mid-first until late in the third, when the Warriors were whistled for their only infraction of the game, part of coincidental minors. Thibeault was pulled at 17:30 or so (after a Merrimack timeout, which as someone pointed out had worked pretty poorly last night when they called it up two goals against Colgate, and promptly let them back into the game), and Jeff Oates managed an empty-netter. The non-band loved this, after they'd been chiding his lack of offensive prowess earlier on. The 4-1 lead made the Merrimack power play which finished the game irrelevant (the Warriors ended up 1-for-3 in man-up situations, while the Red were 0-for-0), and Cornell won the game 4-1 and the Tournament for the first time ever. In fact, this was Cornell's first appearance in the SIT title game, and Merrimack's first in the tourney at all. Then it was time to hand out the hardware. The announcer, who had previously introduced the "Colgate Big Red", named Cornell skipper Mike Schafer as the coach of Merrimack, bringing a "SIEVE!" chant from the Faithful. (I think this was where I caught Elliot chuckling at us.) As expected, Cornell had about half of the spots on the all-tournament team, including both Steve and Chad Wilson. Jason Elliot's one-goal game earned him all-tournament goalie, while Jean-Marc Pelletier's 52 saves in the triple-overtime semifinal won him tournament MVP. The jacket that went with the prize was a bit small on him. Last night was obviously the game of Pelletier's young career (without his efforts, the Red would have fallen in the second OT), and it shows that Cornell once again has two goaltenders who can get the job done. So that's the story from Syracuse. Next week Cornell resumes league play at St. Lawrence and Clarkson. I (and my mother) will again be there. SLU seems to be back on track with the return of goalie Clint Owen, and Clarkson is always tough. Any idea if Schafer will be platooning the goalies again? _________________________________________________________________ Last Modified: 1996 December 28 Joe Schlobotnik / [log in to unmask] HOCKEY-L is for discussion of college ice hockey; send information to [log in to unmask], The College Hockey Information List.