Bulldogs and Big Red Are Frequent Foes

The Harvard-Clarkson hockey match-up isn't the only show in town tonight. It isn't even the only show at the Boston Garden.

In fact, it might not even be the best show at the Garden.

Because before the top-seeded Crimson and fifth-seeded Red Raiders face off tonight, second-seeded Yale and third-seeded Cornell will battle (6:15 p.m., the Garden) in a game which promises to be every bit as exciting as the contest following it.

By the time the final horn sounds tonight, Cornell and Yale will have spent 480 fun-filled minutes together over the past two years. That's eight games, and that means that these two squads are quite familiar with each other by now.

After splitting the regular-season series last year, the Big Red swept to a convincing, 9-2, 4-2 victory in the ECAC quarterfinals.

The Bulldogs will be looking for revenge tonight. The Elis will be also seeking revenge for two losses (against one win) to the Big Red earlier this year. Cornell slammed Yale, 5-3, at the early-season British Columbia Tournament and 6-3 in New Haven, Conn., before falling in overtime, 5-4, in Ithaca, N.Y., late in February.

Cornell has won five consecutive games since that loss. The Bulldogs have rebounded from a bout with the mid-season blues to win nine of their last 11, including their last six.

But despite Cornell's 5-2 head-to-head advantage, Yale comes into this contest the higher seed and probable favorite. The Bulldogs boast the nation's best power play conversion (36.7 percent success rate) and are led by high-scoring forward Randy Wood (24 goals, 28 assists).

The Red will counter with a strong front-line trio, a second-team all-ECAC goalie, and a whole lot of experience.

Joe Nieuwendyk (24-25--49), Peter Natyshak (20-25--45) and Duanne Moeser (16-28--44) are all capable of scoring at any time.

And while this trio is busy lighting up the red goal light at one end of the rink, goalie Doug Dadswell is busy trying to keep its counterpart dark. Dadswell (17-6-3, 3.08 g.a.a., 91.0 save percentage) picked up second-team all-league honors yesterday at the pre-tournament press conference, beating out, among others, Harvard's Grant Blair.

Gardeners

But perhaps most important, Cornell has Garden experience. The Big Red has participated in 18 past ECAC tourneys, and has won the title six times.

In contrast, this is only Yale's fifth playoff appearance, and the Bulldogs' victories over St. Lawrence last weekend were the squad's first tournament wins ever.

The experience gap should help Cornell a lot, especially in the contest's opening minutes, but Red Coach Lou Reycroft certainly isn't looking past the Bulldogs.

"We're approaching this like we do any weekend series," Reycroft said. "Our first priority is beating Yale.