Cornell Frustrates Crimson, 5-4; Winning by Sudden-Death Goal

Cornell's Kevin Pettit skated into the corner and passed out to Jim Higgs and Higgs shot the puck past Harvard goalie Bruce Durno. The Cornell fans went insane and poured out of the arena to blow their minds and lunches in the Ithaca bars. Harvard players stumbled off the ice and stared at their navels in the locker room.

Cornell had come within 15 seconds of ending a five-year, 47-game home winning streak. Harvard had come with-in 15 seconds of ending that streak and gaining its first victory over the Big Red in four years.

Pettit decided the outcome. The highscoring center tied the game at 4-4 with 15 seconds left in the final period, tipping in a slapshot after Cornell had pulled its goalie for a sixth forward. Then, with 3:35 remaining in the sudden-death overtime and Cornell a man down, Pettft set up Higgs for the wining goal.

Harvard played very well in defeat. Unfortunately, that doesn't mean too much to a once-unbeaten team that has lost three out of its last four games, two of them in overtime.

Harvard almost avoided its postgame agonies with a sudden-death goal. The Crimson appeared to have pushed the puck over the goal line, but as Cooch Owen smashed his stick against the glass and Joe Cavanagh exchanged angry words with the referee, the goal judge, attired in a Cornell jacket, refused to put the red light on. It was the second "no goal" decision given the Crimson during the game and Cornell goalie Brian Copper later admitted to Cavanagh that the puck had gone in the net.

The Crimson never led until the last ten minutes of the game. After Cornell had taken a 3-2 lead at 8:25 of the third period. Dave Hynes converted a pass from Billy Corkery to bring the Crimson from behind for the third time in the game. Less than a minute later, at 9:28, DeMichele put the Crimson ahead, 4-3, knocking in the rebound of a Cavanagh shot.

Cornell skated Harvard off the ice in the first four minutes of the game. While the Big Red fans stood screaming. Cornell took numerous point-blank shots at Durno and grabbed a quick 1-0 lead. A penalty slowed the Red's momentum, and DeMichele broke out of a five-game scoring drought, firing home a perfect pass from Cavanagh to tie the score, 1-1. Cornell struck again at 13:51, but once more Harvard recovered to tie it up. Cavanagh netted the Crimson's goal, faking out a defenseman and Copper on a solo rush. Both tallies came on power plays.

No one managed to score in the second period, but the players did exchange a few blows. The referees, who handed out 18 minutes of penalties in the first period, chose to ignore the fighting until Pettit added some blood to his evening's total of two goals and two assists. Harvard failed to capitalize on Pettit's five-minute major penalty. blowing an open net and failing to set up more than one or two good shots.

Not surprisingly, the game was aggressive and occasionally sloppy. Cornell had to win to keep its recovery from early losses alive and preserve its winning streak at Lynah Rink. Harvard had to win to snap out of its slump. Both teams were tight and their clearing mistakes showed it.

Harvard's senior line came back to life, at least at times, picking up two goals, and the second line continued to play well, scoring once and bottling up Cornell in their own zone.