Favorite Harvard Game Memory

[ugarte]

1990? 1991? Cornell wins a draw in the Harvard end with about a minute to play and a Tim Vanini slapshot from the point ties it up. Don't know why this means more that the Paolini/McRae heroics but college memories are sweeter, I guess.

[jts15]

My favorite memory was in 96...I think.  As we were harassing the Harvard players during warmups they started firing pucks into section B.  My seat was in row 2 so I was able to duck safely below the glass.  The refs saw what was going on pretty quickly and put an end to it before anyone got hurt.  Of course the Faithful just got more rowdy now that we knew we were in their heads.
When the fish came out I seem to remember one of the Harvard players somehow sending one back over the glass.  The weird thing was that after he did that he just turned around and bent over leaning on his stick across is knees and his rear against the boards.  Someone in the first row got the fish off the ground and just plopped it over the boards and on his back.  It sat there for a few long seconds before a team mate noticed and clued him in.
That's how I remember it.

Michael Kennedy in 2006 (?) but I wasn't there for that one.  I saw it on tv.

[RichH]

Michael Kennedy in 2006 (?) but I wasn't there for that one.  I saw it on tv.

This has to be the video I've watched most often on YouTube:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dugXWiMGKk0

[Josh '99]

It's worth mentioning that the context of the 2003 ECAC title game was one of the factors that made it so special. The previous title game, 2002 in Lake Placid, there was a general feeling among the Lynah Faithful who'd made the trip that this should be our year. Yes, we'd had our usual crapfest in the Florida tournament, but we finished strong, and dispatched Yale and RPI pretty easily in the ECAC QFs and SFs respectively. There's always something exciting and aggravating about meeting Harvard in the playoffs, especially the title game, but this one in 2002 was particularly close and hard-fought, and when Harvard won in double overtime I think we all felt it more keenly.

I'm not sure if it's technically true that Dominic Moore won 500 faceoffs in that game, but that's certainly how I remember it.

[Rosey]

My favorite memory was in 96...I think.  As we were harassing the Harvard players during warmups they started firing pucks into section B.  My seat was in row 2 so I was able to duck safely below the glass.  The refs saw what was going on pretty quickly and put an end to it before anyone got hurt.  Of course the Faithful just got more rowdy now that we knew we were in their heads.

My one puck from a game came from this game: I was taunting Harvard players from section A during warm-ups when one of them sent a puck toward my head. I avoided it and then picked it up as a trophy. It was glorious. I still have it sitting on my desk.

[underskill]

It's worth mentioning that the context of the 2003 ECAC title game was one of the factors that made it so special. The previous title game, 2002 in Lake Placid, there was a general feeling among the Lynah Faithful who'd made the trip that this should be our year. Yes, we'd had our usual crapfest in the Florida tournament, but we finished strong, and dispatched Yale and RPI pretty easily in the ECAC QFs and SFs respectively. There's always something exciting and aggravating about meeting Harvard in the playoffs, especially the title game, but this one in 2002 was particularly close and hard-fought, and when Harvard won in double overtime I think we all felt it more keenly.

I'm not sure if it's technically true that Dominic Moore won 500 faceoffs in that game, but that's certainly how I remember it.

That's definitely how I remember it. That and underhill giving up awful rebounds.

[BearLover]

It's worth mentioning that the context of the 2003 ECAC title game was one of the factors that made it so special. The previous title game, 2002 in Lake Placid, there was a general feeling among the Lynah Faithful who'd made the trip that this should be our year. Yes, we'd had our usual crapfest in the Florida tournament, but we finished strong, and dispatched Yale and RPI pretty easily in the ECAC QFs and SFs respectively. There's always something exciting and aggravating about meeting Harvard in the playoffs, especially the title game, but this one in 2002 was particularly close and hard-fought, and when Harvard won in double overtime I think we all felt it more keenly. We hadn't won the title since 1997, and we'd come close enough in 2000 and 2001 (eliminated by SLU both times) that we really, really wanted this one. Watching Harvard go one-and-done in the NCAA tournament the following week while we trounced newly-DI Quinnipiac 6-1 in the same building wasn't as satisfying as you might think it would've been.

So internalize that for a moment, and then imagine what it must have been like for us the very next year, 2003, when we were absolutely 100% certain we had all the right pieces in place for a deep national run and might never have them again, and yet Harvard was still winning by a goal late in the third period in Albany. We literally could not believe that this was happening again. If you're going to write this article, I suggest watching video of this game from the third period on - there's a moment after Schafer had pulled LeNeveu from the goal when Harvard sent the puck toward our empty net, and the entire building lost three years from their lives as the puck wobbled on its edge and then magically curved away to the side. Mark McRae's game-tying goal shortly afterward was a thing of beauty, and some of us who watch video of the game on a regular basis all these years later are still not sure exactly how Sam Paolini got that puck (and himself) around the defender, or how he sniped the puck past Dov Grumet-Morris (who after all made the all-tournament team when LeNeveu did not), but it's hard to care when the result was so satisfying. The win cemented our year-long domination over the ECAC, and more so, it landed us in the #1 overall spot in the Pairwise, a spot in which we were not accustomed to finding ourselves.

Yup.  Best win since 1970 IMO.

[jkahn]

January 1971 at Lynah.  We haven't lost at home in 4 years.  Harvard has two absolutely terrific lines: seniors DeMichele-Cavanagh-Owen and sophs Corkery-Hynes-McManama.  Trailing 4-3 late, we pull the goalie and Kevin Petit deflects in a Ron Simpson slapshot with maybe 15 seonds left to tie the game.  Back then, sudden death overtimes were 10 minutes.  We get called for a penalty, and on the PK, defenseman Jim Higgs scores short-handed with between 6 and 7 minutes gone from approximately the face-off circle on the section D-E side (teams switched sides in overtime). Cornell wins 5-4.

[David Harding]

January 1971 at Lynah.  We haven't lost at home in 4 years.  Harvard has two absolutely terrific lines: seniors DeMichele-Cavanagh-Owen and sophs Corkery-Hynes-McManama.  Trailing 4-3 late, we pull the goalie and Kevin Petit deflects in a Ron Simpson slapshot with maybe 15 seonds left to tie the game.  Back then, sudden death overtimes were 10 minutes.  We get called for a penalty, and on the PK, defenseman Jim Higgs scores short-handed with between 6 and 7 minutes gone from approximately the face-off circle on the section D-E side (teams switched sides in overtime). Cornell wins 5-4.

Ditto.

[David Harding]

The first game at Lynah East I went to during the second intermission the announcer said "Please stand and join us for the Harvard Alma Mater" Some words were scrolled across the scoreboard and the band played something that sounded like "Little Brown Jug". Nobody seemed to notice as the music petered out. About 5 seconds later without the benefit of the announcer, there was a drum roll. Two thousand plus Cornellians from the youngest Freshman to old farts like me, stood, linked arms and sang leaving no doubt about the title to the barn.

Victory on the ice is always nice but owning the house is priceless.

This never gets old.

In the 2009-2010 season, we beat Harvard 4 times with an aggregate score of 17-4, which I assume is a season record.  The third game of that set began a shutout streak by Scrivens which included 3 complete games, the last being the ECAC Championship game against Union.

I'm not sure what metric you want to use for the best season record.  
67-68 Cornell won 9-0 and 7-2.

[Tom Lento]

It's worth mentioning that the context of the 2003 ECAC title game was one of the factors that made it so special. The previous title game, 2002 in Lake Placid, there was a general feeling among the Lynah Faithful who'd made the trip that this should be our year. Yes, we'd had our usual crapfest in the Florida tournament, but we finished strong, and dispatched Yale and RPI pretty easily in the ECAC QFs and SFs respectively. There's always something exciting and aggravating about meeting Harvard in the playoffs, especially the title game, but this one in 2002 was particularly close and hard-fought, and when Harvard won in double overtime I think we all felt it more keenly.

I'm not sure if it's technically true that Dominic Moore won 500 faceoffs in that game, but that's certainly how I remember it.

Yeah, this was the "Dominic Moore won every *$&@ing faceoff over 2.5 periods" game. I wanted to just hate that guy but winning faceoffs wasn't the only thing he did well in that game, and I have to admit that was one of the most impressive individual efforts I've ever seen out of a college hockey player.

[marty]

January 1971 at Lynah.  We haven't lost at home in 4 years.  Harvard has two absolutely terrific lines: seniors DeMichele-Cavanagh-Owen and sophs Corkery-Hynes-McManama.  Trailing 4-3 late, we pull the goalie and Kevin Petit deflects in a Ron Simpson slapshot with maybe 15 seonds left to tie the game.  Back then, sudden death overtimes were 10 minutes.  We get called for a penalty, and on the PK, defenseman Jim Higgs scores short-handed with between 6 and 7 minutes gone from approximately the face-off circle on the section D-E side (teams switched sides in overtime). Cornell wins 5-4.

I'm fairly certain this was the game in which Harvard  thought they scored during OT to win and tried to jump through the glass to get at the goal judge who they believed had robbed them. Dennis Paese was one of the student managers for the team. He told several of us that he spoke to the goal judge who adamantly denied that there had been a goal.

[Jim Hyla]

The first game at Lynah East I went to during the second intermission the announcer said "Please stand and join us for the Harvard Alma Mater" Some words were scrolled across the scoreboard and the band played something that sounded like "Little Brown Jug". Nobody seemed to notice as the music petered out. About 5 seconds later without the benefit of the announcer, there was a drum roll. Two thousand plus Cornellians from the youngest Freshman to old farts like me, stood, linked arms and sang leaving no doubt about the title to the barn.

Victory on the ice is always nice but owning the house is priceless.

This never gets old.

In the 2009-2010 season, we beat Harvard 4 times with an aggregate score of 17-4, which I assume is a season record.  The third game of that set began a shutout streak by Scrivens which included 3 complete games, the last being the ECAC Championship game against Union.

I'm not sure what metric you want to use for the best season record.  
67-68 Cornell won 9-0 and 7-2.

That 9-0 game was memorable, to me, because of the usual late, if ever, Harvard crowd. I was a grad student at MIT, and of course went to the game. We scored 3 quick goals in the first period, and you should have heard the comments as some Harvard "fans" walked in to see the score 3-0. Some were talking about walking back out. How I wish Harkness never got the NHL bug. But I have to assume he got a substantial pay increase.

[Trotsky]

Full history for "best record" comparisons.

[RichH]

I'll let someone else talk about Schafer's first game against Harvard as head coach in November, 1995, since I wasn't there - that's (sort of) the last time I voluntarily skipped a Cornell-Harvard game, since I instantly regretted it. I'll merely comment as an aside that following the aforementioned horrible winless streak, Schafer coached our guys to three straight victories over Harvard in 1995-96, including an obviously quite satisfying ECAC title game win in Lake Placid.

I've talked enough about it elsewhere on this forum, I'll just link.

http://elf.elynah.com/read.php?1,21995,22145#msg-22145
http://elf.elynah.com/read.php?1,3617,3699#msg-3699

And a story from somebody else about the 1990 playoff series that's relevant to this discussion:
http://elf.elynah.com/read.php?1,21995,22135#msg-22135