For the first 70 minutes of the Yale-Cornell ECAC men's hockey semifinal match-up last night, Big Red goalie Doug Dadswell put on an extraordinary performance, racking up 54 saves and single-handedly keeping his team in the contest.

In those 70 minutes--regulation and the first 10-minute sudden-death overtime period at Boston Garden--Dadswell performed as well as humanly possible in the Cornell net, making save after outstanding save.

Meanwhile, the second-seeded Elis (21-9) were beating the Red up and down the ice, having dominating play from the opening face-off.

Then, in the 71st minute, Doug Dadswell turned super-human.

Facing the nation's best power play unit, Dadswell held off a 30-second onslaught which saw the second team All-ECAC goalie come out of the net to challenge a Bulldog attacker one-on-one, and dive to make three crucial saves. The Yale rush looked so certain to provide the game-winning goal that, several times, Eli players raised their sticks in celebration.

But Dadswell held, and the score remained locked at two.

And in the game's 72nd minute, Dadswell's Cornell teammates decided that they had asked enough of their sophomore netminder for one night--and scored a dramatic game-winning goal to end one of the greatest games in the 25-year history of the ECAC tournament.

After Dadswell, who leads the nation in save percentage, recorded the last of his tournament-record 57 saves, forward Duanne Moeser took a centering pass from Joe Neiuwendyk and shot it past Yale goalie Michael Schwalb to give Cornell a 3-2, double overtime, victory.

Those who arrived at the Garden in time to catch the game's opening minutes witnessed several prime Yale opportunities.

But though Dadswell turned aside a number of early threats, an interference call on the Red netminder at 6:13 of the opening frame led to a quick end of his shutout. A minute into the power play, Yale's Bob Kudelski--who had missed the net earlier on a semi-breakaway--skated down the right side and dropped a pass to Randy Wood.

Yale's leading scorer fired a slap shot past Dadswell, and the Elis pulled to an early 1-0 lead.

The rest of the period saw several overlapping penalties but no further scoring. The Eli power play continued to set up opportunities, but Dadswell continued to shine, turning aside 17 shots in the period. Meanwhile, the Eli defense effectively protected goalie Schwalb, allowing only nine shots--many from long range--to reach him.

Big Red, 3-2 at the Boston Garden Yale  1  1  0  0  0--2 Cornell  0  2  0  0  1--3

First Period--1, Y, Randy Wood 25 (Bob Kudelski, Paul Marcotte) 7:23. Penalties--C, Doug Dadswell, (interference) 6:13; Y, Rick Geist, (holding) 12:49; C Joe Nieuwendyk, (interference) 14:09; Y, Tom Rzeszut (interference) 15:22.

Second period--2, C, Alan Tigert 1 (Dave Hunter, Pete Natyashak) 3:57; C, Chris Grenier 9 (Hunter, Natyshak) 8:04; 4, Y, Darren Acheson (Scott Webster, Wood) 10:01. Penalties--C, Mike Schafer, (tripping) 0:56; C, Chris Norton, (slashing) 8:13; Y, Sean Neely, (slashing) 8:13; C, Norton, (interference) 10:49.

Third period--No scoring. Penalties--C, Dave Crombeen, (tripping) 15:28.

First Overtime--No Scoring. Penalties-- C, Nieuwendyk, (high sticking) 8:59.

Second Overtime--5, C, Duanne Moeser (Nieuwendyk) 1:14. No Penalties.

Saves--Y, Michael Schwalb 9-10-8-3-0--30. C, Dadswell 17-13-18-6-3--57.

A--6382