Post-game thead, Fri 2/27

With the win and all the upsets, here are the standings:

28 Colgate
27 Dartmouth
27 Cornell
26 Brown
25 RPI
20 Harvard
20 Yale
18 Clarkson
17 Union
17 St. Lawrence
15 Vermont
12 Princeton


Cornell can still finish anywhere between 1st and 5th.

I'm still amazed by that Colgate loss to Clarkson at home on the SHG. Wow. Who would have figured!?

I wonder what the least amount of points the Clearly Cup champion has had. I'm thinking this year could be up there (or down there I guess)

Great game (minus the first period or so). I must say I enjoyed waving the SLUTS sign in section o. I do have a question though. Does anyone know why the offsetting minors that occurred at the end of the second (Moulson and some unknown slut) were not timed. They occured with .5 seconds left in the period, but they did not come out of the box until a stoppage of play some time around three minutes into the third. Did I miss something or am I just confused ? Other than that, I continue to be impressed by iggy who played as well as anyone tonight. The freshman also continue to play better, especially carefoot. Here's hoping for a win to finish off the regular season tomorrow night.

Here are the most recent seasons: [members.cox.net]

Not included was the Elephant Walk season, in which SLU had 33 pts (in 20 GP). So we are going to set the recent low.

Looking over the rest of ECAC history: [members.cox.net] I find Cornell finishing #1 in 1973 with 29 pts (18 GP) . That's the only season in which no ECAC team was over 30 pts.

So, this is officially the worst #1 we'll ever have had.

Drew '01 wrote:

Does anyone know why the offsetting minors that occurred at the end of the second (Moulson and some unknown slut) were not timed. They occured with .5 seconds left in the period, but they did not come out of the box until a stoppage of play some time around three minutes into the third.

With one team already a man down, offsetting penalties do not cause the teams to lose a man on the ice. So they can't come out of the box until a stoppage of play.

Tomorrow we'll all have an eyes on our ice and the scoreboard for out of town scores...exciting is an understatement.

[Q]Tomorrow we'll all have an eyes on our ice and the scoreboard for out of town scores[/Q]

Indeed. And if Harvard ties or beats Dartmouth, we'll win a share of the Ivy Title as well.

Great game tonight.

- We thoroughly dominated SLU(t) for most of the game, save for some time after the SLU(t) goal when they built up some momentum.
- Some players seemed to have more skating trouble than usual. I don't think it was the ice; I suspect it may be a nagging consequence of the recent rash of injuries, though I could be wrong.
- Good defense and great goaltending really won the game for us.
- The offense was opportunistic, which was effective I suppose, but that's not going to keep winning us games in the long run. More shots need to be taken, particularly in the power play. At times, it seemed like they were spending a little too much time setting up their shots. Usually, I'm not one to scream out "Shoot the puck!", but after a while, it was getting ridiculous.
- The lines were an interesting setup, but obviously it must have worked. My only dispute was with having the AHA line as the fourth line, but I suppose this was due to the Abbotts recovering from injuries.
- CHS tells me that the first Cornell goal was scored by Vesce (Cook, Moulson), but at the time it was announced that it was Cook (Moulson, somebody else). Was there a scoring change announcement that I missed?
- It was nice to see an empty netter. Haven't had one of those in a little while, I believe.
- Let's hope we can do the same against Clarkson tomorrow night. LET'S GO RED!!!

I thought the ice was noticably bad tonight compared to usual. The players were having trouble settling the puck down on quite a few occasions and as you mentioned, a lot of players falling for no apparent reason.

Seemed so...on one of the clearing attempts, the puck was pushed across the ice towards the student section and bounced up in the air.

Thanks...I did not know that.

Just got back from seeing my first live, in-person Cornell hockey game since my son was born. A few observations.

I'm stunned at Iggulden's improvement. I admit I've only seen two games in '03-'04 (the Harvard game on the telly and tonight's game at Lynah), but to my eye this could be the greatest single-season personal turnaround by a Cornell hockey player since ... I dunno. He was brilliant on the PK.

The ice absolutely sucked. Agree with all.

I don't think I've ever seen Vesce have such a bad night at the faceoff circle. (Although a bad night for him is a good night for most mortals.)

My first close look at McKee. Doing a much better job of directing rebounds into the corners. Weak on his skates. Stay in that damn net, boy.

Vesce has been struggling in the faceoff circle for quite some time and that is a primary reason as to why their powerplay has struggled so much.
I agree about Iggulden. He is an ideal third line center.

I don't suppose anyone has any idea what possessed McKee to charge out almost to the blue line to make a save in the second period? Maybe he thinks he's Rick DiPietro.

Section A Banshee wrote:

I don't suppose anyone has any idea what possessed McKee to charge out almost to the blue line to make a save in the second period? Maybe he thinks he's Rick DiPietro.

I was thinking the same exact thing--for a second there, I thought I was watching a replay of the last Rangers-Islanders game.

On an unrelated note, I was sitting in G and couldn't hear the trivia questions for the $10,000 game between the first and second periods. Can someone relay to me what the questions were (and possibly the answers if I don't know them already)?

No one around us at the bottom of A or B could hear the trivia questions - "we can't hear you" ::clap clap clapclapclap:: It would be nice to know what they were though.

We did one-up RIP's giveaway though, with the extra slots in the wood for $15 and $25 gift certificates...all they had was the puck-size hole in the middle (but for a car). It did look like money went to a good cause after all, although I couldn't tell what because of the sound problems.

Section A Banshee wrote:
I don't suppose anyone has any idea what possessed McKee to charge out almost to the blue line to make a save in the second period? Maybe he thinks he's Rick DiPietro.

Here's hoping not; DiPietro's been taking hack lessons from Garth Snow.

I only heard two of the questions, although I am curious as to what the others were:

1. what color are the helmets during Cornell's away games? (red)

2. who was the goalie for the 1970 team that went 29-0-0? (Cropper)

I found John Murphy's officiating hard to ignore.... pretty bad.... but the team played hard and hustled hard.... I was impressed with Gleed's hustle... Downs played solidly as did Charlie Cook once he got his game sense back (2 of his first four passes wound up on SLU sticks). Cooks blast on the goal ticked off a player in front and then trickled past Mckenna. ( Box scores now say it was Ryan was hard to tell at the time.)

Cam Abbott had a GREAT game! Both he and Mike K. were great on th PK and it seemed to this fan it was almost to our advantage to be down a MAN!

a Note: On his "charging" the keeper penalty he had 2/3 of a step and speed on the d'man and cut into front of net with the puck... D'm forced him into goalie with the puck just ahead of him defender had him in a bear hug and a good grip on him - in 35 years of playing hockey and about 19 of reffing - I have never before seen the man with the puck called for charging ! !

Despite great provacation at times (defender bouncing Bitz's head/helmet on the goalpost well after a whistle late in game) we didn't take dumb retaliation penalties.... The team played as a team and for each other - Keep it up Big RED!!!

Josh Herman '99 wrote:

Section A Banshee wrote:
I don't suppose anyone has any idea what possessed McKee to charge out almost to the blue line to make a save in the second period? Maybe he thinks he's Rick DiPietro.

Here's hoping not; DiPietro's been taking hack lessons from Garth Snow.

People who live 14 points out of the playoffs shouldn't throw stones

Haw haw.

Jordan wrote:
People who live 14 points out of the playoffs shouldn't throw stones

Nor should people who were swept in a six-game season series by teams 14 points out of the playoffs.

Other questions I remember:

Who holds the all-time point-scoring (goals plus assists) lead at Cornell?

Other than 0, what number below 31 does no Cornell player ever wear?

What was Mike Schafer's number as a player?

Name the Zamboni driver (first or last name).

My biggest pet peeve? Early keys? Nope. People who keep yelling "Shoot" on the PP? Close, but not quite. It's people who think goalies should be chained to the post. Everyone thinks "wandering goalies" are the ultimate horror.

If the goalie doesn't control dumps, that's like giving the other team a free possession in your zone every time down the ice. It's important enough that preventing goalies from doing that, along with smaller pads, are all the NHL is going to end up doing to increase scoring. This isn't the 60's. You don't give up 1 or less goals a game by not playing the puck as a goalie. Goaltending has developed more than any other position over the years, and puckhandling is probably the most important part. McKee is plenty strong at playing the puck and isn't going to get any better by staying in the damn net.

Even if Vesce hadn't covered his ass and misplaying it had cost a goal, 1 extra goal against is a hell of a lot better than the 10 or more he probably would have given up over the course of 30 games by leaving the puck for the other team deep in the zone.

As for the play at the blue line, if the puck's sitting near the blue line or the faceoff circle and the other team has a skater that has all your guys beat, if the goalie can get to the puck before the opposing skater, they should always try to make the play. Otherwise you're giving away a sure breakaway. Just try to avoid the Joe Exter-like collision.

This is goaltending 101. Someone make it all stop.

I dunno, Age. People yelling shoot really bugs me.

One thing that people must not have noticed...the '07 kid, Seth, that took the shot during the intermission is not a freshman. The rumor is, he realized that very few freshmen would participate and so he purchased 70% of the total freshman raffle tickets purchased (14 of 20). I dunno about that last part but I can confirm he isn't a freshman. Smart. I wish I had thought of that!