This Year's "Three Goals"

1. Win ECAC Regular Season Title
2. Win ECAC Post Season Title
3. Win NCAA Championship

If there could be a fourth goal, it would be win the tournament down in Florida. Beating Boston College and Maine/St. Cloud would do wonders for their reputation and PWR.

What about the all important Ivy Title?

0) Beat Harvard and pack Lynah assumed this year (let us hope)
1) Win Everblades
2) Win ECAC
3) Play in the Frozen Four

Last goal is within reach. As we've seen in last two years, in a short series the No. 1s can be knocked off by No. 4s, so a low-ranked team in the NCAAs doesn't always have to beat all the top teams to get to the final bracket. You can beat one of them and then knock off the other No. 4 or No. 3 who took out a top seed.

Based on the first two games only, we won't be in a situation where the most offense you can hope for from Cornell in a high-stakes game is three goals and so the defense better hold them to two.

I'd say that if Cornell wants to play in the Frozen Four, they NEED to win the ECAC tourney. I realize that a successful regular season can earn them an at-large bid, but you need to have all cylinders clicking come post-season time. If they lose in the ECAC tourney, they'll be ripe for the picking in the NCAA tourney.

Winning the ECACs gives you a better chance of a better seeding. If you're at-large from ECAC, you could thrown into the dance card against a really good team, better than you should have to play Round One, to avoid say a first-round WCHA vs. WCHA matchup.

It would help if Cornell was host to a few more of the NCAA first round games in Buffalo, Albany, Rochester, wherever, because then the NCAA has to keep you in the home bracket. I don't know if the mixed reception to Cornell hosting the 2004 NCAA lax quarterfinals (broken scoreboard, not enough food at the refreshment stands) will be remembered.

And with so few games against quality non-ECACHL opponents to help RPI (thus the importance of going 2-0 in the Everblades), the NCAA could decide to take only the winner. Best the ECACHL can hope for is two slots come March (three slots?) and that's most likely if No. 1 and No. 2 meet in the finals and the NCAA takes both. Maybe if a really strong ECAC No. 1 team loses in the semis there's a chance. Based on two weeks of play it looks like Cornell and St. Lawrence in the ECAC title game.

But there are so many imponderables between now and March.

> At the time, at least, I could have sworn goal #3 was to get home ice for the ECAC Quarterfinals.

I'm sorry, you are of course right and I'm an idiot.

It is nice to see the effect of altered expectations on hindsight, however.

Also, winning the ECACs after a good season gives the NCAA an excuse to keep us East, while losing the ECACs after a good season could possibly send us west.

[Q]Greg Berge Wrote:
Also, winning the ECACs after a good season gives the NCAA an excuse to keep us East, while losing the ECACs after a good season could possibly send us west.[/q]
On the bright side, that's a good excuse for a roadtrip to an exciting new destination!

Where are the regionals and finals this year?

Worcester, Amherst, Minneapolis, and Grand Rapids (Michigan); then Columbus, Ohio.

Beeeej

Kinda silly to have worcester and amherst....only a couple hours apart.

For some people that's a feature, not a bug. You have a realistic chance of catching all six games over the three days if you hustle.

What do you see as the drawback of having them so close together? No matter where you put them, someone's hometown fans will have to travel a fair distance to be there.

Beeeej

I guess it would make more sense to me to spread them out more around the hotbeds of hockey. Of course theres 2 out by michigan and minnesota and 2 in massachusettes which are the 2 pretty central areas. But I guess the issue I see with it is how do you decide which regional a team like cornell goes to. I also guess that could be looked at as an advantage for them since they have more flexibility in placing teams in the brackets.

College hoops is so big nobody snickers when Duke essentially hosts the West Regional at the LA Forum. Although they're starting to call the regionals by the names of the host cities. Either the team's fans are willing and able to buy tickets for flights accross the country just days in advance ... or it's one more sign that that part of college sports is all about adults in the seats, not students.

OTOH, with TV as good as it is - real TV, not Web TV - fans can at least experience the game as well or better as being there in person. Er, see the game and the goals and replays. You won't experience it in quite the same way.

Does Cornell, did Cornell in 2003, set up a big screen projection in Lynah or Newman or the Straight for the NCAAs? For the ECACs? It's somethign that ought to be experienced in HD on a 20-foot screen with 500 of your closest friends. I bet it's a dry event, though. Sheesh. Killjoys.

[Q]billhoward Wrote:

Does Cornell, did Cornell in 2003, set up a big screen projection in Lynah or Newman or the Straight for the NCAAs? For the ECACs? It's somethign that ought to be experienced in HD on a 20-foot screen with 500 of your closest friends. I bet it's a dry event, though. Sheesh. Killjoys. [/q]

I remember watching the Frozen Four in Statler Auditorium. The prof that was set to teach a class said he'd hold off starting as long as he could. There was also one guy wearing a UHN jersey. Brave soul.

There were several "big" screens scattered throughout campus (like the Campus Store).

[Q]Beeeej Wrote:

For some people that's a feature, not a bug. You have a realistic chance of catching all six games over the three days if you hustle.
[/q]

That, and they're both under 90 min from my house (and hot tub).

The defense will be a little less tense knowing that there is some artillery on their side too.

Thankfully, "exciting" and "new" are words that don't describe Hamilton.

If the hot tub can hold more than Lynah, you could sell tickets.

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