11/12: Cornell 1 Michigan State 1, final (ot)

Whoever writes the hockey stories for the Cornell athletic department sounds as though he (or she) agrees with the assessment that McKee stole the game. [cornellbigred.collegesports.com]
The shots on goal tell that story, too.

Based on the play-by-play on the radio, it sure sounded as if Michigan State was the superior team tonight, although Cornell got better as the game progressed. But listening to the first period, I thought it could be a blowout.
I think Michigan State is underrated, but I think and sure hope Cornell can play better than they did tonight.
Regarding Bitz playing on Sunday to replace Carefoot, I think they should wait until next weekend. There is no point in rushing Bitz back to the lineup for Sunday's game, so dress seven D or give McLeod a shot.

[Q]David Harding Wrote:

Whoever writes the hockey stories for the Cornell athletic department sounds as though he (or she) agrees with the assessment that McKee stole the game.
The shots on goal tell that story, too.[/q]

Some of the forum (seems like all of the forum sometimes) disses the Sun and Ithaca Journal for their hockey coverage. But the athletics department game story is an electronic press release. In a Cornell sports information game recap, the opponent plays well in victory, Cornell does not play poorly in defeat or tie. Sometimes (as appears actually to be the case with McKee), one Cornell player is heroic in holding on to a tie or keeping it close. The harshest words may be that "the offense had trouble getting untracked." That kind of wording got a lot of use last football season coming out of cornellbigred.com. No one is saying Cornell officialdom should go out of its way to make Cornell look bad, but you've got to take the game recap from Cornell's ministry of sports information with a grain of salt.

How about this nugget of incomplete information in the MSU recap: "In over time [sic], MSU outshot the Big Red 4-1 and nearly put the puck in the net on a scrum right in front of the crease as time wound down. Cornell was a man down at the time, as a penalty had been assessed with just 47 seconds remaining. McKee maintained his composure until one of his defensemen was able to clear it and held on for the tie." It wasn't just a penalty assessed, it was a five major for hitting from behind by a freshman, Pokoluk, that Cornell had and has high hopes for. (The defenseman who cleared was probably unnamed only because in the confusion no one was sure who cleared.)

And speaking of which, is Pokoluk gone for Sunday or back playing on Sunday?

USCHO has an excellent recap of the game: [www.uscho.com]

Clearly, Mike will make the paint peel off the walls today in encouraging the team to start the next game emotionally-prepared. The tie makes the Sunday game very important in terms of PWR.

Still, this is the kind of game Cornell would have lost a few years ago, like all those "almosts" at the Everblades. It's heartening to see the Red get something out of the game, even if it's treading water. MSU has been getting better and they'll probably rise through the year and be a solid top 10 team by March.

The gametracker implied at first last night that he had a DQ, but now checking:

[www.collegehockeystats.com]

says it's just a misconduct. (He can play on Sunday therefore)

[Q]Chris 02 Wrote:

The gametracker implied at first last night that he had a DQ, but now checking:

says it's just a misconduct. (He can play on Sunday therefore)[/q]

Some of the box scores warn that the official box score may change after theirs was posted. Thus the confusion as to whether Pokoluk plays Sunday.

If the ref was thinking ahead, or maybe it was just serendipity, calling a game misconduct (but a next-game DQ) with 45 seconds left in the game sends a strong message and Cornell has a pretty good history of killing off 45 seconds worth of scoring chances.

You think Pokoluk is a marked man on Sunday now?

[Q]Greg Berge Wrote:Still, this is the kind of game Cornell would have lost a few years ago, like all those "almosts" at the Everblades. [/q]I seem to remember a certain game at Columbus a few years ago.