Cornell 5 Niagara 3 (Saturday; final)

[Q]ben03 Wrote:

(6) Defense: Davenport dressed for Gleed and played fairly well. Krantz, O’B and Sasha are playing far below their potential and look
lost out there. Seminoff and Salmela played very solid games tonight. Jared looks to be hitting his stride and gaining confidence
with each shift. Salmela had a tendency to jump into the play and sometimes I thought he was even playing on the wing. This is
definitely a good thing. I mean shit, if no one else is going to, he might as well get something going. O’B and Sasha have developed
hands of stone and are making very suspect decisions with the puck.

LGR!!![/q]

I agree with most of what you said, but I disagree about O'Byrne. He played around 30 minutes each night and was really really good. He made some mistakes but when you play that much, and you almost always out with a freshman, that is bound to happen. I think he's been the team's best player this year and has really stepped up in the games where the team has been thin on the blueline. He is also second on the team in goals and third in points right now. I agree that Pokuluk and Krantz have been brutal. Krantz at least has gotten better than he was the first few games where he was consistently making enormous mistakes. Pokuluk has been this year's biggest disappointment along with McKee to this point. He doesn't use his size at all and doesn't seem to want the puck even though he is very skilled. He also never uses his suppossedly booming shot. Seminoff had a great weekend and Salmela was pretty good too.

Thoughts from last night...

- Pokoluk=awful...he again telegraphed a few passes in the first period that lead to turnovers. A better team may have converted one of those turnovers to goals. The slashing penalty he took in the first was very foolish and costly. Some might find this a tad extreme, but when Gleed comes back into the lineup I'd like to see Pokoluk come out for a game.

- The first and third (second he had no chance) looked to be pretty soft goals. On the first goal it looked like McKee was out of position when he went down for the kick save, he left about a couple feet of open goal for the Niagra player to just slide it in. On the third I believe it went right through his legs--it looked like he just didn't get down quick enough for it. He made some big saves at times, and at other times he looked completely out of it; he had trouble making routine saves from beyond the blueline, puck handling etc. I really hope Dave gets it back to at least average.

- The interference call by Kirk on Pokulok was hands down the worst call of the year so far.

- I thought both Abbotts, especially Cam, were painfully average this weekend. The senior class collectively had a very average weekend. I hope Schafer has finally canned the Abbott-Bitz-Moulson line.

- Although we did score 2 pp goals last night I wasn't very impressed with our PP this weekend. Our first unit has two plays: a one-timer by O'Byrne or Moulson trying to snipe in the high slot. I think we need a third option-- a backdoor play or something. Having said that, I really like O'Byrne. If his puck handling improves on the point (give him time), I think we may have the next Cook on our hands. It was nice to see the second unit get a goal. Pegoraro also had a real nice cross ice pass to Mugford (or McCutheon?) who missed an opportunity for an open net. I hope this gives them some much needed confidence heading into next weekend.

- Ditto to everything people said about the Freshman line and McCutcheon.

- I really liked what I saw from Sawada last night (and this weekend). He did a great job carrying the puck into the offensive zone. He was fast...he worked well along the boards and popped out a few pucks from behind the net to Mugford and Abbott in the slot. Had Mugford or Abbott been Moulson I think one of those opportunities would have resulted in a goal. If he starts checking like he used to, I would be in favor of putting him back on the top line for a night to see how he does.

- Overall I like what I saw this weekend from some unexpected players. Our upperclassmen had an off weekend but the underclassmen picked up the slack. It looks like all of the freshmen have carved a niche for themselves in the team. I like the way our team is headed, and I'm praying for the coming of the real McKee.

some thoughts about the game...
1st, my wifes little cousins loved the game. they were the ones in sec 122 chanting lets go red the whole first period
one of them (grace) was the little blonde girl who had the "i did my time in line" t-shirt on, I know a few people got a picture of her (if u can email it to me that would rock)
ok so besides the kids wanted more hockey...

this is no top 10 team. very sloppy play, off on passes, trouble breaking out, defense standing still at times...
I had expected them to look like a more cohesive unit. They will get to that level, but are far from it.
our netminder - i think it is all a lack of confidence. He gets down on himself over every goal, at least last night he did, especially the 3rd goal. I also wonder if he tweaked a hamstring, esp on that 2nd goal last night. he has gotten left out to dry on some goals, but last night I think he could have saved 2 of the 3 goals had he been confident. the 3rd goal was a frustrating goal as the offenseman bounced it off daves knee and in. but dave was out of position because he was not able to push using his skate and get across the crease so instead reached over with his glove. that indicates a tweaked hamstring. hopefully not...
powerplay was stagnant most of the game, as was 5v5 action. the offense showed some spunk after the powerplay goal in the second but seemed to be having trouble with niagara clogging the middle and at times running the neutral zone trap.
niagara played a solid game.

the officiating was aweful both ways. the one hooking call on cornell was a player not being able to skate and tripping over the red line - clear as day on the replay. both interfence calls, one against cornell and one against niagara, were bad calls. the goal should have been a goal. I did not hear a whistle, the ref pointed down as if it a goal...there was no crease because the cornell player was pushed into the goal...i dont know what happened there. anyone know?

In regards to the PP, I think the reason we shot so much from the point is that's what they gave us. We moved the puck well, and they sat back allowing alot of movement by us near the blue line. We definately were trying to go down low, but they collapsed and did not allow alot of cross ice passes. Overall I thought our PP looked good.

Mckee's third goal was soft, even his mom had a pained look. However you have to wonder if he's not 100%. We would never know, of course. If it's all in his head, I'll leave it up to Coach whether it's better to play him or sit him down. If it was me, I'd like to try and play through it; we don't have a minor league where we can send a player down to better his skills under game conditions. In any regard, Coach certainly knows better than me. Unfortunately, compared to last year, his save percentage this year equals about a goal per game.

Finally, Ari thanks for the cowbell before our winning PP. I know you were under watch to be thrown out if it was played, but maybe that was the winning touch.

[Q]calgARI '07 Wrote:

Seminoff did really well. [/q]

Agreed. He has really stepped it up the last two weekends. He reminds me of Cook with an attitude.

I disagree somewhat with your take on Seminoff. I thought he is playing very well, considering he is a freshman. However, his speed is horrible and he is beat to every puck. This hurts us because we never get the early clear when he is on the ice. Great shots though, and great effort from him. Definitely happy to have him out there. Good job freshmen!!! LGR!

Related to the game...

They did a pretty nice job rebuilding BCA. What a difference from the old War Memorial. I think they'll do fine with the Regional in 2007.

My main beef with the facility was with the scoreboards. Penalty time is not displayed on the center scoreboard, forcing one to look down to the scoreboards at either end of the rink to see how much time is left, and shots on goal aren't displayed anywhere.

Having grown up in Rochester I was shocked to see no advertising from Genny or Kodak.

It was weird seeing Niagara host the game and have so few people there. I'm guessing at least 75% of the crowd was Red, though it seemed closer to 90%.

I was surprised by the low turnout (2,324). They had more than 8,000 there the night before for an Amerks game. I thought more locals would have shown up to watch some college hockey. I still think a Cornell-RIT game there when the students are around could draw well.

The Dinosaur BBQ was very much a Cornell gathering spot before the game. Funky decor, good food, terrible seating policy. It's located across the street from a parking garage & a block away from BCA.

If Estero doesn't work out, and this year's field isn't very glamorous, it might be a nice place for a holiday tournament.

[Q]calgARI '07 Wrote:

Pokuluk has been this year's biggest disappointment along with McKee to this point. He doesn't use his size at all and doesn't seem to want the puck even though he is very skilled. He also never uses his suppossedly booming shot. [/q]


Is it possible that both McKee and Sasha became complacent in the offseason, with McKee having been a Hobey hat trick finalist and Sasha drafted in the 1st round? They are both extremely talented players. I hope they can get their games back to where they were last year before the schedule gets tougher in January.

[Q]ithacat Wrote:

I was surprised by the low turnout (2,324). They had more than 8,000 there the night before for an Amerks game. I thought more locals would have shown up to watch some college hockey. I still think a Cornell-RIT game there when the students are around could draw well.[/q]

The following are Niagara's attendance numbers for their home games thus far this season:

DATE          OPPONENT          ATTENDANCE
Fri Oct  7    Clarkson          1097
Sat Oct  8    Clarkson          1027
Sat Oct 22    Western Michigan  1185
Fri Oct 28    Vermont           1003
Sat Oct 29    Vermont           1079
Fri Nov  4    Wayne State       1169
Sat Nov  5    Wayne State        915
Sat Nov 19    RIT               1068

Keep in mind that Niagara's Dwyer Arena supposedly seats a maximum of 4,000 people. To be fair, though, Niagara's student enrollment is something like 2600 undergrads and 800 grads. In any case, though, it's clear that Niagara doesn't quite have the local support (at least by the numbers) that Cornell does.

Of the 2324 recorded to be in attendance of Saturday's game, let's assume rougly 75% of the crowd were Cornell fans. (That might be a generous number, but whatever.) That leaves maybe 600 Niagara fans in attendance. Given their usual home attendance numbers, I would say having 60% attend a game on the 'road' is pretty good, particularly on a holiday weekend when students are probably home with their families.

My point is, 2324 wasn't really all that disappointing, though perhaps we should have had more of our people there.

[Q]ithacat Wrote:
The Dinosaur BBQ was very much a Cornell gathering spot before the game. Funky decor, good food, terrible seating policy. It's located across the street from a parking garage & a block away from BCA.

If Estero doesn't work out, and this year's field isn't very glamorous, it might be a nice place for a holiday tournament.[/q]

I have too many bad memories of the Syracuse Invitational to be excited about the idea of another Central NY holiday tourney. Although the highlight of those trips was eating at Dinosaur (which my party did after the game this time).

TV game on CSTV

[Q]jtwcornell91 Wrote:

ithacat Wrote:
The Dinosaur BBQ was very much a Cornell gathering spot before the game. Funky decor, good food, terrible seating policy. It's located across the street from a parking garage & a block away from BCA.

If Estero doesn't work out, and this year's field isn't very glamorous, it might be a nice place for a holiday tournament.[/Q]
I have too many bad memories of the Syracuse Invitational to be excited about the idea of another Central NY holiday tourney. Although the highlight of those trips was eating at Dinosaur (which my party did after the game this time).[/q]

those SIT games still give me nightmares...
dino was great before the game. nothin like cajun corn

 

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LGR!!!!!!!!!!
jy3 '00