CU - tUMD postgame

sounded like a good game. deffinatly got the impression it was wa slow game, but we got the tie/win

McKee MVP but not on the all-tourney team? Does that make sense to anyone?

That's done. Allows for another player to get honored.

Ben Rocky 04
McKee MVP but not on the all-tourney team? Does that make sense to anyone?

They have to spread the wealth, which is lame, but it happens.

I guess I would have just picked Cam as MVP and put Mckee on the all-tourney team. Its all good. LGR!

Dpperk29
sounded like a good game. deffinatly got the impression it was wa slow game, but we got the tie/win

wrong impression...It appeared pretty quick to me from the webcast. Lots of odd man rushes on both sides of the ice.

McKee's now gone 4 straight with 1 or fewer GA.

Actually thought Cornell played a good game. It was not fast at all; tUMD had looked like a very fast team on Tuesday, but we made them play our game. The SOG were low--a lot of slow, physical play. McKee was solid again. Our kill was phenomenal tonight; we just shut them down. We had a lot of chances in the 3rd and a few good ones in overtime...too bad nothing worked out.

The powerplay unit was definitely our weakest link during the two games. We also took a few too many penalties, but nothing killed us. The UMD goal was a beauty, but you have to be happy that we survived the 5x3 and 5-min major without surrendering a goal.

From reading the game thread, it seems like the people at home didn't care too much about the shootout, but it meant a lot to those of us who were there. I definitely didn't leave the rink feeling like we had tied. Sure a win would have been nice, but we won the tournament; this is more than we did in 02-03 or 04-05.

Overall, an excellent job with so few defensemen. We took away their speed and began to show that we aren't that much weaker defensively when compared to the teams of the past few years. Hopefully this will boost McKee's confidence.

Good to see the eLf folks who made the trip. Thanks to Bill Howard for the pictures from the first game.

The game featured a good number of long passes and odd man rushes, but part of that was because tUMD did a good job of defending the blue line, and made it difficult to gain the zone and set up. So there was a lot of dump and chase on conventional plays.

We did have some really good scoring chances, including in OT. After the OT ended I ran over to the tUMD fans we'd been hanging with the previous night and congratulated them on a hard fought tie. The shootout was exciting and fun to watch, but in my mind it was for the Harkness Cup (yes!) and nothing more.

Who made the all-tournament team?

ebilmes
we won the tournament; this is more than we did in 02-03 or 04-05.

Cornell has now almost completely recovered from their early struggles in the tournament. They are 5-6-1 lifetime at Estero, but 4-1-1 (with 2 championships) in the last three years: [www.tbrw.info]

Avash '05
Who made the all-tournament team?

IIRC, the 3 Cornellians (in addition to McKee as MVP) on the All-Tourny team were Cam, Mou,son and O'Byrne.

Given that next year's field is Cornell, Maine, UNH and Western Michigan, it now appears certain that Ohio State has pulled out of the tournament for good.

Heckuva job getting the Wildcats for next year -- that's a great pick up, and you have to think Schafer has a special desire to beat them.

Positives from the UMD game:

- Cornell showed lots of poise on defense.
- Lots of contributions from the freshmen and sophomores.
- Cornell did not back down from a big, bruising CCHA/WCHA style team.
- If David McKee took a junior month abroad, he’s back. Or McKee and the defense are back.
- Cornell did it without Pokoluk.
- O’Byrne did not turn the puck over in front of the Cornell net during the shootout. (Sorry, cheap shot.) He was solid. And my ears finally stopped ringing from the post he hit Friday night in the third period. If it was the Liberty Bell O’Byrne fired on, it would have two cracks now.
- Cam Abbott was awesome.

Disappointments:
- It went to a shootout to determine the champ, which means for post-season ratings purposes it was a 1-1 tie.
- Scary brief defensive lapses including more near breakaways allowed than should happen in a month of games.
- UMD figured out the Cornell power play, mostly by pressuring the point players.
- After Bitz missed a near-breakaway goal early in the OT, Cornell went flat and only had a few solid rushes and was lucky not to have given up a goal.
- Evan Barlow comes out of the penalty box, gets his hands on a home run pass, skates in alone … and a UMD defender catches up and breaks up the play.
- For the weekend, two even-strength goals. Sheesh.
- Most of all, as the Cornell defense ratchets down the goals-allowed, the offense seems to ratchet down its goal production. Maybe they’re related.
- We’re at the midpoint of the season and Matt Moulson has, what, two (?) even-stength goals. Even blind squirrels finds some nuts. He’s due. He also drew I believe three penalties on the weekend IIRC, which doubles his season total.
- Cornell seems to have an inordinate amount of almost/coulda/woulda/should opportunities that don’t go in.
- Dumb / stupid / un-Schafer-like penalties against UMD: Abbott’s retaliation after getting flattened in the first that negated the pending power play, and a Cornell player getting ejected for a dangerous play. OTOH, Cornell was invincible on PK over the weekend. The opponents were something like oh-for-eighteen including Cornell successful kill of the overlapping minor and five-minute major.

If listeners/webcast views got the sense it was a slow game – no, that was the first day. This was not high scoring and there were lots of penalties, but it seemed there was more hockey played, too.

Overall: This seems like a much improved team from a couple weeks ago. December’s GAA is 0.73 (3 GA in 4 games plus 5 minutes of OT). The younger players are coming into their own, there’s lots of poise on the ice, the defense is crisp (except for those near breakaways), PK is solid. So we’re back to the circa 2003 and 2004 problem: If you only score 1-2 goals a game, you better have a darn solid defense. Plus the PP is no longer quite so scary to the other guys.

About the 2006 Florida tournament: If it’s Cornell, Maine, plus UNH and Western Michigan, the tournament is 1 or 1-1/2 teams shy of a solid field in terms of attendance. But you’ve got 3 solid, likely top 20 teams playing. Bring back Ohio State and Notre Dame. They have nutso / loyal fans too, mostly old graduates, and they fill the arena. The UMD fans were decent but there weren’t many of them. It would have been better for attendance if Maine was in the final.

Is anyone else scratching their heads at the shootout selection?? OB? Carefoot?

How about Moulson, Abbott, Abbott, McCutcheon, and Barlow? May have not come down to the last shot if they threw that group out first.

mvp G david mckee, cornell

all tourney team (as listed in the news-press, and it sounds like what they announced last night):
g Isaac Reichmuth, umd
D ryan o'byrne, cornell
D Mike Lundin, Maine
F Cam Abbott, cornell
F Justin Williams, umd
F matt moulson, cornell

and today's glaring error from the news-press in describing cam abbott's shorthanded goal

"the game's only goals came in the second period when abbott tucked a shorthanded breakaway under McKee at 1:37."

This was a disappointing result and doesn't do anything to inspire optimism.

The tournament consisted of the 5 and 9th place teams in HE and the 5th place team in the WCHA. Beating NU requires no comment. Tieing UMD is particularly disappointing since they have a losing record themselves and have managed their 8 wins against teams with a combined record of 56-71-9, and this was a "game that mattered", or as close to it as you can get at this point in the season.

As to Cornell looking better in it's last half dozen games, as some have observed, this was done in six games against teams with a combined 40-55-10 record, among whom only one had a winning record, and that was by virtue of playing in the CHA. You'd better look good when playing against competition like that.

The next few weeks are equally miserable in terms of opponents with RIT, Quinnipiac and Princeton. By the time Cornell gets to the St Lawrence/Clarkson weekend they will have played 17 games, of which only 5 (by current records) will have been against winning teams (and it may be down to 3 since Niagara has UNH and 2 against MN coming up). And of those 5 games, only 1 (Hahvahd) was against a school that itself has a winning record against winning teams. St Lawrence and Clarkson will be only our 2nd and 3rd games of the year against teams with winning records against winning teams.

Based on that, 2 points, even though at home, would be a good result. But we shouldn't be surprised by fewer, with RPI/Union as the best data so far. If we got 4 points, then you could say things are really looking better, but only then.

Boy, next time I have a parade remind me to invite you so you can rain on it.

I was wondering if people who were at the game thought that colgate, er, um, cornell got the short end of the stick from the officials? Watching on the webcast it looked like most of the penalties called on cornell were weak at best. 5 min major, didn't see it, can someone elaborate?

schoaff
Boy, next time I have a parade remind me to invite you so you can rain on it.

I guess we do have to keep in mind that we tied a team which we, on paper, should have beat. But tUMD, based on their play this weekend, are better than their record would indicate. (Their fans told me they've alternated one good weekend with two bad ones this year. We caught them on the good weekend. Let's hope they have all good weekends from here on out.) And I don't think we believe we're as good as our record.

Based on the teams we saw out there, a tie was a fair result. Would have liked to settle it for real in OT, but you can't control the format.

Harrier
Is anyone else scratching their heads at the shootout selection?? OB? Carefoot?

Very surprised at O'B, but I certainly would've had Mitch out there. When O'B was lining up I turned to the group I was with (JTW, Liz, Rita, Bilmes x 2) and said "O'B??!" However, you have to trust Mike's judgment, as he sees these guys in practice everyday. I thought Mitch played a great game throughout - including working the puck out of our zone and down the ice which set up Cam's SHG. I wasn't there Tuesday, but Carefoot would've made my one day all tourney team.

Carefoot did play a good game, but Williams was deserving of a spot on the team. Seemed he was everywhere on the ice on Tuesday and then he had some nice skate/stick work to score UMD's only goal against Cornell.

As to the shootout, I was shocked when OB was sent out. I was even more shocked when Topher wasn't sent out. OB managed a pretty poor shot that went wide of the goal; you have to think Scott would have done something better. To OB's credit, though, he played well defensively during the tournament.

O'Byrne did score on McKee in the Red-White game shootout. Also, bear in mind that Schafer has probably seen the guys in shootout situations a ton in practice. I was a bit suprised, but I have no basis(nor do any of us) to really second guess the decision.

Overall, a solid Cornell performance. The second period was vintage Cornell hockey. The downer was the overtime. Schafer in the local paper made it clear that he was disappointed by the way we turned it over and generally lost our composure. The real worry has to be the power play – 1/15. Two even strength goals is not good, obviously, but with our style it’s always going to be a struggle at even strength against anything other than weak teams, I think. Cornell has to cash in on the power play to be successful.

that was a must win game and the tie isnt going to help much in the wcha comparison for post season.

Harrier
Is anyone else scratching their heads at the shootout selection?? OB? Carefoot?

How about Moulson, Abbott, Abbott, McCutcheon, and Barlow? May have not come down to the last shot if they threw that group out first.

Carefoot scored on his shot; makes it tough to second-guess that one IMO.

Harrier
Is anyone else scratching their heads at the shootout selection?? OB? Carefoot?

IMO, Carefoot has taken up the role that Iggulden held last season: the SH breakaway threat. His inclusion on the shootout squad was a no-brainer for me. I'd love to see Cam and/or 'Cutch work their way into that type of player also. However, last night was the first goal Cam had scored since the 2004 Everblades, so...

But yeah...O'B in the shootout? Unless he was going to pull up at the blue line and wait for someone to magically set a screen for a slapshot, I don't know what he was doing there.

Ryan O'Byrne's shorthanded goal against Boston College last year showed that he has a dangerous snap shot. I don't think he was a puzzling choice for the shootout.

RichH

Harrier
Is anyone else scratching their heads at the shootout selection?? OB? Carefoot?

IMO, Carefoot has taken up the role that Iggulden held last season: the SH breakaway threat. His inclusion on the shootout squad was a no-brainer for me. I'd love to see Cam and/or 'Cutch work their way into that type of player also. However, last night was the first goal Cam had scored since the 2004 Everblades, so...

Mitch played that role last year too - if I remember correctly, he had two shorties and a bunch of good chances then. I think McCutcheon could pretty easily develop into that role too, as he seems to have blossomed as a solid PKer this year.

As far as the shootout selection...I don't think about that stuff critically during the game. I have a vague memory of the people around me questioning it. I might've thought more about it if I had a radio commentator in my ear. But instead, I just got caught up in the excitement.

(Moved from the game thread b/c I didn't see this one at first)

Just got back to Ithaca from the tournament. My thoughts:

UMD played pretty rough. I noticed this the first night as well. I only stayed for the first period of the UMD/Maine game, but it seemed to be a lot faster-paced than the NEU/Cornell game. Got me a little concerned about how Wednesday's game would be, no matter which team we played. On Wednesday, within the first five minutes I became worried about fights breaking out for the rest of the game.

Even though UMD was all over us (and our guys dished it back), we seemed to get called on it more than they did. Glover got pulled for something that really didn't seem to be his fault. I think that's what Schafer was talking to the refs about during the break. Meanwhile, a bit before that, Mugford went down by the boards, and two of the UMD guys were literally beating him with their sticks. The refs did NOTHING about that. Ridiculous. I don't know if that showed up the webcast, but I turned to the people around me to make sure I wasn't imagining that whole thing - they were surprised as well.

In general, I thought the refs were terrible. Not only did they make what I thought were some poor calls (and miss a lot), but they didn't seem to comprehend the idea of staying out of the way of the puck. At one point (I think in the NEU game) I literally saw a ref standing over the puck while guys tried to get it out of there. Granted - he was surrounded so he couldn't really go anywhere. But he HAD time to get out of the way when he was standing by the puck and the guys hadn't gotten to him yet. In general, the refs were just always in the way, and basically interfering with the gameplay.

I was kind of disappointed with the turnout for games. I mean, it's in Florida, so I know people aren't necessarily going to travel down like I did. But - I wish I there was some way to consolidate fans (we were SO spread out), and make sure that everyone knows the cheers. It was pretty difficult to get people to do most of them when the closest person is 5 feet away and doesn't know what's going on anyway. Probably can't be helped, but I still thought I'd complain Maybe give the host Cornell Club (in this case, Cornell Club of SW Florida) copies of the cheers that can be passed out at the reception that was going on before and during the game? There were a lot of alums with kids, and the kids REALLY into the few cheers that they knew. If more cheers/traditions were known by more people, it prob could have been decent. The mini pep band was great, but they were sitting pretty far away from a lot of the fans, and in my section (the adjacent Cornell section), I couldn't hear their cheers at all, except for the few short bursts of LGR that went around. Would have been great to have everyone knowing the "1, 2, 3, 4, we want more, sieve" chant though. "Stickless" could also have been applied a lot. I suppose the "see ya () you goon" might not have been great to pass out to the little kids though, as their parents might not have appreciated. But we have PLENTY of clean, fun cheers.

I doubt anyone is still reading this, seeing as it's way after the games - so I'll stop here. Way to go Red!

las224
I was kind of disappointed with the turnout for games. I mean, it's in Florida, so I know people aren't necessarily going to travel down like I did. But - I wish I there was some way to consolidate fans (we were SO spread out), and make sure that everyone knows the cheers. It was pretty difficult to get people to do most of them when the closest person is 5 feet away and doesn't know what's going on anyway. Probably can't be helped, but I still thought I'd complain Maybe give the host Cornell Club (in this case, Cornell Club of SW Florida) copies of the cheers that can be passed out at the reception that was going on before and during the game? There were a lot of alums with kids, and the kids REALLY into the few cheers that they knew. If more cheers/traditions were known by more people, it prob could have been decent. The mini pep band was great, but they were sitting pretty far away from a lot of the fans, and in my section (the adjacent Cornell section), I couldn't hear their cheers at all, except for the few short bursts of LGR that went around. Would have been great to have everyone knowing the "1, 2, 3, 4, we want more, sieve" chant though. "Stickless" could also have been applied a lot. I suppose the "see ya () you goon" might not have been great to pass out to the little kids though, as their parents might not have appreciated. But we have PLENTY of clean, fun cheers.

The advantage of the big arena with the small crowd is that you can basically move where you want. The half-dozen or so of us who wanted to stand and be crazy just found each other and congregated somewhere convenient. The second night we actually ended up closer to the main mass of Cornell fans (after some Cornell alums ten rows behind us yelled at us to sit down instead of asking us nicely to move somewhere out of their line of sight, which is what we ended up doing). Anyway, please come join us if you'd like; I think the last row right in front of the Cornell hospitality area is a good place to be as far as being able to stand and getting other Cornell folks to join in the cheers.

las224
I suppose the "see ya () you goon" might not have been great to pass out to the little kids though, as their parents might not have appreciated.

Rita didn't seem to mind "see ya" (skip a beat) "you goon" next to her four-year old nephew. Now, if we'd been doing it the typical Lynah student section way...

I think a lot of the Cornell fans there were family of players and students. My dad would've cheered for Cornell were he there, but he wouldn't know the standard cheers and probably wouldn't have paid attention to a cheer sheet. I suspect the players' parents - especially those that can't make it to many games - would be the same.

Liz '05

las224
I suppose the "see ya () you goon" might not have been great to pass out to the little kids though, as their parents might not have appreciated.

Rita didn't seem to mind "see ya" (skip a beat) "you goon" next to her four-year old nephew. Now, if we'd been doing it the typical Lynah student section way...

I think a lot of the Cornell fans there were family of players and students. My dad would've cheered for Cornell were he there, but he wouldn't know the standard cheers and probably wouldn't have paid attention to a cheer sheet. I suspect the players' parents - especially those that can't make it to many games - would be the same.

I don't think there is anything wrong with "GOON" and i'm sure my nephew has heard worse at the Everblades games (and possibly pre-school ). Personally, I don't think that replacing "GOON" with "ASSHOLE" adds anything at all to the cheer, so I don't understand why the students feel they have to say it and then get mad when they get thrown out.

It was great to see cornell play and to put faces to people's names. And a belated thank you to Lauren and the rest of the 3-piece Cornell brass band. It was great having you there for the first game.

I'm a bit more optimistic about the 2nd half of the season... I am a bit rusty on watching live hockey, but I thought our "young D" played well in the UMD game after Glover got tossed (OB the only upper classman with a lot of game experience).

A**hole doesn't get replaced with goon. Goon always gets said. It's: "See you (a**hole), you goon!"

Hope no one took my comments as real complaints. I did thoroughly enjoy the games; I was just expecting an atmosphere more similar to section B. Oh well

I am new here
but just wanted to say that I went to the game and it was amazing. I would of thought that there would be more people in Estero but was disipointed. I snaged some photos of the game that I can post if you guys want. Great game I have to say, real intense.

las224
A**hole doesn't get replaced with goon. Goon always gets said. It's: "See you (a**hole), you goon!"

Well, once upon a time it was just "aaaaaaahhh, SEEYA!" with "asshole" reserved for those who really deserved it. For a while people added "you goon" as a less offensive version of "asshole". The practice of saying both started only in the past 5-10 years.

exposcohen
I would have thought that there would be more people in Estero but was disappointed.

That's about normal for the four years we've been going down there. Last year I think we had a few more people who stood for the whole games. With the relatively few Faithful living in the South and the students/band on vacation, I don't think you can be too disappointed.