Cornell vs Yale (Saturday)

I'm eating pineapple to get my voice back and counting the (4) hours remaining till the game starts.

It may be worth mentioning that among his other failings, Taylor (Yale's head coach) is a Hahvahd alum. And in one article they were talking about Taylors finest yale team (85-86) who beat defending national champion RPI and upset national finalist Hahvahd and climing as high as 4th in the national poll until Cornell beat them 3-2 in overtime in the ECAC semi's.

If we can stop them when they're on fire, lets clobber them when we're on fire!

LETS GO RED!!!

(Knocking on wood as I type this) Well, a quick survey of the Big 4 (didn't look at CHA or MAAC) conferences shows Cornell with the longest win streak in the country. I'd sure like to see it extended to 8. Let's go Red, a stronger performance than last night's will be necessary to beat Yale.

> the longest win streak

Ohhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh man, you better hope the hockey gods missed that one.

I DID knock on wood. (Please, Jinx Gods, pay no attention to me!)

I missed the first period. I'm assuming there's no score. How are they looking tonight? or or ::sore:: or what?

Got it on USCHO.com...

Correct, no score after 1 period. Sounds like we came out flying but Lombard has been playing great.

1-0 Big red leads

GGGGGGGGGGGOOOOOOOOAL!!
Mark McCrae, from Vesce and Murray

Clarkson leads RPI 3-0 in Troy. Still 1-0 Cornell here.

HORNBY THE LOOSE BISCUIT DUG IT UP IN THE CORNER, BABY WITH THE GOAL 2-1 RED!

Yale ties it up.

WOW! Another huge last second goal! (Paolini at 19:44 makes it 3-2!)

WOO- HOO!!!!

YESSSSSSS. EIGHT IN A ROW! Paolini. Hornby was a monster tonight, crushing solid legal hits, was huge since sounded like team was asleep most of the game. how long since 8 in a row? or is this a new record?

Well, it aint a record. (The record is 29-0-0).

Well, it sounds like Cornell didn't play particularly well either night (Grady), but still got a sweep. Even great teams won't be "on" all the time, but the mark of greatness is to still win. Even with 16 seconds to go.

RPI just tied Clarkson in the final minute!

I just connected to the RPI feed to listen to the end of the 3rd (and now OT) for the RPI-Clarkson game. Everytime I listen to another game's feed, I thank the Broadcasting Gods that we have Grady.

And now RPI wins in OT!

Cornell's lead is 7 pts on second and 8 pts on third, with 6 games (12 points) remaining.

The RPI announcer was so hysterical after the winning goal, I couldn't make out a thing he said for about a minute. Quite humorous.

1st period
cornell was flying high, shooting and passing and doing all sorts of wonderful things on D and O. but lombard made the saves
2nd period
cornell opens well but falters and plays a mediocre second but have the lead and confidence. well played defensive second
3rd period
yale turns it up, gets into passing lanes, and Cornell plays a little sloppy --> a tied game.
lenny makes some great saves and cornell turns it up in the last couple minutes with Lynah rockin. Game winning goal with 15.6 left. great game and great heart today, boys!
great hitting today. some really brutal hits. it was sweet.
two of the cornell goals were trickling across the line (i was sitting right on the goal line) and i was trying to blow them across
the penalty that lead to the PP goal for Yale was a bunch of BS. the guy slid into the goalie on his own. bad call but he did miss a few CU penalties i guess.
kudos to Paolini for scoring yet another important and game winning goal for Cornell. he is really stepping up to get the job done when it needs to be done.
this makes two games in a row in which cornell has scored in the last half minute to win (for me seeing them live). 27 and 15.6. crazy!
WAY TO GO RED!

I have to agree with jy3, unlike Friday we started out well but went downhill. We were lucky to win tonight. We let them skate much too freely, many too many good ops for them. Both goalies were good, our D was not.

Like I said about the Princeton game, good teams find a way to win when they don't play well. I just hope we can put it better together later. It looks somewhat like we are playing to the level of the competition, which is never a good idea. I don't want to pull a Clarkson.

My sense is that Murray deserves mucho credit for the winning goal--barging down the right wing with the puck like a man possessed to set up Sam. But then, he should have been possessed, having handed Klema Yale's second goal.

The difference between this year's Cornell team and those of years past is that even when we haven't played our best game against the Princetons of the world, we've still managed to pull out the win. The biggest disappointment, result-wise, was probably the loss to Ohio State. (The biggest heartbreak was the loss to Harvard, of course.)

I actually thought that Cornell played pretty well -- certainly better than Friday -- with the obvious exception of two huge defensive breakdowns. It seemed to me that this was a game where the Lynah faithtful really made a difference. After Yale tied the score the crowd seemed tense and quiet and we played a little tight. But when everyone stood up with about four minutes left and began roaring the energy level of the team visibly increased.

Building on Richard Stott's comments (why does it seem that there are an inordinate number of "Rich"es on this board all of a sudden? ), I'll say that the Lynah roar got another assist last night. The logical side of me tends to scoff whenever a player says that the crowd gives them a shot of energy, thinking that it's just giving the media and fans a nice quote to feel warm and fuzzy about. But the emotional side of me really believes it, especially after seeing that energy boost the team seemed to get in the final 2 minutes. If momentum and confidence are indeed important in sports, then the crowd factors in as well. (Another example is Clarkson falling victim to the so-called "Big Red Freakout" in Troy, coughing up a 3-0 late 3rd lead...editorial comment: apparently that's the only game RPI fans are allowed to dress in team colors and make a lot of noise for the team )

I'll agree that it was a better overall effort than on Friday. 1st period was simply a good defensive period for both teams, with Cornell getting the better of the time in the attack zone. Cornell didn't clamp-down as well as they have in the past when the game got to 2-1. Eli capitalized, and the better part of the 3rd was difficult to watch...Yale controled play well with a great forecheck to stuff our offensive rushes and good cycling deep in their zone to maintain control. Lenny had some good saves.

It's good to know that this team isn't a heartless "Big Red Machine" and and has some emotion to draw from. You saw that in the crowd, and in the pile-up following the game-winner. My favorite image is Underhill going bezerk on the bench. He was screaming so hard his entire head was bright red.

I'll say this about this team that I noticed starting with the Harvard game at Lynah East...they seem to have an ability to score when they have to...as if it is a concerted effort: "OK...we're going to score in the next few minutes...let's go." At Bright, they answered every early Harvard goal very quickly, and nearly got the winner at the regulation buzzer. Nice comeback at BU, they didn't panic at SLU when down, and then vs. Yale they answered back even when they didn't have any momentum to build on. This offensive confidence thing seems to have invaded, and it's a great feeling.

I'll say this about this team that I noticed starting with the Harvard game at Lynah East...they seem to have an ability to score when they have to...as if it is a concerted effort: "OK...we're going to score in the next few minutes...let's go."

It sure makes things easier when contributions come from all lines and all times.

Last year it was the case where if there wasn't a power play with "the unit" (Bâby, Vesce, Paolini, McRae, Murray) out there, you just didn't have confidence that they were going to score....(thank goodness for the many minutes of PP time we got in that first Princeton playoff game).

This year, you just get the feeling that if they need a goal, they can get it, pretty much from any line.

JTW:

> The biggest disappointment, result-wise, was probably the loss to Ohio State.

That was true for me, too -- until the Dartmouth loss.