Cornell 2 RPI 1 (Post-game thread)

Cornell takes over first place in the ECAC by winning percentage.

I hope we can field a full team tomorrow night.

USCHO showing Yale over Princeton, 4-3, not vice-versa.

Al DeFlorio
USCHO showing Yale over Princeton, 4-3, not vice-versa.

ECAC has Princeton win.

And, Ray Sawada??

Princeton web site has Princeton over Yale.

Princeton athletics site showing Princeton win. Great second period by Cornell. A lot to work on, especially more skating in the defensive zone. We've definitely seemed back on our heels for much of the year. Even some of our quick defensemen are getting skated around on the rush.

Quote from our pal bothman over on USCHO: "This Harvard team sucks. I have not seen such lifeless, passionless, selfish hockey in years like this team has displayed of late - not since the Mazz years."

Guess he's a convert.

If Princeton won, they're 4-0 in the Ivies headed into a pair with Brown. With 2 losses already, it's going to be very difficult for Cornell to catch them.

I hate to rain on our parade -- and of course I'll take the win -- but I think we were generally awful tonight. It seemed like our sticks were allergic to the puck, as hardly any passes were made cleanly. RPI outskated and outhit us, and but for their inability to finish we would have been on the short end.

Scott-Sawada-Kennedy was the only line that had any real chances, and fortunately they converted a couple of times. Kennedy, especially, is coming into his own.

I wonder if it's time to put Barlow back with Nash and Greening; their production seems to have slowed since that line was broken up.

Scrivens was scary tonight, but did just enough.

Onward to Union; we will need to be better tomorrow.

Trotsky
If Princeton won, they're 4-0 in the Ivies headed into a pair with Brown. With 2 losses already, it's going to be very difficult for Cornell to catch them.

But how are we going to know who wins the Ivy championship until Penn and Columbia play their games?

Kyle

A question/comment on Scrivens...

Does anyone else notice that he likes to remain about 3 feet from the net for some length of time after playing the puck along the boards? He was nearly caught way way way out of position twice.

Finally found my way to a computer...

I thought Cornell played a solid game in the face of a lot of adversity. To begin, I generally hate when people knock the refs, but this game was just ridiculous. McDonald let the game get out of hand early and never regained control of it. On top of that, I couldn't tell what he was calling half the time, on both sides of the ice. That last penalty on Cornell (Seminoff) for elbowing was mind blowing.

In addition, not really sure what happened on RPI's first goal, but Scrivens, who is generally very calm, was absolutely livid. What I know is that there was a delayed penalty on Cornell and the RPI player took a shot that Scrivens saved, but then fell into the goal with. The goal judge called the goal too, not the ref. Oh well, we got 2 points and didn't repeat the terribleness of Onion last year.

As for the playing...it's pretty clear to everyone that Scott-Sawada-Kennedy have molded to be a top scoring line right now and they are meshing really well. It's great to see Ray put up some points this season, and I thought that as the game progressed he played with more confidence. He also showed some passion for once. Yeah I don't want to see him in the box, but a hit after the whistle and a 10 minute (for mouthing off probably) might just be the spark he needs to bring back his game. Hopefully this line keeps it up.

The loss of P. Kennedy really hurt the top line tonight. There is a huge difference between him and Roeszler. It seemed to affect the chemistry of the top line. I wasn't impressed with Nash's play and thought he uncharacteristically made a lot of stupid mistakes.

The third line was also all over the place this game and really just looked awful. They gave up RPI's goal, and aside from Mugford's penalty kill ability, I really was disappointed with them. Blake had a rough game and was thrown around a lot, especially that knee on knee hit. That one give away in the defensive zone in the 3rd period nearly cost us 2 points. Barlow seems to have characteristically fizzled out for the season. If this team is going anywhere, he is one of the players who needs to step it up again.

Finally, I really love the fourth line this season, and I thought they again brought some physical force to this game. Nicholls didn't play great, but for some reason I always feel comfortable when that line is on the ice. They won't score often but they make plays and don't give up a lot of scoring opportunities. I hope Scali isn't dead after that cheap hit at the end.

I thought Scrivens was in the zone and played very well. He was huge when he had to be, saving some point blank shots. He should've had the shutout this game.

D-wise...there were no surprises. Krantz had a pretty bad game if you ask me. He just couldn't move the puck all night. Berk doesn't have the speed or puck handling abilities to lead a rush let alone quarterback a powerplay. That top PP line was bad. I don't know why Berk was top D on the first unit. Seminoff has much better vision and puck moving skills.

On the whole, however, this was a very hard fought and difficult victory. The team did what it had to do, and each player did their role to get the win. I look forward to P. Kennedy return, and for Nash to return to the lineup in top defensive form. Hopefully, for all the bangs and bruises, we can get 2 more tomorrow.

I think Evan could increase the point totals of the first line if he could play more consistently. It will be interesting to see who skates on that line tomorrow. I wouldn't be surprised to see J. Devin suit up to give somebody a rest (e.g. Gallagher who got mauled tonight).

He gave up one goal. He made some good saves. What else do you want him to do? Shut everyone out? Give the guy a break. Why be so negative when we win a game? Last time I checked, this is not the 2003 team.

I was not attacking his overall performance tonight. He made some key saves. I was merely noting that one of his repeated positional decisions seemed absolutely bizarre. RPI could not capitalize. A better team might have.

Yes, it's a win, but in my opinion tonight was not a well-played game of hockey by either team. The Scott-Kennedy-Sawada line had some descent offensive pressure, and more importantly converted on opportunities (at least one was an RPI giveaway). Scrivens managed to keep the puck out of the net with some interesting saves. The other lines showed very little and there was a general lack of energy. The defense couldn't control or pass the puck. Luckily, RPI was awful (esp. their powerplay) and did very little besides banging around Gallagher and angering Sawada. I don't think this level of play would beat many other teams. That being said, I'll certainly take the win.

Injury update from Saturday's Ithaca Journal:

"Schafer said Scali would be re-evaluated before determining his status for tonight's game at Union. Schafer also said defenseman Brendon Nash and right winger Patrick Kennedy were 'somewhat' healthy scratches."

And:

"Center Blake Gallagher appeared to suffer a left knee injury after a collision with RPI's Andrew Lord early in the second period, but he only missed one shift"

Boy, I know I see the world thru red-tinted glasses, but I was there at the rink, and i saw it differently.

First period: Cornell was sttistically outshot by about 14-4, but in my opinion, half of those shots were poor and had little to no chance of going in. Even RPI's very capable radio team said that that they didn't think RPI dominated that period. The RPI fans around me also thought we had a lot of puck control (contrary to the opinion on our passing held by one of the other posters on the thread) even though the shot total was small.

Second period: Even shot totals, but RPI didn't get a sniff at the net, even with their cachectic power play because our penalty kill played great, and our two goals were both sweet plays, not garbage goal tip-ins of rebounds.

Third period: We're on the road with a 2-goal lead (for the first 40 seconds, anyway.) They clearly were concentrating on trapping the puck in the neutral zone and not allowing RPI's quick forwards to get any rushes behind them. When I saw the RPI-Harvard game, I was pretty worried about RPI's breakout. Cornell smothered it. I thought Cornell should have gone to the goal more, but that's a coaching decision. They concentrated on playing D and really controlled the period.

Last, Cornell showed more piss-off at the (frequent) cheap-shots than I've seen out of them in the past, and if this was the teams I saw as an undergraduate (the Ferguson brothers, Harry Orr, etc) the benches would have emptied at about the 18:00 minute mark of the third. I don't criticize Sawada's penalties, he's one of the biggest guys out there and the ref mostly never saw the instigators and nailed the retaliators.

RPI historically (spell check please) gets well against us even when their having a down year. I'm happy as hell with this game.

The Ithaca Journal, the Cornell Athletics web site, and the RPI Athletics web site all report that the penalty given to Burgdoerfer for the hit from behind on Scali was a game disqualification, and not the normal garden-variety game misconduct.

Also was announced as a game DQ at the rink.

CowbellGuy
Also was announced as a game DQ at the rink.

A fact that was not announced on the stellar TV broadcast (at least, I never heard anything beyond the major).

It was the rare hit from behind into the boards in which I thought that anything less than a DQ would have been a poor exercise of the referee's discretion. Thank goodness Joe Scali was able to skate to the bench a short while afterward.

In addition to the game DQ, Burgdoerfer will probably not be treated very well at Lynah on Feb 16.

lynah80
In addition to the game DQ, Burgdoerfer will probably not be treated very well at Lynah on Feb 16.

the tv sound was quite clear at ice level after this hit. when they showed the Big Red bench choice words and/or phrases were copiously hurled at Burgdoerfer. He should likely fear for his personal safety as the bench, most notably Sawada was telling him he was "f'ing dead, i'm gonna f;ing kill you etc ..." it's really no surprise Sawada received a 10 minute misconduct. then again, IMHO it was completely justified as the hit was the culmination of some very dirty play by RPI.

needless to say february 16th should be an eventful evening! wish i could be there

lynah80
In addition to the game DQ, Burgdoerfer will probably not be treated very well at Lynah on Feb 16.

Melrose finalist. We may have found the next Nickerson. Even the RPI homer (hockeyhound) on the USCHO game thread opined that it was a bad hit.

Good teams, the sports cliche Gods hath decreed, "find a way to win."

Trotsky,
Having met hockeyhound and exchanged several hundred emails with him over the last four years -- he knows what he is talking about. I would trust his observations over anyone, with the possible exception of Puck Swami, who posts on USCHO.

Re: Erik Burgdorfer. I met his father, who was a wrestler at Indiana University, in the van going to the airport from the hotel in Florida two weeks ago. Considering that Erik just turned 19, you could be right about the Nickerson comparison.

ursusminor
Trotsky,
Having met hockeyhound and exchanged several hundred emails with him over the last four years -- he knows what he is talking about. I would trust his observations over anyone, with the possible exception of Puck Swami, who posts on USCHO.

Re: Erik Burgdorfer. I met his father, who was a wrestler at Indiana University, in the van going to the airport from the hotel in Florida two weeks ago. Considering that Erik just turned 19, you could be right about the Nickerson comparison.

I wasn't using "homer" as disparaging -- we have our share of folks who aren't inclined to voice an opinion that favors the other team and regard game thread posting as adversarial justice.

An infuriating thing about staying in hotels on the road is you often run into the opponents' families, and they're usually extremely nice. This has happened to me many times with Harvard players. It's almost as if people in the college hockey community are all the same, regardless of the jersey.

The thing that most impressed me about Burgdoerfer Sr. was that he got to go to Florida while his wife was in Ottawa to watch their youngest son (a goalie) in a Squirt tourney.