Cornell - Union QF post-series

An interesting stat: the first game Cornell has won this season when trailing after the first.

1-9-0. Nice time to finally get that win

All visitors win tonight. Cornell could be the 1-seed in Albany.

Trotsky
All visitors win tonight. Cornell could be the 1-seed in Albany.

yeah, that could happen.

It's strange. Part of me wishes that this went to a game 3 just to give the guys more experience in a must-win situation. Heck, just plain more experience could be useful.

Anything that does not kill us makes us stonger.

Not complaining mind you, just being honest.

Very hard fought series. Union definitely had possession more but I thought the high quality scoring chances actually favored Cornell. Fontas and Mugford were warriors for Cornell this weekend. Both got banged up pretty good but kept fighting through it and I think were probably Cornell's two most valuable players during the course of the two games. They both made several key defensive plays and they made the PK outstanding. No coincidence that Mugford was in the box and Fontas was hurt when Union scored their first period powerplay goal tonight.

That was the best I've seen Krantz play in his four years in terms of his overall game. He was actually using his size and consistently playing the body. He rarely made any mental mistakes which has been his trademark for much of his career.

It was good to see Barlow get rewarded with the game winner after he had really struggled to put the puck in the net for the rest of the series including two missed breakaways earlier on.

Cornell got contributions from all 19 guys who played and that is something that has been commonplace on the successful Cornell teams during the Schafer-era. Last year's team had more talent top to bottom in the lineup but almost every player on the team was wildly inconsistent and it was rare that everyone was on in one game. I think the team turned a corner in Game 2 against Dartmouth where everyone started battling and playing for each other every single shift. If that continues then anything can happen.

Good series for Cornell, I'm just a little bit worried about next weekend if the top seeds win tomorrow. Even though we're now 2-2 against Union (remember, it's Union...not exactly world beaters) we're still 0-6 against Clarkson, Princeton and Harvard. We still haven't beaten any of the good teams in the ECAC. I'm just hoping that can change next week (if it has to). But it was a good weekend. As Ari said, everybody on the ice played a role and they seem to really be gelling at the right time here.
This is the fifth time or so I've watched them play this year after graduating last year and it's amazing to me how much better Scrivens got. I still think he gives up too many rebounds, but they tend not to come back to bite him.

Sawada, Fontas...I wonder who's gonna step up next weekend?

Just got home...man, am I glad to be away from Schenectady.

I'll begin by pointing out that these were two very loseable games for us. Especially tonight...I have no idea as to how Union failed to score in the 2nd period. Scrivens was outstanding, but Union had some sustained several-minute stretches of pressure tonight that should have led to an extra goal or two. These were extremely close hockey games,

SOG after a few minutes stood at 6-0 in favor of Cornell. By the end of the second, it was something like 31-15 in favor of Union. It was very similar to some of those NCAA games when we faced western teams (like the Minny game). Union was faster, had a lot of shots, and seemed to hustle more than us, but it didn't translate into anything on the scoreboard.

Schafer's strategy seemed to have the team play very conservative "Xs and Os" hockey. Especially when they had the one-goal leads this weekend, the team seemed very content to sit back and hope Union wouldn't tie the game up. This was frustrating to watch as a spectator, as there would be powerplays with 0-1 shots, even though Cornell might have been "set up" for at least 1:00 of the PP.

Effort was lacking for stretches of both games. The second Union goal tonight was scored because the defenseman (I think Seminoff) simply didn't get into position quickly enough. Instead of only being able to look at a fraction of the net, Caffaro had no one between him and Scrivens and was able to fire one past him.

I would say that this was "vintage" Schafer-era Cornell hockey -- the physical play, conservative gameplan -- but unlike some of the early-decade teams, this Cornell team was pretty bad along the boards. It wasn't that Union was bigger, but we always seemed to be on the wrong side or just too timid to clutch and grab.

A win is a win, so I don't mean to be too hard on the team. They ground these two games out, and Scrivens deserves the credit for tonight's win. Good goaltending wins games, and I think this weekend showed that a strong performance from Scrivens can bail the team out when they make a few defensive blunders or take a few stupid penalties.

Messa Rink was an interesting atmosphere this weekend. A lot of yelling back and forth, which is always fun, but IMO it's far from necessary to instigate fights with anyone who makes eye contact. There's a difference between good-natured taunting and belligerent come-ons.

In any case, it was very refreshing to be hit with ice cubes from the Union student section on Friday. Too bad that didn't happen tonight, when it was about 95 degrees in the Cornell sections.

Speaking of which, this was a great Cornell crowd. A mix of players' families, students, and alumni. Hope to see everyone at the Times-Union Center next weekend.

My first star of the weekend was definitely Josh Coyle with the "couching" penalty Friday night that led to the GW PPG, and then his penalty which negated their 6x4 advantage at the end of last night's game. Thanks Josh!

Most excellent.

This series win gets us back to an all-time winning record on the road in the playoffs.

Our record stands at 9-7-2 in 11 road series (some were only 1 game), and we've advanced an amazing 7 times. We've outscored our opponents 68-66, and that would be a whole lot better if not for the Clarkson series in 1995 (outscored 13-4). That's really the only series where we got blown out of the water, but we were #9 that year to their #1. Cornell is definitely not a team you want to see coming into your barn for the playoffs!

Not that you really want to go to Cornell, either:

40-7-2 (.837)
246 goals for (5.02! per game), 117 against (2.39 per game)
27 series advances out of 31 possible

Congrats to the team on continuing the great tradition of winning in the playoffs!

I may have some records wrong. These are from my DB, which may or may not agree with the TBRW records:

ECAC
9-7-2 Away
40-8-2 Home
35-23-0 Neutral

NCAA
3-5-0 Away
13-12-0 Neutral

Schafer:

ECAC
4-2-1 Away
18-5-1 Home
12-6-0 Neutral

NCAA
0-1-0 Away (the Minnesota game)
6-5-0 Neutral


Here is a graphical summary of Cornell's ECAC tourney history.


This was Schafer's 23rd ECAC series advance, and his 9th trip (as a coach) to the ECAC Final Four. Dick Bertrand went ten times. Here are the records which I have inexplicably not updated since 2006.

Finally, the barchart keeps rising. Cornell has never advanced 4 times in either an ECAC or an NCAA playoff.

Trotsky
I may have some records wrong.

Well, I got mine from you...

I assume that the difference in what I quoted for the home record is that you count the stupid mini-game as an actual game, and I will always just think of that as OT of the second game. I know it's really not the same thing, but it just doesn't seem "right" to consider that the same as a loss in an actual game. Therefore, I didn't count that as a losing game, but it obviously counts as a non-advance.

Robb

Trotsky
I may have some records wrong.

Well, I got mine from you...

I assume that the difference in what I quoted for the home record is that you count the stupid mini-game as an actual game, and I will always just think of that as OT of the second game. I know it's really not the same thing, but it just doesn't seem "right" to consider that the same as a loss in an actual game. Therefore, I didn't count that as a losing game, but it obviously counts as a non-advance.

A few years ago I was dragged kicking and screaming to the revelation that the NCAA, ECAC and Cornell all call the minigame just another game, for their records. This is among some of the fun quirks that make generating meaningful reports from the DB fun.


Some others:

The game we lost to BU 9-0, for which all records count, but which we won by forfeit (the Cornell record for smallest margin of victory thus stands at -9).

Games played during the ECAC Holiday Tournament in NYC and Boston in the 60's and 70's which count as both tournament and ECAC RS games.

A variety of RS tourney games for which it's ambiguous whether they were SF/F or just pre-set.

Boxes that are incomplete. Boxes that don't make sense. Boxes that make sense but are extraordinarily improbable (12 of 15 goals in a game being unassisted). Season totals that are highly improbable (60% power play conversions; 15% short handed conversions).

I have no doubt that someday I'm going to run into a box which gives a save to Empty Net.

sah67
My first star of the weekend was definitely Josh Coyle with the "couching" penalty Friday night that led to the GW PPG, and then his penalty which negated their 6x4 advantage at the end of last night's game. Thanks Josh!

Might want to give a star to the fans in the sold out rink for their help in confusing Union - from USCHO quoting the Schenectady Gazette article:

The Dutchmen were already short-handed, courtesy of a Stephane Boileau holding the stick penalty. A bad line change led to five Union skaters on the ice, which was one too many. Referee Peter Feola caught the violation, and that gave Cornell a two-man advantage for 33 seconds.

“A forward came to the bench, and d-man [defenseman] jumped for him,” Union coach Nate Leaman said. “It was really hard to hear in the rink tonight. The rink’s the loudest I’ve ever heard it.”

I have to say I loved the "Mugford's gonna kill you" chant.

cp20
I have to say I loved the "Mugford's gonna kill you" chant.

Or himself, what with all the 90-mph blasts he was blocking without the benefit of goalie pads...that kid is unbelievable.

Trotsky
All visitors win tonight. Cornell could be the 1-seed in Albany.

Right... and both basketball teams could win the Ivy League and make the NCAAs. Whatever.

ebilmes

Speaking of which, this was a great Cornell crowd. A mix of players' families, students, and alumni. Hope to see everyone at the Times-Union Center next weekend.

I guess we townies weren't really there.....

redice

ebilmes

Speaking of which, this was a great Cornell crowd. A mix of players' families, students, and alumni. Hope to see everyone at the Times-Union Center next weekend.

I guess we townies weren't really there.....

Eh...consider yourselves family.

ebilmes

redice

ebilmes

Speaking of which, this was a great Cornell crowd. A mix of players' families, students, and alumni. Hope to see everyone at the Times-Union Center next weekend.

I guess we townies weren't really there.....

Eh...consider yourselves family.

Okay bro!!

redice

ebilmes

redice

ebilmes

Speaking of which, this was a great Cornell crowd. A mix of players' families, students, and alumni. Hope to see everyone at the Times-Union Center next weekend.

I guess we townies weren't really there.....

Eh...consider yourselves family.

Okay bro!!

Wait, now you're my cousin, too?!