Cornell 6 Niagara 0 -- Saturday's women's result

Another strong performance from start to finish. 4-0 after the first period; switched up the goalies in the middle of the second period. Went to the bench early as well.

dag14
Another strong performance from start to finish. 4-0 after the first period; switched up the goalies in the middle of the second period. Went to the bench early as well.

Look first, we already had a thread about this.

Actually there wasn't a thread about this. The other thread was Friday's game, which is why I was very careful to specify in the header that my comment related to Saturday's game. Where the score was the same as Friday's game.

dag14
Actually there wasn't a thread about this. The other thread was Friday's game, which is why I was very careful to specify in the header that my comment related to Saturday's game. Where the score was the same as Friday's game.

Sorry, my bad.

dag14
Another strong performance from start to finish. 4-0 after the first period; switched up the goalies in the middle of the second period. Went to the bench early as well.

I love watching the women play. I know it's a different game without contact, but they're a joy to watch. They really know how to maximize odd-man rushes, work 2-on-1s, work breakaways, get the puck into areas that increase the pressure on the goalie and defensemen, go to the far post...just a blast to watch. Of course, it helps when your team has a wealth of talent and speed.

Since losing to Mercyhurst, the team's won 6 straight and outscored its opponents 26-1. It's amazing that no one shows up to watch this team.

I'm at the Rock ... all I can say is thank goodness for the women

scoop85
I'm at the Rock ... all I can say is thank goodness for the women

If things continue the women may be outdrawing the men by the end of the season. It'll only take a 2,000 swing -- tickets are cheaper and you can sit where you want.

Seriously, I can't believe how far the men have fallen.

ithacat

scoop85
I'm at the Rock ... all I can say is thank goodness for the women

If things continue the women may be outdrawing the men by the end of the season. It'll only take a 2,000 swing -- tickets are cheaper and you can sit where you want.

Seriously, I can't believe how far the men have fallen.

Well, I was a bit premature with my doom and gloom. Nice comeback win for the men!

ithacat

I love watching the women play. I know it's a different game without contact, but they're a joy to watch. They really know how to maximize odd-man rushes, work 2-on-1s, work breakaways, get the puck into areas that increase the pressure on the goalie and defensemen, go to the far post...just a blast to watch. Of course, it helps when your team has a wealth of talent and speed.

Since losing to Mercyhurst, the team's won 6 straight and outscored its opponents 26-1. It's amazing that no one shows up to watch this team.

I agree, they are a lot of fun to watch. They move the puck extremely well and are often faster than the competition. I think their PP needs some work but PP's seem to be less of a factor at least from what I have seen as there appear to be fewer penalties assessed.

One concern I have is that I think the depth of quality competition is a bit of an issue. It looks to me like the difference between #1 and #10 is a pretty big gap. Playing in the ECAC we are not seeing the BU, BC, Wisc., Minn's. and some of the other quality programs that could give us a tough game. The only 2 top 10 programs, based on the USCHO poll, we will see in the regular season are Mercyhurst and Dartmouth.

It is looking like a great season, I plan on going to a game when they are in Boston.

LGR!

Towerroad

ithacat

I love watching the women play. I know it's a different game without contact, but they're a joy to watch. They really know how to maximize odd-man rushes, work 2-on-1s, work breakaways, get the puck into areas that increase the pressure on the goalie and defensemen, go to the far post...just a blast to watch. Of course, it helps when your team has a wealth of talent and speed.

Since losing to Mercyhurst, the team's won 6 straight and outscored its opponents 26-1. It's amazing that no one shows up to watch this team.

I agree, they are a lot of fun to watch. They move the puck extremely well and are often faster than the competition. I think their PP needs some work but PP's seem to be less of a factor at least from what I have seen as there appear to be fewer penalties assessed.

One concern I have is that I think the depth of quality competition is a bit of an issue. It looks to me like the difference between #1 and #10 is a pretty big gap. Playing in the ECAC we are not seeing the BU, BC, Wisc., Minn's. and some of the other quality programs that could give us a tough game. The only 2 top 10 programs, based on the USCHO poll, we will see in the regular season are Mercyhurst and Dartmouth.

It is looking like a great season, I plan on going to a game when they are in Boston.

LGR!

If it's any comfort, I think all of the top 10 women's teams have this same problem - their league schedules includes a handful of other really good teams and a lot of teams that aren't good enough to challenge for a win. In women's hockey, the ECAC league slate isn't the step down from NCAA play that it is in men's hockey, so Cornell shouldn't be much worse off than any of the other top teams.

I know Clarkson and SLU haven't been that great so far but they have been very good in recent years. Dartmouth and Harvard are supposed to be strong this year (Harvard continuing its run of success and Dartmouth rebounding from a down year), QC is a big question mark (good record, bad competition) and RPI turned it on late last season and could be a tough opponent again. Throw Princeton and Yale into the mix and you've got decent depth of talent in the ECAC (by women's hockey standards - there is usually a huge gap between the top 3-4 teams and everyone else). When all is said and done I wouldn't be surprised to see 2 or 3 ECAC teams in the top 10 with one or two competitive squads in the top half of the league. The same is true of both Hockey East and the WCHA - Hockey East has been in pretty bad shape over the last several years but so far it looks like BU and BC are both very good with a lot of decent but not great teams bunched up in the middle. The WCHA has typically been UMD/Minnesota/Wisconsin and sometimes NoDak, with everybody else playing the role of punching bag. This year looks to be no different out west.

Cornell's real problem is the non-conference schedule. This year they've got 2 against Niagara, 2 against RMU, and 1 against Syracuse, which means their only top NC competition is Mercyhurst (although Syracuse is a trap game). I'd love to see some NC games against BU/BC/Minnesota/UMD/Wisconsin, but I'm guessing this year's NC games were scheduled 12-18 months ago. At that time, BU was only recently successful (they've only been varsity for about 6 years), Hockey East was far and away the weakest of the big 3 conferences, the WCHA is an expensive arrangement for a sport that doesn't draw any fan dollars, and Cornell was a .500 team rather than a Frozen Four team.

Hopefully coming years will see more of the top teams on the NC slate. For this year, they just have to win the games they're given.

Towerroad
One concern I have is that I think the depth of quality competition is a bit of an issue. It looks to me like the difference between #1 and #10 is a pretty big gap. Playing in the ECAC we are not seeing the BU, BC, Wisc., Minn's. and some of the other quality programs that could give us a tough game. The only 2 top 10 programs, based on the USCHO poll, we will see in the regular season are Mercyhurst and Dartmouth.

It is looking like a great season, I plan on going to a game when they are in Boston.

LGR!

That's a fair point. It would be fun to see the team tested against more highly-ranked teams during the season. Obviously cost is a big factor and keeping travel down makes sense for the sport. I do, however, think the ECAC is better than Cornell's made it look during its recent run.

I think Syracuse on the road this week will be a strong test. If not for having to break in 2 freshmen goalies SU might be sniffing around the top-10.