Cornell 2 Yale 4 (Final)

Let's Go red!

GOAL by CORNELL Greening, Colin (FIRST GOAL) (POWER-PLAY), Assist by Nash, Riley and Nash, Brendan

GOAL by YALE Arcobello, Mark, Assist by O'Neill, Brian

GOAL by CORNELL D'Agostino, Nick

GOAL by YALE Little, Broc

GOAL by YALE Mason, Brendan, Assist by O'Neill, Brian,

GOAL by YALE O'Neill, Brian EMPTY NET GOAL, Assist by Dignard, Tom,

Goal! Greening!

Lost the feed. But after the goal, seemed like a lot of empty seats. Yale fans thinking it's over, decided to beat the crowd home.

Yale is beating us to every puck.

Al DeFlorio
Yale is beating us to every puck.

Terrible D.

Yale 1-1

Cornell up 2-1 despite being outshot 20-3

Yale play-by-play man is terrible. Very few Yale names and no CU names. My screen is such that I can't see player's numbers well and names would be nice. Can we give up 60+ shots in this game?

What were the 1st period shots?

beanmaestro
What were the 1st period shots?

Live stats has 23-8 in favor of Yale

beanmaestro
What were the 1st period shots?

Something like 23-8

R. Nash again misses open net on 2 on 1.

Too many penalties.

Update please. Live stats doesn't seem to be working

28-16 Yale.. after starting down 20-2..

grizzdan24
Update please. Live stats doesn't seem to be working

2-2 after two

4 on 4 we look good. But all you Nash dislikers can change to Riley, terrible penalties.

Al DeFlorio
Too many penalties.

On both teams. No flow. Not really enjoyable...

5 on 3 for us.

Ouch 3-2 Yale

4:25 to go.

ugh. what do we need to do to beat yale???

imafrshmn
ugh. what do we need to do to beat yale???

Play defense.

For one, I'd say the power play needs to be more aggressive than it was in the last two chances tonight, including 1:40 or so of 5 on 3. Lots of clear looks at a freshman goaltender trying to preserve the score. Gotta put it on net. Just gotta.

Cornell recovered fairly nicely after that horrific first period, but managed few good scoring chances. Yale's winning goal seemed too easy, but I'd need to see a replay to really say. Seems to me we fiddly-farted around too much on the 5x3 and again on the last power play.

imafrshmn
ugh. what do we need to do to beat yale???

Get faster and find some scorers.

imafrshmn
ugh. what do we need to do to beat yale???

Score more than they do.

having just come from the game, I think except for the slow defensive start in the first period, the Red played well.
However, (someone chime in here if they don't agree), Schafer should not have left Greening/Gallagher/Nash in there for 2-3 consecutive shifts. They were in there for the beginning of the 5x4 that led up to the 5x3. Schafer is going to have to start relying on more than just one line. A timeout is not enough time for these guys to re-fuel and go at it again for a whole another 1minute 40 seconds.

I wish we could have that power play back

Dave '02

oh yea, and for all you people who commented on the shots, the scorers DEFINATELY padded the number of Yale shots taken in the first period
(example, the puck would dribble across the crease, and Scrivens would cover up. not on goal, but a shot anyway according to them)

Interested to hear what the B.Nash support group has to say about the second Yale goal, or his taking yet another stupid penalty at the end of a period (this one with less than a minute left in the second).

Cornell played pretty well after the first period, but...
1. Nash cannot allow the puck to get through to Little on that second goal
2. Cornell needed to score on that 5x3 late in the 3rd. (Could barely hold the zone.)
3. The third Yale goal looked extremely soft. Scrivens has to stop that if the team is going anywhere this season.
4. Riley Nash needs to start putting the puck into wide open nets. This is getting ridiculous for a first-round NHL pick. And I know he was frustrated but striking a Yale player in the middle of the ice after the whistle was moronic. Very rare to see that kind of lack of discipline with a Schafer team.

Why did the band choose football over hockey? The football team is an embarrassment, and no one really cares about this season, while the hockey team and fans tangibly benefit from the presence of the pep band.

A winnable game which we gave away. Don't try to blame this one on inexperience -- it was the seniors who dropped the ball tonight. Four straight losses to Yale and counting.

Al DeFlorio
Cornell recovered fairly nicely after that horrific first period, but managed few good scoring chances. Yale's winning goal seemed too easy, but I'd need to see a replay to really say. Seems to me we fiddly-farted around too much on the 5x3 and again on the last power play.

It sure looked like there was no "plan" on that 5X3, just a lot of excited passing and running around in the zone (which led to Yale clears). Especially surprising after a T.O. to draw up a play.

Other observations:

Yale beat Cornell to EVERY puck in the first. Every time Cornell took the puck back, it seemed Yale turned them over and transitioned back into our end. Second two periods were much more even, and Cornell was starting to find some holes in the Yale defense.

Shocked that Riley lost his cool like that. It's almost unfathomable that it was an unprovoked incident, because that would just be beyond dumb. Everyone knows that the instigator never gets the penalty (unless it's the NHL and they make up a rule so the retaliator becomes the instigator )

The Yale GWG was another nice transition play after a Cornell turnover, where the two skaters crossed just inside the blueline and created a screen with the defenders. However, this was a wrister from the blueline, totally agree that this shot needs to be picked up and saved. I'm not one for the Scrivens bashing bandwagon, but he needed to make that stop. Of all the chances Yale had in the game, that one should have been a piece of cake.

I'm also very thankful for Redcast. I was reminded last night of why we ditched Some-Access. Aside from the random dropouts all game long, the final two minutes were all fits and starts to the point where I had to switch over to Jason on the Redcast. We are still some two weeks away, but I'm very thankful for a continuous feed, the "good afternoon (evenign/night/etc.)" greeting when I log in, replays, and on screen statistics.

Riley was reacting to a slash he recieved as he carried the puck along the blueline.

redhair34
Riley was reacting to a slash he recieved as he carried the puck along the blueline.

As Jason described it, that was the first penalty. Then he took a second one.

The band stayed home because the cost of staying home is far less than a bus for 2 days, hotel rooms, and extra tickets at Yale and Brown.

Also, for many of them, this is their last home game after 4 years with the band. It's a lot less about what the football team does on the field than what the band does.

I was amazed how many times we let the Yale forwards get behind our D in the first period, particularly during our achingly slow line changes. It seemed that after dumping it for every change, our players wouldn't even notice the Yale forwards waiting at the blue line for a home-run pass, and there was just no urgency to get back and cover them. Thankfully this changed by the second and third periods, but it still made me every time.

ebilmes
2. Cornell needed to score on that 5x3 late in the 3rd. (Could barely hold the zone.)

They also needed to be a lot more creative on the 5x4 power plays in the 3rd. They kept running the same exact play, passing to gallagher down by the goal line and then trying to stuff it through the middle in to traffic or into the goalies pads hoping to put home a rebound. Thy did this because it worked for them in the first period for the first goal (with Riley, not Gallagher), but obviously the defense is going to adjust. This got the defenseman for Yale to all collapse in to the middle of the ice leaving the points pretty much wide open, but our pointmen kept bobbling the puck and never got a decent shot off. They need to be able to adjust their styles in the middle of a game to counter adjustments by the defense.

ebilmes
Interested to hear what the B.Nash support group has to say about the second Yale goal, or his taking yet another stupid penalty at the end of a period (this one with less than a minute left in the second).

Wow, you're just filled with hate at an Ari-level now, aren't you? The people I hung out with for post-game drinks heard me rip B. Nash for having a horrible game. I can think of 4 examples of miserable plays he was responsible for. The flub that resulted in the tying goal was obviously most damaging, but one penalty in the corner was very dumb, and there was the one time he fell along boards near the Yale bench and couldn't get up. It was like his legs didn't work. To me, it's like the difference between freshman-year Pokulok and sophomore-year Pokulok. Or in baseball terms for Mets fans, "Good Ollie Perez" vs. "Bad Ollie." To be fair, Brendon made several decent offensive plays late in the 3rd, but by then, it was too late to salvage this game for him.

1. Nash cannot allow the puck to get through to Little on that second goal

Agreed. That said, there were several similar plays made by multiple players that Yale burned the exact same way and had breaks in on goal, alone. This was something that we could NOT figure out last year, especially in the ECAC final. Yale comes at you HARD and doesn't hesitate. If you make one flub or uncertain stickhandle, they are ALL OVER YOU instantly and usually strip the puck and skate past. It's been a long time (probably since the SLU teams of around 2000) since we've seen this aggressive a forechecking team as an opponent. That reset play were a D holds the puck behind our own net to look for the breakout...doesn't work. Yale comes right at it. Last year, they did that "flip-the-puck up and while the d-man gets tangled trying to play the puck, race by him and in for the breakaway" thing so much it was maddening that we couldn't ever read it. And B. Nash got fooled by it again.

Now, the good news was the adjustments that the team made in the 2nd and 3rd. The cherry-picking was reduced, and we read the SKATER rather than the puck a lot better. Yale kept trying a toe-drag every rush, and we were very good at neutralizing it.

This was a good wake-up call to the freshmen, who have finally seen how fast this level can move. With D and H, we could do whatever we wanted.

2. Cornell needed to score on that 5x3 late in the 3rd. (Could barely hold the zone.)

Yep. I like what I've seen so far, but Whitney didn't hold the zone twice, and without pressure. Rather than collapsing the zone, like a 5x3 should do, they let the defense play them. There were some chances, but not of the quality we should get from a long 5x3.

Why did the band choose football over hockey? The football team is an embarrassment, and no one really cares about this season, while the hockey team and fans tangibly benefit from the presence of the pep band.

The economic downturn has affected every portion of the University, including student organizations. They don't have the money to make EVERY roadtrip even in good times. There's always a few trips they can't make, especially in the fall, and personally, I'd rather see them save their budget for the late-season games and any potential playoff runs. Let's not forget that these are also students with a lot of commitments. As a former bandie I can say that when you consider the time many of them make for marching band rehearsals and games that have pretty much been non-stop since late August, it's pretty taxing. The hockey fans can survive, as we proved last night.

Also, one point. The pep-band didn't "choose" football over hockey. The pep-band is a separate group from the marching band. (Obviously, there is a lot of overlap.) Given that the marching band is having their final home game, which is probably their biggest event of the year, you weren't going to get a lot of pep-band commitment to go on a long roadtrip anyway.

Also, just because the football team is an embarrassment means that the band should just give up? So we, as Cornellians, should only support the winning teams? That's a very front-running attitude, and unfortunate.

A winnable game which we gave away. Don't try to blame this one on inexperience -- it was the seniors who dropped the ball tonight. Four straight losses to Yale and counting.

Agree. I think we've closed the gap that obviously existed in a 5-0 drubbing in the league championship game. I like the poise and adjustments the younger players showed in the face of a very aggressive team. It was winnable for either team, and it was the kind of game that would come down to who would make the bigger mistakes, and unfortunately, that was Cornell. This has always been a tough building for us to get wins in (ask CowbellGuy). Lick the wounds, learn from the game, kick the crap out of Brown, and get another shot at Yale at Lynah in Feb.

RichH
This was something that we could NOT figure out last year, especially in the ECAC final. Yale comes at you HARD and doesn't hesitate. If you make one flub or uncertain stickhandle, they are ALL OVER YOU instantly and usually strip the puck and skate past. It's been a long time (probably since the SLU teams of around 2000) since we've seen this aggressive a forechecking team as an opponent.

Agreed. Harvard also played this style during their halcyon days in the 80s. Yale does CJ Young scoring scads of shorties kind of stuff. (Side note: Shouldn't Schafer, considering how many times he played against teams like it, be familiar with this style and have some ideas of how to counteract it?)

To me, it seems that Yale has put together a "Cornell killer" team. Assuming that we're going to play a defense-oriented, puck-control style, they are set up to play slashing, counter-attacking style. They intend to pounce on any mistake we might make and convert it into a goal. If we play a slightly looser style and make more mistakes? Well... even worse, because our team speed can't match theirs.

Now, I'll take that slightly looser style along with responsible defense most any day. And I'll also take bigger, horse-like players like Greening. Nationally, it pays dividends. Note how well we've done in the NCAAs during Schafer's tenure, and then note how Yale got blown out last year. But, paradoxically, it seems to me that the right response to Yale is to go back into our defensive shell, 1997-style game. No mistakes, no mistakes, no mistakes and then score on the power play. It's a nerve-wracking, pepto-pounding style, but when we draw Yale into grind-it-out games it's a fair fight. I'll take our talent over theirs, then.

The best thing we can hope for come ECAC tourney time is that someone else will take them out. More and more, we are not set up to play a team like that.