Cornell 2 at Union 2 postgame

My take on Cornell’s come-from-behind 2-2 tie at Union Saturday night:

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Cornell started slowly, as in several games this year. We didn’t start to click until the second period, and dominated the third period, but at that point we needed that superiority in order to salvage a tie (and only then be able to think about winning). There were great moments, such as after the second goal, by Riley Nash, with 5:55 left -- just when I started to wonder if we had enough time to come back, knowing how difficult Cornell comebacks have been in a defense-oriented system.

It felt as if we could have won the game even if Union is doing a bit better at this point (3-0-3 ECAC) than expected before the season (picked for sixth by ECAC coaches; Cornell picked for second). When at season’s end if we miss first place in the ECAC by one point (or third place by a point, or fourth place?), this could be one game we look back on and say, “If only.” Union played well and could have beaten Cornell, but we had more than enough chances to beat Union once we got untracked, which seemed again like … in the second half of the game. Our surge wasn’t quite the intensity we showed in OT against BU but it beat the first period torpor last night.


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Brendon Nash was on good behavior after Friday’s benching for taking a dumb penalty that helped BU tie last Saturday's game. He got the first goal, a blast from the right point, then celebrated with brother Riley. Riley got the second goal. The BNash goal came just as a 5x3 Cornell advantage was about to expire and a few moments later a Riley Nash (?) shot looped behind the Union goalie and hit the crossbar. That would have made it 2-1 Cornell, possibly broken Union’s spirit, and we could have been on our way to a 4-1 finish, rather than letting Union go ahead a minute later.


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The one who dominated the game, to me, was Colin Greening. You have to love how Greening plays every aspect of the game physically without being a goon. He almost had a goal with a Union player draped on him, including one where Greening skated to the net, behind and around the net, back in front, Union defender on one side, stick and puck on the other, and still got off a shot.


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This is not news: We give up too many shorthanded breakaway opportunities, as in the photo. Thank you, Ben Scrivens and that leg pad extension, for bailing us out at least twice last night. (Plus lots of solid saves among his 28.) Those were breakaways. But, and this is a nice turn of events, Cornell had 3 or 4 legitimate shorthanded opportunities coming off persistent forechecking.


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We finished 1x3 on PP, allowing Union no goals on the three penalties we took. (Also two matching minors.) One of the three Cornell penalties was a hold by Justin Krueger (above, returning from) to stop a breakaway, so taking just two other penalties was a big improvement. No B Nash penalties. Catty thought: Was it ironic that that B Nash got benched for lack of restraint on the ice and Schafer showed up sporting a red cast on his right wrist caused by, what, a skiing mishap … or his own exuberance? As has been said, he yells the right stuff. And he used his timeout (did I recall this right?) to rest the first line for what would be the 5x3 PPG. Smart move. And you don’t get a 2 minute minor for injuring yourself.


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Bob Ritchie is the ref who allowed a BU goal last Saturday after it seemed, to Cornell fans, that Scrivens had possession of the puck. In the first period, Union put one in just as the net was dislodged. In this case, there was a video replay available that worked, and Ritchie overturned the goal, seeing the net come off first. [Edit correction: Ritchie confirmed the initial, on-ice no-goal ruling.] From my vantage the dislodged net didn’t figure in the play – i.e. make for a wider than 6x4 opening – so we dodged a bullet on that one.


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The rink was not crowded, 1468 out of 2225 capacity at Messa Rink. I talked with Phil Cohn, one of the Union managers who played HS hockey with my son in NJ, who said the crowd wasn’t bad considering the weather (rain, snow, sleet, inch or two accumulation) and semester break. (Union’s on trimester, sort of like Dartmouth’s quarterly including summer system). Plus, Massa Rink’s size relative to Union’s study body is like Lynah being 12,500 seats. Driving up from NY/NJ Saturday afternoon, we saw a half-dozen spinouts on the NYS Thruway. I was personally annoyed because I had a perfect press fleet car for Thursday’s balmy weather and the worst one possible for the icy snow Saturday: a Cornell Red Hyundai Genesis Coupe with rear drive, way too much horsepower, low-profile summer-compound tires that feel like Teflon below freezing, no rear wiper, and track package suspension that telegraphed every jolt through the seats. Took us 3-1/2 hours to go 150 miles. Thank goodness for stability control. Still not as bad as going to Quinnipiac 2 (?) years ago.


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The Cornell contingent was awesome. I also liked that even though the national anthem was a trumpet solo only, there was still a deafening “Red” at the right moment. In the manner of follow-on Union cheers (see next), there was a sparkling of “sucks” after the “Red” roar.


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No Cornell pep band but Elie Bilmes was of course there with the cowbell to start off the cheers. What everyone says about Union cheers is spot-on: Cornell starts a “Let’s Go, Red!” chant and nanoseconds later, the Union side realizes Union ought to be the dominant cheering group in its home rink, so you hear a follow-on refrain, “Let’s go, U!” Or is it, “Let’s go, Ewe”? It’s easy to dump on Union fans for not being as hockey savvy as we are, but a lot of people had a good time at the game, it’s family friendly, the rink looks inviting, you can understand the PA system, and there are plenty of locker rooms for youth tournaments and so forth. Union does wonders for Schenectady the way Yale does it for New Haven (“New Haven minus Yale equals Bridgeport.”) I’ve had worse nights at Cornell hockey games and I’ve had better. Once we tied, I thought we should have won (nice pressure in OT) but I also was starting to suspect once we we’re getting close to the final five minutes of regulation that it could be a 2-1 loss.

billhoward
And he used his timeout (did I recall this right?) to rest the first line for what would be the 5x3 PPG. Smart move.

Yes, you recalled that correctly.

billhoward
Bob Ritchie is the ref who allowed a BU goal last Saturday after it seemed, to Cornell fans, that Scrivens had possession of the puck. In the first period, Union put one in just as the net was dislodged. In this case, there was a video replay available that worked, and Ritchie overturned the goal, seeing the net come off first. From my vantage the dislodged net didn’t figure in the play – i.e. make for a wider than 6x4 opening – so we dodged a bullet on that one.

Ritchie did not use the video replay to overturn the goal. He ruled it a no-goal on the ice, and used the replay to confirm his on-ice ruling.

I am guessing that the rule is simply that if the net is off its moorings before the puck crosses the goal-line, it's not a goal. So assuming that is the case, the call was clearly the right call, and easily verifiable via the replay.

I agree, though, that we definitely dodged a bullet there, because a) the net coming off in no way actually affected anything, and b) it came off probably some small number of tenths of a second before the puck went in. The replay did show it clearly. As much as I was annoyed with Ritchie and the call he made in the BU game, it is impressive that he got this one right with the on-ice call. (Getting it right after watching the replay would have been easy, but the timing seemed so close that I've got to give the man credit for getting it right in real time.)

Bill - great picture of Scrivens stopping a breakaway!!! Nice Shot.

Larry

Great pics Bill - Thank you. I agree fully with your summary this week, but did you think they passed up a lot of chances to put the puck on goal? They actually veered away at times when they had a clear shooting lane, while at other times launched shots into Union defensemen's shin pads. Just seems that we could get a lot more scoring chances than we take. I also think Union is a lot better than most others. Hard to shake 10-15 years of reputation that sucks.

Thanks, Larry. Here’s the full sequence of Ben Scrivens’ stuff of the SHG attempt by Mario Valery-Trabucco, Union’s leading scorer, who already had an assist on the first Union goal and would score the go-ahead goal just a minute after Cornell’s 5x3 PPG. You’ll notice the calvary does show up by frame 5. Lighting at Union is pretty good: 1/800-1/1000 at f/2.8 at ISO 800, and there’s a corridor around the whole bottom of the rink (the stands are 10’ back) which makes for easy shooting at the huge expense of fan involvement in the game. Too bad the plexiglass has no cutouts and doesn’t appear to be cleaned often. (At the Estero rink that is Cornell's next stop, I've seem them clean between periods.) But I’ve recently been shooting at my son’s college rink where you get maybe 1/300 at f/2.8 at ISO 1600 under the bright parts of the ice, which makes me think about stupid (costly stupid) things such as getting a pair of Speedotron or Dynalite arena strobes.

TimV
Great pics Bill - Thank you. I agree fully with your summary this week, but did you think they passed up a lot of chances to put the puck on goal? They actually veered away at times when they had a clear shooting lane, while at other times launched shots into Union defensemen's shin pads. Just seems that we could get a lot more scoring chances than we take. I also think Union is a lot better than most others. Hard to shake 10-15 years of reputation that sucks.

You're right that I think wrongly of Union as a team that can be a regular season spoiler, not a contender, and never able to get to Albany in March. (They'll probably make it once Albany becomes Atlantic City.) Sort of like thinking of Princeton as a standout and Cornell as a perpetual also-ran in hoops, or Brown as always bad in football. The one constant star in the Ivy League's constellation seems to be Big Red football. In terms of Cornell shying away from the goal when there was allegedly a shooting lane open, well, we seem to be doing okay going for higher percentage shots which is why we're outshot but not outscored most games. The Brendon Nash PPG was a long shot, from the right point. I said last week that BU had a prettier power play but then we had the better percentage. And remember that last night we came the thickness of the crossbar away from being 2x3 on power plays. I thought the most impressive improptu flurry of shots on goal came during a second period penalty kill.

The most important thing for ECAC hockey is that we have may eight strong teams out of twelve, not Cornell, one or two of the North Country schools, and Harvard. Maybe Union can become the Colorado College of the East. Another fitting tribute to Ned Harkness. On the way in I ran into two middle-age Union fans, one wearing a signed jersey, and when I wished them luck, he said, "You really mean it?" I mentioned that any place Ned Harkness coached can't be all bad. We (Cornell) gripe about years when we don't make it to Albany or get past Albany. Imagine the suffering of being a Union fan.Their mascot should be Charlie Brown.

Very nice post. Thanks.

billhoward
And remember that last night we came the thickness of the crossbar away from being 2x3 on power plays.

Speaking of power play percentage- I just read a post on the Colgate thread at USCHO. I had forgotten that under most circumstances a coach can decline the penalty shot and opt instead for the power play. Given our historic ineptitude on penalty shots, and if we continue to be a top PP unit, maybe that's what we need to do. Somebody pointed out that on the penalty shot there is a clear start to the play, the goalie can focus on the shooter, and he doesn't need to worry about rebounds, but when killing a penalty there's chaotic movement, screens and secondary shots to contend with.

On our first power play last night there was zero player movement. On the next one there was a lot more triangular player movement, similar to BU's PP. Much better.

Scrivens performed superbly last night.

He kept us in the game and Union only scored when our defense failed to control the breakaways.

The goals that we lost were also very good shots/plays by Union and I walked away from this game feeling more like a tie than the game against BU. Even some of the Union staff/fans applauded Scrivens' effort. It's too bad that we didn't capitalize on their weak goalie because we definitely could of had a win.

Union was on top of their game last night and they fought through the tiredness till the end.

I'll take a 3 point weekend over a 0 point weekend. *cough* QU *cough*

billhoward
You’ll notice the calvary does show up by frame 5.

I didn't know Jerusalem could move that fast.

Kyle Rose

billhoward
You’ll notice the calvary does show up by frame 5.

I didn't know Jerusalem could move that fast.

Ouch. Very nice catch.

I want to give Mike Devin a double assist on the Riley Nash goal. He worked his ass off at the Cornell end of the ice. I was so focused on him that I missed the goal! I am looking forward to seeing the video.

I noticed on the news that Esposito was the player that lost his man on the first Union goal. During the second and third periods there were long inervals when Esposito seemed to single handedly keep the puck away from Union. Was he trying to stay in the lineup/atone for his mistake?

Great shots of the game and especially of Scrivens. On a side note, I love the custom paint job on his goal stick. I don't think I have ever seen that before at any level.

I don't know how it was this year, but last year it seemed like people were constantly getting up and walking in front of the seats during play. I definitely prefer the concourse being behind the seats.

cth95
Great shots of the game and especially of Scrivens. On a side note, I love the custom paint job on his goal stick. I don't think I have ever seen that before at any level.

I don't know how it was this year, but last year it seemed like people were constantly getting up and walking in front of the seats during play. I definitely prefer the concourse being behind the seats.

RPI and Union both have a concourse between the first row of seats and the rink. At RPI's old blimp hangar, there's a problem with pedestrians getting in the way. At Union, the stands are up so high, six or eight up for the first row, that I didn't recall it as a problem Saturday. Plus, with a third of the rink unoccupied, there was a lot less fan traffic.

billhoward
RPI and Union both have a concourse between the first row of seats and the rink. At RPI's old blimp hangar, there's a problem with pedestrians getting in the way.

RPI has tried to address this. They cleverly station kindly little old ladies at the concourse entries who prevent you from accessing the concourse until a whistle stops play. You can't get mad at 'em, and it helps those lower row spectators.

TimV

billhoward
RPI and Union both have a concourse between the first row of seats and the rink. At RPI's old blimp hangar, there's a problem with pedestrians getting in the way.

RPI has tried to address this. They cleverly station kindly little old ladies at the concourse entries who prevent you from accessing the concourse until a whistle stops play. You can't get mad at 'em, and it helps those lower row spectators.

Full employment for kindly little old ladies, too.

Al DeFlorio

TimV

billhoward
RPI and Union both have a concourse between the first row of seats and the rink. At RPI's old blimp hangar, there's a problem with pedestrians getting in the way.

RPI has tried to address this. They cleverly station kindly little old ladies at the concourse entries who prevent you from accessing the concourse until a whistle stops play. You can't get mad at 'em, and it helps those lower row spectators.

Full employment for kindly little old ladies, too.

Dey tuk err jerbs!

Schott's post-game report:

I would say the crowd was closer to 2,000. At least the annoying Cornell pep band wasn't here.

ebilmes
Schott's post-game report:

I would say the crowd was closer to 2,000. At least the annoying Cornell pep band wasn't here.

Doesn't speak well for Schott, sad to say.

ebilmes
Schott's post-game report:

I would say the crowd was closer to 2,000. At least the annoying Cornell pep band wasn't here.

So because only the RPI band was there, that means they had to pipe in some minor league hockey music?

billhoward

Kyle Rose

billhoward
You’ll notice the calvary does show up by frame 5.

I didn't know Jerusalem could move that fast.

Ouch. Very nice catch.

Speed for Jerusalem has never been the problem. It's maintaining possession that historically has been the problem.