[LAX] Cornell @ Princeton a.k.a. Schoellkopf Southeast

This Saturday at 12pm in Princeton, NJ the Big Red take on the Tigers of PU. It's a big game for the Red, possibly determing whether they get a tourney seed or not.

If you are in the Princeton area (or are willing to make the short 4 hour drive down) I strongly encourage you to come to the game. The Pep Band will be there and it would be great for the Red to have a large contingent of fans.

See you Saturday!

Newsday rankings from 4/12: [www.newsday.com]

Princeton was up 5-3 in the second.

8 minutes remaining

7 mins to play...

3:45 to play. Still 11-8. Princeton ball.

Keep 'em crossed.

Go clock!

11-9. 1:50 left. Princeton wins the faceoff.

Uh oh....11-10. 1+ minute left... Princeton wins the faceoff again.

Tie game. :23 to go.

[Q]Jordan 04 Wrote:

Tie game. :23 to go. [/q]

Simply unbelievable.

GOAL!! Redd!!! Cornell wins!

[Q]Jordan 04 Wrote:

GOAL!! Redd!!! Cornell wins![/q]
Also simply unbelievable!

Most of all, Cornell won and broke an 8-game losing streak against Princeton in the 12-11 OT win here in Princeton. Cornell can make the NCAAs (guaranteed) by winning its last game next week. Also:

- It was impressive to see Cornell take the game to a top five team on their own field.

- Cornell kept its composure most of the game and never let Princeton get up by more than a goal or two in the first half. (Cornell was down 6-5 at the half).

- Cornell's attack was patient and methodical and eventually got the shot that went in. If you were not a Cornell fan, add "dull" to methodical. Thank goodness it was a nice sunny day so you could enjoy springtime at the same time waiting for something to happen on the field. I don't think a lot of kids in the stands would be encouraged to pick up the "fastest sport on foot," seeing how Cornell ran the offense. (It does however appear to be good enough to have Cornell headed for the NCAAs and it is no more painful to see than a Mike Schafer-inspired defense that wins most of its games -- first you win, then you think about beautiful wins.)

- Cornell's clearing needs work, either that or Princeton is really good attacking the clear. Cornell missed more passes than a really good team should. Cornell also lost a couple possessions on offsides. And Cornell's best defense through most of the fourth quarter -- keeping the ball in the Princeton end -- finally succumbed to getting pushed out of bounds when Cornell's attack trotted too close to the end line. This is the first time Greenhalgh seemed able to shake clear of the Princeton defense that I recall (for two goals today) but there weren't a whole lot of other times when he was free in front and waving for the ball. Four other guys getting two apiece seems a good antidote for Sean being held to just two.

- On the other hand, Cornell attacked the Princeton clear aggressively and could have had two extra goals off takeaways.

- Cornell's defense was stupendous throughougt the second half (McMonagle had some very good saves) ...

- ... except for the final 2-1/2 minutes. It was an equally stupendous collapse and to a lot of fans it seemed to have an air of inevitability. Princeton was so good and Cornell was so, I don't know, so unlucky, so deferential, so star-crossed those last 2:30, including losing the faceoffs after the ninth and tenth goals. Cornell nearly cleared with time running out, lost it at midfield, and that led to Ryan Boyle's tying goal with 24 seconds left.

- Cornell won the faceoff after the game-tying goal, went for the Princeton goal and -- arrrgh, choke coming? -- turned it over with six or seven seconds left. The Princeton goalie cleared it the length of the field and Ryan Boyle just missed getting his stick on the ball for what would have been the game-winner for Princeton with maybe 0.5 seconds left.

- Luck as well as skill was with Cornell to win the faceoff opening overtime (the faceoffs seemed to be able to go either way). The winning goal was not a textbook thing of beauty. Justin Redd just trotted around behind the net, came out front, got forced away, came back, and fired. Not a whole lot of passing. But all winning goals in overtime -- Hornsby's shot that dribbled into the Ohio State net to win the Everblades -- are beautiful enough.

- The 11th Cornell goal was a thing of absolute beauty, touching four Cornell sticks in about 5 seconds (started off by a defenseman or long-stick middie hightailing it across midfield and into the Princeton zone). Had it not gone in, we would have been muttering about one pass too many, but it went in, and all was right with the world.

- There was a near miss for what would have been a Cornell 12th goal and I thought, 12-8 with four minutes to play, now *that* Princeton could not make up.

- Nice to see at least one band showed up for the game. Must have been too far from the Princeton dorms for the Tiger band to march.

This was not the likely NCAA champion wearing white and red today, but it does look like a team that deserves to be in the playoffs and could give a good accounting of itself in the NCAAs and advance past the first round. It showed Princeton's decade-long near-exclusive dominance of the Ivies may be winding down. Today went a long way toward that and makes you forget that if the three one-goal Ivy games had gone the other way, the Big Red could just as easily be 4-6 as 7-3.

First there's the matter of Brown next week.

> It showed Cornell's decade-long near-exclusive dominance of the Ivies may be winding down.

Princeton's. Our dominance wound down about 20 years ago.

Strange game. 23 goals and only 13 saves.

[Q]Al DeFlorio Wrote:

Strange game. 23 goals and only 13 saves.[/q]

Yeah, but luckily 7, not 6, of them were Cornell saves. In addition to the 23 goals and 13 saves, another 27 shots went wide. McMonagle came up big in goal a couple times for Cornell in the second half including a couple second shots (although my mind must be playing tricks a bit because only in the third period did he have more than 2 saves (3) so he couldn't have had many multiple save sequences). Princeton out-statistic'd Cornell at most everything except clears (where I could have sworn Princeton did better, but Cornell was 7x11 vs. Princeton's 6x12). What the stats don't show was Cornell's ability to hold (close to a legal stall) the ball for minutes at a time in the second half.

Oh, one other thing that helped: Princeton only drew two penalties but Cornell converted on both of them. Conversely, in Cornell's dominant third period, it blanked Princeton's one man-up situation. Princeton got off 10 shots in the third and had just one goal to show for it. Cornell got 3 goals on 6 shots.


Shots by period 1 2 3 4 OT Tot
----------------------------------------
Cornell Big Red..... 4 7 6 5 1 - 23
Princeton Tigers.... 6 4 10 10 0 - 30

Ground balls by prd 1 2 3 4 OT Tot
----------------------------------------
Cornell Big Red..... 7 8 6 7 1 - 29
Princeton Tigers.... 10 6 9 7 0 - 32

Face-offs by prd 1 2 3 4 OT Total
----------------------------------------------------------
Cornell Big Red..... 2-7 3-6 2-5 4-8 1-1 - 12-27
Princeton Tigers.... 5-7 3-6 3-5 4-8 0-1 - 15-27

Clears by period 1 2 3 4 OT Total
----------------------------------------------------------
Cornell Big Red..... 1-1 3-3 2-4 1-3 0-0 - 7-11
Princeton Tigers.... 2-5 2-4 1-2 1-1 0-0 - 6-12

Extra-man opps 1 2 3 4 OT Total
----------------------------------------------------------
Cornell Big Red..... 1-1 0-0 1-1 0-0 0-0 - 2-2
Princeton Tigers.... 1-1 0-0 0-1 1-1 0-0 - 2-3


Saves by period 1 2 3 4 OT Tot
----------------------------------------
Cornell Big Red..... 1 2 3 1 0 - 7
Princeton Tigers.... 1 2 2 1 0 - 6

Holy crap. Nice birthday present!

[Q]jtwcornell91 Wrote:

Holy crap. Nice birthday present![/q]Happy birthday, John.

Al, I don't know if you were in Boston Garden personally, but do you recall Cornell (hockey) being up 3 goals on Wisconsin in 1972 (NCAA semis) in the final period and wondering if Cornell could hold a 3 goal lead then ... and it was not to be? This collapse took 3 minutes, not 19 minutes, and had a happier ending -- an OT victory. But talk about deja vu all over again.

[Q]billhoward Wrote:

Al, I don't know if you were in Boston Garden personally, but do you recall Cornell (hockey) being up 3 goals on Wisconsin in 1972 (NCAA semis) in the final period and wondering if Cornell could hold a 3 goal lead then ... and it was not to be? This collapse took 3 minutes, not 19 minutes, and had a happier ending -- an OT victory. But talk about deja vu all over again.
[/q]I was there and never forgot the Wisc. band with their cheers after each of those goals. We had an NCAA Championship team that year .

[Q]billhoward Wrote:

Al, I don't know if you were in Boston Garden personally, but do you recall Cornell (hockey) being up 3 goals on Wisconsin in 1972 (NCAA semis) in the final period and wondering if Cornell could hold a 3 goal lead then ... and it was not to be? This collapse took 3 minutes, not 19 minutes, and had a happier ending -- an OT victory. But talk about deja vu all over again.
[/q]
I was there and remember it like it was yesterday.

[Q]ugarte Wrote:

jtwcornell91 Wrote:

Holy crap. Nice birthday present![/Q]
Happy birthday, John.[/q]
And may each future one be celebrated with a similar present.

 

___________________________
Al DeFlorio '65