1st round: Quinnipiac

So who wants to talk about our opening game against Quinnipiac?

Sure, I'll go first:

I believe that Cornell should beat Quinnipiac... if they don't go into the game believing it's a foregone conclusion.

Anyway, not to get ahead of things, but I hope we get to see a CU vs. UNH match-up on Sunday; it would definitely be a great game.

And I notice that the only way we'll play Hahvahd again this season is in the national title game.

Beeeej

Actually, can't we still play Harvard again in the semifinals on 4/4?

Does anyone know or have a guess as to if and when Cornell will get a block of tickets for this weekends games at the Worcester Centrum??

Chris

Cornell may have a block of tickets, I'm not sure. But here's the info to get tickets directly from Worcester if all else fails:

617-931-2000 or 617-931-2222 or via ticketmaster.com

By the way, the Cornell vs. Quinnipiac game is at 3:30pm on Saturday, March 23rd.
If Cornell moves on, the game vs. New Hampshire is also at 3:30pm on Sunday, March 24th.

I suppose that is possible, but not probable. Maine is not as strong as they have been in past years, but Harvard played the game of their season last night. I doubt they can muster that kind of effort against anyone BUT Cornell.

Chris

Whoops - totally my bad, we can only play them again in the semis, not the finals.

Beeeej

I dont think so Beeeej, I am pretty sure it is 1E vs 2W, not 1E vs 2E, like USCHO brackets show...so we cant play the BU-Hahvahd(still sucks)/Maine winner until the NCAA final

Grrr... you're right. National finals.

*sigh* Time for sleep.

Beeeej

I just got tickets to the first round (ticketmaster), and they did not have all that much left. I got tickets for the upper level, in the corner. I wasn't sure if Cornell got an alottment or not, and since they were running out online, I got them. Anyway, I'll be there for the Saturday game against Quinnipiac only...won't be able to stay for the Sunday game should we advance to face UNH (Ugh...). Let's hope we are totally focused for a run at the title....

We got an interesting draw...I'm confident if we play our style of hockey that we can beat Quinnipiac. But, let's hope the ECAC final taught our guys that no team can be taken lightly. We need to come out strong and hard. However, should we win that game, UNH will be a damn hard team to get past...especially with a bye. The good news is that if we beat UNH, we can beat anyone...but let's not get ahead of ourselves.

LGR! Kick some butt on Saturday!

Harvard's draw is interesting. They have a tougher first round, but I'd say they have an overall easier path to the frozen four. UNH is going to be very, very hard to beat, while we already know we can beat BU.

And I notice that the only way we'll play Hahvahd again this season is in the national title game.

Semi-finals.

According to a quote on USCHO, the selection committee specifically changed the bracketing this year so that E1 plays E2 and W1 plays W2 in the semi's, to set up an East-West final.

The posters are screaming bloody murder, of course. Love it.

Getting Q for the first round is very much a mixed blessing. Yes, we "should" beat them. We've drawn arguably the easiest first round matchup in the tournament. However, because it's a MAAC school we won't get any "credit" for the win. If we lose we're a pathetic ECAC team losing to the MAAC. If we win it'll mean nothing in the eyes of much of the college hockey world. So in order to get any respect we need to beat the #1 team in the nation after playing a game the day before.

All that said, I don't think we ought to take Q lightly. They've played us tough the past couple years and certainly could pull an upset. Can't say I know much about them except that they were spotted 4 goals in the MAAC championship game and then tried very hard to blow it.

I'm not happy with this draw at all. If we beat Quinnipiac we get a "so what's the big deal" reaction. If we lose, we become the first "real" team to lose to a MAAC team in the NCAAs--and aren't we already the first "real" team to a lose to a MAAC team in the regular season?

I'd rather be playing a "real" team.

But the all east and all west "regionals" truly do live up to the term, at long last. The two teams that emerge from each will get to the Frozen Four, just like the ECACs and WCHAs from long ago. If Harvard and Cornell can somehow muster wins Saturday, we'll have the same teams playing Sunday as in the ECAC semifinals of 1972.

From the CU website:

"For information on tickets, call the Cornell athletic ticket office at 607-254-BEAR (2327). Tickets for this weekend's games can also be purchased through Ticketmaster (508-931-2000). The Cornell ticket office will receive a limited number of tickets for the regional. Ticket Prices: Individual Day Tickets: $25.00 / All Session Tickets: $50.00 "

I saw the Quinnipiac v. Mercyhurst game on the "MAAC television network" and I can tell you from seeing that game that we should win. They got 4 easy goals in the first, held that lead through the second, and then let Mercyhurst get to 5-4 before they finally got an empty-netter to seal it.

They didn't seem like a very physical team, nor a team with a lot of skill... of course they played defense for most of the game after getting the big lead, but they were not at all impressive in the third period even protecting the big lead...

That said, they will be game for an upset... they want to win respect for the MAAC like Hahvahd wanted to make up for a disappointing season. Their goalie Holden had some moments in the first period where he looked very sharp, but later on in the game (3rd period obviously) he did not look very strong.

Figured you'd all like to hear my humble opinion on the subject... Quinnipiac is in CT, which means they'll probably have a good number of fans since it is but a 1.5 hour drive for them. Should be a good game... even if we really should win by 2 goals judging by their recent results. Of course we said that about Hahvahd too...

Good luck

All true, Stewart, but we couldn't beat 'em in Lynah last year. I just hope we come to play like we did Friday night.

Some Q research (I'm on vacation -- the rest of you get back to work!
)

1. The school name is spelled: "Quinnipiac."
2. Their nickname is the "Braves."
3. Their unis are blue and gold.
4. The school is in Hamden, CT.
5. They are officially listed as a University, though most people refer to them as QC.
6. Their 25/75 percentile SATs are 1020/1215, which puts them slightly below SLU in Safetytude.
7. Here are their stats: [www.uscollegehockey.com]

Maybe neither here nor there but:

Freshman make up just about HALF of their team. Impressive.

A few comparisons:

+ PWR: 10. Cornell; 22. Clarkson; 23. QU; 24, Harvard.
+ RPI: 10. Cornell; 24. Clarkson; 25. QU.
+ KRACH: 17. Cornell; 49. Vermont; 50. QU.
+ KPWR (only Whelan understands it): 15. Cornell; 23. Dartmouth; 25. QU.

So, unless you buy that KRACH rating, QU is roughly a 4th/5th ECAC seed in quality. Not at all a pushover.

Greg Berge wrote:

2. Their nickname is the "Braves."

Not quite... their nickname WAS the "Braves". That nickname fell prey to the same PC nonsense that caused the shortening of Colgate's nickname to "Raiders" and threatens UND.

USCHO article:
[www.uscho.com]

Quinnipiac officially became QU last June.

They did tie us at Lynah last year, and our ability to make opposing goalies look good makes us vulnerable to a team like this, IMHO.

Instead of the usual E1 vs. W2 and W1 vs. E2 semis, the committee apparently also did an overall seed for the top four teams, and with UNH and BU being 1 and 4 respectively, decided that those brackets should meet in the semis. See

from the NCAA site and note the "overall" seeds on the bottom. I don't know if this is a new procedure or perhaps it was introduced last year or before but wasn't noticeable as the brackets had 1 and 2 or 1 and 3 in the same region, which would still produce the E1 vs. W2 effect.

They may not be a pushover...but if cornell does not win this game, the same "EZAC" crap that Clarkson heard after losing to a stronger Colorado College team in '97 and '98 will be directed by the western folk at ALL of us in the ECAC!

FWIW, Clarkson beat Mercyhurst twice this season and they were the MAAC RS winners.

Anyway you look at it, I can't see cornell losing this game.

Couple of points:
1) they tied us at home on 06jan2001...which was winter break so it was a very quiet Lynah.
2) last year we were not nearly the offensive "juggernaut" we are this year
3) after watching the hU-clarckson game I thought both teams looked bad and after how CU played on friday it seemed we had a really good chance to win. But look at the result. there is no reason the same couldn't happen against QU on Sat. except that CU usually comes out really strong on the 1st game of the weekend. I believe Coach will get them very well prepared. The team out to be ripsh!t about the result of the last game. I don't think anyone is safe we we come out really fired up. see hahvahd (SUCKS) game in Lynah.


amen to the making opposing goalies look good. some times I wonder if our guys aim for the logo on the goalies chest. But I prob can't stand on skates and swing a stick let alone skate and hit a moving puck and get a SOG. so I'll go gripe in a corner somewhere.

I think it might be new this year, and this is the one new twist I don't care for.

It isn't clear to me that anyone or any computer algorithm can discern between UNH, Denver, Minnesota, and BU in terms of precise sequential seeding. So why putz around with the traditional 1W vs. 2E and 1E vs. 2W pairings? It would make for more interesting semifinals, and certainly travel is no longer a consideration when all the teams are in St. Paul.

Yeah, but who among us saw Cornell losing to Hahvahd (sucks) on Saturday? No one! My advice to all: Play the game like Friday vs. RPI, or Saturday before vs. Yale. Anything but vs. Harvard in November and vs. Harvard last Saturday.

...or Dartmouth in January or in February, or NMU/OSU in Estero. I actually saw or heard none of those games but frmo all reports they were lackluster efforts. Basically when we've played our game and executed well we've won most of the time this year. Hopefully we can do this from here on out but the opponents get harder from here on.

Dartmouth in February and OSU did sound like lackluster efforts (as did the Union game at the enhd of the year, which Cornell actually won), but I think that the Northern Michigan and Harvard LP games weren't lackluster -- they were strong efforts in which the other team was even stronger.

OK, so they're the Quinnipiac University (No Nickname Designated Yet)'s? Maybe they should just call them the Undecideds.

Anyway, Cornell ought to come out hitting hard -- that is their game.

will the size the of ice sheet be a factor in worcester?

It's a standard sheet, so, uh, no...

And as for the nickname thing... I've heard them referred to as 3 things... the Braves (still), the "Blue and Maize" (which is just simply descriptive), and this "Quahogs" thing floating around the USCHO boards - some Native American word for clam apparently. Not sure exactly where it comes from in relation to the team.

I was under the impression that Schafer thought the team's preformance at the entire Estero tournament was subpar, not just the OSU game (which I'm sure of). But I missed both games so I may well be wrong.

hi all
greetings from college park (the DC metro rocks!)
just wanted to put my two cents in. Cornell needs to come out roaring saturday and get the forechecking working. good pressure --> good chances. they need to break the maac jinx that has plagued them of late.
you can do it boys!

Greg Berge wrote:

So, unless you buy that KRACH rating, QU is roughly a 4th/5th ECAC seed in quality. Not at all a pushover.

Honestly, Greg, I have to imagine your KRACH-bashing is not going to convince many people considering you've basically admitted your preferred rating system is the one in which Cornell finishes highest. But the flaws in RPI and PWR which cause MAAC teams to be over-rated are well-documented, and in just about any system which goes beyond simple winning percentage to evaluate the strength of a team's opponents, Q and the rest of the MAAC are at the bottom of the pile. For instance, in the CCHP, Quinnipiac are #49 out of #60 (for comparison, Princeton are #43 and Vermont #52).

Incidentally, note that the ECAC as a whole was 10-1-1 against the MAAC as a whole, and that Q went 0-5 against teams from the four established conferences and 0-1 against CHA.

I also don't think we should overlook Quinnipiac, since upsets do happen (KRACH's odds scale has them as 27:1 underdogs), but it's silly to pretend they'd even be a playoff-caliber team in this year's ECAC.

> KRACH's odds scale has them as 27:1 underdogs

You think that if we played them 28 times we would go 27-1? Realistically?

I absolutely state that whatever rating system puts us on top is the one that makes the most sense to me -- since all the ratings systems are equally silly.

But even if there is mathematical evidence to support one or the other system being a better fit for reality (something which you are a far better judge of than I), how can you defend a system that predicts that out of 56 possible points against us QU would get 2?

-- Greg

Editing works again! Thanks Age!!!

Anne '85 wrote:

>how can you defend a system that predicts that out of 56 possible points against us QU would get 2?

-- Greg

...and they already have one out of two--last year.

QU lost at MSU this year 3-1 and 4-1, and took RPI into OT.

I haven't even had a chance to look at it yet. I swear it's all in your heads.

An article with the QU coach's description of some of his players and his view on their chances: [www.canoe.ca]

Roster comparison:

6'-3"+: Cornell 7, QU 5
210+ lbs: Cornell 5, QU 5

.75+ Pts/GP: Cornell 4, QU 6

Special teams:

Cornell pp: 37/135, 27.4%
Cornell pk: 105/120, 87.5%
Cornell pp+pk: 114.9%

QU pp: 37/138, 20.3%
QU pk: < 84.0%
QU pp+pk: < 104.3%

Greg Berge wrote:

Roster comparison:

6'-3"+: Cornell 7, QU 5
210+ lbs: Cornell 5, QU 5

Does this mean they're slow, too?)