Cornell at Yale Post Game Thread

if by easy you mean from the red line with a defender all over you

[Q]ben03 Wrote:

if by easy you mean from the red line with a defender all over you[/q]

Hey, I don't have video. Just what the Minny radio guys tell me.

UAA - 5
Minnesota - 5   Final/OT

no worries

sorry for the random question, but how good are the chances that we end up at either worchester or amherst in the ncaa's?

So with most of the OOC excitement over, I have to say, it was nice for our guys to take the night off and still come away with a 5-2 win. It was not a Cornell game at all - we had a ton of great passes, breakaways, etc, but didn't play much slow it down, grind it out, get your opportunities hockey. The game was loose, shaky, open.

Also this new "F. Murphy" might even be worse than the old one. Phantom penalties, O'Byrne hit from behind and hurt (not seriously luckily) and no call, etc. And not just for us, the first penalty against Yale in the third that lead to the 5x3 (i.e. the one that made it 5x4 originally), was completely and totally phantom. Sawada saw the puck drifting in front of the net, so he dove out to try to tap it before the goalie could cover it - he dove for the puck on purpose, no one on Yale touched him, and we got the call. I'll take it with all the earlier B.S., but that was just sad.

O'Byrne took another bad penalty that lead to a Yale 5x3. Not near the play, no one around, roughing the guy up. Luckily with Yale mising 6x4s from point blank range, it didn't matter much.

I don't know how Yale got a point from 'Gate last night - either that had an incredible off night tonight, an incredible on night last night, or 'Gate is going downhill.

Oh, P.S., I've never seen a crowd react so enthusiastically to an entirely meaningless goal. React, sure, but you woulda thought that goal had a shot at mattering. Guess you'll appreciate everything you can get against Cornell

To answer jlewis, since no one else is ...

If they go by a strict bracket, probably 40% ish - it seems to work out against us that way recently. If they decide to care about attendence some, then maybe 55 to 60% chance of being east, and if they decide to care about it a lot, then its nearly a done deal

Thanks for answering! I'm a freshman here, so I dont know how getting tickets to tournament games work. Anybody care to explain?

[Q]jlews Wrote:

Thanks for answering! I'm a freshman here, so I dont know how getting tickets to tournament games work. Anybody care to explain?
[/q]
Call the arena and order tickets. They won't sell out, though they will have a decent crowd. Same goes for the ECACs in Albany. Except the Frozen Four, which you'd either have to go to eBay, or find someone selling, but that's getting way ahead of ourselves.

Edit: You can also talk to the Cornell ticket office and see if they have official Cornell section tickets for that. They will for Albany, as long as you don't wait too, too long. The regionals might be less likely.

3-1 Denver w/ 10:00 to play in regulation

I know how much controversy there is regarding discussing player injuries but I thought this would be some important info... Coach Schafer was not healthy tonight despite starting the game he had to leave halfway through the 3rd period. He was not looking well at all. Bad Chinese perhaps? Hopefully he gets healthy by next weekend.

Wisconsin goal @ 12:35 of the third

Wisn - 2
Denver - 3  3rd

Wisconsin goal @ 14:08 of the third

Wisn - 3
Denver - 3  3rd

Wisn - 3
Denver - 3  Final/OT

He was at the blue line against the boards with a defender on him and hit the side of the net. UAA's tying goal was great. The Wisconsin Denver game was exciting as well. The Dish is worth every penny.

[Q]DeltaOne81 Wrote:

So with most of the OOC excitement over, I have to say, it was nice for our guys to take the night off and still come away with a 5-2 win. It was not a Cornell game at all - we had a ton of great passes, breakaways, etc, but didn't play much slow it down, grind it out, get your opportunities hockey. The game was loose, shaky, open.[/q]I haven't seen enough of this team to know what a typical Cornell game is, but I thought they looked a lot better than you did. This was the best passing I have ever seen from ANY Cornell team in the 12 years I have been watching Cornell hockey. It was a pleasure to watch these guys work the last two nights. For a team that has a reputation for being grinders they have excellent stickhandling skills.

[q]O'Byrne hit from behind and hurt (not seriously luckily) and no call, etc. [/q]That one was right in front of me. I didn't think there should have been a call.

[q]I don't know how Yale got a point from 'Gate last night - either that had an incredible off night tonight, an incredible on night last night, or 'Gate is going downhill.[/q]Yale is certainly a lot better than Princeton. Much better passing, much faster skating, much more hitting. You are right, though, that they were badly outplayed tonight. With the exception of the first three minutes of the third period, Yale couldn't get used to the way Cornell takes away the shooting lanes.

Once again, two plays that didn't result in goals that deserve mention:

McCutcheon threaded a pass behind Modelski that a charging Pegoraro was two inches from redirecting in. Pegoraro did roughly the same thing and Sawada missed it by just as little.

I don't think Modelski made a tough save all night. Anything tough lit the lamp or slid by the outside of the post (Knoepfli early in the 3d, for example).

"The 16," after Saturday games:

1. DU*
2. CC
3. BC*
4. Minny
5. Mich*
6. Cornell*
7. Wisco
8. OSU
9. Hahvahd
10. BU
11. NoDak
12. UNH
13. Lowell
14. NMU
----------
CHA Bemidji State*
AH Sacred Heart*

(* leading conference)

[Q]ugarte Wrote:
I haven't seen enough of this team to know what a typical Cornell game is, but I thought they looked a lot better than you did. This was the best passing I have ever seen from ANY Cornell team in the 12 years I have been watching Cornell hockey. It was a pleasure to watch these guys work the last two nights. For a team that has a reputation for being grinders they have excellent stickhandling skills.

...

That one was right in front of me. I didn't think there should have been a call.[/q]
They made some great passes, but I have a hard time believing that Cornell had a brand new offense in a week when they couldn't do that for years. I really think that Yale was just leaving a lot of lanes open. Really bad D makes the offense look good. We've never been able to do that against teams with a solid D.

The fact is we can fairly regularly put home 4, 5, 6, 7 against the worst in the league. But have trouble breaking 2 against the better teams. Luckily our D has gelled enough and McKee has stepped his play up enough where we can be a serious threat that way. A very serious threat to the point of national contender.

They weren't playing their game at all tonight until the last 5 to 7 minutes. Which is fine cause they were taking the openings that Yale gave them, but we were letting Yale skate it and get men in on net much more than we usually do.

Since you admitted you haven't seen much of them, I'll take it easy on you , but that kind of hit is exactly what has been called as 'hitting from behind' all season. Player not looking and the other guy smacks into him. It was a dangerous play, O'Byrne was facing the boards and didn't see him coming. They've cracked down on it and Moulson got suspended for something similar earlier in the year. It wasn't a dirty hit physically (no elbow, etc), except for how it occurred. It was dangerous.

And if we can't agree on that one, then trust me that there was no one remotely touching Sawada when he dove for that puck, and the ref called a penalty anyway.

And, because I'm an obsessive, I've been cranking away at the possibilities for the next few games, using estimates based on the current KRACH. (Likely to win 9 of 10 with Clarkson, RPI, and Union and 4 of 5 with SLU.)

Just to avoid jinxing I'll say that it never goes according to the numbers and they have to play them on the ice and every game is difficult in the ECAC(HL) and yada yada.

Four wins  ~ 58%
3 Ws, 1 L  ~ 34%
2 Ws, 2 Ls ~ 7 %
1 W, 3 Ls  ~ 1 %
4 Ls       ~ negligible

There seems to be a lot of grousing, like in this thread above, about how this team doesn't break it open against what people assume to be not-so-tough competition, i.e. Vermont, Dartmouth, Brown, Union, Clarkson, and SLU. In 2003, we smoked a lightweight league. It was a damn good thing we played such a hellish OOC schedule. In 2005, we are commonly playing in-league middleweights. And yet this team still seems to be within a hair's breadth of 2003's success in-league.

On paper, this team looks just as strong as 2003; on the ice, they seem less flashy and need to "grind it out." I'm reminded of the contrast between those halcyon years of 1996 and 1997. The 1996 team was flashy where the 1997 version seemed to need to "grind it out" vs. the "weaker" ECAC teams. Though I loved watching the 1996 team play, and I still think they had a higher upside than 1997, I'll remind everyone which team won their first rounder in the NCAAs. I'll also remind everyone that the game beyond the semifinal is for the championship.

Boring weekend. Cornell played well enough to win but certainly not their best. No big deal. Not sure if it has been pointed out, but Cornell hasn't allowed an even strength goal in five straight games. That is unbelievable. I think if they played Yale and Princeton a hundred times, they would probably win every single one. They are just so far behind in every area. McKee looked uncomfortable at times but was generally good when he had to be. Both powerplay units are looking very good. Cornell's scoring depth is improving as there are multiple sources in which they can generate offense. I really love Mike Iggulden and I think he should be the ECACHL Defensive Forward of the year or whatever they call it. He looks spectacular in every zone.

Frank Murphy is not a good referee. I honestly would rather have Dan Murphy, I think.

When was the last time Cornell scored two SHGs in one weekend? The last time we had a single player score two?

Iggulden actually had a couple other short handed scoring chances and Downs had the breakaway the very next shift after Iggulden scored. Frank Murphy, like almost every other ECACHL referee, has not gotten the memo on the obstruction crackdown. It is such a joke to me that they had this crackdown and there seems to be more obstruction this year than there has been in the last couple seasons. Hopefully Kotyra refs in Albany. He is by far the best. All three Murphy's suck.

You may just be saying there's more obstruction because you just got done watching Yale play a game. That's some serious clutch and grab right there.

I answered part of my own question about SHGs. (Speaking of Yale.) In the playoff series at home vs. Yale in the spring of 2002, Doug Murray scored a SHG the first game and Travis Bell scored a SHG (which was also an ENG) the second game. I suspect you'd have to go further back than I can conveniently find box scores to find the last time we had a single player score two SHGs in a weekend.

[Q]Steve M Wrote:

He was at the blue line against the boards with a defender on him and hit the side of the net. UAA's tying goal was great. The Wisconsin Denver game was exciting as well. The Dish is worth every penny.[/q]

Add in RPI's last-ten-seconds Freakout win, and it was quite a night on the dish.

Yale was better Saturday than Princeton Friday but both teams were not very good. Maybe it would have been a decent contest if Yale still had Chris Higgins (this would be his senior year), but then he'd be skating in on Dave LeNeveu. Talk about domination: There were a couple times where Cornell was pinpoint-passing at will around the Yale zone, two, three, four unmolested passes, and you had to look up at the scoreboard to see if there was a Yalie in the penalty box that you forgot about. Not a lot of times, but enough to remind you there were two levels of teams here.

If only Cornell can continue practicing against the four remaining RS weak opponents what happened these last two days: creating opportunities with forechecking takeaways and semi-breakaways that lead to goals ... in addition to the traditional puck control game that has lots of pretty passing but not always resulting in goals. The weekend was six special teams goals, four regular strength goals.

Cornell came close to having two man-short goals on a single penalty kill at Yale. Downs (I believe) came close a few seconds after Iggulden's goal. That leaves Iggulden 20 short of John Madden's NCAA record at Michigan but he’s picking up the pace, and he’s only one SHG off the 2004-05 lead. Now every time Iggulden is out on the ice on a penalty kill, two or three things happen: the opponent worries about Cornell/Iggulden getting a breakaway (good), the fans think about it (okay, too), and perhaps Cornell thinks just a little, teensy-weensie bit about making up for the shortfall of the previous two seasons and possibly repositions its defense ever so slightly for that possibility. That's the way it felt at Yale, at least.

Two stupid penalties cost Cornell the shutout. How often does Cornell get called for a too-many-men-on-the-ice call (first goal)? And Chris Abbott going off for interference in the offensive zone with a minute left, that may have been some private score he was settling. Yale did miss a wide-open net early in the third that would have been the legitimate, McKee-loses-another-shutout-late goal.

Yale and Princeton both had 10 minutes of penalties called against them, but Yale was a more, ah, sportsmanlike team. If the ECAC announces an all-elbows team, Princeton's Ian McNally will be a unanimous first-team selection at forward. One wonders how opponents see Cornell; it’s human nature to equate “big” with “goon” regardless of whether the hard hits are clean hits. We sat behind a couple young (age ~5) girls who sat front row and when Bitz put a hit on a Yalie, the plexiglas flexed mightily and the girls nearly dove under the seats. Pretty good entertainment value for $11 a head.

Topher Scott was a delight to watch. His PPG off a pass from Moulson was so nice. He does take a lot of hits, bounces right back, and must lead Cornell in the number of times he has to rearrange the helmet so the part you see out of faces frontwards once again. He got slammed into the offensive corner boards hard in the third, not enough to merit a boarding call against Yale, and as he shrugs himself back and rearranges his helmet, there was something of a smile or grimace that passed between Scott and the ref watching all this to make sure Topher's eyeballs both focused in the same direction, as if for Scott to say, "I know I’m on my own in the land of the giants, and I’m okay, really.”

One weekend is not a long-term trend, but Moulson is doing a great job setting up other scores (three times) instead of scoring. And these were genuine, Moulson-really-worked, not the pass to the passer who gets it to the goal scorer passes.

Cook was so solid on defense. The defense didn't miss Pokoluk *this weekend* too much but that may be a different story facing Harvard in the ECAC title game, say. Varteressian was out for Yale. I believe he got dinged blocking a Princeton (PP?) shot Friday. McLeod played, came close to scoring at least once, and also got called for one penalty. For those on the O'Byrne threat-or-menace watch, he got called just once (but it did gave Yale a half minute of 5x3) and also got the assist on goal 5, the nice hard shot by Knoepfli that came just eight seconds into the Cornell 5x3 PP. Mike Schafer was in attendance but didn’t last the whole game. He looks about the same - zero emotions - whether he’s happy, sad, or dying from the flu.

Yale's announced 3486 sellout was closer to full than Princeton's announced 2922 sellout. This is not the same thing as a 3836 sellout at Lynah where you can't get in just showing up at 6:45 and buying standing room at the door and if you got in you wouldn't find an empty seat. If you look at team attendance, you’ll see Cornell is the only team at 100.0% home attendance for the year. There are a dozen teams with more total attendance (bigger rinks), led by Wisconsin, and a half-dozen with >100.0% attendance, but that must have to do with how many standing-room attendees get counted. (Clarkson and St. Lawrence, the North Country teams USCHO loves so much for atmosphere, are in the mid-seventies on average for the season.) [www.uscho.com]

The Yale whale, Ingalls Rink, continues to be a beautiful piece of architecture outside and not bad inside although some of the pieces are pretty frayed. It's hard to believe Ingalls and Lynah are the same era (1958). Yale got the better deal architecturally although what goes on inside Lynah is more fascinating. The dual Yale Zambonis get the ice resurfaced faster so there’s a few more minutes for the water to freeze before players come back out. Two Zambonis is less of a hit on Yale’s endowment than one Zamboni on Cornell’s. You also could go deaf in short order inside Ingalls if you had (and used) season tickets.

Incredible turnout by Cornell fans. Love that Cowbell. Love the Big Red Band. Older non-Cornell fans bristle when the Cornell fans raise their voices for the "rockets' *RED* glare" part of the anthem but it does remind the home team that visitors have come calling. (Yale unlike Princeton only played one national anthem.) “This is our house!” always sounds great to hear on the road. And it’s great to see, too, when the team raises its sticks in salute to the fans on the way off the ice. Road hockey games are one of the best bonding experiences that embrace three generations of Cornell hockey fans.

[Q]jmh30 Wrote:
I answered part of my own question about SHGs. (Speaking of Yale.) In the playoff series at home vs. Yale in the spring of 2002, Doug Murray scored a SHG the first game and Travis Bell scored a SHG (which was also an ENG) the second game. [/q]

Wow, I'm not sure it ever registered that that was a SHG, since I've been thinking of Murray vs Yale and Bâby vs Q as the last two shorties before the drought.

Ah... a whole weekend off to pack up before my move!!

Beeeej

[Q]DeltaOne81 Wrote:[Yale] made some great passes, but I have a hard time believing that Cornell had a brand new offense in a week when they couldn't do that for years.[/q]The passing was as crisp as hell the night before also. I know that I am suffering from a misrepresentative sample, but I've seen Cornell play bad teams on this trip before and I was very impressed with how they played.

[q]They weren't playing their game at all tonight until the last 5 to 7 minutes. Which is fine cause they were taking the openings that Yale gave them, but we were letting Yale skate it and get men in on net much more than we usually do.[/q]Yale had a few chances but all of the good ones came during the sluggish start to the third period. Mostly Cornell opted to let Yale pass it around the perimeter while allowing NOTHING to get to McKee and NOBODY to even attempt to set up in front. And then, inevitably, Cornell would tap the puck behind the Yale point man and start a rush for Modelski. It wasn't crunching but it was stifling. Yale didn't stand a chance.

Despite the USCHO report, the first Yale goal was hardly tic-tac-toe. The first pass was lofted over the net to a player that had to glove it at the height of his reach. The second pass was lemonade made from a lemon. He dropped the puck onto his stick and made a perfect pass to a waiting Boucher. McKee didn't have a chance. I'm not even sure that Cornell was really trying very hard on the last Yale PP (and I can't say that I blame them). McKee didn't have a chance on that goal either.

[q]And if we can't agree on that one, then trust me that there was no one remotely touching Sawada when he dove for that puck, and the ref called a penalty anyway.[/q]I'll trust you -- since I was behind the opposite goal -- but I could swear that I saw Sawada's skate get hooked as he was stepping out to go after the loose puck.

[Q]calgARI '07 Wrote:McKee looked uncomfortable at times but was generally good when he had to be.[/q]I don't know what this means, Ari. Did he have a look on his face that indicated he needed to pee? He gave up 2 PP goals on the weekend - neither of which he had a prayer of saving. Otherwise, nothing was even close. (OK, Mole misssing the empty net was close, but McKee was hung out to dry on that play.)

I sat right behind him for three periods. His positioning was excellent, his glove hand was quick and he never wavered when what little pressure Princeton and Yale could muster developed. What would have made him look more comfortable?

Thanks Bill.

[Q]ugarte Wrote:

calgARI '07 Wrote:McKee looked uncomfortable at times but was generally good when he had to be.[/Q]
I don't know what this means, Ari. Did he have a look on his face that indicated he needed to pee? He gave up 2 PP goals on the weekend - neither of which he had a prayer of saving. Otherwise, nothing was even close. (OK, Mole misssing the empty net was close, but McKee was hung out to dry on that play.)

I sat right behind him for three periods. His positioning was excellent, his glove hand was quick and he never wavered when what little pressure Princeton and Yale could muster developed. What would have made him look more comfortable?[/q]

He just had trouble handling some rebounds at times, moreso than usual. That is just of note because that would be costly against better teams. It's weird how he is not even remotely aggressive. He barely leaves the goal line. He almost entirely relies on his reflexes. Just a unique style in a time of more aggressive goaltenders. I think McKee is outstanding and the best goalie I have seen at Cornell since Eliot. But over the years, I have always questioned Cornell's goaltenders in the playoffs: Eliot against Lake Superior, Underhill against UNH, LeNeveu against UNH, and McKee against Clarkson. So I am awaiting McKee's performance come playoff time and deep into the playoffs.

Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 02/13/2005 02:25PM by calgARI '07.