Anyone see ND/WI last night?

I had not seen any WCHA games until last night. And what I saw was pretty scary if those are the #4 and #5 ranked WCHA teams. They are big, fast and skilled. Parise from ND made some phenomenal saves. The defensemen from both teams skated extremely well. Wisconsin had some big dudes patrolling on defense and I thought actually dominated much of them game but Parise stole the game. So, for any Cornell fans who saw that game and have seen our team play this year the questions are:

1) Can we skate with those teams? I felt even in '02-'03 that we were big enough but noticably slower than teams like BC and UNH. Schafer's system kept us in the games and the CU players are obviously well coached. But we needed more team speed it seemed like to me.

2) Does Mckee see the quality of shots that Parise did? I can see why his GAA is about 2.2 given the pressure that he was under - he's a great goalie.

3) If we're somewhat reliant on the power play to score but have significantly less speed isn't it going to be harder to draw penalties in the NCAA's, when they seem to call fewer penalties anyways?

I'll be routing for the Big Red but it was kind of scary what I saw last night. I hope I'm dead wrong.

I'm guessing nobody watched. Come on people, there's a big world out there .....

having watched Mich/Denver/CC and others this year its a 2 edged sword. yes those teams are faster and much more offensive oriented. But they compound this by playing horrible positional defense over and over. many games turn into off man rush fests and it isnt all because of great play. the key to limit our mistakes because the extra speed will give us problems and also take advantage of those teams mistakes without getting caught up in a speed duel. we will get lots of chances but we need to bury them//

[q] RatushnyFan wrote:
And what I saw was pretty scary if those are the #4 and #5 ranked WCHA teams. They are big, fast and skilled.[/q]
I agree with your assessment, and, in fact, made a similar comment during the game last night. The top teams out there have tremendous talent, although that doesn't necessarily make them better teams. I've watched a number of WCHA games this year and some CCHA also, including being at the Cornell-Mich. State series. The one thing I'm not worried about is McKee. He was unbelievable vs. Michigan State. The Mich. State game program listed 16 former Spartans who had played in the NHL in '03-'04, so that'll give you some idea of the talent level that some of these programs get. In the first game David must've made about 10 saves that had us doing the "we're not worthy bow." Even though we outshot them in the second game, Michigan State had by far the better shots. He'll be okay - but it is scary that even if we get a number 1 seed, we could be facing a team like Wisconsin in the first round. Getting to the Frozen Four won't be easy.

I watched. It was an entertaining game and both teams are clearly skilled. But I wasn’t left feeling like Cornell couldn’t compete with them. However, if had I watched that game before the 2002-3 season I would have thought the same. The last few Cornell seasons have led me to believe that smart, defensively-sound play can neutralize speed. And I thought some of the goals given up resulted from plays developing that Cornell (hopefully) would have done a better job of preventing. On offense, Cornell doesn’t rely on out-speeding the other team, but rather out-muscling them --speed isn’t going to save your bacon when you’re in the corners with the big boys (at least I hope). Maybe I'm deluding myself, but come on, people, you gotta believe!

[Q]RatushnyFan Wrote:

I'm guessing nobody watched. Come on people, there's a big world out there ..... [/q]Are you new?

After watching most of the Bucky-No Dak game and almost all of the DU-No Dak game, I think Cornell can compete with the WCHA teams. I would feel much more confident if they were to meet up with them on the smaller sheet. Although, these last two games have made the small ice of the Xcel Center look like its Olympic size. I am a firm believer in Defense winning championships, as the Gophers' 2002 championship team had a very good defenseman in Leopold. This was echoed this morning on a Twin Cities radio program this morning by MN coach Don Lucia. He said that the lack of defense at times (at all times to be more correct), as well as the lack of a solid goaltender are the things that separate this team from the championship ones. Cornell obviously does not have these problems.

[Q]ugarte Wrote:

Are you new?[/q]

No.

I've watched a lot of WCHA these last few weeks, and I've noticed the same things - the teams are fast, and move the puck very well through the neutral zone. However, the defenses are generally shaky, lots of turnovers in the d-zone. Generally, the games are not that physical, though the UW-UND game seemed an exception.

BTW, watching CC-MN last night, CC is good. Really good. But, we won't play them in the first round, thank goodness.