Game 1: Cornell 2, Clarkson 1

[scoop85]

Observations of my first playoff game at Lynah since we beat Yale in 1985 (thanks for the reminder, TBRW):

Even with all the discussion about attendance issues this year, I was surprised at the large pockets of empty seats, especially in sections D, E, and F.  The students took awhile to get there, but they did fill in A and B nicely.  The crowd that attended did get into the game, and the students were appropriately rowdy.

Walking into the rink I saw Mowrey in his civies talking on his phone; I knew that was not good news. We'll certainly miss his offense if he doesn't get back to the ice, and someone is going to need to step up.

As for the game, it was an entertaining tilt.  Lots of back-and-forth, with Cornell having the edge in the 1st and 3rd, Clarkson having the better of it in the 2nd.  Given the teams' styles -- and Casey seems to be making Clarkson a fair copy of Cornell -- not a huge number of Grade A chances either way, but I thought Cornell had the edge in quality scoring opportunities.  

After falling behind so often recently, it was a relief to get the first one.  Gotovets made a nice play to creep in from the blue line and clean up a juicy rebound.

I had a great view of the hit on Iles, and it was a stupid cheap shot.  We were sitting right next to the Clarkson penalty box, and when Josephs came off the ice he seemed to have a satisfied smirk on his face.  He was appropriately berated by the crowd, and it was satisfying to see him get tossed.  Even better was that we scored just 13 seconds into the penalty.

The refs, well, they were pretty typical of ECAC officiating standards -- lots of inconsistency there.

Iles had a solid game, and the Clarkson kid made a nice play on the penalty shot to tuck it between Iles' legs.

Except for the first couple of minutes of the 3rd when Clarkson came out strong, I thought we did a real nice job keeping the puck in their zone and getting some quality chances, especially Hilbrich who I thought had one in the bag.  Not many scary moments in that period in our end, even when CLarkson had the power play.

I thought MacDonald was our best player on the night, knowing the right time to jump into the play.  He's blossoming into an excellent 2-way defenseman, and whatever he's putting in his corn flakes I hope he shares with his teammates.  

Tonight we have to clean-up some of the turnovers around our blue line that especially plagued us in the 2nd period.  It won't be a cakewalk, but hopefully we have a bit more offense and the edge in net so that we can take care of business and avoid a game 3.

[BearLover]

the refs blow another game, cool