Yale v. Cornell - 3/8/02

[jy3]

wow
it was SO sweet to by at Lynah 2nite. nothing like skiing in 65 degree weather b4 the game too.
yale played REALLY well 2nite. great forechecking gave Cornell some trouble.
i thought the goal was soft too but it was a nice shot. the defensemen did not exactly pressure higgins either which was strange.
shorthanded is SUCH a sweet way to win. I am very happy that I get to move to D for tomorrow nite.
great game 2nite, red. underhill made some amazing saves and lombard was off his rocker for a lot of the game. great goaltending both ways. paolini is really turning into a full player. i have seen a huge change in him this season and i love it!

[Josh '99]

Great game tonight...  Always easier to say that when your team comes out on top, of course.  As jy3 said, Yale's forecheck was working really well.  What I can't figure out is, why (from the way it looked to me) did they stop forechecking after they scored?  It was working very well for them, and it really seemed like they scaled it back a little bit, and didn't generate as many scoring opportunities as they otherwise would have because of it.

Thoughts...
- Everybody knows it, but it can't be said enough.  Nothing swings momentum like a shorthanded goal.
- Why can everyone score against Yale (2nd most GA in the conference) except us?
- I didn't get a clear look at Higgins's goal, so I can't make any comments as to whether or not it was soft (prevailing opinion seems to be that it wasn't), but for a guy coming off an injury, Underhill played a pretty darn good game.
- If you didn't see it, Paolini's hit on Nam was every bit as brutal (and clean) as Ben described it.
- The officiating wasn't great, but it wasn't awful either.  Stuff got missed, but nothing terribly grievous.  Better than I usually expect from Dan Murphy, I suppose.
- A "damn good tenth-place team" is still a tenth-place team.
- The Yale brand has an amazingly broad repertoire, and plays it all badly.
- Chris Higgins has mad skills.  If he stays four years at Yale, I'll be shocked.

Three playoff tickets:  $21
Official game program:  $2
Cough drops at Rite-Aid:  $1
Watching Higgins give the puck away to Murray for a game-winning SHG:  Priceless.

[Beeeej]

Why can everyone score against Yale (2nd most GA in the conference) except us?

Because they're faster than we are, as are many other ECAC teams.  We simply have the size and the depth to compensate and wear the other teams down; as has been said before, over a two or three-game stretch Yale won't keep up with us.  It wouldn't shock me at all for Saturday's game to be a goal-fest for Cornell (knock on Bill's cane).

The Yale brand [sic] has an amazingly broad repertoire, and plays it all badly.

True story:  The Yale pep band "refused" to leave after the game was over, so they continued to play songs.  Rather than let a visiting band take over Lynah, Cornell's band decided to stay as well, and continued to alternate songs with the Yale band.  Coach Schafer (reportedly) actually insisted they play the last song of the night, for pride's sake.

Eventually - after nearly an hour of extra music (or so I hear) - the bands decided to play one song together and call it a night.

Beeeej

[Josh '99]

Grrr.  You had to point out my typo, eh Beeeej?

Yes, I know Yale has a faster team than Cornell.  But so does Harvard, and Cornell lit them up pretty well.  Anyway, it was more of an expression of frustration than an actual question.

[kingpin248]

I don't think it was an hour of extra music.  A half hour, maybe.  After the "Schafer" victory song, the Cornell band decided not to stay, but as it was leaving, Schafer was walking up to the hockey office and insisted that we play the last song.  Four songs from each band (and one Swanee from our tubas) later, we jointly agreed to play "Paradise City" together and end it.

The players seemed to find it funny.  To the tired Cornell bandies, not as humorous.  Some members of the media I talked to were not amused at all - too much pep band meant no tape of quotes from Murray, according to one.

[Beeeej]

Grrr. You had to point out my typo, eh Beeeej? [sic]

*shrug* It's 1:30 in the morning and it actually took me a few seconds to figure out why you were disparaging the "Yale brand."  My fault, not yours.

Bee3eej

[twh2]

I would proudly do it again!  I can't be at Lynah to mess up the Yalies, so if I mess up a thread it's really no big deal.  A small price to pay to the Cornell hockey gods if you ask me:-) (Murphy scored short-handed just as I was about to post, these things happen)

[littleredfan]

Thom: Murphy??? Usually the ref doesn't score shorthanded goals...

[Al DeFlorio]

At RPI, however, the refs take them away. ::nut::

[jtwcornell91]

As a fan, I found the band standoff hilarious, BTW.  (And in general, it was an entertaining change of pace to have two bands there, even though I was damn sick of the Yale fight song by the end of the night.)

I could have sworn the two bands played Vengaboys' "Boom Boom Boom" together at one of the stoppages during the game, but the guy I asked from our band had no idea what I was talking about, so either 1) both bands accidentally played something that worked together at the same time without realizing it or 2) it was a funky echo effect.

[Adam 04]

It was a funky echo effect.

[joe momma]

Boom Boom Boom....let me hear you say PAO PAO!

[twh2]

Just because I went to Cornell doesn't necessarily mean that I have a brain!!! ::laugh::   Here's how that happened.  I was thinking about the sequence of events that lead up to my rediculously long AHH....McRae took that crosschecking penalty which pissed me off, which made me think of refs that really piss me off, which made me think of Murphy, when I meant to say Murray.  BTW, I was only listening over the internet, Grady called the goal Undy let in 'soft' several times and described it as a 40 footer, which was the info I had to go on when I described the goal as soft.  I love Undy, don't get me wrong, but just like everyone else I have high expectations for this team against Yale or any other ECAC opponent.  I for one hope Underhill is the goalie for the rest of the playoffs.

[jeh25]

Josh Herman '99 wrote:

- I didn't get a clear look at Higgins's goal, so I can't make any comments as to whether or not it was soft (prevailing opinion seems to be that it wasn't), but for a guy coming off an injury, Underhill played a pretty darn good game.

It was a *little* soft but not terribly so.  It was the kind of goal you'd expect Matt to save most the time given his great skill but you were not surprised to see him miss it given his sitting last week. To give credit where it is due, Higgins may have been 40 feet out, but it was the 3rd prettiest shot* of the weekend.  If anthing, the goal seemed to help settle Matt's nerves and he looked much more confident after that point.

(* #1 being Murray's SHG and #2 being the missed 5 touch PP shot that went just wide in game 2)

Josh Herman '99 wrote:

- The officiating wasn't great, but it wasn't awful either.  Stuff got missed, but nothing terribly grievous.  Better than I usually expect from Dan Murphy, I suppose.

I've got to agree here. Any game Dan Murphy officiates that I don't remember the officiating means he had a very good night.

Josh Herman '99 wrote:

- A "damn good tenth-place team" is still a tenth-place team.

I dunno. They still had a great shot for an upset coming into this weekend. They were 3 points out of 3rd fer chrissakes. Had 2 of their 12 one goal losses gone differently....

Josh Herman '99 wrote:

- Chris Higgins has mad skills.  If he stays four years at Yale, I'll be shocked.

I'm still of the school of thought that you don't go Ivy unless you want the degree, period. Regardless of how good he is, it will take a utter meltdown of the Yale program for him to jump.  Given Callahan, Cohen, Hellenmeyer and Higgins have plenty of time left, I think Chris will stick around as Taylor continues to build the program.

[Al DeFlorio]

Thoughtful comments, John.  Agree on all counts.:-)

Yale was a damn good 10th place team.