Cornell at Colgate postgame

[sah67]

Just got back from Hamilton...worst rink pizza ever...not that Lynah's is anything to brag about, but yeah...totally unsatisfying.

I also disagreed with Davenport being pulled early...I felt like the two PPGs that got past him weren't totally equated with poor goaltending on his part.  On the other hand, we did seem to get a rhythm going when Scrivens was in there, and he played much better than he did against Brown and SLU...some great saves, but (as offensive as his Facebook group is), Dekanich was a complete brick wall as the SOG showed, and absolutely saved Colgate's ass tonight.  It could have easily been a 5-2 game in our favor with a lesser goalie.

Once Seminoff took the penalty, I had a funny feeling we were about to get scored on, with our best d-man and pk guy, and possibly our best player heading to the box.

Bitz was horrible, as he has been...it was such a letdown everytime he turned over the puck, missed a pass, or completely whiffed on a good shot.  Topher on the other hand seemed to be stepping up his game, and it was good to see Milo back in there.  I'm not completely behind the idea of benching Mugford as he does do well on the PK, and is a great physical force, but since he does inevitably take some stupid penalties, it might be worth giving him some rest.

Just a strategy question for the players/coaches out there: when Bitz took the dumb penalty with Scrivens pulled, is it normal to leave the goalie pulled even though the attackers are 5x5 (or 4x4 in tonight's case).  In other words, is it better to be down an attacker and push hard for a SHG, but have a goalie in there to prevent an ENG, or is it more effective to leave the goalie pulled and even up the attacker situation to push the offense more (as Schafer did tonight)?

[Tom Lento]

[quote evilnaturedrobot]the thing is that Davenport's looked shakey more times than not when he's come out of the net all year.  Sooner or later somthing bad was going to happen, maybe this convinces him to stay within the pipes.

Unless your a Brodeur, Turco, or Dipietroesque puck handler, you really can't be coming out of the net with two forecheckers in the near vicinity and your team down a man.[/quote]

Are you talking about the Yale goal? Davenport played that correctly, right up to the point where he fell down. There were no Yale forecheckers in the vicinity. It's his job on a hard dump-in around the boards to stop the puck and leave it for his defense in those situations.

I'm guessing Schafer's decision to start Scrivens vs. Brown was either 1) due to an injury we don't know about, 2) to give him a mental break after a horribly unlucky incident, 3) because of Davenport's apparent inability to control even the most routine rebounds in the Yale game, or 4) all of the above.

[Tom Lento]

[quote sah67]Just a strategy question for the players/coaches out there: when Bitz took the dumb penalty with Scrivens pulled, is it normal to leave the goalie pulled even though the attackers are 5x5 (or 4x4 in tonight's case).  In other words, is it better to be down an attacker and push hard for a SHG, but have a goalie in there to prevent an ENG, or is it more effective to leave the goalie pulled and even up the attacker situation to push the offense more (as Schafer did tonight)?[/quote]

If you want to score in that situation, then you leave the goalie on the bench. It does depend on where the faceoff is, how much time is left, and how much faith you have in your guys to win the faceoff. If it's on the defensive side of the ice a coach *might* opt to put the goalie back in until his team can control the puck.

Given that the penalty happened with less than a minute to play in a 1-goal game, Schafer pretty much had to keep the extra attacker on the ice if he wanted to come back and tie the game. The only way I'd take any issue with it is if he'd kept Scrivens on the bench for a defensive zone faceoff.

[sah67]

So who wants to Email Coach Vaughan a screenshot of Dekanich's facebook group, so we can get him benched for disciplinary reasons on Saturday?

[calgARI '07]

The good news is that you know a losing streak is coming to an end when you're losing games you should win.

Schafer is doing everything in his power to kill Davenport's confidence.  Pulling him after two goals that he couldn't do anything about when the team hadn't scored yet.  Brutal.   Is it Davenport's job to score goals?

Bitz's penalty at the end was pretty symbolic of this stretch.

This was Cornell's third best game of the season after UNH and away Yale.  They'll win on Saturday.  The powerplay is still an embarrassment and the laughing-stock of college hockey.  Schafer continues to send the same guys over the boards though.

[RazzBaronZ]

[quote evilnaturedrobot]
And while Scrivens did make two nice saves on the shorthanded breakaway, that third goal was just awful.  There's no excuse for loosing your balence before the shot even goes off.
[/quote]

I was at the game and it wasn't Scrivens' fault.  He had to dive to make one save, and they got a rebound that they lofted above him.  It was pretty impossible to save from my angle.  I also agree that Scott was playing with intensity tonight, and it was finally nice to see it come out.

I thought we should have taken the game when we could, such as when we had enormous momentum after scoring on the 5 minute major.  We had time left on it, and we should've scored again.  Not sure how much of that was Dekanich and how much was just us not being able to follow through.  We outplayed them for most if not all of the game, but once again had nothing to show for it.

[Oat]

Sorry guys, but it really doesn't look like we're going to win on Saturday, It will be a long and frustrating night for us with Colgate fans celebrating in section O. The picture is quite clear now.

Hockey God hates us..

[jtwcornell91]

[quote Trotsky]Had this game happened to the 02, 03, 05 or 06 team, we would have dismissed it as a game stolen by a hot goalie.[/quote]

This game did happen to the 03 team. :-/ But in the context of that season it was a lot easier to write off as a fluke.

[jtwcornell91]

[quote sah67]Just got back from Hamilton...worst rink pizza ever...not that Lynah's is anything to brag about, but yeah...totally unsatisfying.[/quote]

Pizza tends to be more satisfying when you eat it rather than having it thrown at you. :-D

[marty]

[quote jtwcornell91][quote Trotsky]Had this game happened to the 02, 03, 05 or 06 team, we would have dismissed it as a game stolen by a hot goalie.[/quote]

This game did happen to the 03 team. :-/ But in the context of that season it was a lot easier to write off as a fluke.[/quote]

Who could forget that Gilbert Gottfried impersonator as the announcer of the Colgate student produced video that night in 03?

[mtmack25]

Watching Davenport this season, I have had little confidence in him most of the year.  With that said, I don't fault him for these two goals.  The problem is in the play of our power play.  We have a consistant deficiency in the rotation of our penalty killers that leaves the back side of the net open.  I have seen it all year and the opposition is attacking it.  Two goals last night and if I had a decent memory I could name more specfic goals in the past.  Watch the play and you will see it, even if a goal is not scored, the backside is open.

[Townie]

[quote mtmack25]Watching Davenport this season, I have had little confidence in him most of the year.  With that said, I don't fault him for these two goals.[/quote]

From my view, the second goal was all Davenport.  A short side goal from a steep angle??  He was not in position.  From the steep angle of the shot, he shouldn't have needed to move at all to make the save.  His right shoulder was dropped, perhaps covering the low corners and 5 hole with his stick.  He had to reach up with his glove to make the save, which he missed.  He looked very awkward on that play.  It was a decent shot made better by poor goaltending.

I'm not saying I agree with the decision to pull him, but I don't think it was completely unwarranted.  Plus, we're not in practice every day.  Perhaps this is a nagging problem for him.

[Al DeFlorio]

[quote mtmack25]The problem is in the play of our power play [I think you mean penalty-kill.].  We have a consistant deficiency in the rotation of our penalty killers that leaves the back side of the net open.  I have seen it all year and the opposition is attacking it.  Two goals last night and if I had a decent memory I could name more specfic goals in the past.  [/quote]
Exactly right.  Both Harvard goals were scored that way, and more than a few others throughout the season.  The kill is frightening to watch.

Cornell is shaky in too many areas to be successful:  (1) goaltending; (2) penalty kill; (3) power play; (4) lack of discipline (dumb penalties late in games; penalties immediately after scoring tying goals; penalties in the offensive zone for no good reason).  Add this to the ongoing--for years and years now--inability to produce consistent offense at even strength, and even reasonably solid defense (this year's anticipated weakness, ironically) can't overcome it all over the course of a sixty-minute game.

[sah67]

[quote jtwcornell91][quote sah67]Just got back from Hamilton...worst rink pizza ever...not that Lynah's is anything to brag about, but yeah...totally unsatisfying.[/quote]

Pizza tends to be more satisfying when you eat it rather than having it thrown at you. :-D[/quote]

Surprisingly, the Colgate students weren't all that offensive.  Apparently, the worst they could throw at us were those Mickey Mouse-voiced girls in the sports-bras who were just as keen to dance and sing along with OUR band, and quickly shut up when the band let them have it with "Cheap hotel rooms clap clap clap-clap-clap" in response to their lame "Hotel management" chant.

There were a few obnoxious guys two rows behind us, who tried to pick a fight with the Cornell fans right behind us, starting with something like "Wow...you guys are really funny with all your synchronized cheers...that's really cool."  The Cornell fans informed them that we're able to do that because we go to more than one game a year, with the Colgate kids' response being "Every game? Man, you guys are fucking losers."  That was pretty much all that needed to be said

[Trotsky]

[quote Al DeFlorio]even reasonably solid defense (this year's anticipated weakness, ironically)[/quote]

This tends to get obscured by the ongoing necklacing that is our special teams, but the defense has been very solid.  I assumed that a defense led by Krantz and Seminoff would be productive on offense but suspect on defense, but they've been pretty good.