UMass 0 at Cornell 0 (Friday) postgame

[billhoward]

Awesome game by Ben Scrivens. 45 saves?

Nice job holding #11 or #10 team in country scoreless.

Cornell played better late than early. Even against a better team, couldn't we have scored once?

Still, we wuz lucky.

What happened to Schafer's Shots-Per-Sixty scheme, ideally holding the other guys under 20 shots per game allowed?

3 stars of the game:
1. Scrivens (wild guess)
2. [edit add] Topher Scott "sound game" "tried his best" [announcers]
3. Tylor Mugford "effective early on"

[Trotsky]

Union beats Quinnipiac and RPI beats Princeton -- a good night for Cornell in the standings.

[Scersk '97]

I also missed the pregame and there's no mention on the game thread:  were the Devins healthy scratches?

[ebilmes]

Scrivens deserved the W. A lot of the UMass shots were junk, but Scrivens was outstanding. He got off to a shaky start, with his usual poor positioning/falling down and almost let in a couple early goals, but got it together and played great. I questioned why Schafer wouldn't go with Davenport after Scrivens let in 5 goals on Saturday, but Ben made him look good.

The team was lucky to escape with a tie. We were outplayed for the first 50 minutes but got things together at the end. Wasted the PP at the end of regulation/first 1:30 of OT...that was our best chance to win.

Scott, like the team, started off slowly but found his place as the game went on. It seemed like a couple years ago he was the flashy (if undersized) play-maker, but Romano took that role last year and Topher decided to be more of a passer. I think we'll see Topher move back into the limelight this season.

That's all for now....a good result against a quality team.

[billhoward]

Everybody has a senior or junior who, in his/her opinion, hasn't progressed much beyond freshman or sophomore year. On that, Raymond Sawada is the poster child for a lot of people. I'm a Topher Scott fan but ... seems like he does an awesome job controlling the puck behind the net skating back left, back right, reversing to back left, and yet as a result, the puck doesn't get to somebody who's free to score.

Maybe this is just frustration with Cornell playing okay-not-great hockey so far this year. Maybe the fault is people not getting free to be fed the puck. Maybe it's just the sun/stars/moon alignment.

[ithacat]

All I want for Xmas is some speedy forwards.::burnout::

[Jim Hyla]

Well, the best I can say is that we got better as the game went on. Scrivens still worries me, but you can't argue that he somehow gets the job done (usually). UMass is the best team we've played. They are much faster than anyone else. Their fore check was almost all based upon quickness. That meant when they did get a turnover they could easily get the puck to an open man. A lot of shots from the blue line, but Scrivens still had to be sharp. The penalty at 15:21 of the third should have been a 5 minute major. There was an elbow to the head and it was right in front of the ref.

Well it's nice to know we can play a full game that we could have given up on, as they had to know they were outplayed. Again, it's good that we could get better as the game went on. They have to get some confidence from it. Also nice to see Scrivens acknowledge the crowd after the game ended. The students at his end, D-G, were shouting his name and he recognized it. Nice touch to a difficult game.

[Omie]

It was a good game and the fact that we managed a tie and held scoreless what is a very good UMass team shows that our team is playing better. I really don't understand how people still can't acknowledge what was a really good game by Scrivens and say he still cause for worry. Last weekend he matched his career-high 36 saves only to surpass it today with 45 saves. They main reason we didn't loose was because he was solid. On the other hand I am really getting frustrated with Sawada; he just seems to stand out there and be clueless about what to do. He missed lots of passes and totally fumbled a couple of good scoring opportunities where the UMass goalie was compromised. At least Topher shows some effort and sets up plays. I didn't think Moulson was the best captain while I was there but Sawada certainly makes him look like a great leader just by the example they set forth.

Either way I am happy with the result and looking forward to Florida. LGR!

[Scersk '97]

The frustrators for me are Sawada and Krantz, with Barlow on the bubble.  Michael Kennedy might be making his way onto my list.

In the past, there were so many momentarily, but few that endured.  For me, the real frustrators were:  Bitz, who never seemed to become the dominant Baby-type we needed; Hynes and O'Byrne, for obvious reasons; Ryan Moynihan, who never magically transformed into Trent Andison; Jeff Oates, who never met a puck he couldn't fall on; Jason Dailey, who never learned that he was not a "one man team"; Dan Dufresne, who never really did learn how to stay out of the box; and Kent Manderville, who, frankly, always looked like he dogged it even when he was scoring bunches.

There are the near misses, with Chartrand and Drouin being the chief examples.  Oh my, their senior year was fantastic.

And then there are the ones who--surely more frustrating for themselves than the fans could ever understand--never got their chance because of injuries:  Ryan Smart, Vinnie Auger, and Denis Ladouceur.

That's not to say I didn't love watching some of these guys play.  Dan Dufresne was a force in the crease, even if he did take inopportune penalties.  ("This seat reserved for Dan Dufresne.")  And Oatsie, Oatsie, Oatsie made me jump for joy and go running down the isles when he scored a shorty or, frankly, did anything good at all.

For every frustrating player, though, there is the unlooked-for surprise; for every Hynes there is a Paolini.  Boy, could this year's team use a Paolini.

[LaJollaRed]

Fantastic game, I thought. Scrivens was terrific, and I'm excited to see what this does to his SV%. The fans were louder and roudier than I've heard them in a long time. Cheers lasted a long time, and many were new and funny. I suspect some people went to their first ever hockey game this past weekend, in a certain garden somewhere, and decided to go to a second game tonight.

A certain conversation sprang up in A:

At the end of the third period, Topher Scott had one of his famous puck-handling rallies...It really reminded me of his freshman year game against Army.

Eventually, the U (have) Mass forwards got tired of chasing him and joined the defenders in front of the net, leaving Topher completely alone and unchallenged behind the goal for about 3 full seconds, at least.

I thought, "What about 'The Michigan!'" I know it's rare, and I know it's not something they seriously practice, but as a goalie who's had it done to him, I was angry that he didn't at least try.

Regardless of whether he thought about trying it or not, the subject came up, and my friend quickly said that lacrosse style goals are now against NCAA rules. Is it?

[imafrshmn]

a moral victory that would have probably been a victory in 05-06.  this team lacks the killer ability to take advantage of the momentous surges of energy provided by the likes of the end of game PP chance.  it seemed like umass almost expected to lose for a time in the 3rd period, but the coup de grace did not come.  of course it's hard to be disappointed about tying the #11 team with a shutout and a career performance from Scrivens.  sawada and krantz need to step up.. if they have it in them.

[Jacob '06]

[quote LaJollaRed]
Regardless of whether he thought about trying it or not, the subject came up, and my friend quickly said that lacrosse style goals are now against NCAA rules. Is it?[/quote]

Yes. It is now illegal to possess the puck on your stick off of the ice surface.

[MB]

Well, you partly got it today.  Scali looked fairly fast all game.  He's impressed me, both with is physical ability and his quickness.

[duffs4]

That was a great game to watch.  It seemed like cornell gained confidence as it went on and carried the momentum at the end of the game.  I couldn't imagine what it would have sounded like if we scored at the end.  Crowd presence was the best it's been all year.

One thing I think is worth noting is that this was problably the best reffing job I have ever seen at the college level.  That guy was very good at letting the bulls*t go and calling stuff that was actually a penalty.  I hope we see more of it.

[scoop85]

I was able to catch about half the game, including most of the 3rd.  Strange game in that UMASS's forecheck and speed caused us a lot of problems, but I didn't see them get a lot of high-quality scoring chances.  While we didn't have the puck in their end for much of the game, our chances in the third period were more dangerous than UMASS's.  Scrivens was definitely solid and confident.

I am concerned with our ability to finish our chances, and like others have said, I have been disappointed in Sawada's play all year.  You certainly would expect more from a 2nd-round draft choice.