Cornell 2 RPI 1 (Post-game thread)

[Cactus12]

I was not attacking his overall performance tonight. He made some key saves. I was merely noting that one of his repeated positional decisions seemed absolutely bizarre. RPI could not capitalize. A better team might have.

Yes, it's a win, but in my opinion tonight was not a well-played game of hockey by either team. The Scott-Kennedy-Sawada line had some descent offensive pressure, and more importantly converted on opportunities (at least one was an RPI giveaway). Scrivens managed to keep the puck out of the net with some interesting saves. The other lines showed very little and there was a general lack of energy. The defense couldn't control or pass the puck. Luckily, RPI was awful (esp. their powerplay) and did very little besides banging around Gallagher and angering Sawada. I don't think this level of play would beat many other teams. That being said, I'll certainly take the win.

[Al DeFlorio]

Injury update from Saturday's Ithaca Journal:

"Schafer said Scali would be re-evaluated before determining his status for tonight's game at Union. Schafer also said defenseman Brendon Nash and right winger Patrick Kennedy were 'somewhat' healthy scratches."

And:

"Center Blake Gallagher appeared to suffer a left knee injury after a collision with RPI's Andrew Lord early in the second period, but he only missed one shift"

[TimV]

Boy, I know I see the world thru red-tinted glasses, but I was there at the rink, and i saw it differently.

First period: Cornell was sttistically outshot by about 14-4, but in my opinion, half of those shots were poor and had little to no chance of going in.  Even RPI's very capable radio team said that that they didn't think RPI dominated that period.  The RPI fans around me also thought we had a lot of puck control (contrary to the opinion on our passing held by one of the other posters on the thread) even though the shot total was small.

Second period:  Even shot totals, but RPI didn't get a sniff at the net, even with their cachectic power play because our penalty kill played great, and our two goals were both sweet plays, not garbage goal tip-ins of rebounds.

Third period:  We're on the road with a 2-goal lead (for the first 40 seconds, anyway.)  They clearly were concentrating on trapping the puck in the neutral zone and not allowing RPI's quick forwards to get any rushes behind them.  When I saw the RPI-Harvard game, I was pretty worried about RPI's breakout.  Cornell smothered it. I thought Cornell should have gone to the goal more, but that's a coaching decision. They concentrated on playing D and really controlled the period.

Last, Cornell showed more piss-off at the (frequent) cheap-shots than I've seen out of them in the past, and if this was the teams I saw as an undergraduate (the Ferguson brothers, Harry Orr, etc) the benches would have emptied at about the 18:00 minute mark of the third.  I don't criticize Sawada's penalties, he's one of the biggest guys out there and the ref mostly never saw the instigators and nailed the retaliators.

RPI historically (spell check please) gets well against us even when their having a down year.  I'm happy as hell with this game.

[ACM]

The Ithaca Journal, the Cornell Athletics web site, and the RPI Athletics web site all report that the penalty given to Burgdoerfer for the hit from behind on Scali was a game disqualification, and not the normal garden-variety game misconduct.

[CowbellGuy]

Also was announced as a game DQ at the rink.

[ACM]

[quote CowbellGuy]Also was announced as a game DQ at the rink.[/quote]

A fact that was not announced on the stellar TV broadcast (at least, I never heard anything beyond the major).

[cbuckser]

It was the rare hit from behind into the boards in which I thought that anything less than a DQ would have been a poor exercise of the referee's discretion.  Thank goodness Joe Scali was able to skate to the bench a short while afterward.

[lynah80]

In addition to the game DQ, Burgdoerfer will probably not be treated very well at Lynah on Feb 16.

[ben03]

[quote lynah80]In addition to the game DQ, Burgdoerfer will probably not be treated very well at Lynah on Feb 16.[/quote]
the tv sound was quite clear at ice level after this hit. when they showed the Big Red bench choice words and/or phrases were copiously hurled at Burgdoerfer. He should  likely fear for his personal safety as the bench, most notably Sawada was telling him he was "f'ing dead, i'm gonna f;ing kill you etc ..." it's really no surprise Sawada received a 10 minute misconduct. then again, IMHO it was completely justified as the hit was the culmination of some very dirty play by RPI.

needless to say february 16th should  be an eventful evening! wish i could be there

[Trotsky]

[quote lynah80]In addition to the game DQ, Burgdoerfer will probably not be treated very well at Lynah on Feb 16.[/quote]Melrose finalist.  We may have found the next Nickerson.  Even the RPI homer (hockeyhound) on the USCHO game thread opined that it was a bad hit.

Good teams, the sports cliche Gods hath decreed, "find a way to win."

[ursusminor]

Trotsky,
Having met hockeyhound and exchanged several hundred emails with him over the last four years -- he knows what he is talking about. I would trust his observations over anyone, with the possible exception of Puck Swami, who posts on USCHO.

Re: Erik Burgdorfer. I met his father, who was a wrestler at Indiana University, in the van going to the airport from the hotel in Florida two weeks ago. Considering that Erik just turned 19, you could be right about the Nickerson comparison. ;-)

[Trotsky]

[quote ursusminor]Trotsky,
Having met hockeyhound and exchanged several hundred emails with him over the last four years -- he knows what he is talking about. I would trust his observations over anyone, with the possible exception of Puck Swami, who posts on USCHO.

Re: Erik Burgdorfer. I met his father, who was a wrestler at Indiana University, in the van going to the airport from the hotel in Florida two weeks ago. Considering that Erik just turned 19, you could be right about the Nickerson comparison. ;-)[/quote]I wasn't using "homer" as disparaging -- we have our share of folks who aren't inclined to voice an opinion that favors the other team and regard game thread posting as adversarial justice.

An infuriating thing about staying in hotels on the road is you often run into the opponents' families, and they're usually extremely nice.  This has happened to me many times with Harvard players.  It's almost as if people in the college hockey community are all the same, regardless of the jersey.

[ursusminor]

The thing that most impressed me about Burgdoerfer Sr. was that he got to go to Florida while his wife was in Ottawa to watch their youngest son (a goalie) in a Squirt tourney. :-D