Cornell 2 Yale 2, postgame

Trotsky · January 26, 2008, 10:16:22 PM

Third straight 2-2 tie with Yale at Lynah. Could have been a win, with some luck; more to the point, it could have been a loss, without some luck. I'll take it. Helluva night for the Greening line.

Jim Hyla · January 26, 2008, 10:41:05 PM

[quote Trotsky]Third straight 2-2 tie with Yale at Lynah. Could have been a win, with some luck; more to the point, it could have been a loss, without some luck. I'll take it. Helluva night for the Greening line.[/quote]

Yeah, except for the dumb penalties that Greening takes. It's tough when your penalty leader is a captain and forward.

Unlike some, I think Yale is better than their record. By playoff time they could be a very tough team. I think the worst match up for us was their speed.

BCrespi · January 26, 2008, 10:57:26 PM

[quote Jim Hyla][quote Trotsky]Third straight 2-2 tie with Yale at Lynah. Could have been a win, with some luck; more to the point, it could have been a loss, without some luck. I'll take it. Helluva night for the Greening line.[/quote]

Yeah, except for the dumb penalties that Greening takes. It's tough when your penalty leader is a captain and forward.

Unlike some, I think Yale is better than their record. By playoff time they could be a very tough team. I think the worst match up for us was their speed.[/quote]

And I believe that line was on for both Yale goals. Riley was coming back on the goal scorer both times. Not that they were his fault necessarily (the camera angle wasn't extremely informative as it was too tight), but not a perfect night for the top line, to say the least. I thought there was a pretty good energy level the whole game, which has not been the norm. The main issue was the breakout/rush with too much stickhandling at the blue line causing timing problems and offsides issues.

min · January 26, 2008, 11:40:51 PM

So is it fair to say that the Ivy title is Princeton's to lose?

lynah80 · January 27, 2008, 12:48:18 AM

Riley is very talented offensively, but in my opinion his play on the other side of the puck is mediocre. He frequently waits for the puck handler to make the first more and then he reacts. I know it's not really his job to play great defense, but I think Mike should help him develop that part of his game. Maybe that is going to take some more time.

On the road, three points against Brown and Yale would be fine, but at Lynah, well, most people are probably disappointed.

I hope a lot of students will be able to make the trip to Hamilton next weekend. The second game of that series is always tough on the road.

Let's hope for the best.

Trotsky · January 27, 2008, 01:03:34 AM

[quote min]So is it fair to say that the Ivy title is Princeton's to lose?[/quote]Yeah. Harvard's still close, oddly enough.

mnagowski · January 27, 2008, 01:04:37 AM

[quote min]So is it fair to say that the Ivy title is Princeton's to lose?[/quote]

Given that they would need two losses and a tie and Harvard would have to win out? Pretty much.

Trotsky · January 27, 2008, 01:07:23 AM

[quote lynah80]He frequently waits for the puck handler to make the first more and then he reacts.[/quote]I pay attention to his offense, almost exclusively, and the thing I notice is that he's often "too many" moves ahead on the chessboard -- he makes those feather passes right to where his linemate ought to be, but his linemate isn't there, because several seconds earlier when he should have made the break, there was no obvious reason for him to do it. Yet, Nash can see it.

lynah80 · January 27, 2008, 01:32:36 AM

He did a nice job setting up the second goal with his brother.

KeithK · January 27, 2008, 02:26:19 AM

[quote Trotsky][quote min]So is it fair to say that the Ivy title is Princeton's to lose?[/quote]Yeah. Harvard's still close, oddly enough.[/quote]
Princeton's title to lose. What is this, basketball?

Greg - you have Princeton playing Brown on 2/16 instead of Dartmouth.

polar · January 27, 2008, 02:49:58 AM

according to the Cornell box office, the second game is already sold out. If any of you know a good way to get tickets (besides trying to buy into the colgate sections) please let me know

billhoward · January 27, 2008, 04:59:12 PM

Sometimes you can judge the tenor of the game by the quantity of the responses. Just 11 posts weighing in on the Yale-at-Lynah game suggests the 2-2 was about what we deserved.

In New Haven, Yale was a rugged team and we managed to win. Here on our own ice, we didn't do so well. This should have been a four-point weekend. Ah, well.

How was attendance? Early on, I saw a lot of empty seats in Section [?], the far left at the open end of the horseshoe. Is that the vistors' section or to the left of the visitors?

imafrshmn · January 27, 2008, 06:17:56 PM

[quote billhoward]
How was attendance? Early on, I saw a lot of empty seats in Section [?], the far left at the open end of the horseshoe. Is that the vistors' section or to the left of the visitors?[/quote]

Yeah, if there were any holes in the stands, it was in section O. Other than that, it was as packed a house as we've had all season.

amerks127 · January 27, 2008, 07:23:40 PM

Over the last three weeks Cornell is 3-0 on Friday's and 0-2-1 on Saturday's. Although it's easy to say that we struggle on the back-end of weekend games, Union, Clarkson, and Yale are all much better teams than RPI, SLU(T), and Brown. I think it's a combination of factors which contribute to our Saturday slump, but it must be addressed because we cannot afford to drop points to Colgate next weekend.

Some interesting stats I'd like to take note of this weekend: Cornell was 40 - 15 in faceoffs against Yale, compared to 22 - 27 against Brown. Greening and Nash were each -2 for the weekend. Although they put up 2 goals against Yale, Evan Barlow managed to stay even for the weekend. Players with the last name of Greening or Nash contributed 10 of Cornell's 18 penalty minutes this weekend.

After this weekend, there is no question in my mind that as of right now, Topher Scott is the team MVP. You want to talk about a guy who brings it every shift and isn't afraid to get down and dirty in the corners, he's your man. You want to talk about skill, creativity, and the ability to move the puck, find the open man, and create scoring opportunities? He's your man. Want to talk about winning board battles and faceoffs? That's Topher. Want to talk about a real team leader and a guy with a huge heart, Scott is the guy. He's one point behind Nash for the scoring lead.

I think Brendan Nash still doesn't look totally comfortable on the ice. His tripping penalty against Brown was the clear result of simply getting beat on the outside. His stick handling skills are back, especially on the PP, but he just moves a step too slowly. He isn't reading the play well, and he isn't skating with any sort of intensity. At one point, he made a great couple of dekes on the point against Yale, only to turn the puck over because he couldn't move it fast enough. There were a few chances for him to keep the puck in the zone, but he couldn't get to the puck in time to hold the zone. It's nice to see him back though, because he has a great shot.

I also thought Berk and Mike Devin had poor weekends. Berk was petrified to move the puck out of our zone with one lonely Yale forechecker. When he did lead the rush that one time, he turned the puck over and Yale immediately stormed back for a 3 on 1 rush. Thanks a poor shot and/or nice save by Scrivens, the team wasn't hurt. However, when Berk defended the 2 on 1 that led to Yale's 2nd goal, Berk completely messed up. The odd-man rush wasn't his fault, but the defender has to take away the passing lane and leave the shooter to the goaltender. Instead, Berk just stood up the entire time, stuck his stick out, didn't go down to close the passing lane, and the result was a 2-2 hockey game. Devin didn't play poorly, per-se, but he couldn't hit the net on his shots from the point and struggled to keep the puck inside the blueline on multiple occasions.

Otherwise, I loved the physicality of the weekend, especially the play of Tyler Mugford. He really took a beating this weekend. Fontas was a beast on faceoff draws late in the Yale game, and Scali had some great penalty kills. He's by-far the best penalty killer on the team.

The one thing I'm still worried about is...this was our 12th conference game. In seven of them we have scored 2 goals or less. We've put up more than 2 against Brown twice, Dartmouth once, Quinnipac's third string goaltender, and SLU(T). That's the bottom three teams and Quinnipac's Vetri / McGann. Take away those games and that leaves us with a 2-4-1 conference record. Hopefully as Scott's line continues to produce points and if Nash and Greening can get going again, we'll win more of those games.

scoop85 · January 27, 2008, 07:36:23 PM

While we are having a respectable season no doubt, many posters have noted the lack of identity. I think the most consistent problem is a general inability to control the puck down low and create real scoring chances.

I agree with amerks that Scott -- after a bit of a slow start -- has been tremendous of late; we need Krantz (and Sawada, to a lesser extent) step up and provide Senior leadership down the stretch.