Dartmouth Pregame (Tshen, please start the game thread if you are available)

lynah80 · February 29, 2008, 03:26:56 AM

While many are already focused on the Harvard game, no one would dispute that Dartmouth can not be overlooked. The Big Red has to beat the Big Green.

Dartmouth is a very unpredictable team; this isn't too surprising given the high number of freshman and sophomores. They have defeated some strong opponents including #3 UNH (5-3 Jan 19), #10 Clarkson (3-1 Jan 11), #16 BU (3-2 Jan 15), and #21 Quinnipiac (7-2 Feb 15) but lost or tied some weak opponents including Brown (4-3, Feb 2 and 5-4 Feb 22), American International (3-3, Jan 27), and St. Lawrence (8-3 Jan 13). Although their overall record is fair at 10-13-4, their ECAC record is poor at 5-12-3 (1-6-2 away). In the RPI, they are ranked 38th in the nation.

Dartmouth is an average sized team (mean 190 lbs vs 189 for Cornell, not including goalies) that is better known for their offense (3.19 goals/game #2 ECAC) than their defense (3.22 goals/game #11 in the ECAC). Goal tending is supposed to be one of their strengths, although in my opinion, Mike Devine is overrated with a 2.91 GAA and a 0.914 save%. However, he has had some exceptional games including UNH (54 saves).

Last weekend, Dartmouth loaded up their first line with Wyman (15-14-29), Reeds (8-9-17) and Johnson (8-24-32), which helped in their impressive 7-2 victory over Yale. Against Brown, Wyman skated with Pritchard (6-7-13) and Fleming (6-4-10); Grecu (6-11-17) skated on the first line with Reeds and Johnson. Wyman has missed a few games recently due to an injury (I don't know what it was). Dartmouth shuffles their lines a fair amount and it will be interesting to see how they set up against Cornell.

I think one of the keys to the game will be penalties. Cornell is one of the more heavily penalized teams in the ECAC with 15.0 PIM/game (#4); Dartmouth is #12 with only 10.1 PIM/game. Dartmouth has the best power play in the conference (20.4%) and the worst penalty kill (78.6%). Cornell needs to stay out of the box and use their outstanding power play (19.1%) to put the game out of reach.

Everyone for Cornell except Nicholls and Reoszler should be available for the game. If they skate hard, stay focused and out of the box, they will win.

Cornell 4, Dartmouth 2

Jim Hyla · February 29, 2008, 08:12:38 AM

[quote lynah80]
I think one of the keys to the game will be penalties. Cornell is one of the more heavily penalized teams in the ECAC with 15.0 PIM/game (#4); Dartmouth is #12 with only 10.1 PIM/game. [/quote]

CU is actually second in PIM in conference stats. However even that is somewhat misleading. They are sixth in PK opportunities, which means a lot of matching minors, or more likely more 10 min. misconducts. That said Dartmouth is twelfth in PK.

ugarte · February 29, 2008, 11:13:36 AM

[quote lynah80]While many are already focused on the Harvard game, no one would dispute that Dartmouth can not be overlooked. The Big Red has to beat the Big Green.

Dartmouth is a very unpredictable team; this isn't too surprising given the high number of freshman and sophomores. They have defeated some strong opponents including #3 UNH (5-3 Jan 19), #10 Clarkson (3-1 Jan 11), #16 BU (3-2 Jan 15), and #21 Quinnipiac (7-2 Feb 15) but lost or tied some weak opponents including Brown (4-3, Feb 2 and 5-4 Feb 22), American International (3-3, Jan 27), and St. Lawrence (8-3 Jan 13). Although their overall record is fair at 10-13-4, their ECAC record is poor at 5-12-3 (1-6-2 away). In the RPI, they are ranked 38th in the nation.

Dartmouth is an average sized team (mean 190 lbs vs 189 for Cornell, not including goalies) that is better known for their offense (3.19 goals/game #2 ECAC) than their defense (3.22 goals/game #11 in the ECAC). Goal tending is supposed to be one of their strengths, although in my opinion, Mike Devine is overrated with a 2.91 GAA and a 0.914 save%. However, he has had some exceptional games including UNH (54 saves).

Last weekend, Dartmouth loaded up their first line with Wyman (15-14-29), Reeds (8-9-17) and Johnson (8-24-32), which helped in their impressive 7-2 victory over Yale. Against Brown, Wyman skated with Pritchard (6-7-13) and Fleming (6-4-10); Grecu (6-11-17) skated on the first line with Reeds and Johnson. Wyman has missed a few games recently due to an injury (I don't know what it was). Dartmouth shuffles their lines a fair amount and it will be interesting to see how they set up against Cornell.

I think one of the keys to the game will be penalties. Cornell is one of the more heavily penalized teams in the ECAC with 15.0 PIM/game (#4); Dartmouth is #12 with only 10.1 PIM/game. Dartmouth has the best power play in the conference (20.4%) and the worst penalty kill (78.6%). Cornell needs to stay out of the box and use their outstanding power play (19.1%) to put the game out of reach.

Everyone for Cornell except Nicholls and Reoszler should be available for the game. If they skate hard, stay focused and out of the box, they will win.

Cornell 4, Dartmouth 2[/quote]
This is lame.

Throw Indians.

Thanks for the analysis, Lynah 80.

RedintheGreen · February 29, 2008, 12:09:19 PM

I have to agree with a lot of lynah80's comments. I have watched Dartmouth for most of the season and they are a very inexperienced team. The Wyman, Johnson, Grecu line is probably one of the strongest in the ECAC, but that's basically where the positives of this team ends. The defense is young and constantly makes bonehead mistakes. They are always leaving Devine to stand on his head in order to keep them in the game. Similar to how Cornell's defense can often help a goalie, dartmouth's terrible defense hurts Devine. I wouldn't underestimate them, but scoring right out of the blocks is the best way to keep them out of this game. Overall Dartmouth is pretty bad on the road and hopefully Cornell can pull out the win.

lynah80 · February 29, 2008, 03:51:52 PM

[quote Jim Hyla]

CU is actually second in PIM in conference stats. However even that is somewhat misleading. They are sixth in PK opportunities, which means a lot of matching minors, or more likely more 10 min. misconducts. That said Dartmouth is twelfth in PK.[/quote]

I agree and thank you for pointing this out.

jaybert · February 29, 2008, 06:49:38 PM

redcast is up fyi...for the BB game as well.

Jacob '06 · February 29, 2008, 07:01:22 PM

[quote jaybert]redcast is up fyi...for the BB game as well.[/quote]
Is there a way to open both simultaneously in WMP in windows XP? Every time I click on one while the other is open it just opens it in the same window so I can only watch 1.

jaybert · February 29, 2008, 07:03:36 PM

i am using osx so it wouldnt be much help...but what i did was save the streaming file and open it up manually in quicktime and VLC. should be able to do something similar in windows im guessing.

RichH · February 29, 2008, 07:03:44 PM

[quote Jacob '06][quote jaybert]redcast is up fyi...for the BB game as well.[/quote]
Is there a way to open both simultaneously in WMP in windows XP? Every time I click on one while the other is open it just opens it in the same window so I can only watch 1.[/quote]

Good question. If you have another media player that can handle WM content, you could do a contextual menu "open with" or something appropriate to your operating system.

Chris '03 · February 29, 2008, 07:42:21 PM

[quote jaybert]i am using osx so it wouldnt be much help...but what i did was save the streaming file and open it up manually in quicktime and VLC. should be able to do something similar in windows im guessing.[/quote]

I'm also on a mac but I have both open in two separate safari windows without issue.

Jim Hyla · February 29, 2008, 11:07:47 PM

When I had problems with sound not being with video at away game last week, I opened video in Firefox and separate audio tract in IE and got both.

jtwcornell91 · March 01, 2008, 01:31:55 AM

[quote RichH][quote Jacob '06][quote jaybert]redcast is up fyi...for the BB game as well.[/quote]
Is there a way to open both simultaneously in WMP in windows XP? Every time I click on one while the other is open it just opens it in the same window so I can only watch 1.[/quote]

Good question. If you have another media player that can handle WM content, you could do a contextual menu "open with" or something appropriate to your operating system.[/quote]

Borrow someone else's laptop?

redice · March 01, 2008, 07:13:40 AM

[quote lynah80]
Everyone for Cornell except Nicholls and Reoszler should be available for the game. If they skate hard, stay focused and out of the box, they will win.

Cornell 4, Dartmouth 2[/quote]

Well, you were right. 6 goals were scored last night. ::whistle::

Why the change in Nicholls' status. Or should I ask "who was that masked man" (wearing #29)?

lynah80 · March 01, 2008, 09:32:02 AM

Nicholls was listed as questionable before the game at CHN. I think he was put in the lineup for his defensive skills in place of Barlow. You can check Brandon Thomas' blog at the Ithaca Journal. Barlow is very skilled offensively but I don't think Mike trusts him on defense.

Jacob '06 · March 01, 2008, 01:15:02 PM

[quote jtwcornell91][quote RichH][quote Jacob '06][quote jaybert]redcast is up fyi...for the BB game as well.[/quote]
Is there a way to open both simultaneously in WMP in windows XP? Every time I click on one while the other is open it just opens it in the same window so I can only watch 1.[/quote]

Good question. If you have another media player that can handle WM content, you could do a contextual menu "open with" or something appropriate to your operating system.[/quote]

Borrow someone else's laptop?[/quote]

Thats what I did. Used my laptop for the hockey game and my fiance's for the basketball. Probably the plan again tonight.