Cornell 1 @ Princeton 0 (Post-game Thread)

[Beeeej]

Nice statement to make with your season opener, a shutout on the road at a (theoretically) top ten team.

[dragonfan]

Top 4 players 1.Scrivens 2.Mugford 3.Barlow 4.Seminoff

[KeithK]

I was going to say the same thing except "consensus pick to finish first" instead of "(theoretically) top ten".  Either way and any way you slice it it's a real good way to start things off.

[ansky629]

I would generally agree.  I also thought that Greening looked good in the second half of the game or so.  Also, is it just me or does Scrivens just lie down on the ice, or flail around when he doesn't know where the puck is?  He made one very nice save like that and gave me heart palpatations the other 15 times.  Still, can't argue with results.

[ansky629]

Just a general thought that the freshmen looked like the belonged out there.  Nice to see and as they improve I think this team could be very good.

[sah67]

[quote ansky629]  Also, is it just me or does Scrivens just lie down on the ice, or flail around when he doesn't know where the puck is?  He made one very nice save like that and gave me heart palpatations the other 15 times.  Still, can't argue with results.[/quote]

It's the same way he's played for the last 2 years...and the source of much of the Scrivens vs. Davenport debates on here during the 06-07 season.

[Trotsky]

The 43 saves is the (very probably) second-most in a win for Cornell since the 1940s, and third-most that I have any definite record of.

Schafer-coached teams have a majority (6 of 11) of the 1-0 wins in Cornell history.

[Jordan 04]

Good start. Watching in White Plains agrees with the wallet -- $3 drafts!

[MattShaf]

Nice game. On the upside, we used our size effectively (Princeton looked real small on TV) and played well defensively with many blocked shots up top. Down side, not much going on offensively with very chances in front of the net and very little commitment to cycle the puck in the corner until someone could work free. Overall, can't argue with the result and a good start to build upon. See ya in the Q tomorrow night!

[upperdeck]

I thought Princ got shots off but I sure didnt think they got 43 on goal. too bad on the late offsides, sure looked good on my Tivo, but once he mad the pass he should have let up..

a little too much lazy passing, but much better coming thru center than Princ just not enough of it..

[jnachod]

What an awesome game!  Post-game beers at Triumph == very cool!

Getting lost on back roads around Princeton and almost winding up in New Brunswick instead of I-295 South towards Philadelphia == NOT cute...

[Jeff Hopkins '82]

Some general observations:

This may be the fastest Cornell team I've seen.  There were lots of times when Princeton tried to break down the wing and our d-man got back easily to pinch the attacker into the boards.

We definitely out-hit Princeton, especially in open ice.  A lot of Princeton players wound up on their asses.  No so much for us.

Once we got the puck into their zone we controlled it pretty well, although we didn't always get the puck on goal.  We did a decent job of clogging up the neutral zone.  I also thought our PK did well.

OTOH, we did a miserable job in our own zone.  If Princeton dumped it in, the only way we were able to clear was when they let us, either on a change or by only sending in one forechecker.  Most of Princeton's shots came when they forechecked, got the puck back to the point, and had plently of time for a good shot.

Overall, a great win against a good team.  But we need to improve our play in our zone.

[RichH]

A strength of this team is depth.  There are guys who will be fighting for playing time that would've easily been 2nd liners on many teams of the past 15 years.  Few "A" talents, but a TON of "B" talents across the board.  If that first line emerges to be as dominant as they could be, I'll really enjoy watching this team.

[billhoward]

Big Red celebrates Tylor Mugford's goal in one of the more densely packed corners of Baker Rink. Announced attendance was sellout-plus. Isn't it Princeton grads helping America making the numbers work on the federal bank bailout, too?

Good thing Cornell brought fans or Hobey Baker Rink would've been really empty. And this was your defending ECAC champion Princeton Tigers. Charitably, let's call it 1,500 that were there. The official Princeton box scores says 2,117 attended vs. a capacity of 2,092. By the way, if you bought a hockey ticket, you got in free to the Friday night Penn-Princeton football game.

As for the game: Whenever I see a Cornell hockey game played in the afternoon hours, it doesn't seem so exciting. Maybe because a lot of 4 p.m. games mean you wound up in the tournament consolation match. Two periods of scoreless hockey didn't help.

I was about to write that I thought the defense did a good job blocking shots and Scrivens probably wound up with 20 saves, 25 tops. Eeek! 43 got through to him in addition to the blocked shots? Ouch. Is it possible that in additon to some nice saves, Scrivens was out of position on a couple shots and the dramatically difficult saves that followed shouldn't have been that tough? But you have to feel better and better about Scrivens as Cornell's goalie. I thought the initial take on him, three years ago, was that he brought some additonal depth to the goaltending corps. Now he's leading it, and solidly.

Cornell looked pretty rugged and fierce in the Princeton zone desite no goals to show for it other than the shot that beat Kalemba and that wasn't off any set play. From my angle, maybe Kalemba was wee bit out of position, maybe he hadn't come out far enough, and maybe he just didn't get his glove into position. So, one mistake from a good goalie did in the Tigers.

Other thoughts:

-- The brothers Nash are indeed good. Riley seems to be playing on a different level from the rest of the ECAC some shifts. Although he's not perfect. From where I sat, on one play, 100 feet from the net, it appeared that Riley, who was about 8 feet from the net (and may have had a better view than me), had the net open to the near side and he waited a couple milliseconds to see if a better angle presented itself. It didn't ... and no goal once he shot.

-- A couple times Brendon Nash collected the puck off a Scrivens rebound near the Cornell crease, calmly moved it back and forth 1, 2 or 3 times on his stick, apparently waiting for a Cornell forward to move into a clear zone for a breakout pass. I think that's skill and chutzpah rather than risk-taking.

-- Love Greening's speed. He's playing on that same level as Riley Nash.

-- Usually we got stronger as the game goes on. Here I thought we played okay in the first without mounting much of an offense, peaked in the second, and tapered off in the third (the only period where we scored). The shots bear that out by period (Princeton then Cornell): 8-3, 15-10, 20-6.

-- The freshmen didn't look that bad.

-- We dodged a couple bullets, such as the 5-on-3 at the very end of the second / start of the third, and a nearly open Cornell net (midway through the third) where the Princeton attacker from 10 feet turned 270 degrees not 90 degrees to bring fire on the Cornell net, and then shot wide to the far side. Phew!

-- We had a couple perfect centering passes from the corner into and out of the slot in front of Kalemba, marred only by the fact that there was no one from Cornell standing in the slot.

-- I didn't see Princeton's stud forward, All-East Lee Jubinville, until the second period, but I may have missed shifts he took in the first. Was he out there then? Later, he looked good but not spectacular.

-- I sat a couple rows behind the Cornell bench. (Actually the rink is so small the most you can sit behind the Cornell bench is four rows.) Mike Schafer seemed pretty calm given his, ah, expressive tendencies in other years. He did, however, stick around after the game to offer the referees a couple thoughts (photo below) on, perhaps, either on one of the penalties called against Cornell or the was it/wasn't it offsides on the Riley Nash near breakaway.

A year ago we looked back at some of the early- and mid-season if-only games where, if we hadn't frittered away a lead or a tie, we would have had a better seeding going into the ECACs. This could be one of those if-only games for Princeton. You outshot the other guys more than 2-1 and don't even have a tie to show for it?

Game start at 4 pm was a real bummer for younger Cornell alums working in NY or Philadephia who can't just tell the boss they have better things to do. Ran into JerseyGirl at a business event Thursday and she was not happy with that early start that precluded her being at the game. Bet there were others suffering the same fate.

OK, on to Quinnipiac where we should theoretically have a less skilled opponent than we had in Princeton. But I'm betting T.D. Banknote (Bankworth? Bankrupt?) Center will be a lot closer to full (3,000) than Baker.


Mike Schafer shares postgame pleasantries with referee Bob Ritchie. Schafer has a whiteboard marker (not visible this photo) in his hand, in case, perhaps, he wants to diagram how he saw the play. Or maybe they're just caucusing on what's the best puppy for Malia and Sasha to take to the White House.

[Rita]

[quote sah67][quote ansky629]  Also, is it just me or does Scrivens just lie down on the ice, or flail around when he doesn't know where the puck is?  He made one very nice save like that and gave me heart palpatations the other 15 times.  Still, can't argue with results.[/quote]

It's the same way he's played for the last 2 years...and the source of much of the Scrivens vs. Davenport debates on here during the 06-07 season.[/quote]

I thought Scrivens played very well, and there was only 1 "big rebound" that he didn't control. Even though he did spend some time "flailing", he seemed to be in control and in good position (i.e. not much wandering out of the net).

There were quite a few shots from the point in which he had to fight through a lot of bodies to see and I was (pleasantly) surprised that he was able to keep them out of the net.

Maybe I have gotten used Scrivens style in goal, because no heart palpatations here in in Central IN. .