Cornell-RPI Postgame (Game 1) 3/13/09

[Jim Hyla]

[quote lynah80]Comments from Brendon Thomas' blog:


2:30+ to go
RPI goal: "just a harmless-looking wrister from the top of the left circle that sailed through traffic and over Scrivens' left shoulder before he could pick it up"[/quote]I'd agree with that. However, I certainly can't blame Scrivens. The shot had perfect location, through traffic; as I said a goal scorers goal.

[HockeyMan]

Wow, what a frustrating game.  RPI showed nothing--really, they're a sadly mediocre team.  Their PP is clocking at about 9 percent for the season, and we saw why tonight.  We should be burying teams like this.

No Schafer-coached team is ever going to be an offensive powerhouse, but geez, we've got to do better than this.  York was good, but the truth is he did not have to make many phenomenal saves tonight.

I had a good view of the goal, and I can't really fault Scrivens.  It was a lucky shot, through a screen.  He made one superb glove save in the second period; other than that, he had virtually nothing do to (and he almost gave it away in the third with one of his now-patented clearances, which gave RIP an open-net chance; Schafer gave him a lengthy if-looks-could-kill stare after that one).
 
The only good news is we get another chance tomorrow night. Let's Go Red.

[lynah80]

Schafer has to do his part.  He has a team that can beat RPI.  He has to work on their heads and remind them that they have outplayed RPI all year.  

He needs to come up with ways to make York uncomfortable.  Stack the first line.  Keep someone in front of him in the slot.  Pass the puck, across the top the crease more and make him wiggle around in his pads.  Keep him anxious.  This kind of stuff:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oTlY5C9idlQ&feature=related

RPI sees Cornell as a predictable, conservative team.  Schafer needs to give them more to think about.

[abmarks]

[quote Robin]I feel like this is becoming a theme.  Multiple games in which we outshoot our competition by a significant amount, yet still lose or come close to losing(Brown), and the opposing goalie looks like he had a good game.  We get a lot of shots on goal, yet can't get them in....[/quote]

Which is why I was beggign for us to find some way to recruit a finisher/scorer talented guy in another thread.  We're never going anywhere without at least one. THere's got to be a way to get ONE.

[daredevilcu]

Well, it's unfortunate that I have to work tomorrow, or I'd come tomorrow night.  Since I can't, here's hoping I don't have to work Sunday night.  I can't pass up a game 3 no matter who is playing, and seriously... I can't lose.  "Rival" against "rival" so either way a Clarkson "rival" loses.  Win-win for me.  ::banana::

[billhoward]

[quote Roy 82]I would like to see that stats on which team wins a third or fourth game after a 2-0 series lead. I'll bet the odds favor the 2-0 team. (I'll also bet that someone here will have some data).[/quote]
That's the beuty of being a Sox fan. After eight decades, you do reverse that 3-0 series lead.

Against RPI, we shouldn't have lost. Randomness caught up with Cornell. After last night, a one-game letdown will be terminal.

[HockeyMan]

Schafer explodes at the refs.

http://www.theithacajournal.com/article/20090314/SPORTS/903140345/1006

No doubt there's heat-of-the-moment frustration here, but he has a point.  Dell in particular was terrible.

[Josh '99]

[quote billhoward]I still assume we'll advance[/quote]You know what they say about assuming, though, don't you Bill?

[lynah80]

[quote HockeyMan]Schafer explodes at the refs.

http://www.theithacajournal.com/article/20090314/SPORTS/903140345/1006

No doubt there's heat-of-the-moment frustration here, but he has a point.  Dell in particular was terrible.[/quote]

Mike was critical of both the league and the refs.

Total (both teams) PIM for the 4 games last night were:  

Yale-Brown: 35
Cornell-RPI: 14
Princeton-Union: 18
St. Lawrence-Quinnipiac: 29

mean: 24

For the regular season, the ECAC intra-conference mean PIM was 29.96 (both teams).  

By saying what he did, he probably irritated the refs.  But if he didn't say anything, then the overlooked calls (and my primary point of reference is Jason Weinstein) would probably continue.  I saw some trips by RPI that could have been called, but the it's always hard to judge over the internet.  Let's hope for a cleaner game tonight.

[Rich S]

Dell was one referee last night, right?  Criticim of his work has been a near-constant for many years in the ECAC.

I've seen him loose control of a number of games over the years.  If  he has ignored the directives of Stewart, that's a problem and Schafer is properly upset.

But that said, let's not lose sight of the fact that the style of play Schafer was critical of in his comments were a staple of his teams for many years, i.e, the holding along the boards, the open arm grabbing, etc.

I agree that "it's not hockey" and to allow it to continue damages the ECAC in several ways.

Having seen RPI just a few weeks ago, I'd be stunned if Cornell doesn't take the next two games.  RPI appeared to me to be very fragile against Clarkson at Troy, and collapsed after allowing two early PPGs.  Yor's misplay was a killer and the 4th was a SHG as I recall.

To their credit they came back, played hard in the third and closed to within 4-2.  But Cornell has more positives and should prevail, York's fine play notwithstanding.

[Karlmoose]

RPI survived last weekend and last night by clutching and grabbing and getting away with it. They took advantage of the fact that the refs were letting everything go, and played as well as they possibly could have with their skill level and system. Give them credit for hanging around and making it more difficult for Cornell than it needed to be. Hopefully a change in refs will create a game, as Schafer pointed out, a little more similar to hockey. Granted, Cornell was (theoretically) guilty as well, but there were several long shifts when RPI players repeatedly held, hooked, and high-sticked Cornell players. Infuriating, but with one or two bounces and conversions on power plays (however infrequent they may be), they'll be all right.

[redice]

I felt that the officials let too much stuff go- both ways.    I was outraged, at one point, to see an RPI player punch one of our guys in the back of the head, with Alex Dell standing there watching.  BTW, no call!   But, in other parts of the game, I saw our guys doing the same thing.

I thought the officiating was poor.   But, I didn't think it was unfair.   They were equally poor in both directions.

[imafrshmn]

Full transcript from Schafer's post-game conference

Brandon Thomas reports that tonight's game will have a different officiating crew.

[Germ]

Another grinder of a game.  Shots on goal were 32-14 and yet we lost 1-0?  It's so painful.  Thankfully we're not out of it yet.  I know Schafer will tweak things to disrupt York.  No way he stands on is head again.

I know it's been said before but the bottom line is we just don't have the finishers needed to win these types of games on a consistent basis. Our D only gave up one goal last night.  Can't ask too much more than that.

[Jacob '06]

I think there was more hooking out there than in Las Vegas or Times Square in the 70s and I don't think there was a single hooking call the entire game. I'm amazed they actually called an interference penalty once because guys were getting tackled away from the puck left and right. It did go both ways, and I was pretty happy with the call on Burgdorfer for intentionally shooting the puck right in to section A. I think us not capitalizing on that gift of a power play opportunity was really deflating, and RIPs goal came just after that. I think its amazing that York has been playing so well, he had some of the worst body language I've ever seen on a goaltender during stoppages of play. He'd either be bent over hands on his knees like he was really tired, or turned around leaning on the net looking like he was going to puke. He also seemed really nervous early in the first period when he kept covering up the puck when no one was near him. I think if we could get a goal early tonight we could rattle him.