NCAA Regional Final: Cornell (1) vs. Bemidji (4) - FINAL

[Dafatone]

If Greening and Riley stay, we could have a very good team next year.  Losing Seminoff hurts, he's been my favorite defenseman for the last 3 years.

As to this game, we looked great in the first two periods.  30 seconds into the 3rd, I said to myself, "gee, we look pretty slow."  You all know the rest.

[abmarks]

[quote Trotsky]If there is any small consolation, it's that Mike found this program a ruin and brought it to the point where a team felt had an okay shot at reaching reach Albany wins the ECAC SF and advances in the NCAAs, and it feels like they let themselves down hugely.

That says this is a great program, with many great years ahead.

But still, this is one of the 2 or 3 most frustrating nights in team history.[/quote]

Michigan is a great program. BU is a great program.  We are an above average program.  We are no better than a consistently above average team that bounces up to being a very good team many years, but rarely, if ever, reaches great.  

If things continue as they do, there will be many good to very good years ahead.  But few if any great ones.  To call it a great year we need to be in the FF

[abmarks]

[quote lynah80]
I think Yale is a better team than BSU.  It's too bad they couldn't hold up in the first round.[/quote]

Except UVM > Yale > BSU

[Germ]

[quote lynah80][quote Germ]I hope we weren't looking ahead to a FF tilt against Miami....  

It looked like we were in slow motion in the 3rd period.  And as soon as they put up that stat about us owning the 3rd period against NE things went south.  With Shafer's system I don't think we will EVER have speed and this is tough for me to digest.

Maybe we were too tired from our game last night?  Our fate in the NCAAs turned out almost identical to that in the ECAC tourney.  We have an unbelievable come-from-behind game  (Princeton and NE) and then seemingly fall apart the next day (Yale and BSU).  

But all things considered if anyone had asked me before the season started would I be happy with an appearance in the QF I would have said absolutely.[/quote]

I think Yale is a better team than BSU.  It's too bad they couldn't hold up in the first round.[/quote]
Maybe but not in this year's NCAA. BSU 2-0, Yale 0-1. Regardless, to get our program to the next level we have to find ways to win these QF games.

[Al DeFlorio]

[quote Trotsky]It's the height of irony that after four decades of needing multiple major post-season upsets to have even a glimmer of a chance at winning the national championship, when, for the first and probably the last time, the seas part... they squandered it.
[/quote]
This is exactly what abmarks is seemingly unable to grasp.  We didn't have to beat a WCHA champion on their home turf.  We had the CHA champion who didn't otherwise perform well enough to make the tournament...and didn't take advantage.

[scoop85]

Agree with so many of the previous posts.  It just took so much out of this team to score a damn goal against any decent team; no margin for error, and they ran out of gas.  We had the real edge the first 40 minutes, but relatively few good scoring opportunities.  I'm sure we'll stay competitive in the years ahead, but I don't have any sense that any dynamic offensive talents are on the immediate horizon.

We all would have signed up for a shot at the Frozen Four at the start of the season.  But given the path that seemed to open up for us, this loss will linger for some time.

[TimV]

[quote lynah80] The team will miss Mugford, Michael Kennedy, Seminoff, the two Davenports and Punches...[/quote]

What- you don't think we'll miss Barlow???

[abmarks]

[quote Al DeFlorio][quote Trotsky]It's the height of irony that after four decades of needing multiple major post-season upsets to have even a glimmer of a chance at winning the national championship, when, for the first and probably the last time, the seas part... they squandered it.
[/quote]
This is exactly what abmarks is seemingly unable to grasp.  We didn't have to beat a WCHA champion on their home turf.  We had the CHA champion who didn't otherwise perform well enough to make the tournament...and didn't take advantage.[/quote]

I do grasp it perfectly. But you are mixing aned matching your points.  All that mattered was that there was 1 game played in a vacuum.  A ingle event against a team that is running red-hot. As of this morning you really think we were that big a favorite?  If you looked at this abstractly as a scenario from the pre-season - then yes, I'd agree with it being the dream scenario.

But you can't look at it like that.  I'm saying that we had an upset win vs. NU... and weren't a good enough team to beat these guys.  So what if it was the "ideally" easier path?  I still think we had a better shot at Notre Dame...Notre Dame is better, but a better matchup against our skillset.

We showed all year that we had trouble with teams that could fly.  I bet our *speedy - Krach* would be around .5

[TimV]

[quote ugarte]16 seed in hockey is NOT equivalent to the 64 seed in basketball. Jesus H. Christ.[/quote]


Totally agree.  That was so stupid....

[imafrshmn]

[quote TimV][quote lynah80] The team will miss Mugford, Michael Kennedy, Seminoff, the two Davenports and Punches...[/quote]

What- you don't think we'll miss Barlow???[/quote]

Barlow sure went out with a bang... we wouldn't have got to NCAAs and maybe even Albany without some of his big goals.

[Germ]

[quote scoop85]Agree with so many of the previous posts.  It just took so much out of this team to score a damn goal against any decent team; no margin for error, and they ran out of gas.  We had the real edge the first 40 minutes, but relatively few good scoring opportunities.  I'm sure we'll stay competitive in the years ahead, but I don't have any sense that any dynamic offensive talents are on the immediate horizon.

We all would have signed up for a shot at the Frozen Four at the start of the season.  But given the path that seemed to open up for us, this loss will linger for some time.[/quote]

Yeah, losing to BSU stings.  When we lost in '05 and '06 it was at least to the eventual champion. (I think) Well....maybe BSU will roll Miami and BU/UVM too and this won't hurt so bad.  And, although things turned out sh*tty for us just think how UM, ND, and DU feel.  They didn't even make it out of the first round.

[Al DeFlorio]

[quote abmarks]
I do grasp it perfectly. But you are mixing aned matching your points.[/quote]
Sorry, but my point has been precisely consistent, and has also been made by Trotsky and billhoward.  It was about as good a situation as you could ever expect for a Cornell team with significant flaws to advance, and it's disappointing we weren't able to take advantage.  With that I'm through with this discussion.  I'm tired of...::bang::

[CUontheslopes]

This one just one of those games where you could feel it slipping away and knew Cornell wasn't going to claw it back. It's funny, I couldn't tell you where things really went wrong. After that first Cornell goal the whole room had a feeling we were going to put our foot on their throat and take it to DC. They're fast for sure, but more fast and out of control/wild. We got suckered into playing an end to end game.

I disagree with all the Schafer-defensive style haters out there who say we need to play more skilled offense. WE just need to execute better on the Schafer system. The better teams from prior years (thinking 03 and 05) forced the other teams to play our game. We were bigger, stronger and just beat the everloving crap out of our opponents. The last few years we haven't played nearly as physical and haven't been nearly as big. Let's get a few more Baby's and O'Byrnes. If we're going to play Cornell Red Army hockey, let's get the biggest tree trunk defensemen we can and actually beat the crap out of our opponents. That's how we dictated our game and why we were such a dominant third period team. I know a lot of people will say "the game has changed - it's a speed/skill game now" but I think if we're committed to this system that's taken us pretty darn far, let's just do our best to execute it right/the way we used to.

I have high hopes for next year if Riley Nash returns. We don't lose that much talent and I think a Greening/Nash duo could be dynamite. It was a great year and hey, any season that ends with us having a shot to go to a Final/Frozen Four in ANY sport has to be put in the books as a success. It just seems that Cornell has been jinxed in the last 6 years in NCAA quarterfinals. We've lost 3x in hockey (Minnesota, Wisconsin, and tonight) an 2x in lax (navy and Duke).  Two of those games were ot (one 3OT), one was by 1 goal (navy), one by 2 or 3 (duke lax). Oh well...kills you to be a CU sports fan on days like today. It's a shame that the last few years have had to end with the same thing - "Well, it's a lacrosse season."

GO RED

[redice]

[quote lynah80][quote imafrshmn]Bemidji played like a pretty good team tonight.  Congrats to them.  Our team went about as far as they could this year, and went the last few games w/o the Devin bros.  If Riley stays, next year should shape up to be very competitive.[/quote]

Overall a very good season for the Big Red at 22-10-4.  With a healthier team, they could have won tonight.  It was tough to watch Gallagher limp around on the ice.  Sean Whitney has potential, but he doesn't play at Mike Devin's level yet.   We can thank RPI for leaving their mark on the Big Red.  

Hopefully, Riley will stay for Brendon's senior year.  I think the Cornell system may be holding back his development as an offensive player, but he is still somewhat thin to play pro hockey.  

The team will miss Mugford, Michael Kennedy, Seminoff, the two Davenports and Punches, but in general could be really good next year.  Hopefully, things will go well with the new recruits.  Let's hope for a great 2009-2010.[/quote]

I think the player we will miss the most will be Evan Barlow.   There were times, late in this season, when he seemed to singlehandedly (sp?) lift this team.   There were times you could watch him come over the boards and know that something good was going to happen on that shift.  A big loss, indeed.

To you Evan and all the rest of the seniors:   It's been a great ride.   Thanks for the fun along the way!!   I wish you could have taken us to the FF.   But, it wasn't meant to be.

Next year!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[abmarks]

[quote Al DeFlorio][quote abmarks]
I do grasp it perfectly. But you are mixing aned matching your points.[/quote]
Sorry, but my point has been precisely consistent, and has also been made by Trotsky and billhoward.  It was about as good a situation as you could ever expect for a Cornell team with significant flaws to advance, and it's disappointing we weren't able to take advantage.  With that I'm through with this discussion.  I'm tired of...::bang::[/quote]

Hmm bad wording by me.  I meant your logic was flawed.. that would put it more as I intended it.  I might disagree with the logic but you were certainly consistent.  My bad.

Regardless, I like the way you put it here- this was about the best you could expect a significantly flawed team to advance.  

Maybe it's just me, but I'd rather we go out now then in a heartbreaker of a semi-final loss (like in Buffalo) or even worse, luksak a semifinal win and then get smoked by BU/UVM in the final - that would hurt much worse.

I don't want that final game carrot dangled if we don't have a legit shot at anything but a big upset in it.