Lax Cornell 14 Brown 8 Ivy lax tournament postgame

[billhoward]

What a dominant third period, just like last week at Princeton, except this time there was no letdown - correction - less of a letdown and more of a lead going into the fourth. Attendance was listed as just 1457 and I assume that's the total sales for the two-game combo (Princeton-Yale and Cornell-Brown) but it seemed a bit better than that and the weather was really nice despite the forecast of showers (not even close). It could have been 5 degrees warmer but a lo of Slope Day people came over in tees or tank tops and seemed not to be affected by the weather, perhaps having consumed enough to feel toasty warm. Also no traffic / parking hassles despite it being Slope Day which also went smoothly (just 24 people needed treatement at Gannett Clinic or Cayuga Medical Center).

* Pannell (2G 3A) is scary good when he's on, ditto for Hurley (4G 2A) last night. Pannell had 7 SOG, same as against Princeton, but this time he got 2 goals (none last week), plus 3 assists versus just the 1 last week. The first Pannell assist vs. Brown was a pinpoint pass to Jon Thompson that ended Brown's only lead (2-1).
* Brown goalie Matt Chriss kept them in the game in the first half - 13 saves vs. 6 GA. I watched part of the game with binoculars and thought - just my impression - that Cornell took some shots that found Chriss' body.
* AJ Fiore looked very good in the second half with saves from in close that should have gone in. Without those saves, Brown might've stayed with Cornell.
* D Jason Noble is amazingly quick and strong and aggressive. Forgive the analogy, but it's like a 10 pound raccoon protecting its turf against a 20-pound dog. Bet on the raccoon and its musculature. Size doesn't always matter.
* This is the second game where we allowed a run of goals that (almost) got out of hand: 2 to end the first half at 6-4 when, but for a Cornell bad shot or turnover (I forget which) that led to one Brown goal, it might've been 7-2 at the half, and then three of the game's final four goals when it didn't matter, but still, it shouldn't have happened.
* We had some sloppy side to side passes on clears that resulted in turnovers. Stats say we were 14x15 on clears so some of those must've been bad passes side to side in the attacking zone.
* Austin Boykin dominated on faceoffs, 20x26 overall for Cornell, Boykin I believe took all but one or two. Cornell also had a huge margin on ground balls, like 2-1, and a decent margin in shots, getting off snaps shots that weren't all accurate but Cornell seemed a lot more willing to shoot when there's a chance not a certainty of scoring, more so than the hockey team is.
* Cornell's man-up was not spectacular, 1x4 vs 3x5 for Brown. Our lone EMO goal came after the Brown faceoff specialist lost the faceoff on an immediate procedural call, lost his cool, chased down the ball AFTER THE WHISTLE, and kept it away from Cornell, for which he got a delay of game penalty.

Cornell cannot (is unable to) stall-control the ball late in the game. Couldn't do it vs. Syracuse last year, couldn't do it vs. Princeton last week, almost couldn't do it vs. Princeton 2 (4?) years ago in that ~4-3 victory, and couldn't do it against Brown last night. I say go for the open net. Odds are you score into an open net and the odds are unlikely that you lose the next faceoff, they score, and you also lose the following faceoff, which is the only scenaro where scoring backfires against you.

This is the end of the road on the college lax scene for Reade Seligmann, who started at Duke then got caught up in the trumped up rape case, took a couple years off, transferred to Brown, and has now completed his eligibility. He had 1G 3A.  

So we face Princeton Sunday after they survived Yale 7-6. I think we'd rather play Yale but Princeton is the team we need to beat to show we're ready for the NCAAs. LGR!

Game box score http://www.cornellbigred.com/documents/2010/5/7/BrownBox2010_2.pdf?id=2947
Cornell's view of the game  http://www.cornellbigred.com/news/2010/5/7/MLAX_0507102724.aspx

[JasonN95]

Bill, thanks for sharing the detailed account.

[ugarte]

Is there a consy in this tournament? Not that Brown or Yale has much of a chance, but another win for Brown would be helpful for them (and maybe for us).

[Al DeFlorio]

Is there a consy in this tournament? Not that Brown or Yale has much of a chance, but another win for Brown would be helpful for them (and maybe for us).

No consy.

[mnagowski]

Tigers 10 Big Red 9. Final/OT.

[DeltaOne81]

Can't make silly turnovers on the only two times in OT that you have the ball.

[Robb]

Can't make silly turnovers on the only two times in OT that you have the ball.

Especially if you're going to give up a 4-goal halftime lead first...

[Jordan 04]

Are we going to be in the tournament?

[David Harding]

Are we going to be in the tournament?

We'll know for sure later today, but Larry Feldman's analysis at LaxPower calls Cornell an "Apparent Lock", and then goes on to discuss the bubble teams.  He forecasts Cornell as the #7 seed (out of 16).

[ben03]

as bill mentioned ... our ability to make smart/timely decisions with the ball in the last minute of the game continues to be our biggest problem. we almost did it last weekend and then gave it up today. Coach T needs to have the guys take a deep breath and CALM DOWN. we're turn into the spazzy 16-years who doesn't know what to do with the ball ... and we're better than that. LGR!

[Al DeFlorio]

Dull offensive effort in the second half overall.  Much like the Brown game, Fiorito kept it closer than it should have been at the half but this time there was no spurt to start the second half.

[phillysportsfan]

Brian Delaney on wvbr now discussing Cornell lax

[semsox]

I've had enough losses like this in the past few years to last the rest of my lifetime.

[phillysportsfan]

So we got the 7th seed against Loyola on May 15th at 2:30pm, sounds like they seeded us properly, although if we win that game looks like another game against Syracuse