Cornell 3 RIT 5

[Trotsky]

The football team won.  Autumn dominance beckons.

RIT 212
Cor 021

Starting Lineup

G - 33 Andy Iles
D - 6 Nick D'Agostino
D - 19 Sean Whitney
F - 26 John Esposito
F - 12 Sean Collins
F - 22 Joe Devin

[nyc94]

The other day I was wondering when was the last time we won a fall Ivy title.  The Ivy League site is undergoing an overhaul and I gave up looking rather quickly.

[phillysportsfan]

I dont know if this was the most recent but Women's volleyball won 3 straight years 2004-6, those used to be the only recent banners in Newman a few years ago

[David Harding]

The other day I was wondering when was the last time we won a fall Ivy title.  The Ivy League site is undergoing an overhaul and I gave up looking rather quickly.

2006 - Volleyball and Sprint football (not exactly Ivy, but close enough for me)

[LGRye]

Sloppy looking first period.

[ithacat]

Nearly everything about this team was sloppy. Absolutely ghoulish performance this weekend.

Loved watching UNH and RIT...the game's all about speed and skating. They've got it & they do it.

Few other tidbits: It took Cornell 6 games last year to surrender 12 goals. Cornell gave up 12 goals on 54 shots. RIT senior goalie, Jan Ropponen picked up his first career win.

[TimV]

Two empty netters, though.  If that helps.::whistle::

[ithacat]

Thanks, but not in the least.

Wanted: defensive ::help::

[ajh258]

I don't have that much time to comment, but, as mentioned before, defense definitely needs work. It could simply be that it's a new season and these guys didn't have enough chances to play with each other on different shifts. However, our team was definitely less physical in the defensive zone than they were last year and RIT used a lot of aggressive stickwork. There were plenty of questionable crosschecks on their end that were not called, which had a major effect on puck control in our zone and resulted in some unnecessary goals. The other goals Iles gave up were breakaways, and one slipped under his leg. After watching both games this weekend, neither starting goalie is particular impressive in my opinion, although the crowd loves Iles.

Oh ya, there was this new "sexy... sexy..." chant whenever Iles lifted his helmet for water. Kind of weird considering most of the chanting came from guys.

[Jim Hyla]

Kind of interesting that for a few years the talk was all that Schafer can't win it all with his defensive system. Now that it's all offense we wonder where the defense went.

[ajh258]

Kind of interesting that for a few years the talk was all that Schafer can't win it all with his defensive system. Now that it's all offense we wonder where the defense went.

I feel like we can't qualify this as an "all offense" when players can barely connect on passes or know where to correctly position themselves around the goal. Players also need to do more deking drills and learn how to handle stick harassment from smaller players. On defense, you can get away with this by checking your opponents really hard (which played to the advantage of our size) but if you're carrying the puck down the offensive zone, that same strategy obviously doesn't work when the focus is more control. By shifting the emphasis to more offense, Schafer needs to rely on a new defensive strategy and more time to perfect some offensive plays. Right now, none of that seems to be put together.

[Towerroad]

Assuming this is a fundamental shift in the style of hockey (still just an assumption) there is no reason to believe that the transition will be smooth or easy. Most of the team will have been recruited for and mastered the "Schafer System" of defense first last and always hockey. Making the change will take time and will not be pretty and not everyone will adapt well.

I will give Mike credit for trying to adapt (if that is what is going on). Over the last few years we have been vulnerable to teams that can skate and handle the puck well. Yale for instance has our number. If the game is becoming faster and placing a premium on passing and puck handling we will need to evolve our style of play in order to maintain our place in the college hockey pantheon.

[Trotsky]

It could be that the team looks more offensively aggressive and defensively lax early in the year before they have their assignments down.  As they get more proficient, the defense tightens up and the offense is less all over the place, and the result is a more conservative (but effective) style.

Prague Springs are fun but they don't end well.

[Rosey]

I think we're in for a loooooooong season. Hope I'm wrong. :-/

[ajh258]

I'm not sure if what we're seeing qualifies as a "fundamental" shift, but the style of play has unquestionably changed in the past four games as compared to last year. It will be interesting to see how Schafer adapts after the losses this past weekend.

On the other hand, if this is indeed "fundamental," I hope Schafer will give it a couple more games before giving up on it. It's new to the team, as well as coach himself, so writing off on a new strategy so soon would not be very prudent.