Cornell at Rensselaer

[Jim Hyla]

J. Devin deflects another M. Devin shot.  Wow!

I think it was Patrick Kennedy. Not that it matters much, still a big 2 points!

Patrick reacted like his team had won the game. Joe reacted like he had scored the goal.

I think the radio and ECAC website highlight announcer from RPI said Kennedy, but box score says Devin.

[marty]

still a bit confused by the penalty on the break away in OT.. he hit the RPI goalie but he was also clearly faking the severity of the contact almost jumping backwards into the cage. we could have made the game a bit easier had we put home 1-2 of the breakaway type chances..

When you look at the play it is obvious that Bailen pushed Collins into Merriam. It was Bailen who was called for the matching penalty.  So the ref calls both penalties?

And coach Appert complains about the officiating by stating that he doesn't complain about the officiating and diving. An old tradition.

[Jim Hyla]

still a bit confused by the penalty on the break away in OT.. he hit the RPI goalie but he was also clearly faking the severity of the contact almost jumping backwards into the cage. we could have made the game a bit easier had we put home 1-2 of the breakaway type chances..

And what was RPI's interference penalty? I was at the other end of the ice. As an aside I hate the rule to switch ends in OT. Seems like it penalizes the home team.

[marty]

J. Devin deflects another M. Devin shot.  Wow!

I think it was Patrick Kennedy. Not that it matters much, still a big 2 points!

Patrick reacted like his team had won the game. Joe reacted like he had scored the goal.

I think the radio and ECAC website highlight announcer from RPI said Kennedy, but box score says Devin.

Replay looked like Devin to me. (After watching several times.)

[Jim Hyla]

still a bit confused by the penalty on the break away in OT.. he hit the RPI goalie but he was also clearly faking the severity of the contact almost jumping backwards into the cage. we could have made the game a bit easier had we put home 1-2 of the breakaway type chances..

When you look at the play it is obvious that Bailen pushed Collins into Merriam. It was Bailen who was called for the matching penalty.  So the ref calls both penalties?

And coach Appert complains about the officiating by stating that he doesn't complain about the officiating and diving. An old tradition.

Thanks, that is what it looked like to us. I yelled "If he interfered with Collins, (pushed,) how can Collins get a penalty?". Tomorrow I'll watch the replay.

[Jim Hyla]

One last thing before bed.::snore:: If you're going to have two games like this weekend, it sure is nice to finish with this one.

[marty]

still a bit confused by the penalty on the break away in OT.. he hit the RPI goalie but he was also clearly faking the severity of the contact almost jumping backwards into the cage. we could have made the game a bit easier had we put home 1-2 of the breakaway type chances..

And what was RPI's interference penalty? I was at the other end of the ice. As an aside I hate the rule to switch ends in OT. Seems like it penalizes the home team.

Brutlag was in Cary's way as Cary was skating backwards on the Cornell side of the neutral zone. This is likely where Appert thought there was a dive.

[billhoward]

One last thing before bed.::snore:: If you're going to have two games like this weekend, it sure is nice to finish with this one.

A sentiment shared by many of us, despite one post saying it would have been better to play RPI first ... as a warmup for Union? The bus ride back must have been a lot happier this way. And the team actually gets back at a decent hour.

[andyw2100]

still a bit confused by the penalty on the break away in OT.. he hit the RPI goalie but he was also clearly faking the severity of the contact almost jumping backwards into the cage. we could have made the game a bit easier had we put home 1-2 of the breakaway type chances..

When you look at the play it is obvious that Bailen pushed Collins into Merriam. It was Bailen who was called for the matching penalty.  So the ref calls both penalties?

And coach Appert complains about the officiating by stating that he doesn't complain about the officiating and diving. An old tradition.

Thanks, that is what it looked like to us. I yelled "If he interfered with Collins, (pushed,) how can Collins get a penalty?". Tomorrow I'll watch the replay.

I yelled pretty much the same thing at the TV, Jim. Makes no sense.

And for what it's worth, I don't think Merriam was "faking the severity of the contact." Collins is a big guy, and had a good head of steam when he hit him. I think Merriam got legitimately flattened.

[jtwcornell91]

still a bit confused by the penalty on the break away in OT.. he hit the RPI goalie but he was also clearly faking the severity of the contact almost jumping backwards into the cage. we could have made the game a bit easier had we put home 1-2 of the breakaway type chances..

When you look at the play it is obvious that Bailen pushed Collins into Merriam. It was Bailen who was called for the matching penalty.  So the ref calls both penalties?

And coach Appert complains about the officiating by stating that he doesn't complain about the officiating and diving. An old tradition.

Thanks, that is what it looked like to us. I yelled "If he interfered with Collins, (pushed,) how can Collins get a penalty?". Tomorrow I'll watch the replay.

You see that sometimes when the pushed player tries to get a free shot at the goalie (although I'd think that would be called charging), but it really didn't look like Collins did anything avoidable.

[MattShaf]

Tough, hard played game in both directions.
Cornell really looked clueless on the Power Play until the overtime session. No set plays, paucity of shots. Guys couldn't decide whether to shoot the puck in and chase or carry the puck in and then set up the play. We looked much better playing 5-5 or 4-4 then man up.
Overall, we shut down their power play, limited the changes in momentum against us and cleaned up in front of the net when Iles gave up some big rebounds. Great to come out of a weekend against 2 ranked teams with 2 points and control of our destiny when it comes to first round bye for ECACs.

[Al DeFlorio]

Tough, hard played game in both directions.
Cornell really looked clueless on the Power Play until the overtime session. No set plays, paucity of shots. Guys couldn't decide whether to shoot the puck in and chase or carry the puck in and then set up the play. We looked much better playing 5-5 or 4-4 then man up.
Overall, we shut down their power play, limited the changes in momentum against us and cleaned up in front of the net when Iles gave up some big rebounds. Great to come out of a weekend against 2 ranked teams with 2 points and control of our destiny when it comes to first round bye for ECACs.

Right.  

Despite all our griping (mine included), a sweep next weekend at home (no easy task, for sure) puts Cornell into third place in the ECAC.  Not bad for a team known for blowing late third-period leads, taking numerous and sometimes stupid penalties, being often outshot by grotesque margins, struggling on its breakouts with egregious turnovers leading to easy goals, and having a frequently "clueless" power play.

Next two weekends will be interesting.

[scoop85]

Tough, hard played game in both directions.
Cornell really looked clueless on the Power Play until the overtime session. No set plays, paucity of shots. Guys couldn't decide whether to shoot the puck in and chase or carry the puck in and then set up the play. We looked much better playing 5-5 or 4-4 then man up.
Overall, we shut down their power play, limited the changes in momentum against us and cleaned up in front of the net when Iles gave up some big rebounds. Great to come out of a weekend against 2 ranked teams with 2 points and control of our destiny when it comes to first round bye for ECACs.

Right.  

Despite all our griping (mine included), a sweep next weekend at home (no easy task, for sure) puts Cornell into third place in the ECAC.  Not bad for a team known for blowing late third-period leads, taking numerous and sometimes stupid penalties, being often outshot by grotesque margins, struggling on its breakouts with egregious turnovers leading to easy goals, and having a frequently "clueless" power play.

Next two weekends will be interesting.

Who amongst us would have thought we'd be in this position after getting swept at home against Yale and Brown?  I thought even home ice for the first round would have been a long shot.  Al's recitation of the team's deficiencies is spot-on; I'm not exactly sure how they're getting it done (well, the RPI complainers will say it's all due to our "diving"), but somehow, someway they've put themselves in position for a bye.

[cu722001]

Both teams staggered into Saturday night and for the first 2 periods staggered thru it. Cornell at times seemed to think the puck was a curling stone.  Swipe near it but don't touch.  Defensemen engaged in a hockey version of she loves me, she loves me not.  Should I cover this man, should I cover that man?  Then both, but especially CU, got their mojo back for the 3rd.

Appert is a very emotional coach.  Schafer is steady, unperturbable.  Each team was reflecting its coach. RPI couldn't quite overcome the the depression of Friday night, while CU was readier to confront the task at hand.

Union was just too much for us. They have to be one of the top 5 in the country. Forget about that loss.  RPI isn't a top 10 even but is still a very good team.  After the 2nd we outplayed them at their place. With the tie at Dartmouth and comback win against SLU, CU is proving to people and more importantly to itself that reports of its demise were premature.

[RichH]

still a bit confused by the penalty on the break away in OT.. he hit the RPI goalie but he was also clearly faking the severity of the contact almost jumping backwards into the cage. we could have made the game a bit easier had we put home 1-2 of the breakaway type chances..

And what was RPI's interference penalty? I was at the other end of the ice. As an aside I hate the rule to switch ends in OT. Seems like it penalizes the home team.

Brutlag was in Cary's way as Cary was skating backwards on the Cornell side of the neutral zone. This is likely where Appert thought there was a dive.

RPI ran the same neutral-zone "pick" play at least 3-4 times before getting called.  They pick one defender using 2 flanking players right at the blue line so Polacek can enter the zone with a full head of steam untouched & do what he does best. They had it set up for the Engineers' first goal (check the video on the ECAC website), but since our guys decided to be spectators, there was no interference that time, & Polacek just skated around the group of 3. It's a play ripe for interference, but since it's generally away from the puck, it doesn't get seen/called as much as it should. It finally got called in OT, and the RPI homers cried bloody murder, but it was interference.

I'm also amused by the "aquatics center" quote Appert made about diving, considering I saw 2 pretty obvious cases of RPI embellishment that resulted in RPI PPs.