Clarkson Game Thread

[Dafatone]

Also, did we outplay Clarkson for 50 minutes? I admit I did not catch the entire game, but play was even or Clarkson was advantaged in what I saw. They outshot us 38-21.

You should watch the whole game if you're going to comment so harshly, like above and elsewhere.

On offense, Clarkson cycles well and has flashes of being dangerous when those cycles go long. We're faster, more inventive on rushes, and cycle pretty damn well too.

Schafer can coach defense, so I'm not all that worried about tonight's boneheaded play. It's a youngish group, still. Ask me again after Princeton on 1/21. All the kinks need to be worked out by then.

We need our top goalie back. McDonald is serviceable, but the team plays tight on defense in front of him.

I've watched 80% of game time this season. Cornell is showing considerably worse goaltending, defensive stability, and offensive playmaking than I've seen since 2016. I watched  2/3 of last night's game. Maybe we dominated the second period, which I didn't see. We did not dominate anything else, and it was Clarkson who dominated the final minutes. Clarkson also dominated the second half of the first period, after Cornell scored its first goal.

Given how many hockey goals are off of rebounds or deflections (or bad plays by the goalie), including in last night's game, being outshot almost 2-to-1 is going to mean, almost every single time, you were outplayed. Cornell gave up 38 shots on goal, and four of them went in. Some were flukish, but 38 shots is a lot of chances for flukes to happen.

And again, one of the most worrying things is that, from what I can tell, Cornell is not missing its top goalie. Howe isn't injured. Rather, the coaches though McDonald IS Cornell's top goalie.

We are literally 2nd in the nation in goals per game. Not sure where you're getting the idea that we don't have offensive playmaking.

[BearLover]

Howe is hurt and has been.   We may see the 3rd goalie now

Did Howe reinjure himself during the BU game? Schafer's reported comments made it sound like McDonald earned the starts this weekend thanks to a great week of practice. An interview with Howe also played during the first intermission of the StL game, and Howe was dressed for both games this weekend (road teams only dress two goalies). I did not see anything reported about a Howe injury, unlike in the Brown/Yale weekend, when it was reported he was injured. From the above it seemed pretty likely he isn't injured, or at least capable of playing through a minor injury if the coaches thought he gave Cornell its best chance to win.

[BearLover]

The first Clarkson goal was bad goaltending. You cannot give up anything from that angle.

Matt Galajda gave up two goals from the opposite angle at Dartmouth in Cornell's last game of the fall 2019 semester. I find goals like that immensely frustrating, because a goaltender can easily position himself to make it impossible to allow a goal from that angle. But, goaltenders these days are taught to leave a small space over the shoulder closest to the post in order to better cover the rest of the net when the puck gets moved away from that extreme angle. Over the last couple of years, we've seen countless goals like that in the NCAA and NHL.

Brandon Thomas said McDonald went down early, but hard (for me at least) to tell from the replay.

[marty]

Howe is hurt and has been.   We may see the 3rd goalie now

Did Howe reinjure himself during the BU game? Schafer's reported comments made it sound like McDonald earned the starts this weekend thanks to a great week of practice. An interview with Howe also played during the first intermission of the StL game, and Howe was dressed for both games this weekend (road teams only dress two goalies). I did not see anything reported about a Howe injury, unlike in the Brown/Yale weekend, when it was reported he was injured. From the above it seemed pretty likely he isn't injured, or at least capable of playing through a minor injury if the coaches thought he gave Cornell its best chance to win.

More info concerning Howe.

[upprdeck]

the quality of the D when we have the puck under control and then not clearing it or giving it away will define this team.. We are scoring enough to compete.  Clarkson had a ton of shots but not really many solid chances most of the game.. they cycled well but so did we for stretches.

The last big iciing was just an awful call.. the clarkson kid stopped skating the puck was barely moving and then he took a swing that showed complete lack of effort to play the puck.  But we need to clear the puck when given a chance.  sometimes we tried harder to make a tough pass than to just get the puck out and that led to some chances late and Clarkson put them home..  

that whole sequence was ugly with the refs letting 4-5 guys lie on the puck.. it almost ended well as the clock kept going down,.

[dbilmes]

If you're wondering why McDonald played both games over the weekend, this is what Schafer said in the official Brandon Thomas writeup after the St. Lawrence game:

Senior Nate McDonald made 19 saves to earn the victory, improving to 5-0 in his first five collegiate starts.
 
"I thought he did a solid job again tonight," Schafer added. "I thought he was better at controlling his rebounds. He just had a great week of practice. He was just dialed in all week in practice and focused, and I thought he elevated himself this week as a goaltender."

Like many of you, I felt that the bad-angle goal McDonald allowed to lose the shutout started to turn the momentum against us. There was also the icing call against us with about 30 seconds left which should have been waved off, and the strange decision to have the faceoff with 5 seconds remaining in our end instead of at neutral ice. From the Sun article:

After the whistle, Clarkson's Chris Klack and senior tri-captain Kyle Betts got into it, with Klack delivering a punch to Bett's helmet and Betts responding by driving Klack to the ice. The two were assessed offsetting roughing penalties.

After a review, the officials placed the puck in Cornell's defensive zone. The decision seemed to be an incorrect adjudication of Rule 81.2, which stipulates that the puck be placed in the neutral zone following an altercation where the attacking team's players come below the faceoff circles to get involved – which Clarkson defenseman Noah Beck did when he went to the corner to check out the action.

"We made mistakes, officials made mistakes, and Clarkson capitalized," Schafer said.

With 4.7 seconds left, if the puck had been placed in the neutral zone Clarkson would have had the impossible task of winning the draw, entering the zone and getting off a shot. But it wasn't placed in the neutral zone.

Also, we did have a power play in OT and had some good chances, but failed to capitalize. At least if we had scored on that power play we would have avoided the shootout and gotten the extra point. This was the first game this season where I felt we really missed Galajda. Even though it's been documented in his thread how he has given up similar bad-angle goals, it's hard to believe he would have let all four of those goals in during the final few minutes, especially the final one.

[osorojo]

Do you suppose this meltdown chiefly the product of a mental collapse or a physical collapse?

[Dafatone]

If you're wondering why McDonald played both games over the weekend, this is what Schafer said in the official Brandon Thomas writeup after the St. Lawrence game:

Senior Nate McDonald made 19 saves to earn the victory, improving to 5-0 in his first five collegiate starts.
 
"I thought he did a solid job again tonight," Schafer added. "I thought he was better at controlling his rebounds. He just had a great week of practice. He was just dialed in all week in practice and focused, and I thought he elevated himself this week as a goaltender."

Like many of you, I felt that the bad-angle goal McDonald allowed to lose the shutout started to turn the momentum against us. There was also the icing call against us with about 30 seconds left which should have been waved off, and the strange decision to have the faceoff with 5 seconds remaining in our end instead of at neutral ice. From the Sun article:

After the whistle, Clarkson's Chris Klack and senior tri-captain Kyle Betts got into it, with Klack delivering a punch to Bett's helmet and Betts responding by driving Klack to the ice. The two were assessed offsetting roughing penalties.

After a review, the officials placed the puck in Cornell's defensive zone. The decision seemed to be an incorrect adjudication of Rule 81.2, which stipulates that the puck be placed in the neutral zone following an altercation where the attacking team's players come below the faceoff circles to get involved – which Clarkson defenseman Noah Beck did when he went to the corner to check out the action.

"We made mistakes, officials made mistakes, and Clarkson capitalized," Schafer said.

With 4.7 seconds left, if the puck had been placed in the neutral zone Clarkson would have had the impossible task of winning the draw, entering the zone and getting off a shot. But it wasn't placed in the neutral zone.

Also, we did have a power play in OT and had some good chances, but failed to capitalize. At least if we had scored on that power play we would have avoided the shootout and gotten the extra point. This was the first game this season where I felt we really missed Galajda. Even though it's been documented in his thread how he has given up similar bad-angle goals, it's hard to believe he would have let all four of those goals in during the final few minutes, especially the final one.

This team plus Galajda would be a really, really, really, really good team.

I think we've got two issues late in games. First, we're young and missed a year. Maybe the conditioning isn't quite there the way it is for older teams (gee, it's weird to say old teams are in better shape compared to pro sports). Second, we're better at offense than defense. I think when we try to lock down a lead late in games, that's not our strength. Not that we should take unnecessary risks, but scoring more goals protects a lead, too.

[Weder]

If you're wondering why McDonald played both games over the weekend, this is what Schafer said in the official Brandon Thomas writeup after the St. Lawrence game:

Senior Nate McDonald made 19 saves to earn the victory, improving to 5-0 in his first five collegiate starts.
 
"I thought he did a solid job again tonight," Schafer added. "I thought he was better at controlling his rebounds. He just had a great week of practice. He was just dialed in all week in practice and focused, and I thought he elevated himself this week as a goaltender."

Like many of you, I felt that the bad-angle goal McDonald allowed to lose the shutout started to turn the momentum against us. There was also the icing call against us with about 30 seconds left which should have been waved off, and the strange decision to have the faceoff with 5 seconds remaining in our end instead of at neutral ice. From the Sun article:

After the whistle, Clarkson's Chris Klack and senior tri-captain Kyle Betts got into it, with Klack delivering a punch to Bett's helmet and Betts responding by driving Klack to the ice. The two were assessed offsetting roughing penalties.

After a review, the officials placed the puck in Cornell's defensive zone. The decision seemed to be an incorrect adjudication of Rule 81.2, which stipulates that the puck be placed in the neutral zone following an altercation where the attacking team's players come below the faceoff circles to get involved – which Clarkson defenseman Noah Beck did when he went to the corner to check out the action.

"We made mistakes, officials made mistakes, and Clarkson capitalized," Schafer said.

With 4.7 seconds left, if the puck had been placed in the neutral zone Clarkson would have had the impossible task of winning the draw, entering the zone and getting off a shot. But it wasn't placed in the neutral zone.

Also, we did have a power play in OT and had some good chances, but failed to capitalize. At least if we had scored on that power play we would have avoided the shootout and gotten the extra point. This was the first game this season where I felt we really missed Galajda. Even though it's been documented in his thread how he has given up similar bad-angle goals, it's hard to believe he would have let all four of those goals in during the final few minutes, especially the final one.

I looked at the rule and if you keep reading, it seems that since there were offsetting penalties the faceoff is supposed to be closest to where the play was whistled dead.

"When a violation of a rule has been committed by players of both teams on the play resulting in the stoppage, the ensuing faceoff shall be made at the point where the puck was when the stoppage occurred. If there is a differential in penalties, the faceoff will take place in the defending zone of the team with the additional penalty."

https://www.achahockey.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/07/2020-22-NCAA-Rules.pdf

[George64]

Coach Schafer on Clarkson game - "It was a tough ending – something that's never really happened to our program before. I am responsible for it . . . I failed our team tonight by not having them better prepared for the six-on-five. I thought we did, but I have to take responsibility that we were not detailed enough, so this result rests on my shoulders . . . Our players played hard and unfortunately, it got away . . . We will use it as a lesson, and will make sure we never make the same type of mistakes again."  

In this day and age, it's nice to see someone holding themself accountable.  Quit griping, LGR!
.

[Trotsky]

This is just a shit sandwich to eat right before la petit morte.

this is a public website i don't need to know this much about you

Coulda just asked anyone.  I have no filter, which may explain the shit sandwich.

[billhoward]

Coach Schafer on Clarkson game - "It was a tough ending – something that's never really happened to our program before. I am responsible for it . . . I failed our team tonight by not having them better prepared for the six-on-five. I thought we did, but I have to take responsibility that we were not detailed enough, so this result rests on my shoulders . . . Our players played hard and unfortunately, it got away . . . We will use it as a lesson, and will make sure we never make the same type of mistakes again."  

In this day and age, it's nice to see someone holding themself accountable.  Quit griping, LGR!
.

Never happened to a Mike Schafer program before. In the memory of boomers who can't let go, there was this: 3/16/73, NCAA Friday semifinal game for the right to play a beatable Denver team, Cornell led Wisconsin 5-2 early in the third and lost in OT, 6-5. Saturday, Wisconsin beat Denver, winner of the Thursday semifinal, 4-2. It was one of the games in Jim Roberts' book Forever Faithful. That would have been Cornell's third title in seven years. We're still working on No. 3.

[Trotsky]

Coach Schafer on Clarkson game - "It was a tough ending – something that's never really happened to our program before. I am responsible for it . . . I failed our team tonight by not having them better prepared for the six-on-five. I thought we did, but I have to take responsibility that we were not detailed enough, so this result rests on my shoulders . . . Our players played hard and unfortunately, it got away . . . We will use it as a lesson, and will make sure we never make the same type of mistakes again."  

In this day and age, it's nice to see someone holding themself accountable.  Quit griping, LGR!
.

Never happened to a Mike Schafer program before. In the memory of boomers who can't let go, there was this: 3/16/73, NCAA Friday semifinal game for the right to play a beatable Denver team, Cornell led Wisconsin 5-2 early in the third and lost in OT, 6-5. Saturday, Wisconsin beat Denver, winner of the Thursday semifinal, 4-2. It was one of the games in Jim Roberts' book Forever Faithful. That would have been Cornell's third title in seven years. We're still working on No. 3.

Even that one only had one extra skater goal.

[Trotsky]

Mike said the right things:

"It was a tough ending – something that's never really happened to our program before. I am responsible for it," said Mike Schafer '86, the Jay R. Bloom '77 Head Coach of Men's Hockey at Cornell. "I failed our team tonight by not having them better prepared for the six-on-five. I thought we did, but I have to take responsibility that we were not detailed enough, so this result rests on my shoulders."

[Iceberg]

Blown lead aside, at least it was a tie rather than a loss (although the difference is not much from what it seems) on the road. Obviously this game could hurt from a PWR perspective down the line but March is still a long way away and there are a lot of conference games left and four OOC games, including two against a top-5 pairwise team. If this team does get to the NCAA's, it'll be highly dependent on the defense. This team has the skill to score against pretty much anybody I think.