Cornell 6 Princeton 2

[upprdeck]

sloppy play for the last 30 min..  ASu didnt nearly get that many chances in 3 games.

Quin looked flat all night

Colg gets swept by LIU but beats QUIN.

[BearLover]

That's why you (try to) recruit high-end talent...This game could have ended very differently. Princeton's speed allowed them to play Cornell very aggressively and force a lot of turnovers, at least two of which were really tough giveaways by Bancroft in his own end. But thanks to Castagna converting on two solo efforts, Princeton was suddenly forced to chase the game. Their aggressive play continued to give Cornell fits, but the game opened up enough that Cornell started getting a lot of chances the other way. Castagna has an amazing combination of strength and speed. He's been creating these opportunities all year, and tonight three of them went in.

Princeton's goals came off a stupid Cornell penalty after the whistle and then a seeing eye wrister from the point. But Princeton also had several good chances they didn't convert on. I'm a little worried about tomorrow night after watching tonight's game. Quinnipiac will challenge Cornell just as fast and aggressively, but their skill will allow them to finish far more plays than Princeton was able to.

By the way, Cornell skated 9 freshmen tonight and all got playing time. Should bode pretty well for the future. Somebody may need to put a good NIL package together to get Castagna and Robertson to stay four years, though.

[chimpfood]

Dead crowd but good performance, still gonna need to play better if we want to win tomorrow though.

[upprdeck]

tomorrow is a bigger crowd at least on the townie side.. Hopefully more kids get back for the biggest game after Harvard

[Trotsky]

We could use everything for tomorrow.  Q is going to be extremely pissed off.

[Jeff Hopkins '82]

The townie side was pretty full.  But my impression is that they were sitting on their hands.  They didn't cheer much at all.  Section E was pretty much empty.  The band also showed up late and really didn't seem to have their shit together.  There were lots of breaks in the action when they weren't playing.

Castagna's second goal was a thing of beauty.  I was at the top of section G right above the goal, and I still don't know how he did that.

The puck took a couple of weird bounces, too.  The one where it caught the corner of the bench and bounced toward the open net forcing Shane to scramble back was scary.  And nearly putting the puck in our own net on the delayed penalty?  Just wow.

My impressions of the team:
 
- Our speed lets us back-check really well.  I was impressed with that.  Princeton caught us out with a couple cherry-picking passes from their zone right to our blueline, but most of the time our guys got back to make a play.  

- Princeton's two-man forecheck gave us fits trying to get out of our zone. We'd better work on that.

- Our power play is frustrating to watch.  Too much looking to make the perfect pass down low and not enough putting the puck on net. Our D-men don't shoot enough.   There's a reason why our PP percentage is ranked so low nationally.

- The team plays like they're young.  A lot of playground hockey, e.g. behind the back passes, and the like.  They also try a little two much one-on-one stuff.  They don't seem to be looking for a trailer.

- Shane made some nice saves.  I didn't catch the details of the first goal because it was at the far end, but you really can't fault him for the second goal.  He was screened and somehow the puck made it through.

[Big Dingus]

For as much as this forum shits on the student section, townies were flat, uninterested, and dead tonight.

Be better

[Trotsky]

Sometimes this forum is like an Adam Eget routine.

[VIEWfromK]

I'm sure Castagna has scored goals like that second one his whole life but we've gone a long time between seeing a goal that pretty scored by one of our guys in that building.  That line was flying.  I still don't know how Castagna found the tape of O'Leary on the second period two on two where Jack missed just high.  Incredible vision.  I was also impressed by the way the puck exploded off of Castagna's stick in the third when he was still hunting for the hat trick and someone found him down by the goal line for a quick one time wrister.  The skill potential was evident on the first five Big Red goals.  Nothing greasy about a single one of them.

[VIEWfromK]

Oh yeah.  Where do the first two Castagna goals rank in quickest two goals scored by one player in Big Red history?  His were 31 seconds.

[upprdeck]

I dont think you will find a prettier hat trick set of goals in a long time at cornell.

[scoop85]

Castagna is a beast, and is just scratching the service. Just a fantastic freshman class across the board. I thought the Barron-Galajda-Donaldson class would be our best for years, but this current group is deeper and likely more talented overall.

[BearLover]

Castagna is a beast, and is just scratching the service. Just a fantastic freshman class across the board. I thought the Barron-Galajda-Donaldson class would be our best for years, but this current group is deeper and likely more talented overall.

Who knows how things turn out, but at the moment it's not even close:
Barron one of the best players at Cornell in decades, now an everyday NHL player
Galajda one of the best goalies in college hockey for four seasons (over .930 sv% over four seasons)
Donaldson/Locke dynamic top line forwards producing almost a point per game throughout college
Green fourth round draft pick, great puck moving/offensive defensemen
Mullin great power forward with scoring ability
Betts one of the best defensive forwards in the league
Haiskenen dependable and sturdy defenseman
Cairns in and out of the lineup but still a third round draft pick

The class's achievements:
2018: 1 seed in NCAA
2019: 3 seed in NCAA, won a game in NCAA, screwed by refs in OT of ECAC Championship game
2020: 1 seed in NCAA and end of season #1 in the country, postseason canceled
2021: season canceled

At the moment this year's class doesn't come close.  Not really a fault of their own. Honestly, the Barron class was likely the best class in the Schafer era, but a confluence of horrible fortune prevented them from winning as much as they were capable of.

[scoop85]

Castagna is a beast, and is just scratching the service. Just a fantastic freshman class across the board. I thought the Barron-Galajda-Donaldson class would be our best for years, but this current group is deeper and likely more talented overall.

Who knows how things turn out, but at the moment it's not even close:
Barron one of the best players at Cornell in decades, now an everyday NHL player
Galajda one of the best goalies in college hockey for four seasons (over .930 sv% over four seasons)
Donaldson/Locke dynamic top line forwards producing almost a point per game throughout college
Green fourth round draft pick, great puck moving/offensive defensemen
Mullin great power forward with scoring ability
Betts one of the best defensive forwards in the league
Haiskenen dependable and sturdy defenseman
Cairns in and out of the lineup but still a third round draft pick

The class's achievements:
2018: 1 seed in NCAA
2019: 3 seed in NCAA, won a game in NCAA, screwed by refs in OT of ECAC Championship game
2020: 1 seed in NCAA and end of season #1 in the country, postseason canceled
2021: season canceled

At the moment this year's class doesn't come close.  Not really a fault of their own. Honestly, the Barron class was likely the best class in the Schafer era, but a confluence of horrible fortune prevented them from winning as much as they were capable of.

Time will tell if you're correct, but if you consider the impact of each class during their freshmen season, a strong case can be made that the current group has outperformed the Barron class. I know you're big on draft picks, but the eye test tells us that the undrafted Robertson is a superior player to Green and Cairns, both of whom were drafted. And Stanley and Fegaras, both of whom play major minutes, have been more than solid. I acknowledge part of the success of this year's frosh stems from necessity, as we have a 1 person senior class compared with a more typically-sized senior class in the 2017-18 season. But if you compare apples to apples it's a far closer call than you're making it out to be.

[scoop85]

I just noticed that there's no game write-up yet on the Cornell Athletics' website. Hard to fathom that a school with our resources would allow such an embarrassment.