western michigan university @ cornell game 1

[jy3]

so i figured i would start this bad boy up. any thoughts before the game? I am psyched to be able to see a regular season game again. should be fun. I hope that Cornell comes out hard and does not show their lack of playing time. LGR!

[Greg Berge]

My thought is that I hope they win.  That will be quite sufficient for now.

Openers, Schafer era:

96 L 2-6 at Michigan State
97 W 5-4 at Brown
98 W 4-2 Northeastern
99 W 3-2 Niagara
00 L 4-5 at RPI
01 L 3-5 Sacred Heart
02 W 6-1 AL-Huntsville
03 W 3-1 at Ohio State

3-1 Home,
2-2 Away

[atb9]

Oh man, I remember that loss to Sacred Heart like it was yesterday.  :-/  Mark and Matt McRae were particularly devastated about that one...

Friends have been suggesting that Marr is going to start in goal tomorrow but that shouldn't be much of a surprise.

[Keith K \'93]

Sat 10/04/2003 W 6 Western Ontario (ex) 2
Fri 10/10/2003 W 4 Ferris State 2   
Sat 10/11/2003 L 2 @ Ferris State 5
Fri 10/17/2003 W 5 Nebraska-Omaha 1   
Sat 10/18/2003 T 2 Nebraska-Omaha 2 ot    
Fri 10/24/2003 L 2 @ Michigan State 4
Sat 10/25/2003 L 3 Michigan State 7

2-3-1 overall plus one exhibition win.  0-2-0 on the road against good teams (assuming MSU is OK this year), though they beat both on home ice.   Just the facts so far - not sure how to analyze this further.

[Josh '99]

WMU fans on USCHO say they have bad special teams and take penalties at bad times.  For what it's worth.

[Robb \'94]

So their fan base is full of Greg Berges... ;-)  Anything else?  I think that WMU will give Cornell some very good games this weekend, in spite of where the two teams will finish the season.

[Adam]

Great.  Thanks for reminding us of Sacred Heart, Greg.   ::yark::

[DisplacedCornellian]

Sacred Heart.....*blood boiling*  bunch of no talent ass-clowns.  That was the game where on of their more classy players decided it would be funny to throw a hockey stick over the glass at the fans in section E.  Bastard.

[DisplacedCornellian]

"on of"="one of"

[Section A]

Gameday thoughts: Marr will (I think) start tonight. A source tells me that, earlier in the week, Marr was actually outperforming McKee in practice, despite their performances against the Under-18 team. McKee was "sloppy."

As for Western Michigan's team, Dana Lattery is the player to look out for (4 goals and 3 assists through 7 games this season). He also scored a goal on Lenny in a game last season. This season, the Broncos have averaged 3 goals a game, while giving up an average of 3.50 goals a game. Their special teams are not very good. Power Play: 4/31 (12.9%). Penalty Kill: 24/32 (75%).

[Jeff Hopkins \'82]

Well, that says they have a sub-par record against some middle of the pack western teams.  I'm not sure it means anything, since the fact that we have no record at all may be a balancing factor.

LGR!

JH

[Mike Hedrick 01]

Is Chabot likely to get any time this year, or will Schafer only be dressing Marr and McKee?   By the way, Marr's stats in his 4 games last year were really quite good - I hope our young defense and Schafer's system will give him the same support.

[rhovorka]

Mike Hedrick '01 wrote:

Is Chabot likely to get any time this year, or will Schafer only be dressing Marr and McKee?

Unless one is injured (like Chabot apparently was last week), I don't see why Coach wouldn't dress all 3 for home games, similar to last season.  For road games, we'll probably see 2 dress.

As far as playing time, Schafer said:
"It's up to them to sort it out...If one guy separates himself from the pack, it'll be one guy. It could be two guys, three guys, who knows? One of them needs to show us that he's the guy. That's what we're looking for."

From the outset, it seems like it'll be #1) Marr  #2) McKee  #3) Chabot judging from this article:
http://www.cornelldailysun.com/articles/9809/

[rhovorka]

Interesting comments by Coach Schafer in the ECAC weekly preview on USCHO:
[Q]"I have great feelings for the hockey program," said Schafer, "but I have bad feelings for the University. Western Michigan did a lot for me and a lot of my feelings are for Bill Wilkinson. He was a boss and a mentor.

"I was disappointed with how the University dealt with him, a guy that started the program. I still hold a grudge against the school. I was very disappointed ... I'm still disappointed."

Wilkinson is now head coach at Wayne State, a program he's took from six wins in 1999-2000 to yearly totals of 18, 21 and 21 since then.[/Q]

http://uscho.com/m/ec/?data=preview

[marty]

Rich H '96 wrote:

Interesting comments by Coach Schafer in the ECAC weekly preview on USCHO:
[Q]"Wilkinson is now head coach at Wayne State, a program he's took from six wins in 1999-2000 to yearly totals of 18, 21 and 21 since then.[/Q]

http://uscho.com/m/ec/?data=preview

I saw Wayne State play last year and was very impressed with the coaching.  They played with so much heart that I couldn't believe what I was seeing.  I have to defer to Coach Schafer with regard to knowing how great Wilkinson is, but I actually predicted last year that they will have a solid program as soon as is humanly possible.