Cornell alumni in the pros: March 2004

[Lauren '06]

Did Paolini actually play?  A few of us were watching the game at Wings Over Ithaca and we couldn't find him.

[Will]

[Q]Section A Banshee Wrote:

 Did Paolini actually play?  A few of us were watching the game at Wings Over Ithaca and we couldn't find him. [/Q]

Indeed he did.  He even got a roughing penalty.

[Avash]

[Q]Section A Banshee Wrote:

 Did Paolini actually play?  A few of us were watching the game at Wings Over Ithaca and we couldn't find him. [/Q]

Yep, he played. Didn't have any shots on goal, but he did take a roughing penalty about halfway through the 2nd period. Syracuse won the game 3-1.

[Avash]

Will, you just beat me to it. At least we both mentioned the roughing penalty :-)

[DisplacedCornellian]

JMP got lit up by Manchester today, stopping 26 of 34 shots as Springfield lost 8-3.

[dss28]

Hartford and Chicago clinched a place in the playoffs this weekend, joining Grand Rapids and Milwaukee.  Now we'll just have to wait and see about Cleveland and Rochester... Springfield won't make it this year, unfortunately.

[Avash]

Matt Underhill saw his first action with the Norfolk Admirals (the AHL affiliate of the Chicago Blackhawks) yesterday, coming in in relief of Craig Anderson for the third period. Norfolk was down 4-1 to Houston at the time, but would score two goals early in the 3rd to pull within a goal. However, an empty netter late in the 3rd put Houston away. So, the good news is Underhill didn't let in any goals in the third period. The bad/weird news is that he didn't see any shots! Houston's only shot of the period was the one that went into the empty net to seal the win!

[Avash]

Baby vs Murray tonight as Chicago visits Cleveland....more on that after the game later...

EDIT: that game is tomorrow (Wednesday) night, not tonight.

Travis Bell and the Bossier-Shreveport Mudbugs of the Central Hockey League are 44-16-6 and are currently playing in the CHL playoffs as the champions of the Northeast divison. Bell has 6 goals and 13 assists and is 2nd on the team (and 1st among defensemen) in +/- rating, with a very impressive +27 in 61 games. The way the CHL works is there are 8 teams that go to the playoffs, 4 from the "Northern conference" and 4 from the "South conference." The Mudbugs are the #2 seed in the North and are currently amidst a best of 5 first round playoff series against the Indianapolis Ice. The Mudbugs lead the series 2-0, winning game one by a score of 3-2 and game two by a score of 4-3 in overtime (both at home). Travis Bell assisted on the game-winning goal just 50 seconds into OT. Game 3 is at Indy on Saturday.

Not a Cornell alum in the pros, but worth a mention anyway. Everyone's (not so)favorite goalie, Dartmouth alum Nick Boucher was sent down from the AHL to Wheeling of the ECHL. The 2 goalies for Wheeling, by the way, are Boucher and Joe Exter.

[Avash]

(I didn't feel like starting a new thread just to post this, but I thought it was kinda neat):

I came across this sort of by accident; apparently, the Abbotts come from a well known Olympic family. Who knew?! Their parents were 5th in sailing at the 1996 games. They were also the 1996 sailors of the year, while their mom was named Canada's Female Athlete of the Year!

http://www.vertago.com/post/soling5.htm

Pretty impressive. I guess Cam and Chris thought hockey is more exciting than sailing :-)

[KP '06]

Paolini's gotten some decent Rochester press in the last week, newspaper and tv.

[March 16] http://www.democratandchronicle.com/sports/amerks/0316VQ3K5S1_sports.shtml

Also, the day of his first home game with the Amerks, I saw a spot on Channel 13 where they interviewed him at his parents' house -- they showed a little setup complete with his CU jersey and Humanitarian award. No mention of it on http://www.wokr13.tv , unfortunately.

[Pete Godenschwager]

Murray/Baby Showdown:

End of the 1st Cleveland leads Chicago 4-2, sounds like an exciting one. Murray is +1 with an assist.  Baby is even with one shot.  

Final: Cleveland 7  Chicago 4
Murray had a goal and 2 assists and +1 on the night. Baby was even for the night with two shots on goal.

Guess Doug has bragging rights for a while, and Cleveland moves closer to the playoffs!  

[jkahn]

I watched the last 34 minutes of the Wolves-Barons game on TV in Chicago.   I missed the exciting 4-2  first period, but got to see plenty of Doug, although Baby's didn't seem to be getting a whole lot of icetime.  At one point in the 2nd period, Murray was skating with the puck and the announcer said something like "being chased by his former Cornell teammate Stephen Baby."  Later, while the Wolves had a 5 on 3, Murray had the puck in his own zone and Baby was pinning him up against the boards in the corner;- the puck squirted out and somehow the other 2 Cleveland players wound up with a 2-on-1, but didn't score.  Right after the Wolves had closed the lead to 5-4 in the third, Murray swooped in to pick up a rebound in the slot and backhand it into the net for his 9th goal of the year.  He later added a pretty assist, making a hard pass from the top of the circle to a man stationed on the opposite side of the crease for 7th Cleveland goal.  
The announcers joked that they had asked Doug before the game how someone from Sweden could be named Doug Murray and that Doug explained that his ancestors emigrated from Scotland about 400 years ago.

[Brian]

And Murray didn't make it as one of the three stars of the game.  Sounds like Cleveland has no appreciation for defense-minded hockey.

[CowbellGuy]

[Q]Brian Wrote:
 And Murray didn't make it as one of the three stars of the game.  Sounds like Cleveland has no appreciation for defense-minded hockey. [/Q]
Defense-minded hockey in a game featuring 11 goals?

[ugarte]

[Q]jkahn Wrote:
The announcers joked that they had asked Doug before the game how someone from Sweden could be named Doug Murray and that Doug explained that his ancestors emigrated from Scotland about 400 years ago.  [/Q]Glad that nobody knew about that when he was at Cornell.  I don't think I would have appreciated the bagpipes in the pep band in Providence.