Turning Point of the Series

[Mike Nevin]

I don't think it comes down to a turning point.  I think it was pretty clear, even on Friday with Vesce, that Clarkson was executing better on the PP than Cornell.  Without Vesce on the ice, the Clarkson strategy was even more clear -- make the game a penalty filled physical game, and outscore Cornell on the PP.  The Saturday game was the most brutal physical game I have seen in college hockey.  Cornell's failure to be a PP scoring threat basically allowed Clarkson to beat on them all night without fear.  I don't think the fight had much to do with what happened Saturday.  I think Vesce going out,  Cornell's bad PP execution, Clarkson's good execution on the PP, Murphy being the ref, and good coaching decisions by Clarkson all hurt Cornell on Saturday.

I actually think Nickerson did his part to hurt his team on Saturday.  The guy had 10 penalty minutes, including some dumb penalties with his team down.  When he wasn't in the box, he was slow, and he turned over the puck.  With better PP execution by Cornell, he probably would have cost his team the game Saturday.

[ugarte]

[Q]Al DeFlorio Wrote:

 [q]yougoon Wrote:

There was something “mental” about our breakdown.

I continue to believe that our attitude was affected by the fight (and the outcome) and perhaps more importantly, that fight fed Clarkson’s will to win.[/q]

Didn't Yogi once say something like:  "90% of the game is half-mental."  I think he was right (usually was), and this past weekend may have been as good an illustration of it as we're gonna see.

Count me in with Ari and yougoon on this one.

 [/Q]Count me among those who consider "intangibles" a synonym for "bullshit" or "explanation for thing that surprised me".  We lost because we were outplayed.  

We were outplayed because Clarkson attacked our net while we sat back on the perimeter.

We were outplayed because our PK chased the puck into the corners and allowed Clarkson to get free in the middle while the Clarkson PK birddogged our point men into making sloppy passes.

We were outplayed because Traylen made all the saves he needed to after the first game and McKee let a few slip by (and was completely stranded on some others).

We were outplayed because Roll figured out a way to counter our defense and Schafer did not adjust in time to stop Clarkson from scoring.

In none of these examples do I think Cornell demonstrated anything less than a complete "will to win" or do I think they exhibited any less heart than they have shown at any time over the last three seasons.

Cornell lost because Clarkson outplayed us.  They didn't want it more, they just ended up with it.  

[Killer]

[Q]Al DeFlorio Wrote:

Didn't Yogi once say something like:  "90% of the game is half-mental."  I think he was right (usually was), and this past weekend may have been as good an illustration of it as we're gonna see.

 [/Q]

I think Yogi may have also explained why there were tickets left at gametime: "Nobody goes there anymore.  It's too crowded."

[Get a Room Rick]

Perhaps the Turning Point in the series was not Vesce or the fight, but the diasllowed goal at the start of game 2.

I am reminded of UNH last year when Cornell completely lost all momentum after the controversial disallowed goal.

[Al DeFlorio]

[Q]Get a Room Rick Wrote:
I am reminded of UNH last year when Cornell completely lost all momentum after the controversial disallowed goal. [/Q]
Ah, but that was one of those "bullshit" intangibles that ugarte, or sour apple, or whatever he calls himself these days, thinks play no part in sports.::rolleyes::

[ugarte]

[Q]Al DeFlorio Wrote:

[q] Get a Room Rick Wrote:
I am reminded of UNH last year when Cornell completely lost all momentum after the controversial disallowed goal.[/q]
Ah, but that was one of those "bullshit" intangibles that ugarte, or sour apple, or whatever he calls himself these days, thinks play no part in sports.
 [/Q]Yeah, that's exactly right, Al.  Because that "momentum" that we lost when the goal was waved off sure looked like it was on our side when we made the score 3-2.  It looked even more like it was on our side when Baby hit Ayers in the face with 30 seconds left in the game. We ran out of time, not momentum.

I'm not the sour one, Al.  Why are you picking a fight with me anyway?

[ben03]

Shall we get out the sand box ...  ;-) :-P ;-)

[Jim Conklin]

On power plays especially, it seemed as if cook and moulson were lost without vesce on the perimeter to control the puck. It just showed how much moulson relied on vesce's ability to control and pass the puck. next year without vesce, i hope moulsons got someone he can rely on to control the puck and pass it to him when we need a goal.

[atb9]

::idea::  Instigator!  :-D

[Josh '99]

[Q]Jim Conklin Wrote:

 On power plays especially, it seemed as if cook and moulson were lost without vesce on the perimeter to control the puck. It just showed how much moulson relied on vesce's ability to control and pass the puck. next year without vesce, i hope moulsons got someone he can rely on to control the puck and pass it to him when we need a goal. [/Q]

Yeah...  I was thinking earlier about the dropoff Denis Ladouceur had after Knopp and Moynihan graduated.  I'm hoping a similar thing doesn't happen to Moulson.

[BigD]

[Q]Pete Godenschwager Wrote:

 I think Nickerson and them fed off of us taunting them too.  Kudos to them if they were able to do that.  I know it's poor sportsmanship to be happy for another's injury, but I have to make an exception, as I was pretty happy to see Hynes knock Nickerson out of the game on a clean hard hit.   [/Q]

This is a perfect example of us vs. them. Nickerson plays the goon, gets Varteressian to drop his gloves and takes him out of the game in traditional Clarkson goon-squad style. Hynes, on the other hand, takes Nickerson out with nothing more than a great, solid, legal hit. That's Cornell in a nutshell and that's why we are The Faithful. Having said that, whether or not Paul's fisticuffs made the difference, it was nice to see Old Nick get popped a few times!

[Greg Berge]

An even worse dropoff was Ryan Hughes after Doug Derraugh and Trent Andison graduated.

1991 52 pts
1992 34 pts
1993 22 pts