Cornell waltzes into playoffs?

[billhoward]

On paper, we should have little trouble winning out and finishing the regular season 22-4-3, with the ECAC RS championship but perhaps not the Ivy title. On paper, it's a cakewalk against these teams with only St. Lawrence is the top half of the 56 D-1 teams in RPI (Cornell is 5):

52  Princeton
49  Yale
44  RPI
37  Union
28  SLU
44  Clarkson 

6-0 would be wondrous. Is 5-1 more realistic? 4-1-1? We are three points ahead of Colgate and Harvard in ECAC, 26-23-23. We need Dartmouth's or Brown's help to knock Harvard from the Ivy title. The Cantabs are 6-1-1 (loss to Cornell, tie with Brown) to our 6-2-0 (losses at Harvard, Dartmouth).

It could be a downer going 5-0 and then getting shaken up in the final RS game at SLU. Or, worse, we get one player injured and one DQ'd the night before at Clarkson, which is what costs us the SLU game.

[Will]

You know how hard it is to sweep the North Country teams in the North Country.  Even if this year both teams are underperforming compared to their respective histories, the North Country trip is never easy.  Never.

[Al DeFlorio]

[Q]Will Wrote:

 You know how hard it is to sweep the North Country teams in the North Country.  Even if this year both teams are underperforming compared to their respective histories, the North Country trip is never easy.  Never.[/q]
Schafer-coached teams are 3-5-1 at Yale.  

[Will]

[Q]Al DeFlorio Wrote:

Schafer-coached teams are 3-5-1 at Yale.[/q]

True, but they are 2-0-1 in their last three games at Yale, I believe.  This coupled with the fact that Yale is 4-18-1 thus far this year, while we are 16-4-3...seriously, I'm not woofing here, but you have to admit, the odds would appear to be stacked in our favor.  I stand by my conviction that the North Country trip is still the biggest hurdle left in the regular season.

[Al DeFlorio]

[Q]Will Wrote:

 [Q2]Al DeFlorio Wrote:

Schafer-coached teams are 3-5-1 at Yale.[/Q]
True, but they are 2-0-1 in their last three games at Yale, I believe.  This coupled with the fact that Yale is 4-18-1 thus far this year, while we are 16-4-3...seriously, I'm not woofing here, but you have to admit, the odds would appear to be stacked in our favor.  I stand by my conviction that the North Country trip is still the biggest hurdle left in the regular season.[/q]
Geez, Will, don't get so defensive.  

I wasn't disagreeing with you, just pointing out another reason that the remainder of the regular season may not be the cakewalk some expect.  Ingalls has not been an easy place for us, and Yale has displayed signs of life recently, most notably this past Saturday beating St. Lawrence 5-2 in the North Country.

[KeithK]

In deference to the woofing gods let me just say that these are all tough opponents regardless of the standings, you've got to play the games on the ice, we have to take things one game at a time, blah blah blah... :-)

[Jordan 04]

We're going 6-0, no doubt.

Woof, woof.

Actually, make that 14-0.  Woof.

[Ben Rocky '04]

I would agree with Will on the NC trip.  Clarkson is going to be tough.  They play like goons, and with bad officiating we could come back from Cheel with DQs or injuries.  

The Union and Rensselaer games should be easy, but Yale & Princeton have had very variable play this season, and could be wild cards.  Lets not count on anything yet.

[Jeff Hopkins '82]

No matter how bad they've been, Union has always given us trouble.  God only knows why.  ::screwy::

The SLU(t) game will also be important because at least at the moment, they are a TUC.  Given their 6 remaining games are all against TUC's, their RPI should hold steady or go up some, even if they lose a few.   It will be a key game for the NCAA pairings, if not for ECAC tourney seeding.

[jtwcornell91]

Dude, we clinched the playoffs like three months ago. :-P

[Robb]

Yeah, that's what Vermont thought in '00...   :-P

[Will]

[Q]Robb Wrote:

 Yeah, that's what Vermont thought in '00...    [/q]

Yeah, they really screwed the pooch on that one...well, maybe not a pooch exactly...:-D

[jy3]

[Q]Will Wrote:

 [Q2]Robb Wrote:

 Yeah, that's what Vermont thought in '00...    [/Q]
Yeah, they really screwed the pooch on that one...well, maybe not a pooch exactly...[/q]lol, it wasnt screwing a pooch, it was walking an elephant

[Trotsky]

Schafer / seniors RS record at site, remaining games: http://www.tbrw.info/ecac/ecac_h2hbyteam.html

6-3-0 3-0-0 @Prn
3-5-1 2-0-1 @Yal
4-4-1 2-1-0 RPI
6-1-2 2-0-1 UC
4-3-2 3-0-0 @SLU
3-5-1 2-0-1 @Clk

[Robb]

[Q]Trotsky Wrote:

 Schafer / seniors RS record at site, remaining games:

6-3-0 3-0-0 @Prn
3-5-1 2-0-1 @Yal
4-4-1 2-1-0 RPI
6-1-2 2-0-1 UC
4-3-2 3-0-0 @SLU
3-5-1 2-0-1 @Clk[/q]

Wow.  One loss and 3 ties in 18 games at these 6 teams.  We are spoiled!