Cornell vs. Minnesota post game thread

[jy3]

i think something to consider about ryan is how much ice time he logs. no one cheers him when he makes a good play, no one applauds a good play 2 hours after it happens, no one says "yes" to the routine rubout or poke check but a guy makes a mistake in a high pressure situation that leads to a goal, or 2, in a game in which what, 18 guys, were involved over 60+ minutes of play and it is his fault? what about hte missed open net, what about the miscue on the one-timer, what about the broken up play on a 2 on 2 or 3 on 3 or stupid penalties cornell took in the first period? these all factored into the loss. I say, Ryan, keep your head up.You are a workhorse who will improve over time. He will be a great defenseman, I see what coach sees on this one.

what i find interesting is that the criticism here is huge but even less than the minne fans praise cornell is getting.

This team should hang their heads high for playing 6++ periods of NCAA hockey in front of a raucus group of faithful in an oppposing favored teams barn and playing to the teeth. SOG are misleading, as said above. Cornell played their system and made some uncharacteristic mistakes. but good team force these mistakes -> minne is a good team. thanks for a great season, RED.

hopefully next year i can make some more games, hopefully RIT will be in rochester and hopefully niagara will be here in buffalo. I forsee a strong season next year and i want my frozen four tickets now. I said this team would be VERY good last year and this year I am saying next year will be BETTER.

LGR!

[DeltaOne81]

cth, amen, well said

[Mike Nevin]

I think part of the blame being assigned to O'Byrne is because those of us who tend to read this forum tend to look for him to screw up.  I mean, once you have the "Asset or Liability" poll for a guy, people are going to keep track of when he screws up.  Now, in the Clarkson game, he definitely gave away a goal.    Not this time.  Trying to freeze the puck in the corner at the end of a long shift, losing it, and having that happen with a guy totally wide open in front of your net -- thats mostly bad luck.  If Downs or Cook or Gleed had done the same thing, we probably wouldn't be talking about it.  And while he may have had a chance to clear, its not like trying to freeze the puck along the boards to stop play is the "dumbest thing ever".  Geez, give the guy a break.  And hey -- its not like Doug Murray never took a dumb penalty.

I wish they had shown a clearer replay of that goal.  We did an incredible job protecting the low slot all game.    How did someone get that open in front of McKee is the real question.   Someone else must have been out of position for things to be that uncontested.

That was a bitter loss.  I was hoping this was going to be a great NCAA year for us, and the ECAC.  Instead, we are going to have to now suffer with continued "western bias" in college hockey, where we continue to be considered the EZAC.  

I'd like to see that game played again, on a neutral, NHL sheet with Cornell in the white jerseys.  Oh, and maybe a little more balanced officiating.  It is tough to sort out what that game would have looked like without the Gophers having so many advantages.  

[jtwcornell91]

[Q]TCHL8842 Wrote:

 I think O'Byrne was more at fault for the first goal then the second.  Where was everyone in front on the last goal.  Knoefli turned the wrong way, both D were in the corner, and the other person out front just got plain beat by the pass in front.[/q]

Well, Downs was in the corner because he had to help O'Byrne out with two Minnesota guys on him along the boards.

[jtwcornell91]

[Q]KP '06 Wrote:
I was watching at a bar, with no sound. Anything of note happen audibly? The cowbell got in?[/q]

According to a text message from Judy, the cowbell got confiscated even though it was with the band.

[redGrinch]

[Q]DeltaOne81 Wrote:

 Its called the room to move around on that ice.

I don't want it to be excuse, but that can be part of the reason. Our NCAA games in 2002 and 2003 looked nothing like these. We may not always have won, but at least the games looked like they usually do.

No big ice in the NCAAs until at least 2008, unless the Resch Center is.[/q]

Resch Center is the home for USHL junior hockey - Green Bay Gamblers - where Mazelloni (or however you spell his name) went at the end of last season.  I think junior hockey tends to be NHL-sized, but am not postive about that.

[Trotsky]

Gee, I must have seen a totally different game.  I saw Cornell play their game to a T, holding (sometimes, literally ;-)  ) a significantly faster, higher finesse, 2-time National Champion in the previous 3 seasons to 1 goal in regulation, gradually picking up the pace until they actually controlled the game for a stretch in the third period and overtime, finally nearly winning what would have been the greatest road victory in the program's history.

But apparently in the real game, we sucked, Minny sucked, and it was all one guy's fault.

[jy3]

[Q]Trotsky Wrote:

 Gee, I must have seen a totally different game.  I saw Cornell play their game to a T, holding (sometimes, literally   ) a significantly faster, higher finesse, 2-time National Champion in the previous 3 seasons to 1 goal in regulation, gradually picking up the pace until they actually controlled the game for a stretch in the third period and overtime, finally nearly winning what would have been the greatest road victory in the program's history.

But apparently in the real game, we sucked, Minny sucked, and it was all one guy's fault.[/q]

i concur

[David Harding]

[Q]nyc94 Wrote:

 [Q2]KP '06 Wrote:

 Let's keep in mind the regionals in our own backyard for the next two years ...[/Q]
And as we are NOT a host school we have no guarantee of being there.
[/q]

We have no guarantee of even being in the tournament next year.  Hope, certainly; expectation, perhaps.  Not having submitted a winning bid to host a regional, there are two routes to staying close to home, assuming the team is selected - 1) win enough games to be in the #1 band or 2) get in a lower band and have a roughly 25% chance of landing in each of the four sites ("roughly" because a host team might be in bands 2-4 and take one such slot).

Let's go Red!!!

[CUlater 89]

[Q]jy3 Wrote:

 [Q2]Trotsky Wrote:

 Gee, I must have seen a totally different game.  I saw Cornell play their game to a T, holding (sometimes, literally   ) a significantly faster, higher finesse, 2-time National Champion in the previous 3 seasons to 1 goal in regulation, gradually picking up the pace until they actually controlled the game for a stretch in the third period and overtime, finally nearly winning what would have been the greatest road victory in the program's history.

But apparently in the real game, we sucked, Minny sucked, and it was all one guy's fault.[/Q]
i concur[/q]

Me too, as did several around me at Ship of Fools.  But on the actual game-winning goal, mistakes were made (of course) by the individuals mentioned.  And even when we did get our act together on offense, we didn't control the play as much as many here are accustomed to seeing vs. ECACHL squads.  That's the reason for the over-reaction.

[visitingguy]

I didn't see any horrible calls on any of those penalties.  CU got called for more penalties because they could not keep up with the faster Gopher skaters, so they had to hold and use the stick alot more.  When one team plays another team that has more speed and skill, that's what happens.

If you say that you wish you could have seen the game played on NHL sized ice, or at Lynah, don't you think the Gophers wish they could have played the game with their leading scorer (Hirsch) and their best defenseman/power play quarterback (Goligoski)?    Enough whining . .. you play the hand you are dealt.

Finally, quit the excuse making for the shot disparity.  Sure, many of the Gopher's shots were from the perimeter or not really great scoring chances . . . well neither were many of CU's 18 shots.  Briggs was really tested maybe a couple of times all game.  If the shoe were on the other foot, and you had won the game by a goal while outshooting the gophers more than 2 to 1, you would have said that the shots on goal were a sign of domination.


[Q]Mike Nevin Wrote:

 I think part of the blame being assigned to O'Byrne is because those of us who tend to read this forum tend to look for him to screw up.  I mean, once you have the "Asset or Liability" poll for a guy, people are going to keep track of when he screws up.  Now, in the Clarkson game, he definitely gave away a goal.    Not this time.  Trying to freeze the puck in the corner at the end of a long shift, losing it, and having that happen with a guy totally wide open in front of your net -- thats mostly bad luck.  If Downs or Cook or Gleed had done the same thing, we probably wouldn't be talking about it.  And while he may have had a chance to clear, its not like trying to freeze the puck along the boards to stop play is the "dumbest thing ever".  Geez, give the guy a break.  And hey -- its not like Doug Murray never took a dumb penalty.

I wish they had shown a clearer replay of that goal.  We did an incredible job protecting the low slot all game.    How did someone get that open in front of McKee is the real question.   Someone else must have been out of position for things to be that uncontested.

That was a bitter loss.  I was hoping this was going to be a great NCAA year for us, and the ECAC.  Instead, we are going to have to now suffer with continued "western bias" in college hockey, where we continue to be considered the EZAC.  

I'd like to see that game played again, on a neutral, NHL sheet with Cornell in the white jerseys.  Oh, and maybe a little more balanced officiating.  It is tough to sort out what that game would have looked like without the Gophers having so many advantages.  


[/q]

[Luke 05]

Kudos to Krantz and Moulson making the all-regional team.

[DKmathteacher]

who ever the **** you are, you have some b***s to be posting your s*** on ELF.  

[ugarte]

[Q]jy3 Wrote:

 [Q2]Trotsky Wrote:

 Gee, I must have seen a totally different game.  I saw Cornell play their game to a T, holding (sometimes, literally   ) a significantly faster, higher finesse, 2-time National Champion in the previous 3 seasons to 1 goal in regulation, gradually picking up the pace until they actually controlled the game for a stretch in the third period and overtime, finally nearly winning what would have been the greatest road victory in the program's history.

But apparently in the real game, we sucked, Minny sucked, and it was all one guy's fault.[/Q]
i concur[/q]Star, J., Concurring in Part

I obviously don't think it was O'Byrne's fault that Cornell lost. This may have to do with my poor TiVo skills (I missed the OT) but enough people have explained the logic of O'Byrne's attempted freeze that I wish the bashers would STFU.

As for the rest of the game, Cornell was badly outplayed for ~50 minutes. Minnesota only scored once, and their high shot total belies a dearth of quality scoring chances, but that is a function of the quality of our defense (which didn't seem affected by the big sheet). OTOH, our offense was pitiful.

The passing and stickhandling was as poor as I've seen from Cornell in years. Cornell was constantly overskating the puck and simply falling down. I can't count the number of times a Red skater just left the puck sitting on the ice for a Minnesota player to pick it up. IMHO, the big sheet played a huge role. The Red spent a lot of time waiting for the puck to come to them only to have a Gopher cut it off. They never seemed to get used to how long it would take for the puck to reach them or how wide the ice was for passing. The aggressive Gopher forecheck was giving Cornell fits as well; Cornell adjusted well enough to keep the interior passing lanes closed off, but the puck was in the Cornell defensive zone more than it has been all year.

On defense Cornell closed the lanes and played a tight box, neutralizing the effect of the big ice (but allowing Minnesota to keep the puck for insanely long stretches on the perimeter). On offense the angles were different, the players weren't used to them and it showed.

As for the announcers, I'm not sure why everyone has such a problem with them. Minnesota held the puck for roughly the first 40 minutes. With the exception of the shorty, there was nothing to compliment Cornell for except for McKee - and they praised the hell out of McKee. They also astutely predicted that the big Cornell skaters grind down their opposition. Lo and behold, in the last half of period 3, when Cornell was skating circles around an exhausted Minnesota team, the announcers noted it and began praising Cornell.

The last 10 minutes of regulation was the team that I saw in Albany; I am really looking forward to 2005-06.

[calgARI '07]

Back from Minneshita.  Regarding O'Byrne, I thought he played his best game of the season against Ohio State and as was mentioned by most, he was absolutely brutal today and more or less cost Cornell the game.  I didn't really understand why he let the guy go on the first goal.  As far as I'm concerned, all defensemen are going to get beat, but when they do, THAT is when you pull the guy down and take a penalty.  Anyways, I like O'Byrne and think he is an outstanding defenseman; I really do.  He is still rough around the edges and I can certainly understand the criticism he is getting for today's game, but again, I think he brings a lot to the table and will only get better.  Moulson had the thing wrapped up just minutes before until the play was blown dead on man in the crease.  I actually thought the officiating was fine.  Cornell looked lost on the big ice at times this weekend, but really found their confort zone in the third period.  There is no question that it would have been a different game on NA ice but Cornell absolutely had a shot at winning today all the same.  I thought Pokuluk and Krantz both had very good weekends considering the situation (except for Pokuluk totally getting beat on the first OSU goal).  I never thought I would miss this year's seniors as much as I do already.  They are the best senior class as far as leadership I have ever seen at Cornell.  
Now I said a few weeks ago when there were like 8 games left in the regular season that I saw no reason as to why Cornell couldn't run the table through to the NCAA's.  They did that.  Now I think there will be some question marks on the blueline and in filling in for the checking line forwards (Iggulden and Knoepfli) for next season, but I firmly believe that they will have a better season next year.