Cornell 4 @ Yale 2 post-game thread (11/4)

[billhoward]

Sloppy game won by the better team with the better fans and better band.

This had to have been a record-setting peformance for penalty minutes even if Kevin Pettit '71 was nowhere near the building. The officiating may have been inconsistent, but it was a rugged game. Rugged especially on Yale's part. (Box score says 45 penalties, 188 minutes, a Cornell record, meaning I believe a record for Cornell for PIM total for both teams.) From my Cornell bias, I'd say Cornell was not blameless, but Yale was the tougher/rougher/cruder team even if Cornell got 89 PIM to Yale's 79.
[Edit: However many, it was a lot even before the final shootout at OK Corral. USCHO box says 89 Cornell + 79 Yale penalty minutes which as Beeeej notes would be more like 168 minutes. Cornell game story says "a total of 45 infractions for a Cornell school-record 188 minutes" Yale game story (they must believe it ungentlemanly to note penalty minutes) cites no total, only, "Yale continued to apply the pressure despite the two-goal deficit and things got testy around the Cornell net. With 46.8 seconds left, a McKee save, followed by Bulldogs crashing the crease, set the players off and numerous altercations broke out. It took 10 minutes for the officials to straighten things out." Inside College Hockey http://www.collegehockeystats.net/0506/boxes/mcoryal1.n04 also says 89 + 79 and lists all the penalties in the expanded box. Pokoluk is DQ'd for Brown game; Carefoot, Mugord, and Bitz got 10 minute misconducts that expired with the game's end.]  

Cornell got balanced scoring: even strength, man short, power play, empty net. Moulson continues to get great chances whether he scores or not. He almost had one on a backhander at an impossible angle.

The second power play unit did not impress ... until Mugford got the puck in the corner to Pegoraro, who took forever looking for an open man. Too long, I thought, he's gonna get smothered, and then a second later he flicked it to Sawada just outside the faceoff circle and Sawada rammed home a laser. That made it 3-2 and it was to be the winning goal.

Yale's PK was very good especially early on. They came out and harassed the Cornell point men. Cornell was 1x9 on PP (Yale 1x11), but it's not that bad a % because a bunch ran only 30 seconds before the other team got whistled off, too. The bulk of penalties came at the end when after one save Yale piled on top of McKee, Cornell took exception to Yale smothering the goalie, and tempers flared. The only thing missing from this being an NHL caliber brawl was that nobody took repeated full swings.

Yale's bench extends over the blue line at the end Cornell defends in the second period and they have a nice play of hanging a player right at the blue line waiting for a long home run pass. It's especially effective in the second where it's hard to tell if he's on the ice or one more white and blue uniform on the bench. We almost got caught a couple times.

Mckee and the defense didn't look solid at the beginning but he had his A-game by the third period. There was a momentary heart-stoppage when Yale tied the score at 3-apiece, but actually it was just an overly enthusiastic Yale goal judge who thought the puck was going in, and play continued on. McKee was sensational late on, and is worth every penny he would be getting if this was a scholarhship school.

There were a couple minutes in the third when it felt Yale might actually tie the game and hold on through overtime. Tim Taylor is a good fundamentals coach and he can surprise a better team a couple times a year (just not in the playoffs, when Yale's song isn't Boola, Boola but One and Done). Both teams had 29 shots on goal. That seems unbelievable, Yale matching Cornell in SOG.

It's too bad for the Cornell assistant coaches that the penalty-fest was on their watch (Schafer got a one game suspension after MSU, served at Yale, although people said they spotted him in the building, just not near the bench) because some people may think it was them who let the players get out of hand. Cornell got riled by Yale a couple times and retaliated, but Cornell also took a couple unnecessary penalties.

After Michigan State and now this, Cornell may get an unfair rep as a good squad. As opposed to big, tough, not backing down from any other team ... and yes, also making some early season mistakes.

All that discussion about the best way to get Yale tickets? There were a couple hundred free seats throughout the game. You could have just showed up and bought tickets at Ingalls.

No matter how (un)crowded, it's bloody noisy in there. The architecture is naturally noisy, and lacks the sound insulation provided at Lynah by all those championship banners.

There were a lot of big players on both sides and some of the checks were awesome. Bitz and soembody else gargantuan rammed each other into the boards right where a Cornell fan a couple feet away had propped his covered but vulnerable Coke cup on the dasherboard ledge. It sent the cup flying without anyone getting too badly soaked.

If you sat up close, you got to see Cornell's pants weren't just worn, they are close to decrepit. Doesn't affect the quality of hockey any, but if this were the NBA, David Stern would probably have issued an in-the-arena dress code edict.

It's a good thing we split with Michigan State last week. If we'd lost both games, this would have been career win No. 200 for Mike Schafer.

[Beeeej]

[Q]billhoward Wrote:
(Box score says 45 penalties, 188 minutes, a Cornell record, meaning I believe a record for Cornell for PIM total for both teams.)[/q]

Hardly.  First of all, 89+79=168 PIM total for last night, not 188.  Second, we once had 185 handed out on one stoppage of play, a league record 217 total for the game.  See also "Shtrom, Leeor."

http://www.tbrw.info/boxScores/box19981204.html

Beeeej

[KenSt]

1100 at Meehan at night. Never could understand the total student/community apathy.

[Al DeFlorio]

Interesting to note that from late in the second period until the end of the game Scott seemed to be skating with Bitz and Moulson while Sawada skated with the Pegoraro line, even while even-strength.  Could be that with so much time skating power plays (where Scott always skates with Moulson and Bitz and Sawada is on the second unit with Pegs) and shorthanded they didn't want to "mix up" the lines during seemingly rare five-on-five play.  Or maybe they were just experimenting with different linemates.

[calgARI '07]

Not a good game for Cornell.  The defense was really bad again with the exception of Pokuluk who I thought played really well.  I'm not sure I've seen a Schafer team get physically beaten the way Yale beat Cornell last night.  The game played perfectly for Yale, with no flow and they finished every check.  I thought Cornell was going to lose going into the third period.  Happy they found a way to win. Tonight is going to be tough going against a Brown team that was embarrassed in their own place last night.  No Pokuluk and Chris Abbott possibly out as well.

[billhoward]

[Q]Al DeFlorio Wrote: Interesting to note that from late in the second period until the end of the game Scott seemed to be skating with Bitz and Moulson while Sawada skated with the Pegoraro line, even while even-strength.  Could be that with so much time skating power plays (where Scott always skates with Moulson and Bitz and Sawada is on the second unit with Pegs) and shorthanded they didn't want to "mix up" the lines during seemingly rare five-on-five play.  Or maybe they were just experimenting with different linemates.[/q]That would be a better and more logical explanation than that the assistant coaches, even with this many years experience, saw the game slipping from Cornell's control and started tinkering. Yale played a solid game with good penalty kill and aggressive checking (to put it mildly), and Cornell had some incredible chances not go in, such as Bitz's (?) shot at a yawning open net in the first period where the net, what a coincidence, came dislodged. Had Cornell tied or lost, there'd be a lot of second-guessing. Cornell beat Vermont 2-1 at Lynah last year with Schafer suspended one game for criticizing ECACHL officiating. Funny, I thought you were supposed to be rewarded for performing a needed public service.

[Mike Hedrick 01]

Ian Burt did a heck of a job in that scrap, considering Leorr started it, both by skating down the ice and throwing the first puch.  For a while it looked like they were just going to scrap and then Leorr just lost it.  

I had a great view, as I sat in the first row of G that year.  

[Mike Hedrick 01]

Heh, that should have read "looked like they were just going to chat" before Leorr started throwing punches.

[Jordan 04]

[Q]billhoward Wrote:

 [Q2]such as Bitz's (?) shot at a yawning open net in the first period where the net, what a coincidence, came dislodged. [/q]

Just a note, the net coming dislodged was inconsequential.  Yes, Bitz did have a shot at a wide-open net, but the Yale defensemen got his stick in front of the shot at the very last moment, and the shot deflected up into the netting behind the goal.

[Bio '04]

[Q]billhoward Wrote:

After Michigan State and now this, Cornell may get an unfair rep as a good squad.

[/Q]

good squad or goon squad?  :-)

Otherwise, thanks for that thorough recap!

[Trigger]

[Q]calgARI '07 Wrote:
No Pokuluk and Chris Abbott possibly out as well.

I know why Pokulok isn't in, but did Chris Abbott get hurt? And while I'm on the subject, how did Carefoot look? I know he got a goal and a game misconduct, so he must not have been hurting too bad, but I thought he was going to miss these two games with his charley horse.

[JimHyla]

[Q]billhoward Wrote:
After Michigan State and now this, Cornell may get an unfair rep as a good(my emphasis) squad. As opposed to big, tough, not backing down from any other team ...
Edited 2 times. Last edit at 11/05/05 08:23AM by billhoward.[/q]Bill, I'll take that rep :-D
Maybe one more edit  ::laugh::

[jibjab]

[Q]Mike Hedrick 01 Wrote:

 Heh, that should have read "looked like they were just going to chat" before Leorr started throwing punches.[/q]

I talked to Ian Burt at the afterglow that weekend, and he basically said that they were just chatting for a while while watching the others go at it.  Then Leeor, who I guess was getting antsy, said "Hey, you wanna go?" or something similar.  Burt, good-naturedly: "I don't know, you could probably kick my a**."  Leeor: "Only one way to find out..."  And then the punches started flying.  

Pretty amusing.

[redhair34]

A few questions for those who were there...

1) Did we have trouble clearing the zone on the pk?  listening from the radio it sounded like Yale had little trouble setting up their pp and keeping it our zone...if so was it their good puck possession or our inability to win battles along the boards and pressure their passing lanes?

2) How did Mugford look on the PP?

3) Did we have the same problem protecting the crease last night that seemed to haunt us at Lynah last weekend?

4) and 5) What was the best and worst part(s) of our game?


Thanks!

[jas27]

Just some observations from the game for those folks who were only able to catch it on audio

1.) PK wasn't terrible and McCutcheoun seems to have solidified a nice niche roll in PK. He was buzzing.  
2.) Yale was winning the loose pucks for most of the first half and looked hungrier.  Granted the penalites didn't help with the flow.
3.) Mugford, for all I've read about his akward skating, was the hardest working player out there - with apologies to Sawada.   Both players created opportunities by outworking the Yale defensemen on the forecheck.
4.) Cornell passing from the breakout into the neutral zone was a problem.  I couldn't tell if it was the forwards getting ahead of the play, or the D not hitting the pass, but once that first pass breaks down - your stuffed.
5.) Yale's goalie (Garnter) is going to cost them a game sometime this year with his overzealous desire to handle the puck.  
6.)  The refs need to continue to call obstruction/hooking/interference, just not when it's a hard hit.  There were calls on both teams for solid finishing checks (with a little bite).  The agenda was evident.
7.)  If the linesmen had jumped in earlier when a Yale player was on top of McKee, the whole mess at the end could have been prevented.  The most ammusing aspect of the whole scrum was during the cooling off period: O'Byrne had Boucher with one hand on his collar, real nonchalantly.  Every time Boucher made a move to skate in any direction, O'Byrne would reign him back in like a dog trainer and a new puppy. O'Byrne slipped a couple of quality facewashes in there for good measure.  
8.) Fun & loud rink.  Did anybody else find the the Yale band's dancing girl to be rather obnoxious?   I wanted to toss her an instrument and point out that her bandmates were currently getting upstaged.