Union 2 @ Cornell 1 (postgame thread 11/18/05)

[billhoward]

[q]"Once is happenstance, twice is circumstance, but three times is enemy action." -- Ian Fleming[/q]Losing to Dartmouth 6-1 was bizarre. Losing to Union 2-1 despite outplaying and outshooting them, that's understandable - odd bounces can determine the outcome of low-scoring games. But coming in consecutive games, this kind of stuff makes you worry.

A lot of us thought Union was going to be the punching back Cornell took it out on. Nope. RPI maybe?

Cornell needs to work on its penalty kill - preferably by not getting called for so many -- and improve the power play. Cornell was what, 1x8 or 1x9 tonight?

Does it seem like we have incredible sharpshooters at forward and we don't have, yet, the goals that should go with it? OTOH, Moulson does have a lot of points already. Are we expecting even more from him, like putting up WCHA kinds of point totals?

Still, it's disappointing this early in the season. Lots of time left to turn it around this season, but it feels a lot more mixed than going 1-1 against Michigan State.

O'Byrne may be one of Cornell's very best defensemen, but he made his critics' case with the turnover leading to the second goal.

On the positive side, Cornell's GAA is going down with games like this.

Let's hope for a return to normalcy Saturday night.

[Jacob '06]

I'll copy over what I said on the game thread:

The difference in this game, we made 1 major mistake and they took advantage of it and scored. The first goal was kind of weird, I think it may have hit Pegoraro and then went off McKees shoulder and in. The second goal was a turnover behind the net and a very nice centering pass by the union player. Not really McKee's fault, but its a save i've seen him make before. He looked much more comfortable out there tonight. Other than that 10 second or whatever period where Union scored their two goals I think the team looked pretty good. The first pp unit had some beautiful passing, but just couldn't convert on some deflections and 1 timers. We still need to find the right combo for a 2nd pp unit. Coach is still messing around with the lines as they changed late in the 3rd, it'll be interesting to see what he puts out there tomorrow night.

[marty]

[Q]billhoward Wrote:

 [Q2]"Once is happenstance, twice is circumstance, but three times is enemy action." -- Ian Fleming[/Q]

Let's hope for a return to normalcy Saturday night. [/q]

Sheesh, Warren Harding territory.  The Red's record makes me ill.  The team must feel like....

This season is beginning to remind me of two years ago.

[mjh89]

Things I noticed:
-Cornell now has a noticable nike swoosh on the front of their socks ...
-The reffing was, in my opinion, pretty good ... although I don't know how nothing was called when the Union player clearly knocked the puck out of the zone with only his shaft after his stick broke.
-Why is O'Byrne on the power play? He is a solid defenseman, but he's more of an Adam Foote than a Brian Leetch. PLAY SALMELA if we're that desperate for d-men.
-Even though we only scored 1 goal, I like the lines. We had plenty of chances.
-Why did it take so long to get Topher onto the ice in the last minute? We had 2 freshmen on for most of the last minute, and that hurt because one of them paniced and blasted a slapshot into the defenders pads, and it bounced out of the zone.
-Even though we lost, we clearly outplayed Union.

[calgARI '07]

Awful game to watch tonight, just not remotely entertaining.  Cornell didn't play badly at all but Union played the perfect road game.  They capitalized on their chances (all two of them) and played really tough defense the whole night.  Thought Schafer made some questionable decisions tonight, starting with scratching Barlow only to give Kindret four shifts.  Shifts after goals are the most important and Davenport was on the ice the shift after Union tied it up.  First goal was very questionable on McKee.  Second goal wasn't good either.  Need a lot more intensity and desperation from start to finish.  Two straight games where Cornell hasn't scored an even strength goal.  Union played the defensive zone perfectly not allowin gCornell to get anywhere near the net.  I can't even talk about it anymore.  Just extremely frustrating.  

[billhoward]

Agreed that Cornell was the better team everywhere except in the final score. And yet ... a superior team, playing at home, with incentive to put a bad loss behind it, was unable to make up one goal in the final two periods. I guess we're all waiting for Cornell to explode and do something completely dominating like that Ryan Vesce seven-point night against Princeton three (?) years ago.

[Drew042]

Just back from the game; here are a few notes:

*Seminoff probably played the best of any of the defenseman, he was solid and did not make nearly as many mistakes as he did the weekend against MSU.  However, he is still being beat off the puck as noted by the penalty he took in the first.
*As I have said in previous posts, O'Byrne is simply not fit to be the top defenseman on this team.  He made at least 6 mistakes with the puck that led to turnovers (including GWG, and then on a faceoff in the second went to shoot the puck around the back of the goal and came close to scoring Union's 3rd goal (This may have been hard for anyone to see save for those of us in O).  The mistakes that he continues to make are mindboggling and unacceptable.
*The problem with this team is that there is no defined leader as there has been in past years.  No one on this team has stepped up yet to assume that role, and until it happens it is going to be a very long year.
*That said, they did play a full 60 minutes (or close to it) and I think we are moving in the right direction.  See everyone tomorrow night!!

LGR!!

[redhair34]

[Q]Drew042 Wrote:

 Just back from the game; here are a few notes:

*Seminoff probably played the best of any of the defenseman, he was solid and did not make nearly as many mistakes as he did the weekend against MSU.  However, he is still being beat off the puck as noted by the penalty he took in the first.
*As I have said in previous posts, O'Byrne is simply not fit to be the top defenseman on this team.  He made at least 6 mistakes with the puck that led to turnovers (including GWG, and then on a faceoff in the second went to shoot the puck around the back of the goal and came close to scoring Union's 3rd goal (This may have been hard for anyone to see save for those of us in O).  The mistakes that he continues to make are mindboggling and unacceptable.
*The problem with this team is that there is no defined leader as there has been in past years.  No one on this team has stepped up yet to assume that role, and until it happens it is going to be a very long year.
*That said, they did play a full 60 minutes (or close to it) and I think we are moving in the right direction.  See everyone tomorrow night!!

LGR!![/q]


It was Davenport that made the mistake that lead to the GWG

[Jacob '06]

[Q]redhair34 Wrote:

 [Q2]Drew042 Wrote:

 Just back from the game; here are a few notes:

*Seminoff probably played the best of any of the defenseman, he was solid and did not make nearly as many mistakes as he did the weekend against MSU.  However, he is still being beat off the puck as noted by the penalty he took in the first.
*As I have said in previous posts, O'Byrne is simply not fit to be the top defenseman on this team.  He made at least 6 mistakes with the puck that led to turnovers (including GWG, and then on a faceoff in the second went to shoot the puck around the back of the goal and came close to scoring Union's 3rd goal (This may have been hard for anyone to see save for those of us in O).  The mistakes that he continues to make are mindboggling and unacceptable.
*The problem with this team is that there is no defined leader as there has been in past years.  No one on this team has stepped up yet to assume that role, and until it happens it is going to be a very long year.
*That said, they did play a full 60 minutes (or close to it) and I think we are moving in the right direction.  See everyone tomorrow night!!

LGR!![/Q]
It was Davenport that made the mistake that lead to the GWG
[/q]


Or both of them, they were passing to each other and it was stolen.

[oceanst41]

It's already been said but Cornell was not outplayed in this game, thankfully.

My thinking as i just get home from the game is that Union probably only had 2 scoring chances the entire game. They just happened to score on both.

Cornell had loads of chances, but Mayotte, like he usually does with Cornell, stopped all but one. 33 shots on goal and maybe twice as many hit bodies in front or went wide. It's hard to say after that game in Hanover but this game was a fluke loss, one Cornell would win 9 times out of 10.  

[calgARI '07]

[Q]redhair34 Wrote:

 [Q2]Drew042 Wrote:

 Just back from the game; here are a few notes:

*Seminoff probably played the best of any of the defenseman, he was solid and did not make nearly as many mistakes as he did the weekend against MSU.  However, he is still being beat off the puck as noted by the penalty he took in the first.
*As I have said in previous posts, O'Byrne is simply not fit to be the top defenseman on this team.  He made at least 6 mistakes with the puck that led to turnovers (including GWG, and then on a faceoff in the second went to shoot the puck around the back of the goal and came close to scoring Union's 3rd goal (This may have been hard for anyone to see save for those of us in O).  The mistakes that he continues to make are mindboggling and unacceptable.
*The problem with this team is that there is no defined leader as there has been in past years.  No one on this team has stepped up yet to assume that role, and until it happens it is going to be a very long year.
*That said, they did play a full 60 minutes (or close to it) and I think we are moving in the right direction.  See everyone tomorrow night!!

LGR!![/Q]
It was Davenport that made the mistake that lead to the GWG
[/q]


Yeah, it was Davenport.  O'Byrne wasn't great tonight but wasn't in the best situation having to play with someone who was playing his second college game.  Not sure why Davenport was out there on the shift after getting scored on.

[Jacob 03]

in some bizarro world i could appreciate the fact that o'byrne has such an obvious pattern of making the same mistake over and over.  it's almost cute.  and mckee bailed him out of it about once a game over the past couple seasons.  but i guess now we're seeing that he can't cover o'byrne's ass forever.  i don't really know if coach can afford to bench him just to "send a message," though.  there has to be some better way of teaching him a lesson.  they eventually cured underhill of his weird dropping-the-stick-to-cover-with-the-blocker thing, right?  but then never cured murray of his tendency to let puck after puck after puck after puck after puck out of the offensive zone on power plays, and we seemed to look the other way on that one (well, except age, and i can't really blame him on that one).  maybe someday, somehow, they'll fix o'byrne.  

now, i'm the king of the mckee-has-always-been-overrated club, but i can't really fault him too much for tonight's goals.  he might've stopped them before, but we've seen most college goaltenders give up similar ones to cornell players before.  his second goal to harvard is still the easiest goal i've seen him give up all season (having missed the dartmouth game).  and like everyone said, the offense deserves responsibility for only putting up one goal tonight.  nobody wants to go back to our 2.00 gfa and 2.00 gaa season after the last few.  

[redhair34]

[Q]Jacob '06 Wrote:

 [Q2]redhair34 Wrote:

 [Q2]Drew042 Wrote:

 Just back from the game; here are a few notes:

*Seminoff probably played the best of any of the defenseman, he was solid and did not make nearly as many mistakes as he did the weekend against MSU.  However, he is still being beat off the puck as noted by the penalty he took in the first.
*As I have said in previous posts, O'Byrne is simply not fit to be the top defenseman on this team.  He made at least 6 mistakes with the puck that led to turnovers (including GWG, and then on a faceoff in the second went to shoot the puck around the back of the goal and came close to scoring Union's 3rd goal (This may have been hard for anyone to see save for those of us in O).  The mistakes that he continues to make are mindboggling and unacceptable.
*The problem with this team is that there is no defined leader as there has been in past years.  No one on this team has stepped up yet to assume that role, and until it happens it is going to be a very long year.
*That said, they did play a full 60 minutes (or close to it) and I think we are moving in the right direction.  See everyone tomorrow night!!

LGR!![/Q]
It was Davenport that made the mistake that lead to the GWG
[/Q]
Or both of them, they were passing to each other and it was stolen.[/q]

It was Davenport...the guy passed it right to two Union forwards

[calgARI '07]

[Q]Jacob 03 Wrote:

 in some bizarro world i could appreciate the fact that o'byrne has such an obvious pattern of making the same mistake over and over.  it's almost cute.  and mckee bailed him out of it about once a game over the past couple seasons.  but i guess now we're seeing that he can't cover o'byrne's ass forever.  i don't really know if coach can afford to bench him just to "send a message," though.  there has to be some better way of teaching him a lesson.  they eventually cured underhill of his weird dropping-the-stick-to-cover-with-the-blocker thing, right?  but then never cured murray of his tendency to let puck after puck after puck after puck after puck out of the offensive zone on power plays, and we seemed to look the other way on that one (well, except age, and i can't really blame him on that one).  maybe someday, somehow, they'll fix o'byrne.  

now, i'm the king of the mckee-has-always-been-overrated club, but i can't really fault him too much for tonight's goals.  he might've stopped them before, but we've seen most college goaltenders give up similar ones to cornell players before.  his second goal to harvard is still the easiest goal i've seen him give up all season (having missed the dartmouth game).  and like everyone said, the offense deserves responsibility for only putting up one goal tonight.  nobody wants to go back to our 2.00 gfa and 2.00 gaa season after the last few.  [/q]


No way, the fourth MSU goal in the second game was the weakest he's let in.  It went under his left arm, much like the first goal tonight.  That is a shot that should be stopped in my opinion.  

[Tub(a)]

[Q]calgARI '07 Wrote:

 [Q2]Jacob 03 Wrote:

 in some bizarro world i could appreciate the fact that o'byrne has such an obvious pattern of making the same mistake over and over.  it's almost cute.  and mckee bailed him out of it about once a game over the past couple seasons.  but i guess now we're seeing that he can't cover o'byrne's ass forever.  i don't really know if coach can afford to bench him just to "send a message," though.  there has to be some better way of teaching him a lesson.  they eventually cured underhill of his weird dropping-the-stick-to-cover-with-the-blocker thing, right?  but then never cured murray of his tendency to let puck after puck after puck after puck after puck out of the offensive zone on power plays, and we seemed to look the other way on that one (well, except age, and i can't really blame him on that one).  maybe someday, somehow, they'll fix o'byrne.  

now, i'm the king of the mckee-has-always-been-overrated club, but i can't really fault him too much for tonight's goals.  he might've stopped them before, but we've seen most college goaltenders give up similar ones to cornell players before.  his second goal to harvard is still the easiest goal i've seen him give up all season (having missed the dartmouth game).  and like everyone said, the offense deserves responsibility for only putting up one goal tonight.  nobody wants to go back to our 2.00 gfa and 2.00 gaa season after the last few.  [/Q]
No way, the fourth MSU goal in the second game was the weakest he's let in.  It went under his left arm, much like the first goal tonight.  That is a shot that should be stopped in my opinion.  [/q]

his second goal to harvard is still the easiest goal i've seen him give up all season (having missed the dartmouth game)