Cornell 5 Niagara 3 (Saturday; final)

[Trotsky]

Two tough games and two wins.

Nice to see the pp click twice tonight, including once when the pressure was absolutely on.

Hope they can keep on improving, add the defensive element back in, and come back strong next weekend.

[cth95]

At least it is starting to seem like everything is heading in the right direction.  I just looked at all of our box scores and other than the two Michigan State games and the Dartmouth game we are staying well over 30 shots per game.  Listening to the broadcast tonight, it sounds like McKee played pretty well, too.  It sounded like he made quite a few saves on the power play that led to the 2nd goal including a good series in which they didn't score before the series in which they got a rebound in.  If the D can stay solid for 60 min. and not have those couple of lapses each game that allow the scores to be close we might begin to see what we have been waiting for.  Finally, Go Freshmen!!

[calgARI '07]

Fourth line was outstanding again tonight.  Fact of the matter is, except for O'Byrne, none of Cornell's top players are getting it done.  I was really happy with the performances of the freshmen this weekend though.  Seminoff did really well.  

[Dpperk29]

I am totally suprised by Ryan Kindret. He may not be the best player on the ice, but after seeing him play in the exhibition game, he is totally suprising me. All the freshmen are getting it... if moulson/bitz/scott/abbotts/sawada/pegs ever get going with the scoring, and the freshmen keep it up... the O will be amazing...

[Dpperk29]

[Q]Trotsky Wrote:

 Freshmen scoring so far this weekend:

Kindret 2-0
Kennedy 1-3
Seminoff 0-1
Mugford 0-1
Barlow 1-0
Davenport 0-1

Total 3-6[/q]

wouldn't it be 4-6? 2+1+1=4

[Trotsky]

No.  2+1+1 = 3. ;-)

[Dafatone]

I actually thought Kindret looked very good in the exhibition game.  I might've been the only one, though.  He showed a lot of speed, and good ability to break away from defenders.  I didn't see either of this weekend's games, but it's good to see him playing well.

[calgARI '07]

It will be interesting to see who comes out of the lineup should Carefoot return next weekend.  

[Will]

So, can we now put a listing for the 2005 Niagara Cup on the left side of the page? :-P

Other thoughts:
- Kindret's goal was absolutely beautiful, probably the best of the night (though I couldn't really see the second and third Niagara goals), and perhaps the best Cornell goal thus far this season.
- Way to go freshmen. You were mostly disappointing me before this weekend, but now I have faith you will all grow into fine Cornell players.
- Hopefully, with any luck, the sweep this weekend will give our players as a whole the confidence to run the table for the rest of the season.  (I can hope, anyway.)

My personal three (Cornell) stars of the game: 1. Kindret 2. Kennedy 3. O'Byrne
What the hell, give a fourth star to Barlow.

[ben03]

So tonight was the first time I’ve seen this years edition of the Red in person and I have to say overall it was fairly encouraging but still a semi-mixed bag.

Game thoughts:
(1) General Impressions: The freshman/sophomores seemed to have the fire we’ve been lacking all season. Good for them! The upper 
    classmen are performing below par and look semi-content with this. 

(2) Power Play: Despite scoring two goals, our PP is terribly stagnant and very predictable (read: easy to defend). We seem to only 
    want to take shots from the point and one-timers at that. Very lame. Very easy to defend. But Kennedy’s deflection was a 
    thing of beauty and pretty damn sweet. :-D

(3) Penalty Kill: The kill OTOH seemed to be better than our 5x5 or PP. McCutcheon was/is our best PK’er by far (aside from Carefoot). 
    I hope Mitch gets back soon b/c those two together would be a real solid threat for SHGs this year. 

(4) Goaltending: All the talk about something being wrong with McKee is spot on. There’s just something not right. I have no idea what 
    it is but he’s just off. Two of the goals were very soft and the third was one I’m sure he wished he could have back. 

(5) Breakout[/U]: Better than the past few games but still lacks serious confidence. It was not uncommon to turnover the puck before we 
    got to our own blue line. This needs to be addressed if this team is going to be successful. 

(6) Defense[/I]: Davenport dressed for Gleed and played fairly well. Krantz, O’B and Sasha are playing far below their potential and look
    lost out there. Seminoff and Salmela played very solid games tonight. Jared looks to be hitting his stride and gaining confidence 
    with each shift. Salmela had a tendency to jump into the play and sometimes I thought he was even playing on the wing. This is 
    definitely a good thing. I mean shit, if no one else is going to, he might as well get something going. O’B and Sasha have developed 
    hands of stone and are making very suspect decisions with the puck. 

(7) Offense[/I]: The Barlow, Kennedy and Kindret line is awesome, three goals and one assist and oh so many more chances. This line was all 
    over the ice! These three give me hope for our offense to make a comeback for rest of the season. Their numbers speak for themselves. 

    Bitz, Sawada, and Mugford were skating as if on eggshells. They were making decent plays but just cannot seem to get things together 
    near the net. 

    Chris, Cam, Topher and Pegs did a nice job carrying the puck through the neutral zone to avoid the dump and chase tonight. Although 
    0-1-1 on the night is very unacceptable for this quartet of talent. They all need to step up their games BIG TIME.

    Moulson is not playing with any fire but still seems to be able to get himself in positions to make things happen. I guess we’ll take 
    what we can get out him but he’s just not the type of leader we’re used to seeing wear our ‘C’.

McCutcheon, Kindret, Kennedy and Barlow were by far our best forwards on the ice tonight. Seminoff and Salmela seemed to make the soundest decisions on defense. If these six can inspire the rest of the boys to crank it up a few notches, watch out! As Trotsky said last week, the bus is just fine. Having seen them in person, I feel better about this teams potential and that the underclassmen are ready and willing to take up the slack left by the upperclassmen. When these guys get things hitting on all cylinders, this team will be a serious force. In Schafer we trust, he will right the wrongs.

LGR!!!:-)

[calgARI '07]

[Q]ben03 Wrote:

(6) Defense: Davenport dressed for Gleed and played fairly well. Krantz, O’B and Sasha are playing far below their potential and look
    lost out there. Seminoff and Salmela played very solid games tonight. Jared looks to be hitting his stride and gaining confidence
    with each shift. Salmela had a tendency to jump into the play and sometimes I thought he was even playing on the wing. This is
    definitely a good thing. I mean shit, if no one else is going to, he might as well get something going. O’B and Sasha have developed
    hands of stone and are making very suspect decisions with the puck.

LGR!!![/q]

I agree with most of what you said, but I disagree about O'Byrne.  He played around 30 minutes each night and was really really good.  He made some mistakes but when you play that much, and you almost always out with a freshman, that is bound to happen.  I think he's been the team's best player this year and has really stepped up in the games where the team has been thin on the blueline.  He is also second on the team in goals and third in points right now.  I agree that Pokuluk and Krantz have been brutal.  Krantz at least has gotten better than he was the first few games where he was consistently making enormous mistakes.  Pokuluk has been this year's biggest disappointment along with McKee to this point.  He doesn't use his size at all and doesn't seem to want the puck even though he is very skilled.  He also never uses his suppossedly booming shot.  Seminoff had a great weekend and Salmela was pretty good too.  

[redhair34]

Thoughts from last night...

- Pokoluk=awful...he again telegraphed a few passes in the first period that lead to turnovers.  A better team may have converted one of those turnovers to goals.  The slashing penalty he took in the first was very foolish and costly.  Some might find this a tad extreme, but when Gleed comes back into the lineup I'd like to see Pokoluk come out for a game.

- The first and third (second he had no chance) looked to be pretty soft goals.  On the first goal it looked like McKee was out of position when he went down for the kick save, he left about a couple feet of open goal for the Niagra player to just slide it in.  On the third I believe it went right through his legs--it looked like he just didn't get down quick enough for it.  He made some big saves at times, and at other times he looked completely out of it; he had trouble making routine saves from beyond the blueline, puck handling etc.  I really hope Dave gets it back to at least average.  

- The interference call by Kirk on Pokulok was hands down the worst call of the year so far.

- I thought both Abbotts, especially Cam, were painfully average this weekend.  The senior class collectively had a very average weekend.  I hope Schafer has finally canned the Abbott-Bitz-Moulson line.

- Although we did score 2 pp goals last night I wasn't very impressed with our PP this weekend.  Our first unit has two plays: a one-timer by O'Byrne or Moulson trying to snipe in the high slot.  I think we need a third option-- a backdoor play or something.  Having said that, I really like O'Byrne.  If his puck handling improves on the point (give him time), I think we may have the next Cook on our hands.  It was nice to see the second unit get a goal.  Pegoraro also had a real nice cross ice pass to Mugford (or McCutheon?) who missed an opportunity for an open net.  I hope this gives them some much needed confidence heading into next weekend.

- Ditto to everything people said about the Freshman line and McCutcheon.

- I really liked what I saw from Sawada last night (and this weekend).  He did a great job carrying the puck into the offensive zone.  He was fast...he worked well along the boards and popped out a few pucks from behind the net to Mugford and Abbott in the slot.  Had Mugford or Abbott been Moulson I think one of those opportunities would have resulted in a goal.  If he starts checking like he used to, I would be in favor of putting him back on the top line for a night to see how he does.

- Overall I like what I saw this weekend from some unexpected players.  Our upperclassmen had an off weekend but the underclassmen picked up the slack.  It looks like all of the freshmen have carved a niche for themselves in the team.  I like the way our team is headed, and I'm praying for the coming of the real McKee.  

[jy3]

some thoughts about the game...
1st, my wifes little cousins loved the game. they were the ones in sec 122 chanting lets go red the whole first period
one of them (grace) was the little blonde girl who had the "i did my time in line" t-shirt on, I know a few people got a picture of her (if u can email it to me that would rock)
ok so besides the kids wanted more hockey...

this is no top 10 team. very sloppy play, off on passes, trouble breaking out, defense standing still at times...
I had expected them to look like a more cohesive unit. They will get to that level, but are far from it.
our netminder - i think it is all a lack of confidence. He gets down on himself over every goal, at least last night he did, especially the 3rd goal. I also wonder if he tweaked a hamstring, esp on that 2nd goal last night.  he has gotten left out to dry on some goals, but last night I think he could have saved 2 of the 3 goals had he been confident. the 3rd goal was a frustrating goal as the offenseman bounced it off daves knee and in. but dave was out of position because he was not able to push using his skate and get across the crease so instead reached over with his glove. that indicates a tweaked hamstring. hopefully not...
powerplay was stagnant most of the game, as was 5v5 action. the offense showed some spunk after the powerplay goal in the second but seemed to be having trouble with niagara clogging the middle and at times running the neutral zone trap.
niagara played a solid game.

the officiating was aweful both ways. the one hooking call on cornell was a player not being able to skate and tripping over the red line - clear as day on the replay. both interfence calls, one against cornell and one against niagara, were bad calls. the goal should have been a goal. I did not hear a whistle, the ref pointed down as if it a goal...there was no crease because the cornell player was pushed into the goal...i dont know what happened there. anyone know?

[Jim Hyla]

In regards to the PP, I think the reason we shot so much from the point is that's what they gave us. We moved the puck well, and they sat back allowing alot of movement by us near the blue line. We definately were trying to go down low, but they collapsed and did not allow alot of cross ice passes. Overall I thought our PP looked good.

Mckee's third goal was soft, even his mom had a pained look. However you have to wonder if he's not 100%. We would never know, of course. If it's all in his head, I'll leave it up to Coach whether it's better to play him or sit him down. If it was me, I'd like to try and play through it; we don't have a minor league where we can send a player down to better his skills under game conditions. In any regard, Coach certainly knows better than me. Unfortunately, compared to last year, his save percentage this year equals about a goal per game.

Finally, Ari thanks for the cowbell before our winning PP. I know you were under watch to be thrown out if it was played, but maybe that was the winning touch.:-)

[redhair34]

[Q]calgARI '07 Wrote:

Seminoff did really well.  [/q]

Agreed.  He has really stepped it up the last two weekends.  He reminds me of Cook with an attitude.