Cornell ended Union's season Saturday night at Achilles, beating the
Dutchmen, 3-1.  Combined with Yale and SLU wins, Union finishes up in
11th place, despite a respectable league record of 8-11-3.  Union's
overall record ends up even at 13-13-6.  A 2-6-1 league record down
the stretch turned a legitimate shot for home ice into a very
disappointing finish, one point out of the playoff picture.

On Saturday night, Cornell was all over Union for two periods, and
only the goaltending of Brandon Snee kept it a game as Cornell built
an unbelievable 29-7 shot advantage.  Union tried to climb back in the
third, getting a Nathan Gillies goal to make it 3-1.  They did have
several more chances, including some with Snee on the bench for the
final two minutes or so.  Union outshot Cornell 12-1 in the third.

But for the most part, Cornell showed why they ran away with the ECAC
this season and remain well up in the national rankings.  They're big,
fast, and skilled.  One interesting note about Cornell is that they
dressed only one goaltender.  I don't know what would have happened if
he got injured.

A ceremony following the game honored Union's six seniors - Seamus
Galligan, Charles Simard, Jeff Hutchins, Doug Christiansen, and
Brandon Snee.  All were important contributors and will be missed.
Probably none more than Snee, who rewrote the goaltending record book,
replacing Trevor Koenig's name in several categories.

I'll have some pictures from the game and the senior night ceremonies
up at http://www.vu.union.edu/~hockey within the next few days.

A quick search of USCHO's archives shows that 19 points is usually
good for 7th or 8th place in the ECAC.  This is the best record by a
team to finish as low as 11th since the ECAC went to 12 teams
following the HE split after the 1983-84 season.  It looks like the
2001 Colgate Red Raiders and the 1998 Dartmouth Big Green each had 17
points in their 11th place-finishes.  8-11-3 wasn't good enough this
year, though, as other than Cornell at #1 and Vermont at #12, everyone
in the league had no more than 11 wins and no more than 11 losses, and
only 4 points separate 3rd from 11th in the final standings.

--
Jim Teresco - [log in to unmask]
http://www.teresco.org