I'll add just a few comments.  Although I left my pad at home, I remember a
few things from the game.
 
As Mark stated, a strange and poorly officiated game.  I had Mike Noeth
deliberately ignoring an elbow smash to the face and glass on Steve Caley
midway in the second.  I also did not see any slash by a Cornell player
in the third.
 
Also, the game really turned on special teams.  At even strength RPI
looked noticeably stronger than Cornell.  Frankly Cornell's snipers
suffered from a lack of creativity around the net, allowing RPI's D's to
wait until the puck went to the center and then simply sweep it off to the
sides.  Two easy breakaways were thwarted by: the Cornell player failing
to notice the puck was literally at his feet, and the Cornell forward
failing to pull the trigger until an RPI player could go into his
defensive slide.  The Engineers virtually owned the center zone all night
with Cornell virtually never able to go in on odd man rushes.
 
But special teams!  The power plan is degrading into sheer ineptitude for
RPI which last night included allowing a short hander.  The Engineer kill
took notice and allowed three straight power play goals for the Red, a
PP percentage of around 60% for Cornell.  And the goals were scored from
utter breakdowns, RPI d's failing to get out to open players after a
face-off in their own end, two RPI defenders going into mistimed slides
allowing the Cornell forward an unmolested shot and SHG.  Engineer power
plays that were frequently shotless, power plays spent with 30 seconds
in the attack zone.  The Engineer power play now lives and dies on quick
plays from down low if some forward is lucky enough to set up in front of
the opposing goalie.  The puck is never passed around the perimeter to
expose the defense's holes, although that may be warranted as one pass
back to the point was allowed to trickle over the blue line as both
pointmen watched in awe.
 
RPI's offense is a delight to witness.  The first five goals were highly
skilled, hard working efforts.  If anyone out there has not seen Matt
Murley, RPI's talented freshman, I encourage you to do so.  His only
problem at this point is finding players who can skate at his level.  He
has feel for the game, and an uncanny knack for finding the right spot on
the ice to occupy.  He constantly makes those drop dead passes in front
which only require someone there to touch, although more often than not
his fellow linemates aren't on the same page.  IMO, the overwhelming
choice for rookie of the year in the ECAC.
 
But offense does not always win games.  The Engineers must somehow return
to their goal stingy string of early January if they have any hopes of
avoiding last year's inauspicious finale.
****************************************************************************
Brian Morris                RPI Engineers--Third in the ECAC
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