Men:
 
Friday: Harvard 5 Cornell 4
Saturday: Brown 7 Cornell 3
 
Women:
 
Saturday: Brown 11 Cornell 4
Sunday: Providence 9 Cornell 1
 
 
Comments:
 
This was not a good weekend to be a Cornell hockey fan, as the
teams went 0-4 and were soundly routed in three of the matches.
 
Harvard scored 4 PPG on Friday, 2 when they were 2 men up,
and Cornell really had nobody to blame but themselves for losing
a game they should have won.  Cornell outscored the Crimson
4-1 at even strength, and completely dominated the last 15
minutes of the contest, coming back from a 5-1 deficit and
even having a 2 minute advantage after pulling to within 1.  This
team has no power-play, however (they are now approximately
0-for-25, no lie), and time just ran out on them.
 
On Saturday, the women stayed with Brown for about 20 minutes
(that's 2 minutes into the second period, by the way - the ECAC
apparently feels that 20 minute periods will just be too tough on
the ladies... sheesh), but the Bears' best players controlled the rest of
the game. I dunno how indicative of the women's game this was,
but the gap between the best and the average skaters was so large
that there was literally little or nothing CU could do when
Brown's stars had the puck.
 
Saturday night, Cornell's men outplayed Brown over the first 30
minutes and had several chances to improve upon a 2-1 lead.
But the Red were stuck at 3-3 after two periods, and came out
flat in front of replacement netminder Ed Skazyk in the third.
Play throughout the final period was listless and uninspired, and
once down 5-3 everybody in the building knew it was over (as
opposed to the previous night, when after CU scored to make it
5-2, the building shook for the rest of the game, and you left with
the certainty that another few minutes would have produced the
inevitable Cornell victory).
 
I was driving home Sunday, and missed the Providence rout.
 
---
 
Overall:
 
I was impressed by the women early on, before they were worn
down by Brown's superior speed.  Several of the skaters (Andy
Schmaltz and Lindsay Wakula come to mind) looked very good,
and I think this team will hold their own against the bulk of the
ECAC this year (the Providence squads both finished in the top
four by winning percentage last year).
 
The loss to Harvard was Cornell's 4th straight solid game, and
even the first 2/3 against Brown were credible (they had the
better of the play, but couldn't convert their chances).  The final
period did leave a bad taste in our mouths for the whole weekend,
but neither we nor the team should dwell too long on it.  This is a
far, far better team than last year's -- it just isn't good enough to
afford constant penalties and/or even brief periods of
sleep-walking against the ECAC's best squads.
 
Cornell hosts BU Tuesday in a renewal of one of college hockey's
most storied rivalries.  If Parker and company just go by the box
scores and assume they'll roll over Cornell, well... we'll see.
 
Greg
Boston
Let's Go Red!