Hi -
Bill Fenwick <[log in to unmask]> writes:
>Cornell ventured outside the ECAC for the first time this season in hosting
>8th-ranked Miami on Saturday night. The Big Red fell behind 3-0 before
>scrambling to tie the score, but ultimately wound up on the short end of a
>5-4 score. I don't have much on this game, since I wasn't there.
Well, Bill wasn't there because *I* was using his ticket (thanks, Bill :-)
so I guess I'd best fill in the blanks a bit ....
>According to newspaper reports, one of the biggest worries for Miami coach
>Mark Mazzoleni was that his team, fresh off a big 14-2 win over Colgate the
>night before, would come out flat...
Hmmm, well .... Marooned in S. Maryland as I am, my fixes of college hockey
tend to come in short, intense batches, so while in transit/residence in up-
state NY for the Thanksgiving Holiday I dropped in on Cornell-Princeton at
Hobey Baker Rink last weekend, then attended both of Miami's inter-conference
matchups with Colgate (at Starr) and Cornell (at Lynah) this past weekend ....
In a nutshell, IMO Princeton largely outplayed the Big Red for much of their
game, but two timely PP goals in the 2nd period carried the day. Vs. Miami
at home in the friendly Lynah confines, that wouldn't be nearly enough, as
Miami was *relentless* from the opening face-off. Wave after wave of Redskin
sweaters had swarmed the Colgate net on Friday night, and it soon became some-
thing of a parlor game in my section of the stands re: when - not if - the
Miami lead would reach double figures. Wrap-arounds, point blasts, in-close
tuck-ins, it hardly mattered; Miami had its collective sticks on the Colgate
jugular from the git-go and never let up. If Mazzoleni was truly worried
about a let-down from his team on Saturday, he concealed it from his players
well - much of the first period vs. Cornell looked like a seamless contin-
uation of the previous night's offensive onslaught. His team is big - and
blazingly fast; constant motion in the offensive zone sets up myriad scoring
chances, and both Cornell/Colgate were frequently reduced to playing chase
the puck-carrier, often with disastrous results; three quick MU goals, the
last a power-play tally, had Cornell in a deep hole early on. But:
>At this point, it looked like Miami would enjoy its second blowout win in
>as many nights, but suddenly Cornell got on the board with 3:43 remaining
>in the first period. A flubbed clearing pass at the Miami blue line wound
>up on the stick of Jeff Burgoyne, who skated toward the Redskin net, fired,
>and backhanded his own rebound over goalie Adam Lord's shoulder.
This was a *huge* goal, essentially a 2-goal swing, as just seconds earlier
Elliott had stoned a clean Miami breakaway bid that would have ballooned the
Redskin lead to 4-0. Hustling quickly back up-ice, Cornell was quick to
capitalize on Miami's errant clearing pass; instead of trailing 0-4, it was
suddenly only 1-3, and the Big Red - not to mention the noisy Lynah Faithful -
had come to life ....
>The goal seemed to fire up the Big Red, who came out after intermission and
>almost totally dominated the second period. Only spectacular play by Lord
>kept Cornell from getting more than the one goal they got during the middle
>period, which came at the 12:36 mark.
This was much the same pattern as at Princeton the week before; outplayed
for much of the first period, Schafer/Cornell seems to have the knack for
making timely between-period strategic adjustments, with impressive results.
Now if only Cornell could learn to come out of the chute with as much dis-
cipline and carry the play, rather than simply reacting to the tempo dictated
by their opponents ....
>Freshman center Ryan Moynihan tied the game at 3-3 1:33 into the third per-
>iod, taking a pass from Jamie Papp, deking Lord to the ice, and sliding the
>puck into the empty net.
This was as pretty a goal on individual effort as you'll ever want to see.
Skating down the right wing, Moynihan drew Lord over to the near post, then
head-faked a short-side shot that Lord over-committed on. Still in motion
with the puck on his forehand, Moynihan then richocheted a pass off his own
(trailing) skate directly to his backhand, and tapped it into the wide-open
chasm at the far post. Wow ....
Despite eventually losing 4-5, Cornell appears to be in good shape; they
aren't likely to see another team as deep as Miami until (perhaps) the NC$$
Tournament. All 4 Miami lines are fast and shifty, and - much as UNH seems
to be doing this year as well - grind down their opponents over time with
relentless offensive pressure on every shift. The experience will serve
the Big Red well; come Tournament time I expect they'll be ready to better
match up against fast, deep teams like Michigan, Miami, etc. ....
*******
Of more general interest to the List was a chat I had with Bill's neighbor
in section CC. He was wearing a Quinnipiac College Hockey cap, so naturally
I struck up a conversation re: Quinnipiac's announced intentions to upgrade
their athletic program to DivI. It turns out his son plays for Quinnipiac,
and yes, starting next season, QC intends to begin slowly upgrading from their
current DivIII status (ECAC South) to a DivI schedule. Planning for an on-
campus Arena (that QC currently lacks) is underway, as is the formation of a
new DivI conference. Apparently this new conference will join together:
(1) the handful of schools currently competing at a (grand-fathered; but
soon to be disallowed) lower classification than the remainder of their
athletic program: UConn, Villanova, Iona, etc.
(2) Army, and
(3) several new programs, including Rutgers, Bridgeport, and several other
schools that he couldn't remember.
While the formation of such a loose conference/confederation has been
discussed in passing on the List before, the inclusion of heretofore unmen-
tioned programs such as Rutgers, etc., coupled with the indication that
progress has been made beyond the talking stage, was news to me. It'll be
interesting to see how fast and in what direction this initiative eventually
plays out, and to what degree these DivI "newbies" can/will compete with the
rest of the DivI hockey community.
Cheers from the Chesapeake - Jim
Go Blue !!
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