(Long) Thoughts on Cornell/Waterloo Thanks to Greg for his box scores, line-ups and commentary. It was hard to follow Cornell on Saturday because there were no names on the uniforms. My two cents on the game: Goaltending: Andy Bandurski looked shaky at first. I believed his knee was still bothering him a bit so he was not quite 100% physically. It was also a case of nerves, as reported in today's Cornell Daily Sun. We chatted with Andy's parents during the first intermission. Marilyn showed little sign of worrying, but she did think Andy was slightly off his usual mark. Dad Vince said Andy probably would go into the locker room, sit down, and collect himself. The kid had a tough mental attitude. Sure enough, he settled down in the second period and made some very good saves. (The third Waterloo goal was probably a fluke goal; it hit the ice in the crease and seemingly took a 90-degree turn toward the net) One obvious thing was that Andy played very differently in style compared to Parris Duffus: Andy liked to play the puck and would come out to challenge the puck. At times that was not a good thing, but he generally was able to poke the puck away. I did not think the coaching staff at any point considered pulling Andy, for there really was not much depth in the goaltending department. After the game, all players skated out to Andy and patted him on his helmet or on his back, a clear sign that they held him in high regard and affection, and were congratulating him for the win. Coach McCutcheon and assistant coach Taylor also shook Andy's hand prior to joining the rest of the team to shake hands with Waterloo. Offense: When Cornell quickly answered back with two goals to even the game, many of us began to sense that the high scoring in the Red and White scrimmage might not have been an accident. Greg was right that these lines seemed to be able to bring the puck into the Waterloo zone and take quality shots. I did not recall any "garbage" goal. Several goals were scored with good set-ups or passing, such as the Scollan drop to Hannah, who scored on the open side of the net. Ryan Hughes's blistering shot from the top of the left face-off circle got past Shane Murphy's pad and found the inside of the goal post. The Drouin-Hughes-McManus line also boasted size and heft for the offense, in addition to fire power. And how about Shawn Hannah? Is he back to his freshman form? Possibly. He certainly showed speed and mobility. He consistently played with a lot of heart. His hat trick also came about because of team work. I was very impressed by the passing skill of this new Cornell team. Players seemed very unselfish in dishing out the pucks to create scoring opportunities. They still played some dump-and-chase, but I saw some cross-ice passings that were not seen much last season. Defense: This defense is so young that I don't think we can really judge it by one game. I happened to think that the freshmen played adequately. There were mistakes that led to a few 2-on-1 or 3-on-2's, but let's face it, like Vince Bandurski said, this was a game that you could afford to make mistakes. I also thought Cornell's penalty killing was fairly effective, but maybe Waterloo did not pose too much threat to make me feel otherwise. I did notice a ton of penalties issued by the two refs. Do you think the two-ref system has resulted in more penalty calls in this young season? By the way, three or four times the Waterloo players and Cornell players got physically and nearly ended up in fights (one instance in the 2nd period, behind the Cornell net, players from both teams were pushing one another against the board, while Bandurski skated away from the scene. A smart move.). My future borther-in-law, who is from S. Carolina (a Clemson grad), drove from Buffalo to make this game (he's consulting in Niagara), his first ever collegiate hockey game. He got to Lynah at the top of the 2nd period, and really enjoyed the rest of the game. I do hope that this exhibition game was indicative of the season to come (hey, one can always hope!). Tom Y. Tseng Cornell '87 MEng '94?