The Other Conferences

By wpengine | March 8, 2002

CCHA

Of the four major conference tournaments, the CCHA will probably have the least suspenseful one when action kicks off this weekend. No. 5 Michigan State and No. 6 Michigan have easily distanced themselves from the rest of the pack. (The Wolverines are the top seed in the tourney, the Spartans are No. 2.) If either Michigan or Michigan State lose to Lake Superior or Bowling Green, respectively, this will probably be a pretty cold weekend in hell.

If any upsets do occur in the CCHA, put your money on the series between fourth-seeded Alaska-Fairbanks and ninth-seeded Ferris State. In fact, Ferris State has two of the top three scorers in the conference, and the Bulldogs split a series with Michigan State last weekend.

Fairbanks, on the other hand, was ranked No. 12 in the CCHA preseason poll. By the way, there are only 12 teams in the CCHA. According to our well-placed sources in the conference, Fairbanks has been playing “over its head” this season. Luckily for the Nanooks, though, the series will be in Alaska.

Who We Think Will Advance: No. 1 Michigan, No. 2 Michigan State, No. 3 N. Michigan, No. 5 Nebraska-Omaha, No. 7 Ohio State and No. 9 Ferris State.

Hockey East

Defending national champion Boston College has been a sleeping giant all year. It’s slipped under the Hockey East radar despite wins over B.U. and Maine, as well as a close loss to UNH last Saturday. The Eagles finally have their chance to break out this weekend when they visit Orono, Me., to play the Black Bears. Had the Bears swept Boston University last weekend, they would have avoided the Eagles, but Maine could only take three points from the Terriers, and hence they will have arguably the toughest first round home matchup in the nation. (Maine is No. 3 in the tournament, B.C. is No. 6.) But the Eagles will have to do without J.D. Forrest — one of their top defenseman, who underwent surgery recently.

No. 4 UMass-Lowell and No. 5 Northeastern should also put on a good show this weekend. The River Hawks have rebounded recently from a huge mid-season skid. They’ve won four in a row, including the first game of their series with the Huskies last night.

Top-ranked UNH and B.U. should have a cakewalk against Merrimack and Providence, respectively.

Who We Think Will Advance: No. 1 UNH, No. 2 B.U., No. 3 Maine and No. 4 UMass-Lowell

WCHA

The WCHA has been the benchmark for the entire year. It has consistently kept four teams in the top 10. So it makes sense that it probably has some of the best tournament matchups in the country.

The best series in the WCHA is likely to be North Dakota versus Minnesota. While Minnesota has likely locked up an NCAA bid, the Sioux are fighting for one. And the only way they’ll get one is by winning the WCHA. North Dakota has been a smidge fickle this year though. It has defeated Minnesota, Maine, Denver, Michigan, Michigan St. and swept Colorado College — all top 10 teams. But, North Dakota has also managed to lose twice to MSU-Mankato and three times to Wisconsin. Will the real Fighting Sioux please stand up?

Another series of interest will be between Colorado College and Alaska-Anchorage — two teams who split their season series. Also on the WCHA plate is MSU-Mankato at Wisconsin, which features two ridiculously inconsistent teams that finished fifth and sixth in the conference.

Who We Think Will Advance: No. 1 Denver, No. 2 St. Cloud State, No. 3 Minnesota, No. 4 Colorado College and No. 6 MSU-Mankato

Archived article by Shiva Nagaraj

W. Hockey Falls Short

By wpengine March 11, 2002

The women’s hockey team wrapped up its season over the weekend against St. Lawrence in the ECAC North playoffs. The sixth seeded Red (9-18-1 overall, 7-8-1 conference) traveled north to Canton, NY to face off against the third ranked Saints. On Friday night St. Lawrence beat Cornell 4-3 in the first hard fought contest of the three game series. The Red went on to suffer a tough 2-1 overtime defeat Saturday in the second game. Cornell went into the contest looking to surprise the Saints and come away with an upset for the series. Early on Friday, that looked quite likely, and it remained possible through both of the weekend’s games. The Red came out of the gates quickly on Friday night, running up a 3-1 lead in the first period. St. Lawrence put the first point on the board less than a minute into the game with a quick slapper. Cornell answered defiantly under three minutes later when junior defenseman Brooke Bestwick burned the Saint’s defense and flicked in the puck, unassisted, to knot the game at 1-1. Junior Lindsay Murao put the Red up for the first time with a power play goal at 8:32 in the first period. Senior captain Jenel Bode and Bestwick assisted on the play. The team scored its final goal of the first with less than two minutes to go in the period when Bode fielded the rebound of a shot from senior captain Erinn Perushek and netted the puck. In the second period, St. Lawrence tied things up with a couple of power play goals. The Saints picked up the first at 2:51 in the period to cut the Red lead to 3-2, then made the best of a five on three advantage about ten minutes later. Cornell started out with a power play at 9:48, then lost the advantage with two penalties in 12 seconds scarcely a minute later. The penalties put the Red down by two players for more than a minute, and allowed St. Lawrence to tie the contest with a little more than seven minutes left in the second period. Cornell couldn’t crack the Saint’s defense in the third. The Red managed only one shot on goal — none in the first 19 minutes of the period — compared to St. Lawrence’s 12. Despite excellent play from Cornell junior goalie Sanya Sandahl, the game-winner found its way through at 8:34. The Red was outshot by St. Lawrence 42-18 in the game. On Saturday Cornell came out with an even tougher game than the day before. The two teams held each other scoreless for the first fourteen minutes of the contest. For the second day in a row St. Lawrence scored first, putting the puck in on the power play for the advantage late in the first. In the second, Cornell held strong on defense, keeping all ten of the Saint’s shots out of the net to hold the score at 1-0. With an even greater sense of urgency, the Red came out shooting in the third period. For the first time over the weekend the Red matched St. Lawrence in shots on goal, with ten apiece. Those shots paid off for Cornell. Sophomore Anita Khar got the puck right off a face off and fired it in, unassisted, to tie the game at one all in the middle of the period. Both of the defenses locked down to put the game into overtime, when the Saints got the puck out from behind the Cornell net, caught a rebound off junior goalie Liz Connelly’s pad and netted the game winner. The Saints will play in the ECAC North semifinals next weekend in Dartmouth. The series defeat sends Cornell home for the season. It marks the end of a remarkable late-season turn-around for the Red. After starting out 2-9-1 in November and December, Cornell earned a 9-8-1 record after December. The Red finished off the regular season in style, with a four game winning streak. Without exhibition games, the team’s final record stands at 9-18-1 overall. The Red achieved a 7-8-1 conference record. Archived article by Matt James
M. Lax Romps UMBC

By wpengine March 11, 2002

After starting the season in rather disappointing fashion, men’s lacrosse head coach Jeff Tambroni talked about discovering the stride that would allow his team to play the “Cornell way.” For a program that prides itself on its stingy defense and gritty tenacious style, a season that started with an embarrassing 8-5 setback at Georgetown and a narrow 10-9 victory over mediocre Colgate was far from what it had expected. So, naturally Saturday’s home opener against Maryland-Baltimore County provided an opportunity for redemption. Consider step one of Cornell’s rejuvenation complete. “I thought today was the first game we played like a team,” Tambroni said following the Red’s 16-4 dismantling of its visitors. Prior to the game, the laxers huddled around the number of legendary Cornell player Eamon McEneaney ’77, who lost his life in the attack on the World Trade Center buildings. “We talked about being a more committed player and teammate. It’s about the passion that No. 10 brought to Cornell lacrosse,” Tambroni offered. That passion was palpable all afternoon on Schoellkopf Field as the Red put on a clinic at both ends of the ball. Sophomore middie Andrew Collins single-handedly outscored the Retrievers, pacing the Red with seven points on four goals. Eight others joined the scoring party for Cornell, who took a 6-2 lead into the intermission. The Red outshoot UMBC 46-21 on the day. “Everyone got a touch,” Collins said. “Everyone got a chance to play. We moved the ball around well. The chemistry was really there.” “One of the things that we talked about because of the loss of three attackers was that we had to share the ball and have different people step up,” Tambroni affirmed. “It was a collective effort offensively.” Throughout the preseason, the team preached its new look attack that was smaller and craftier in the wake of the loss of three seniors to graduation. It was touted as a strategy that would enable Cornell to operate more fluently from behind the net and it worked to perfection Saturday. Just under three minutes into the game, Collins set up behind the cage and found emerging sophomore Ian Rosenberger who fired it past UMBC netminder Tim Flannigan. The Red tallied three more scores in a span of as many minutes in the middle of the opening period to stake itself to a 4-0 lead. Two came off the stick of freshman stud Sean Greenhalgh. By any measure, Cornell dominated the game. Most notably, the Red returned to its usual form, picking up 49 ground balls compared to the Retrievers 22. “If your team is picking up ground balls, you know your getting an effort out of your guys,” Tambroni praised. The home side also received another strong effort from senior faceoff specialist Addison Sollog who won 15 of 23 draws. Cornell used this advantage to strangle its opponents in terms of the time of possession battle. “It’s good to see Addison getting back on track,” Tambroni said. “He’s the one guy who has been the most focused the last few weeks. When he has a good performance we are disappointed and when he has a great performance we expect it.” The second period was the most contested as the teams each scored twice. UMBC cut the Cornell lead to 5-2 when Josh Gerber set up Adam Shiley at the 7:45 mark of the middle period. The Retrievers picked up both of their goals in transition, but despite moments of mounting pressure on Red netminder Justin Cynar, the Cornell close defense foiled any attempt to establish a legitimate offensive threat. “Our defense was talking and that was something we’ve been working on in practice,” sophomore defender Tim DeBlois said. “We were all on the same page. It was clicking out there.” The defense also chimed in on the offensive end, with senior standout All-American Ryan McClay joining in the offensive zone for two of the Red’s scores. Junior defenseman Frank Sands netted Cornell’s final score at the 9:54 mark of the fourth quarter. After Joey Kesterman’s unassisted goal in the final moments of the third period, it was all Cornell, as the Red reeled off six goals in the closing 15 minutes. Two came courtesy of freshman Justin Redd, including a blistering point blank shot from 15-yards out. “The freshman class is really stepping up for us. They’re coming out and playing confident,” Collins said. Added Tambroni: “They’ve really given us a boost early in the year, at a time when I think a lot of people expected us to have some growing pains because of graduation.” On a down note, Greenhalgh suffered a minor concussion early in the game. Tambroni termed his status as “very questionable” for Tuesday’s game against Canisius. Saturday’s contest gave Tambroni a chance to showcase his squad’s depth, as 30 members of the team saw action including freshman backup goalie Kyle Miller who recorded one save through 3:11 of playing time. Cynar who was largely untested notched seven saves. The win appeared to lend a dose of confidence to a Cornell squad that has just two more games before it opens its Ivy League schedule against Yale on Mar. 23. Said DeBlois: “All week in practice our seniors and captains have realized the sense of urgency. I think we had a little bit of a lull [in the first two games], but now we are back in stride.” Archived article by Gary Schueller