When looking at the 2002-2003 men’s hockey team’s success one need not look much farther than the talented and experienced senior class — a class with four NHL draft picks in it, a class which has led Cornell to a better season ever since it arrived in Ithaca for freshman year.
This year, though, the Class of ’06 might just be as talented, if not more talented as the seniors promised to be three years ago. Five forwards, one defenseman and one goalie make up the freshman class, and all of them have seen considerable ice time, except for netminder Louis Chabot who has the unenviable job of backing up sophomore David LeNeveu and junior Todd Marr.
“I think we’ve exceeded those expectations, actually, every body in our class has contributed a lot,” Shane Hynes said of his classmates.
“Offensively they’ve probably exceeded my expectations,” head coach Mike Schafer ’86 echoed. “They’ve given us the offense that we thought they’d provide us with when they came in.”
It only took 3:51 into the regular season for the freshman class to make itself known when Chris Abbott scored the first goal of Cornell’s season opener against Ohio State. And their presence has been integral of every game since. Just 19 games into the schedule these rookies have surpassed the total number of points that the last two freshman classes accumulated through the entire year. They have 41 points on 20 goals and 21 assists.
Chris’ twin brother Cam Abbott has six goals and five assists on the year while only missing one game and playing alongside junior Greg Hornby.
“Chris scored his first goal the first game, he beat me to it, but it’s good to get the first couple under you’re belt and get some confidence,” Cam Abbott said.
It certainly seems that the corps has gained confidence, maybe even a swagger over the last few months. Moulson, since he has been put on the top line with sophomore Ryan Vesce and Stephen B