The Cornell men’s hockey team will host Maine tonight at 7 p.m. in Lynah Rink.
For the Red, this will be a challenge, as Maine is ranked in the top-10 in the nation.
“We are excited to play a team of their caliber at home,” head coach Mike Schafer ’86 said.
For the Red (2-2-1, 2-1-1 ECAC) this is a good chance to measure itself against some of the top competition in the country. In order to defeat the Black Bears, Cornell is taking a defense-first attitude.
“We have to limit their chances like we have been doing for every other team. If we can, we have a good chance of winning,” junior goaltender Matt Underhill said. Underhill shutout Brown on Saturday night, stopping 16 shots.
“We have to stick to our kind of system, we play a defense-first, take care of our own zone and get it out and get it down and cycle it their zone,” senior tri-captain Danny Powell added.
While getting the puck out of its own zone has not been a problem for the Red thus far, but putting the puck in the opponent’s net has been challenging. indeed, Cornell managed only three goals in its two games this weekend.
This will be a rematch of last year’s game in Portland, Ma., where the team came to a 2-2 tie.
“I played them last year, the they put a lot of guys in front of the net. Controling rebounds is going to be the key — get them to the corners and covering them quickly,” Underhill said of the key to good goaltending against the Bears.
“They are kind of a high-flying offensive type time,” Powell said of the Bears.
But Schafer looks forward to the challenge and is expecting his team to do well.
“Good teams will challenge you, and they will expose weaknesses that you haven’t seen up to this point in time,” he said. “We are excited to play against a team like them. This is our rink and we want to win.”
Archived article by J.V. Anderton