He’s back.
After suffering an injury on February 10 during a 1-0 loss at Yale, sophomore defenseman Doug Murray will be in the lineup this weekend for the Cornell men’s hockey team.
“It is good to be back,” said the big Swede.
After having a laundry list of injuries which he played through, Murray was finally knocked out of the lineup at Yale. The team has struggled without him, going 2-4-1 since the incident.
The slide gave the Red a regular season record of 13-11-5 overall and 11-8-3 ECAC, good for fourth in the league.
“It is the playoffs, there is no better time to be back,” Murray said.
And the Red will need his physical presence. With a speedy Princeton team coming to East Hill this weekend, Cornell will look to Murray to hit the Tigers’ top players and slow down the game.
“I’m just going to play the way I always do. I’ll hit everyone, especially the top guys and try and get a little extra on them,” Murray said.
“He is one of the best defenders in the ECAC — he is physical, he hits a ton and he just intimidates players out there. And he is a great offensive player,” junior Denis Ladouceur added.
And it is Murray’s offensive presence which may mean the most to the Red, which has been struggling to score, even on its vaunted power play.
“He gives our power play a boost, from the standpoint that the power play has a lot of options to it and Doug brings that final option — the big shot from the point,” head coach Mike Schafer ’86 said. “Teams are aware of it. You have to take him away, if you don’t he will score from out there. And if you do take him away there are all kinds of other options.”
While Murray hopes to improve the power play, he cautions that he may not be the complete answer.
“I had a shot at the beginning of the season, too, and the power play wasn’t doing that well then,” he said.
However, his return seems to have given the team a boost of confidence for the power play.
“His shot is so heavy and hard and it gets to the net and that is what causes everything,” said Ladouceur. “Either it will go in, or it will hit something and go in or it will hit something and then rebound.”
Murray is excited to play, and the team is glad to have him back.
“He has a lot of poise with the puck and he makes good plays with being more than just being a physical player,” Schafer said.
Archived article by J.V. Anderton