October 17, 2008

Men’s Ice Hockey Faces U-18 National Team in Exhibition

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Although the unseasonably warm weather isn’t much of an indicator, hockey season is just around the corner. The men’s hockey team will take the Lynah Rink ice for the first time this season tomorrow night at 7 p.m., facing off in an exhibition against the U.S. U-18 National Team. The Red and the National Team have been frequent opponents in the preseason in recent years.
Cornell is coming off a season in which it stumbled to the regular season finish line, losing five of its last eight, before making a somewhat surprising run to the semis of the ECAC Hockey tournament. After losing to Harvard in the penultimate game of the tournament, Cornell bounced back to take third place against Colgate.
As usual, though, that exact team will not have a chance at redemption after graduating four seniors and welcoming in six freshmen. However, the 2008-09 version of the Red has arguably received the most preseason hype since the 2005-06 squad. The preseason media poll picked this year’s team to finish third in ECAC Hockey.
The ranking comes from the strength of three preseason All-ECAC Hockey candidates. Junior forward and co-captain Colin Greening, junior goalkeeper Ben Scrivens and sophomore forward Riley Nash were all coaches picks for the squad.
The U-18 squad may present more than just a warm up game, though. The team is coming off a 5-4 win over Cornell conference foe RPI last weekend. Kyle Palmieri led the way on offense for the U-18 team with a goal and an assist.
The win, spurred by a four-goal second period, made the U-18 2-0 against ECAC Hockey competition and 3-2 overall against NCAA Division I squads.