The Cornell Daily Sun (https://cornellsun.com/author/mtm36cornell-edu/page/3/)
For the first time since the ECAC Hockey playoffs expanded to a 12-team format in 2003, the two lowest-seeded teams, No. 11 Rensselaer and No. 12 Brown, have advanced to the quarterfinals. As a result, second-seeded Cornell will host Rensselaer in a best-of-three series getting underway tonight at 7 p.m. The Red is anxious to return to the ice after a two-week hiatus in which many players utilized their bye week to recuperate.
In the wake of his 799th career victory on Saturday, Feb. 21, 2009, University of Connecticut head coach Jim Calhoun entered the post-game press conference. However, the topic of conversation was not the top-ranked Huskies’ 64-50 win over South Florida, or the coach’s fast-approaching milestone. Freelance journalist and political activist Ken Krayeske asked Calhoun about his $1.6 million salary in light of the state’s billion-dollar budget deficit. Republican Gov. Mary Jodi Rell has asked all state-employee unions for concessions and givebacks.
“Not a dime back,’’ Calhoun barked at Krayeske, regarding his salary.
After failing to score in the first two periods, Cornell (18-7-4, 13-6-3 ECAC Hockey) sliced Yale’s lead to 3-2 with two power play goals in the third period. However, the comeback was short-circuited as freshman forward Brian O’Neil netted his second goal of the evening with 45 seconds remaining in regulation to stake the Bulldogs to a 4-2 victory.
“We made some mistakes early on,” said head coach Mike Schafer ’86. “Give [Yale] credit. They came out with a lot of intensity. We didn’t come out with desperation right off the bat. I am happy our guys didn’t quit [when it was 3-0], kept pushing for it and tried to get the tying goal. But, I’m also disappointed because we can’t give up the goal that we gave up in the beginning of the game.”
Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it. Maybe this was a wise and brilliant saying in its day, but do not tell this to the baseball team. The 2005 season, when the Red won the Gehrig Division, is a distant memory while each of the past three seasons ended with Cornell in last place. However, when the baseball team opens up the 2009 campaign this weekend with back-to-back doubleheaders at the U.S. Naval Academy, the past three seasons will be the furthest thing from the players’ mind.
“Our big thing this year is that we’re not thinking about past years at all, said senior catcher Adam Jacobs. “We’re concentrating on this year. That’s our mindset. We go one pitch, one inning, one game at a time.”
The official impact of Cornell’s three-game skid, including a pair of road losses at Dartmouth and Harvard this past weekend, has yet to be determined. Will it be forever referred to as the St. Valentine’s Day massacre, or will it be remembered as a mere glitch along the Red’s championship path?
“There’s no overreaction from our players or our coaching staff, whether we’ve won three in a row or whether we lost three in a row,” said head coach Mike Schafer ’86. “It’s all about the next game and staying focused on making sure that we’re ready to go.”
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“There’s no overreaction from our players or our coaching staff, whether we’ve won three in a row or whether we lost three in a row,” said head coach Mike Schafer ’86. “It’s all about the next game and staying focused on making sure that we’re ready to go.”
According to Schafer, the Red’s (15-6-4, 10-5-3 ECAC Hockey) first three-game losing streak since last February is not a cause for alarm. Coincidentally, Friday night’s contest in Hanover, N.H. marked the first time in two and a half years that Cornell registered four goals and still lost the contest.
It was perhaps the most memorable dunk contest of all time. The high-flying acrobatics of the two finalists set the stage for future generations. Michael Jordan and Dominique Wilkins each entered the final round of the 1988 contest with one dunk title already under their belts.
“Nique” had just brought the crowd to its feet with his final dunk of the night, a two-handed windmill slam from the right side of the basket, but the judges only awarded him a cumulative 45 points out of 50. Jordan would at least have an opportunity to defend his thrown as the incumbent dunk champion, in front of a raucous hometown crowd at the United Center.
Shattering team records can present a daunting task, especially when your predecessors include the likes of hockey legend and six-time Stanley Cup champion Ken Dryden ’69 and a handful of past first-team all-American net minders, such as David LeNeveu ’05 and David McKee ’07.
However, junior goaltender Ben Scrivens has already established the all-time school record for tallying 206:44 consecutive minutes without permitting a goal and is on pace to shatter one, if not two, other individual records during the course of the 2008-09 campaign. While individual accomplishments are always nice, teammates of Scrivens also view them as an open invitation for some friendly ribbing.
This is embarrassing. I don’t quite know how to say this … I am a Yankees fan. Correction: I was a Yankee fan. I had been for quite some time. But, it is time to hang ‘em up. It is time to call it quits. Brett Favre, be damned, I am retiring from my endless pinstripe passion. Up until now, I have been waging an internal war concerning the stance I should take towards the boys from the Bronx. Last week proved to be the final straw.
After relinquishing a season-high eight goals Friday night to St. Lawrence, the Cornell defense put the rest of ECAC Hockey on notice that this defensive debacle was just a fluke with the Red’s sixth shutout of the year on Saturday night. Unfortunately for the Red, leading the nation in this category does not guarantee a victory when the offense takes the weekend off. This is exactly what transpired Saturday evening at Cheel Arena as Cornell and Clarkson skated to a lackluster 0-0 overtime tie.
Saturday night marks the first time this year that the Red was unable to rebound with a victory following a loss in its previous outing.