All good things must come to an end. The undefeated streak that the Lady Rouge was on is no different. Much was made of the undefeated streak. It stretched for 10 games of consequence. Lest we forget though, this is Cornell hockey. The Red never measures success in terms of spans without losses. The carnelian weighs its success in terms of wins accumulated.

Win streaks of three and four games constituted the decade of games that passed without a loss. The ability to win games consecutively pay dividends when the second season arrives. Four games, conveniently, is the number that Cornell must win to bring an ECAC Hockey Championship back to East Hill. Three victories are required to win a national championship.

Those winning streaks contained wins of every variety that a championship-calibre team must be expected to win. There were games that Cornell should have entered expecting to win, particularly the meeting with an improved, but still beatable, Syracuse. There were games littered with emotion like that against Clarkson in the North Country (can we just name it the Jessica N. Brown Arena of Domination already?). There were games with pesky opponents whom Cornell should best but never could take for granted, in the guise of the respectable defense of Brown and a better-than-advertised, pesky Yale squad. There was a contest against a historic foe that Cornell found not only a way to win, but dominate, in the tilt with the Terriers. In other words, the ladies in carnelian have proven that they have the capacity to realize playoff glory.

Why did the streak end? Did Cornell's fuse run out? Was Harvard simply too good? Did the programmatic and institutional catharsis after the men's hockey team bested the Crimson prove too much to manage the next day? All but the lattermost are entirely untrue. The ultimate is likely inaccurate. The real culprit is far more reasonable. Its unsettling is proportionate to its reason.

In Cornell's run of ten games without a loss, four of the contests have been played without Doug Derraugh's preferred numbers. The season opened with the Big Red dressing 19 players against Boston College. Last weekend against Dartmouth and Harvard, the Lady Rouge dressed 13 and 14 skaters, respectively. The Red's numbers are depleted.

The 11 games that have passed since the Minnesota-Duluth series witnessed only ten skaters dress for all of the contests. The reasoning behind rotations in and out of college-hockey line-ups can be indiscernible, but the Lady Rouge have lost as many as 18 player-games due to injury during this 11-game span. The figure is likely lower, but serves as a model for envisioning with how short of a bench that Cornell has been playing.

Jill Saulnier has made her game more versatile. She has lost little on her offensive game from last season despite the return of Brianne Jenner, rise of production from underclassmen, and arrival of offensively skilled freshmen. The Nova Scotian is now a defensive marvel with her shot-blocking and puck-pressuring. Others may lead the team in goals or points, but few on this squad would have as high of a Corsi number for tilting the ice in Cornell's favor as she.

The loss of Jill Saulnier to injury should have proven fatal to this team. The senior, even when she is not scoring, relieves pressure on the Big Red's oft-tested backside. So, when she went down during the second game against the Elis, Cornell should have been doomed. It was not.

The team missed her sorely, but it found a way to win. One goal and a superb defensive effort in front of a jaw-dropping 41-save effort from Paula masked what would have been in most cases a season-altering storyline. Make no mistake, Jill is missed and will be missed until she returns, but impressively Cornell found a way to win two out of three games after she suffered an injury. The injury woes did not end there. 

Hanna Bunton did not appear in either game last weekend. The reported cause was injury. Within two games' span, the Lady Rouge lost ice-tilting extraordinaire Saulnier and the forward with the second-greatest rate of shot blocking. Cornell toppled a Dartmouth team that was a week removed from defeating Harvard. These absences are just the most ostentatious absences of late. This team has rallied around defense and exploited opportunity.

Unlike some of the juggernaut squads of other seasons like the 2010-11 team, this team has needed to prove that it can play defense with discipline and confidence. It does so often. It generates pressure, but Cornell can no longer walk over most of its opponents like it could just seasons ago. The rise of parity in women's hockey increases the need to win on strength of character. This trend is to Cornell's favor. This team has real character.

Players have stepped up to increase their offensive production. Four of the top five scorers for Cornell have remained the same before the unbeaten run. So, how can one believe that players have stepped up to put together such an impressive run? The answer is obvious. The top point producing players on the team averaged increases in their point production by 120% from the first nine games of the season and the 11-game run. 120%.

Let that settle. The leader of this group of six points-per-game producers during that run was Jess Brown. The Cat Lady was surely on the prowl during the last 11 games. She produced points at a rate of 395% more than she had in the first nine games of the regular season. 

The calls of vite vite pay dividends. Poudrier follows Brown closely with a positive production differential of 232%. Captain Brianne Jenner averages nearly two points per game now. She increased her output by over 90%, an astounding figure that the increases of other players dwarf still.

If Cornell is such a great team and so many trajectory lines indicate that the Big Red is improving at an impressive rate, why did it lose so deflatingly to its archrival? The answer is simple. No amount of spin from Katey Stone can mask how the Crimson beat Cornell. Sorry, Coach Stone, your team is neither the Minnesota Gophers nor the Edmonton Oilers of the 1980s. It was not speed and finesse that defeated Cornell, it was the Red's depleted numbers.

Harvard player Miye D'Oench boasted after the win, "Cornell has a really short bench, so we really wore them down with relentless forechecking and backchecking. By the end of the game, they really didn’t have that much left in the tank, so we were able to bury them." It was not quickness or creativity. No terms that Stone uses to distinguish Cornellian and Canadian hockey from their Harvardian and American counterparts to disparage the former and exalt the latter can change that.

Harvard played aggressive, hard hockey that wore down a team with an anemic roster. The Crimson did what any great team would do. It did what Cornell would have done if the tables were turned. Harvard is not a better team. Harvard was a healthier team, which made it the better team for those 60 minutes. One needs to recall only how the regular season and postseason of last season went to avoid panicking about a loss to the Cantabs. Cornell will have at least one more chance.

The focus is now on the next run. This writer is never one who demands winning out the regular season to get to the playoffs so long as the Lady Rouge wins in series of four and three games to occupy space above hallowed ice. Cornell has the personnel to carry itself on such a run. 

Kaitlin Doering and sometimes-forward-sometimes-defenseman Taylor Woods have put together impressive seasons. They look to continue to do so. Erin O'Connor, the Harvard rejector, glimmers of the possibility of being a blueliner unlike any that Cornell hockey has known during the NCAA era. Her comfort and speed in the offensive zone render her a continuous, rather than momentary, scoring threat whenever she is on the ice. O'Connor's defensive play has refined over recent weeks.

Any article about this team would be remiss without discussing Big Paula (we're all cool on that name, right?). The Shanty Bay native has become one of the most dominant goaltenders in the nation. Her save percentage places her among the nation's élite. Impressively, her performance trailed that of three-season starter and honorable adversary Emerance Maschmeyer, a goaltender whose talents are renowned, by merely two-tenths of one percent over Cornell's last 11 games.

Paula's potential is now known. She is a game-changing goaltender. She was the difference early against Boston University. The sophomore made Marie-Philip Poulin look unthreatening for most of that contest. The Yale contest would have gone differently if Voorheis was not there to weather the storm. Paula's save percentage of 0.950 and defensive play in front of her produced one of the nation's ten lowest goals-against average since the Minnesota-Duluth series.

Cornell has its eyes locked on another streak. It will be rejuvenated as the playoffs approach. The returns of players like Bunton and Saulnier are unclear. The debut of Sydnee Saracco is expected around the playoffs. She will provide yet another spark. When former 30-goal scorer Doug Derraugh describes her as an offensive threat with a natural scoring ability, one cannot help but look ahead to her first time in the Cornell sweater. Cornell will have the boosts to continue to improve over the course of the season as it did over the last run of 11 games. Health will return. There is one thing key not to forget. 

Battling injuries, Cornell went on a 7-3-1 run. What is the amazing part about this? Cornell continued to win.

Where will the next run take us?

Dear Cornell students who think that Cornell hockey is played but once a season at Lynah Rink:

We, the contributors of Where Angels Fear to Tread, write this as alumni, neither as fans nor new media. This letter is not directed at all of those who filled the stands of Lynah Rink on Friday, January 23. The thrust of this piece is pointed at those who seem to think that the carnelian and white take the ice only once a year, against the crimson and white. Yes, Friday's win was exhilarating. It was historic in ways that your cohort cannot comprehend. However, when The Game ended and Mike Schafer granted his customary post-game interview, he was loath to laud the assemblage of fans for the contest. 

We support his criticism of your lot. I doubt many of you even heard his words. Nothing else mattered to you once Harvard was slain. The season was over. It was the one game of the season in your minds riddled with foolish myopia.

The words of Coach Mike Schafer '86 follow. 

This is the moment at which we will engage in some self-congratulations. On December 16, 2014, the twitter account associated with Where Angels Fear to Tread highlighted a startling fact. Lynah Rink sold out only once in the entire first half of the season. That lone game occurred during "Parents' Weekend" on November 1, 2014. Games against recent national champion and arguably second-most hated Ivy League foe Yale, and uncommon guest and historic archenemy Denver did not sell out. An average of nearly five percent of the crowd was empty for those three contests.

This may not seem significant to once-per-season pilgrims of Lynah Rink like you. Trust us, it is disappointing. One may regard it as humiliating. Few generations of Cornell hockey players and coaches have known anything other than fanatical, sell-out crowds. Those players and coaches who struggle and labor continuously to represent well our University and you deserve your unflappable loyalty. 

Coach Schafer is correct. This team, the 99th team to represent Cornell University on the ice of intercollegiate competition, and its successors demand, and should receive, the support of full carnelian-clad buildings. Schafer's comments are neither hollow nor informed by the standards of long-forgotten eras. The principal contributors to Where Angels Fear to Tread are alumni whose time as students on East Hill and in Lynah Rink expired a complete generation after that of Schafer.

Do you remain incredulous? Do you need something more tangible to justify this criticism that you disappoint even the most recently graduated cadre of Lynah Faithful? Modernizing renovations at Lynah Rink wrapped before the 2006-07 season. The capacity of the Rink ballooned to 4,267. Cornell hockey has played eight complete seasons in a building with its current capacity. Those eight seasons drew crowds averaging fewer than 68 vacant seats. Half of those seasons enjoyed average draws above 99.0% of Lynah Rink's capacity.

Schafer's and our disgust is not a curmudgeonly one. Fans huddled around Beebe Lake in the 1910s to watch mere hockey practices. Their heirs watched outdoor games on the same lake in the 1920s, 1930s, and 1940s. The passion, involvement, and ritual associated with the Lynah Faithful for decades emerged and expanded around games that Ned Harkness, Dick Bertrand, Lou Reycroft, and Mike Schafer managed. Your chosen indifference mocks alumni from sprawling eras who viewed hockey as the embodiment of Cornell's ethos.

It is not hard to be a Cornell fan. Cornell wins, and it does so often. No decade has expired since the 1960s in which Cornell has won fewer than two tournament titles. However, we anticipate that you will claim that this Cornell hockey team or its era do not meet some amorphous standard of "good," which you believe justifies your indifference. Both points are far off-base.

Schafer's senior season, 1985-86, was removed further from an appearance in the NCAA tournament and a tournament championship than is this current season. Five and six years distanced Mike Schafer's senior season from those accomplishments, respectively. Cornell won the ECAC Hockey Championship in 2010. In 2012, the current senior class was integral to Cornell's NCAA tournament run and historic victory over Michigan. This team and era, no matter the outcome of this season in particular, provide exciting times during which Cornell hockey is played regularly at a moderately high level.

If you want the team to be better, why not go? The most imposing manner in which a collegiate fanbase can demand excellence from its team is attendance. Each day in practice and during every game, Cornell players see the banners hung above the ice. They know what student fans standing on the bleachers demand. If the team loses, and you find yourself nestled away in your room or bracing for the cold walk into Collegetown prematurely, whom did they disappoint? An empty building? The look of 4,267 disappointed Cornell fans is a far more potent motivator than truancy en masse.

Perhaps, we are guilty of hyperbole. An average of 107 empty seats in Lynah Rink inspires this diatribe, after all. However, addressing a group whose members largely strive to enter self-regulating professions, this missive seems appropriate. 

The Lynah Faithful have standards of admittance. We have expectations of behavior and conduct. History and tradition govern us. We are a self-regulating profession of sorts.

It is better to avert a burgeoning problem than grapple later with an entrenched deficiency, especially under a regime of self-regulation. This piece should serve as such an aversion. The pedigree and practices of Lynah Rink can be lost in the apathy of a few classes. These errors compound over time. One needs to regard only the fearsome home advantages that once accompanied programs like Boston University, Maine, New Hampshire, and Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute to realize that in short time, much can be lost. Those programs are lucky to draw crowds that fill 85.0% of their respective buildings now.

You will be remembered for your choices. Students of the McCutcheon era are reviled within our fanbase for choosing to forsake the student-athletes who represented our alma mater in our University's preferred pastime. Those fans who endured in Lynah Rink gained respect that accompany few others. It is more trying to support a program in its difficult times. No one is challenging that. Supporting a team in its difficult period is about proving character.

Character is why hockey is Cornell University's sport. It demands hard work. It is difficult in its simplicity. It is beautiful in its brutality. It is honest. It is blue collar. Hockey is quintessentially Cornellian. 

Passionate and zealous support is as well. The ethic of Cornell University never will be about doing what is easy. In fact, quite the opposite. Cornell University is about doing the difficult well because it is right.

The right thing in this context is to support this team. It is flawed and somewhat underachieving, but its grit and indomitability reflect our collective values. Trust us, this team is special. Even if in your mind it grows to be not, your time on East Hill is. Trust those whose time far above Cayuga's waters ended not too long ago. Some of your greatest memories will be at Lynah Rink, supporting Cornell hockey like generations of alumni before you.

Cornell hockey is at its greatest during each season's Cornell-Harvard series. Cornell hockey is always great. How do you even know that this game is special if you have been to few others? We assure you, despite your anticipated opinions to the contrary, it is not your self-aggrandized presence at the Cornell-Harvard game that increases its import. 

The Cornell-Harvard game would be special even if it were played in a vacant building. The series is too rich in its history to lose its meaning. The game manifests a clash of ideologies. Cornell and Harvard are foils, on and off the ice. The governing principles of Cornell University were enunciated in contradistinction to those of Harvard University. The hockey programs of both great institutions are equally diametric. The shared similarities and differences between these prestigious universities as they have played out in college hockey's greatest rivalry are what make the series unequaled. Fan support is a factor, granted a large one, but a factor nonetheless in the saga between these two universities and their hockey programs.

Frankly, you do not deserve to watch this team topple its archnemesis if you have not endured the scoring drought and suffered through the lean times. Enjoyment of the Cornell-Harvard game costs more than the absurd price of admission that I am sure many of you paid for the one contest that you will attend this season. It is purchased through the trials of the season and knowledge of that particular game's history. Most of you are delinquent in your payments. You do not grasp what the Cornell-Harvard game means until you fathom its contemporary and historic context.

You did yourselves a disservice. It is time that you correct it. Care. Learn something. Make generations of alumni proud to claim that the legacy that they built as Lynah Faithful endures in your loyalty and antics. Attend each remaining home game. Arrive during pregame warm-ups. Be there to demand of Cornell University's hockey team the same excellence expected of every student in the classroom during the week. 

Excellence in Cornell hockey is reciprocal. This team and its successors will give as much as it gets.

Truly yours,
Alumni who wish to preserve the tradition and character of Cornell hockey

Relive the experience of last week and its culmination in Friday's dramatic Cornell-Harvard game.

A great rivalry becomes known by its episodes much like a great sitcom. Like episodes in all ground-breaking sitcoms, any individual game encapsulates the essence of the great continuum that is the rivalry. The Cornell-Harvard rivalry resembles one great sitcom in particular: Friends. "Why Friends?," you may ask. The rivalry is so intertwined and consistent across time that one feels impelled to partake in observing it while the fan must resort to referring to each installment by its key events.

You know of what this writer speaks. A few key prompts, like the title of an episode, uncorks the dam that holds back a cascade of memories. The obvious installments are: The One with the Chicken and The One with All the Fish. Some other less common but equally important episodes are The One with the First Playoff Meeting, The One that Ends Bill Cleary's Career, The One where the Crimson Killer Strikes in Overtime, and The One that Completes a Four-win Sweep. 

There are many more that we can recall readily and feel compelled to share with other generations of fans. But, this is not the story of any of those that this writer has stated. This is a story whose retelling is almost as ubiquitous as those of the obvious installments. This is the background story of a tale that generations of Lynah Faithful know.

The Big Red of Cornell University and the Crimson of Harvard University barely could have approached their December 10, 1983 contests more divergently. Cornell had registered just one win against a college hockey program at the NCAA Division I level. The win came against ECAC Hockey's relative newcomer, Maine. A 2-5-0 record hung around the Big Red's neck.

It was the play of Harvard that better resembled at least some shade of red. The Crimson racked up four wins, one loss, and one tie before it braved Lynah Rink. Harvard hoped to be building itself one step closer to its elusive national title in the 1980s.

The Cornell-Harvard game had fostered all of its passions since the 1910s and maintained all of its spectacle from the 1960s. It had acquired even the fish that coated the ice as Harvard entered Lynah Rink more than a decade before December 10, 1983. However, the rivalry was in an interesting period of anabolism nonetheless.

The two installments preceding the December 1983 meeting prove this fact perfectly. Harvard fans found a novel way of wresting from Cornell a precious victory in February 1982. It worked so well that Harvard claimed a 7-0 home triumph. What was the tactic of Bright's denizens? Was it chants? Of course, not. The Harvard partisans hurled at Brian Hayward the customary chicken. The fowl found friends soon after in fish and tennis balls. The fare of the farm, sea, and court unsettled Hayward.

Harvard fans attempted the same the next season. Darren Eliot was undeterred dodging fowl, fish, and felt. He produced 42 dazzling saves on the banks of the Charles River. The Cantabs in the stands grew apoplectic. A foolish and depraved member of their ranks hurled a wine bottle and beer can at Eliot's back-turned neck. The bottle missed. The can did not.

The flying aluminum connected with the back of the Red netminder's head. He collapsed to the ice. In the confusion, Cornell's skaters were robbed of the ability to distinguish between those Crimson players relishing in just scoring the game-winning goal and those who were celebrating Eliot's misfortune. The Big Red retaliated. A mêlée ensued.

In a statement that served to be to his credit and prophecy, Harvard's legendary coach declared after the game, "if those are the fans we've got then we'll play in an empty rink." It was always far from an empty rink that greeted Bill Cleary and Harvard to East Hill. A sophomore defenseman had a new gimmick in mind to add to this notably vicious period in the rivalry.

Mike Schafer had seen the inside of the penalty box 23 times more often than pucks leaving his stick had found the back of the net in his freshman season. His fiery temperament was obvious. His team needed a spark to exact revenge. Intimidating the opposition and inspiring the lathering Lynah crowd were the best means by which to achieve that goal. He would not even wait until the opening face-off.

The fish flew. The newspapers of feigned indifference rattled. Harvard braved the blue line during line announcements.

Cornell's line-up was to be announced. Skater by skater, the Big Red starters raced to the blue line and sprayed the visiting Crimson. A blast of snow kept the Faithful primed. Schafer was ready to rile.

The announcement of the sophomore defenseman's name boomed through the mass of 4,100 fans. Schafer flashed the crowd a grin and the Crimson a look as he ventured from his own red line to the blue line. He waved his stick to the packed house as he neared his teammates. For those who could not read it during his skate, its blazoning became apparent the moment that Mike Schafer stopped and elevated the stick above his head.

"Harvard sucks." The stick had that scrawled across it. The whole congregation knew now as Schafer held the stick with both hands over his head, making sure that everyone in the building, whether wearing carnelian or crimson, knew what it said. He flexed. The stick plummeted down onto his head. The tool of his craft exploded into splinters when it met his head. The crowd erupted.

Schafer shook the fractured pieces ferociously at the Harvard line-up at the other blue line.

Most fans who were not even students at the time of that game can recount the events of that December 10, 1983 game before face-off. What few can speak of with any ease is how that contest unfolded after now-legendary head coach Mike Schafer broke a stick over his head. What followed the broken stick should be remembered equally.

Mike Schafer stood at the blue line while national anthems blared. He hoped that he had inspired his crowd and teammates to down the vitriolic villain in the annals of Cornell hockey history. The game would go far from how the defenseman expected.

It was the players of Harvard, not those of Cornell, who seemed invigorated by the pregame fanfare. The Crimson skaters took advantage of the intentions of the Big Red's defense to maintain a rigid bulkhead along Cornell's blue line. Harvard penetrated Cornell's zone and exploited its speed. Cornell fell behind 21 seconds into the contest.

Dave Connors, Phil Falcone, and Gary Martin constituted a Harvard line that filleted Don Fawcett, Cornell's netminder. Those three Cantabs gave Harvard three goals. A second line contributed another goal. The game was unraveling. It was aged only seven minutes and eight seconds.

Down four goals in less than half of a period, Lou Reycroft called his timeout. Fawcett was pulled. Freshman goaltender Jim Edmands replaced him. A borderline miracle would be needed for the Ithacans to salvage a tie let alone a win.

Cornell enjoyed a miraculous comeback five seasons before in the playoffs. The Big Red fell behind the Friars of Providence College by an identical margin to that by which Cornell was trailing Harvard in the 1979 ECAC Hockey Quarterfinals at Lynah Rink. Very unlike the Crimson, it took Providence over 40 minutes to amass that lead. 

No player from that 1978-79 team that defeated Providence remained on Cornell's team. The sweater remembered. The intervention of a Randy Willson would be unnecessary. That day, Cornell would make its own luck. Game play resumed.

In a critique laced equally with criticism and envy, The Harvard Crimson marveled at the behavior of the Lynah Faithful. "Anywhere else in the known world the fans would shut up. In Lynah they just got louder...," it reported. The working-class Ivy League institution and its fans were unimpressed. They knew that the yeomanly ethos of their skaters would stem the tide.

Reycroft knew that he needed a quick response. He gained one. The head coach sent Gary Cullen, Pete Marcov, and Duanne Moeser to take the next face-off. Instantly, the trio peppered Harvard's Grant Blair. The onslaught was as deadly as it was sudden. Blair made two saves. He needed to make three. Marcov backhanded the puck into the Crimson net. 

It took 12 seconds. It was obvious something special was about to happen.

The same line banked a puck from behind the Crimson net to winnow the margin. That was all just the first period.

The second period may not have involved a broken stick, a four-goal collapse, and the beginning of an apparent resurgence, but it did witness Cornell's continued dominance and determination. Captain Geoff Dervin deposited the puck off of a pass from Gary Cullen on the power play.

Cornell's defense had improved. It benefited from an aggressive press into the opposition's end. The Crimson registered just two shots in the second frame. Fittingly, it was a goal from Moeser assisted by Marcov and Connors that tied the contest. Cornell's top contributors outperformed their Harvard counterparts's early-game rush. Duanne Moeser registered a point on all four Cornell goals.

Mike Schafer's breaking the stick motivated his team. The carnelian and white played with uncommon fire. A broken stick and a stirring start to the affair would not remain the sophomore defenseman's only act in this contest.

Schafer was a key participant in Cornell's suffocating defense during the final 53 minutes of the contest. However, in this contest more than most, offensive pressure proved to be the most effective means of neutralizing Harvard's scoring potency. The stick-breaking berserker was compelled to partake in the game's more celebrated side of defense.

Cornell had sustained pressure in Harvard's end. "Ithaca's Rambo," as Harvard fans grew to call him over time, roamed around the corners in crease. He saw a familiar face in his opponent's netminder.

Grant Blair and Mike Schafer played junior hockey together before parting for rival programs in ECAC Hockey. The pair had won the famous Buckland Cup of the Ontario Junior Hockey League for the Guelph Platers. Blair saw far less game time than did Schafer, but Schafer was familiar with the netminder from Cambridge. The Red defender saw consistency in Blair's play.

Consistency became predictability in the mind of Schafer. The future captain patrolled the low slot. A shot from the blue line sent the puck deep. Schafer knew how Blair would play the puck. Schafer knew where an opening would be. He anticipated it. A rebound bounced out. A pouncing Schafer propelled it into the net. The crowd clamored.

Mike Schafer tucked a way what was then a go-ahead goal. The lead belonged to the home team. The sophomore defender gave it to his squad 1:56 into the third period. A Crimson tidal wave had been abated and contained.

Mark Henderson purchased insurance with a breakaway goal from Pete Marcov and Mark Major. Bill Cleary of Harvard, whom the superlative play of Cornell had silenced for much of the contest, tried to cut through the swelling cacophony of Lynah Rink to protest Henderson's goal as resulting from an offside play. It was not. The officials confirmed.

Schafer's goal stood as the game-winning tally for 15:29. For three-fourths of the third period, Schafer the motivator stood poised to be Schafer the difference maker. Harvard thwarted the ability of one of its most loathed and respected foes to stand as the player to tip victory in its favor. The Crimson marred that narrative from the record books with about two and a half minutes remaining.

Cornell avenged the disappointment brought to bear on the sophomore defenseman who would serve as captain in his next two seasons. A Red barrage of Blair prevent Bill Cleary from calling the goaltender to his side. Cornell had won.

The Big Red had overcome a 4-0 deficit against its archnemesis. The comeback was of the magnitude in score and emotion as the one four and a half years earlier. On that Saturday, Cornell had overcome momentum greater than that Providence brought to bear in 1979. The exuberance of the players and fans as Harvard departed the ice proved the enormity of the event.

Lou Reycroft was asked after the game what the historic and thrilling comeback win meant when it occurred against Harvard. In the moment, Reycroft dismissed with emphasizing the manner in which Cornell had downed Harvard and decided to focus on the emotion of the moment and result. The tenth coach of Cornell hockey summarized the episode that just wrapped and the entire rivalry by extension, "anytime you beat those bastards, it's a big win."

In the other locker room, Harvard head coach Bill Cleary marveled still about the stick-breaking opening of the contest. Perhaps, the untested pate of Bill Cleary was jealous because it was not the focal point of the contest as it usually was. Ithaca's least favorite "bald guy" characterized the rivalry and its newest spectacle, "it's a big show, and if he wants to do that, that's his choice. I hope his head's all right."

With the baldness of Bill Cleary, the container lobbed at the head of Darren Eliot, and the stick broken over the head of Mike Schafer, the Cornell-Harvard rivalry in the 1980s took upon a decidedly cranial tone in the nation's most cerebral rivalry. It was the broken stick that inspired a rabid rally from the Big Red and invested the Lynah Faithful in a contest that looked bleak early. The breaking of the stick may be most remembered or recalled, but the tremendous character-proving comeback it propelled should be no less forefront.

Fans from Ithaca to Cambridge never have forgotten The One with the Broken Stick.

Mike Schafer chose those words when closing his recap of last weekend's contests.

The Lynah Faithful should not disappoint their fearless leader. They should make sure that the Crimson has a warmer welcome than even they get usually. Oh, yes, the chants of "Harvard Sucks," "grade inflation," and "safety school" will be there. Of course, the fish will be there. But, another opportunity should not be squandered.

Half of the senior members of the Harvard roster already have carved themselves a little piece of history. Their notoriety is of the notorious rather than noteworthy sort. Max Everson, Steve Michalek, and Patrick McNally, all three essential players of this Harvard squad, were disgraced participants in Harvard University's cheating scandal in 2012. Many found their ability to remain with the program under such circumstances unbefitting the academic standards expected of the Ivy League.

We all make mistakes, such is true, but why make waste of such a ripe opportunity? These three special seniors of Harvard deserve a particularly pointed send-off for what likely will be their last game at Lynah Rink. Don't you agree?

We at Where Angels Fear to Tread have fashioned a welcome note of sorts for our rabid red throngs to share with these players and Harvard throughout the game and on the bench. Put it against the glass. Attach it to the back of your papers during line announcements. Just let them know how much we appreciate their tenures and addition of another chapter in the growing volumes of follies with which we harass our most hated foe.

Download and print Harvard Hockey's Honor Roll, found at the file below.

This is all said in the spirit of a passionate and historic, but generally good-spirited, rivalry.

But, in a rivalry this rich, we cannot ignore such a precious gem.

Sometimes there are moments during games when we find ourselves asking, "why do I put myself through this?" The week builds to a crescendo when finally the Red takes the ice. It is the recreational highlight of the week. Sure, losses can be expected, but through it all, as alumni or fans, we expect the Cornell hockey team to represent our community well, whether that community is the greater University or a corner of Upstate New York. There is no shame in supporting a team that loses a hard-fought contest when the bounces do not go your team's way. However, there is particular embarrassment and disappointment when our team fails to represent the values of our community.

Disappointment overcame the Lynah Faithful during the beginning of the St. Lawrence contest last weekend. The Saints raced ahead to a two-goal lead in less than five minutes of play. A Cornell team that had been held scoreless for 146:46 of game play had dug itself a deficit. The worst part of the opening frame and the early implosion was that Cornell seemed indifferent.

The clumsy bounce of a power-play goal off of a Red skater to beat ever-prepared Gillam for the second tally added to what seemed to be becoming a comedy of errors. There was no passion. It was apathetic. It was the closest that this writer has been to abandoning a game. Quickly, Cornell was headed in the wrong direction.

Mike Schafer implied during the Florida College Hockey Classic that he had seen the ugly head of dispassion reared. He elected to criticize this team's lack of "passion on the bench" and absence of "the will to win." The first period in Canton made it seem that a relapse for the weekend was all but inevitable.

The second period was a breath of fresh air more awakening than the brisk winds of the North Country. The switch was flipped. Cornell was outshot by just one shot over the final two periods. The Big Red established its trademark physicality and imposed a tenacious backcheck which allowed Cornell to tilt zone time in its favor over the last two periods.

The officials found the Saints deserving of their name with allowing them four power-play opportunities to Cornell's two. As this writer wrote earlier in the season, this team has the uncommon ability to play Cornell hockey when chasing a game. Half of this team's victories have come when it surrendered the lead.

The second and third periods made it hopeful that Cornell would complete another come-from-behind victory. St. Lawrence was absolutely smothered throughout the final frames. Jacob MacDonald dazzled with his offensive flair when he tucked the puck away off of a quick wrister from the left face-off circle.

St. Lawrence did find the back of an empty net to expand its winning margin. The lessons remained. Cornell could have won that contest in Appleton Arena if it had not taken the opening face-off flat-footed and dull-minded. In other words, it had the potential to get a very important win. But, as this writer established with this edition of Cornell hockey in particular, potential might as well be a four-letter word.

Cornell found resilience against St. Lawrence. Its resolve would be tested more the next evening. Gillam was expected to make his second start of the weekend at Cheel Arena. The sophomore netminder was injured during early-morning skates in Potsdam. Hayden Stewart became the necessary recipient of the nod for the evening. Stewart, like the team in front of him, delivered a stellar effort.

Cornell waited for less than half of the game to remain before Matt Buckles backhanded the rubber disc past Runola. Buckles's celebration after the goal was appropriate for taking a road lead over one of the historic powers of ECAC Hockey. Stewart made it all but obvious that he was going to keep his sheet clean through the contest. Jake Weidner gave his freshman netminder some insurance with a power-play marker in the opening of the third period.

Ah, yes, power-play goals. They have become too uncommon. The last time that the Big Red had made an opponent pay for an infraction was against Brown. Six complete games including 17 power-play opportunities separated Matt Buckles's power-play goal against Brown and Jake Weidner's power-play goal against Clarkson.

Special-teams battles like those, Cornell needs to win. Two things safeguard against absolute panic regarding the Red's poor production on the power play. The power play from East Hill has not reached the depths whereupon fans question actively if Schafer just should decline the penalties because opponents benefit from the penalty kill more than the team benefits from the man advantage. That abyss has not been reached. 

During this downturn in power-play potency, Cornell's penalty kill has ranked consistently among the nation's ten best. The stellar goaltending of Mitch Gillam and Hayden Stewart has proven invaluable. Gillam and Stewart own the best and second-best save percentages of all ECAC Hockey netminders who have played more than two games, respectively. Stewart was called upon and he delivered. His style may be more instinctual and reflexive than is that of Gillam, but with two shutouts in six starts, Stewart has proven deserving of the legacy of the sweater he wears in the position where he wears it.

The need for Stewart to replace Gillam last weekend is not the only way in which injury affects this team. Just one game after regaining expected star defenseman Joakim Ryan from injury, Joel Lowry was removed from the line-up. Mike Schafer announced after last weekend that Lowry is out indefinitely due to injury.

The loss of Joel Lowry is a huge setback to this team. He has been the impassioned soul of this senior class from when the season began. He stands as the lone senior who never seemed to coast through any games this season. Few have had more than one or two, but Lowry has none. The look of exhilarated ecstasy conquering his expression, as he scored the game-winning goal against Penn State at Madison Square Garden, incorporates the emotion with which he drives this team.

The task before Cornell is a difficult one. After a great run of recent success, Union is a flailing, gnashing beast. The team is desperate but unrefined relative to Union teams as of late, too. RPI is a team grossly underperforming. From the blueline with Kasdorf to the talented corps of forwards expected of the 'Tute, RPI is a team that should have been bound for the NCAA tournament but finds itself nine games below 0.500. 

The Engineers count as a newcomer one of the more dynamic forwards in the league in Louie Nanne. Anyone who has not had the chance to see him play should use this weekend as a chance to remedy that. The eponymous grandson of the Minnesota hockey legend is a joy to watch.

The Capital Region is a paradox. Union hockey, customary employer of a defensive-leaning system, is in the bottom half of teams nationally in terms of team defense. The Engineers, traditional proponents of an offense-first system, are among the four worst teams in the nation offensively. In Union and RPI, Cornell faces opponents whose current play is more diametrically opposite to their desired modus operandi than is the Big Red to its own. 

Cornell's defense and goaltending align with the program's expectations. It just needs to score, which is easier said than done. Matt Buckles, John McCarron, and Joakim Ryan are players who should be counted on to fill the void that Joel Lowry's absence creates. Confidence has replaced desperation as the buzzword for this season. When sustained scoring returns in the second half of the season, likely behind the efforts of the usual suspects, confidence will overflow.

Joel Lowry was the player who one could tell imbued confidence this season. This team will need to find a way to mine success without him. Lowry is a deservedly touted offensive talent who chose to return to Cornell for his education and the chance to bring a championship to East Hill. This team should be driven to win for Joel and return the favor of the energy that he has given to Cornell over an impressive career.

Tired tropes describe Cornell's forays into the Florida College Hockey Classic. Sports information director Brandon Thomas described the endeavor in terms that usually accompany Hangover-like poor choices made in Las Vegas. A hangover would have been a comforting experience relative to the events that the Lynah Faithful elected to endure personally or aurally.

Mitch Gillam is transcendent.

Punctuate that. Capitalize that. Italicize that. Put it on a talisman and rub it for comfort when the "bad times" return this season. It needs to be said. Everything that went or may have gone wrong on and off the ice in Estero does not relate to him. Gillam has proven to be more than a worthy wearer of carnelian and white in the blue paint. If teams around him find a way to deliver results 178 feet down ice, he will have a decorated and glistening résumé at Cornell.

Back to Estero's exhausted euphemisms? Cornell's success in Florida has no correlation to its ultimate success in the season. Cornell has never won the Ned Harkness Cup in Estero in a season that ended in an ECAC Hockey championship. Only twice has Cornell won the Florida College Hockey Classic and made the NCAA tournament. In the banner years of 2003 and 2010, Cornell finished dead last in the Florida College Hockey Classic, much like it did this season. More recently, Cornell won the 2013 Florida College Hockey Classic to see its hopes of ECAC Hockey and NCAA tournament immortality melt away on the ice of Lake Placid in a semifinal match-up.

Okay, that is done, for those who care or who did not know. Florida never treats Cornell well.

A 1-5-0 record in the sunshine state belongs to Cornell championship squads. Only one shutout of the Red contributes to that dismissal showing. The lone glint of hope within that statistic is that the sufferer of that other shutout was the winning behemoth of the Schafer Era, the 2002-03 team. Regular-season shutouts do not matter unto themselves.

These two back-to-back shutouts are not just any other. No, this writer is not referring to the fact that the games against Lake Superior State and Miami in Florida were the first time in a boatload of years (51 years, to be precise, dating back to December 7-10, 1963) that Cornell has been shut out in sequential contests. Players, coaches, journalists, and fans should be indifferent to that alike. Who cares? A loss is a loss.

What matters is when exposed realities reify clandestine truths. Cornell gained deservedly, oh so deservedly so, a reputation as a team that could not score early in this season. That trajectory appeared to be averted. Until Florida. The alarming reality of Florida is not that Cornell was shut out in consecutive games. That ringing in your ears should be a response to a fear that the meager times may be returning. How bad is the Red's scoring dearth?

Schafer preaches that his patented system does not change year after year or season after season. This makes it a veritable control against arguments that Schafer's emphasis on defense and high-probability scoring opportunities is the reason why Cornell suffers from poor offensive output and getting shut out this season. Am I making too much of the former's role in contributing to the latter? 

Cornell has suffered 14 first-half shutouts under Mike Schafer in 20 seasons. Three of those 14 have come in the first half of this current season. Those three correlate to 21.4% of first-half shutouts. One first half, representing 5.0% of the first halves that Schafer has coached, contains more than one-fifth of the times that Cornell has been shut out in the opening half of a season. Nine first halves witnessed no shutouts. Only one other, last season, suffered more than one.

The scoring problem is real. Assumption of its existence is now rightfully the default opinion of many members of the Faithful. This writer was loathe to say that the slump was in the rear-view window before the Denver series. Error in prognostication would have been appreciated greatly, but desiring did not make it so.

The consecutive shutouts do matter, just not for the reason that some are saying.

Things that this writer thinks can be shrugged off as typical Cornell-hockey Florida follies? The sloppiness and imprecision of Cornell's play. Those were episodic. Schafer, Syer, and Topher will have the team re-tightened and rededicated to the process. However, it is the players who will need to find their own road maps to the back of the net. Again.

The good news in this offensive downturn? Gillam has proven that if any goaltender in the nation can make one goal count for a victory, it is he. Gillam gives Cornell a chance to win every game. Neither history nor scale flap him. He is a Cornell goaltender in the purest sense. During a season that the senior class was supposed to dominate, Mitch Gillam has found the ability to shine as a star.

We all know what is next. Members of the ECAC Hockey community call it the North Country. It would be as appropriately called The Hills Have Eyes. Historically, if the venerated barns and on-again-off-again rabid local support do not kill Cornell, the officiating or stomach flu will. This is all said with much truth and much love.

In a conference that houses many pure hockey schools, St. Lawrence University and Clarkson University may stand as the purest examples. Thus, Cornell responds with appropriate desire to beat these historic, Upstate New York programs. It also may be because the Big Red has not swept the North-Country trip in a decade. If this 2014-15 team wants to grab a mid-season sliver of immortality, it only needs to return from the North Country with the pelts of the Saints and Golden Knights.

St. Lawrence's offense has simmered somewhat. The Saints marched into Lynah Rink owning a 3.56 goals per game average. The Laurentians own a mere 2.89 goals per game average now because of a dip to 1.71 goals per game since leaving Lynah Rink. They are a potent team, as Cornell learned, and have a fearsome netminder in Hayton.

Clarkson will want revenge. A five-minute major in overtime was the last break that went Clarkson's way at Lynah Rink. The rest was a blur as Eric Freschi and Joel Lowry raced past Casey Jones's bench to clutch victory from the digestive tract of defeat. Tech dislikes Cornell a great deal. The Golden Knights recently salvaged a home victory against the Yellow Jackets of American International. Salvage is the operative verb. They will want to do one better against the hated Red.

Clarkson has not lost a game in regulation in ECAC Hockey play. Casey Jones's boys have lost only one of those contests. That loss was Clarkson's only in-conference loss. One is the loneliest number, so Cornell should do the humane thing.

The Floridian occurrences imply that more than the sun ailed Cornell. Nearly two full weeks of rest and practice should have the Big Red primed to fire on all cylinders. Gillam will do his part. Scoring will need to return. 

Joel Lowry was absent from the line-up during both games in Florida. He has been the spark, the heart, or whichever similar noun one invokes, of this team when it went on its 5-2-0 run to close out the first semester. His role is essential to restarting this Cornell squad on its hopeful path.

Joakim Ryan has not scored since his return. However, returning at what he stated was 70% in early December, it is understandable that it may take him time to snap into his unstoppable scoring groove. History proves that two-way defensemen in the truest sense, like Ryan, are indispensable to success of Cornell teams. Patrick McCarron and Ryan Bliss have proven that they have the flair for such a style of play. Adding Ryan to the mix of those two and the surprisingly lethal occasional contributions of Willcox will add another dimension to Cornell's stalled offensive threat.

Much has been made about John McCarron's scoring slump. This writer has not. Other than a few regrettable mishaps, he has served to generate for his squad when he knows that he does not have the touch to pot the goal from his stick. The good news? The Captain's scoring touch has been partial to halves of seasons. Sometimes it is the opening half. Other times it is the closing half. McCarron has notched five points and no goals so far this season. It is coming in the second half.

Cornell has 16 games. More than half the season lies ahead. 13 games have wilted away. 

16 games are what remain for this contingent in carnelian and white to make a difference. Four-squared contests separate the Big Red from the moment that seeding for the playoffs occurs. The real season begins then. Cornell cannot surrender any footing and must regain some. The Formula, something that may become a refrain over the remainder of the season, is simple. The first step is attaining a top-four seed for the ECAC Hockey post-season. It will be a long, twisting, winding, challenging road. It is for what the Cornell ethos is suited. We are the blue-collar Ivy.

The #Slog4Seeding begins now.

Oh, the places that the Cornell hockey program has gone before the second half of the season.

An impressive run of three commanding victories came to a screeching halt on the ice of AMSOIL Arena in Duluth, Minnesota. Minnesota-Duluth played two complete games over the weekend. It was not its performance that was the most intriguing tale of the series. Absolute domination was the first game. The Big Red held the lead for only 1:52 of the entire two-game series. However, playing a team that managed to contain and control the Lady Rouge in ways that no team, including still undefeated Boston College, had the Big Red responded the next evening. The game may have ended in a 2-0 loss, but if there is a non-conference loss worthy of building on, it is that one. Cornell managed to take its game to a well honed team with a storied coach. The Big Red was not yet on that level, but as subsequent games proved, time remains for improvements before other meetings with such teams may occur. Improve, Cornell has.

After dropping two games to Minnesota-Duluth before its coaching woes, Cornell returned to Lynah for a rare Monday-Tuesday treat against familiar faces in the perennial season ender, Mercyhurst, and the Central New York foe, Syracuse. Mercyhurst was not able to wrestle a win from the Lady Rouge in the friendly confines of Lynah Rink that have seen too many recent wins by the Lakers. But at the same time, the Big Red was unable to drown the Lakers in one of the precious few out-of-conference games afforded to Cornell. A three-game winless skid brought back familiar early season worries, but they were thus far unfounded. After the bitter taste of a tie, the Lady Rouge responded with a resounding defeat of Syracuse before returning to ECAC Hockey play.

The Fall semester ended with the most difficult road trip of the season: the North Country.  The Clarkson Golden Knights, reigning national champions, have had a Division I women's hockey team since the 2004-05 season. In all of that time, there is something that the women of Cornell have been unable to do: sweep the North Country on the road. 2010 saw Cornell reach the national championship game and come within one triple overtime bounce of beating Clarkson to the first eastern NCAA championship. That season saw only a single point squeezed from the North Country. In the winningest season of the women's program, 2011, Cornell went 31-3-1. That North Country trip previously had the most favorable outcome for the Lady Rouge since Clarkson joined the conference: a three-point weekend.  This year, in the midst of adversity, as St. Lawrence remains a strong team and Clarkson attempts to defend its first national championship, Cornell made history. It swept the North Country on the road in two convincing victories: an 8-3 explosion of goals and a tight 4-2 come-from-behind win. 

If nothing else convinced you that this 2014-15 edition was on track and had more than just potential, it should be the result in the North Country. Cornell has found a way to win in a variety of ways. Two come-from-behind victories. An eight-goal explosion behind Jess Brown's hat trick and four-point effort in Potsdam. Several tight victories. This Cornell team is poised to continue its success into the second half. It began 2015 with a 3-0 exhibition victory against McGill, the defending national champion of its league.  Before the semester resumes, the North Country will begin to look for revenge at Lynah and BU will visit Ithaca for a one-off game. The fight for ECAC Hockey seeding has already begun but January and February will complete the ECAC Hockey regular season. Every point matters. Every game is important. Can this team win an Ivy League, regular season, and Championship? It certainly has shown the capacity to win important games and series. But only time will tell.

There was a moment of discontent early in this season. It overcame me during the first weekend. I was reassured when listening to the post-game interview of assistant coach Topher Scott after the first Nebraska-Omaha game. Topher declared emphatically that "a tie at home is never 'good enough,'" when Jason Weinstein inquired about the result. However, after a disappointing loss the next evening, the mantra of dominance or bust had vanished. Topher said on the second evening that he was contented with the team's effort during the second game and over the weekend. Wait. A tie was not and could never be good enough according to the same assistant coach the night before, but now a loss on the same ice was somehow acceptable? The comment disturbed me. In all honesty, it probably disappointed me more. 

I chose not to mention it on here. As many of you readers can discern, this blog serves as a platform for my catharsis as a fan at times. The election not to share my disappointment allowed that sentiment to fester into a mild fever of disillusionment. Fans of an NHL franchise that dresses similarly to Cornell comment often that it is trying to support a team that is not as good as it once was. Was I living such a similar tribulation?

The eclipse of the Florida College Hockey Classic occurred. Few positives can be drawn from that weekend. A post later in the week will address the on-ice results of those contests. That which concerns this post is the post-game interviews. Appropriately, the interviewer and the interviewee were the same. Topher Scott remarked to Jason Weinstein after the first game that Cornell lacked tenacity in pursuing a result while looking as though the team was "10 pounds heavier after the holiday." The sentiments seeped with the criticism of high expectations. But, I had been fooled once before.

When the season opened, a tie was not good enough, but somehow a loss was. The Red skaters, the next afternoon, dutifully rendered unto their assistant coach the opportunity to mirror his comments after the Nebraska-Omaha series. Assistant coach Scott did not.

After a loss to the program that he helped guide to its only tournament championship, Topher delivered a critique equally scathing to the one that he had after the loss to Lake Superior State. The Red's lack of defensive discipline and offensive grit were the identified culprits. Topher implied that Cornell's effort was lethargic and that the RedHawks outworked his charges. 

Topher, more often than any other coach on the current staff, emphasizes a blue-collar mentality in the way Cornell plays. Topher was a player of grit, hard work, and tenacity, with an occasional side of pugnacity. He is an ECAC Hockey champion and former Cornell hockey captain. His legitimacy in imparting what it requires to be a champion at Cornell is established.

It was refreshing to see that close-of-weekend goggles did not affect his judgment again. Cornell University is an institution that demands greatness. Its community believes that people are redeemed through onerous undertakings. As the most public extension of the institution, the hockey program has a duty to embody these values. Topher proved that his fellow coaches and he realize this reality, and will ensure this team returns to playing like Cornellians. Cornell must win in the Cornell way.

After a repressed tinge of disillusionment, I have regained some faith that this team and its assistant coach have not begun to settle for less than absolute excellence. My restored faith is just in time for the second half of the season.

Where Angels Fear to Tread returns to its regular coverage for the second half of the season after our break for the holidays.