Another season that Cornell failed to make the national tournament means that WAFT can engage in another bought of intrablog competition. Below are the two dueling brackets of two of WAFT's contributors. The first is accompanied by explanations that follow. Last year was not a great year for either set of predictions, but we will see how we do in predicting the road to and through Philadelphia.

Vermont - Union: East Regional Semifinal, 2:00 pm March 28, 2014 
Vermont has been idle since the second round of the Hockey East Tournament. Union is less than one week removed from winning a third Whitelaw Cup. The Catamounts went 3-10-1 over the entire season against teams that are in the national tournament. Sneddon is good, despite his alma mater, but I doubt he will be able to right his team's course that drastically with a week of layover and while staring down one of the best teams in the tournament's field. Union wins. 

Colgate - Ferris State: Midwest Regional Semifinal, 4:30 pm March 28, 2014 
Ever since watching Colgate play in the Mariucci Classic, I have adopted one common refrain: Colgate is going to stun some people in the national tournament. Two addenda usually followed that statement. The first was so long as the Raiders do not meet Minnesota again in the first two rounds. As good as Colgate is, Minnesota's raw talent alone, when irritated by an embarrassing shootout loss at home in its own tournament, could hurl a dominant power to new heights in decimating Colgate. Colgate has played Ferris State three times. Three times is not once, so I think the fourth encounter will be a toss-up in which the better team wins. Colgate has matched up well against defensively minded teams including Cornell throughout the season, notwithstanding a loss to a defensive Union squad last week. It will not happen twice in one week. It will do so again with Colgate's first win in the national tournament since 1990. Do it for Terry. Colgate wins. 

Providence - Quinnipiac: East Regional Semifinal, 5:30 pm March 28, 2014
Mark this as one of the most intriguing match-ups in the first round of the tournament. Nate Leaman, architect of Union's rise to relevance and prominence, squares off against Rand Pecknold, the man at the helm for a similar rise at Quinnipiac. ECAC Hockey defector against ECAC Hockey head coach. Leaman is one of my favorite coaches in college hockey. However, I think that the skill of Quinnipiac and the raw desire that Pecknold and the Bobcats have will give Leaman his second one-and-done appearance. Pecknold got his team to respond well last season to a disappointing showing in the league's championship weekend. Even though he fared better this season, his team and he left without the hardware they sought. Expect a similar rebound. Quinnipiac wins. 

North Dakota - Wisconsin: Midwest Regional Semifinal, 8:00 pm March 28, 2014 
I was very bullish on North Dakota and very bearish about Wisconsin last season. This year, things are the reverse. Wisconsin proudly won its first B1G Championship last weekend. North Dakota, the perennial tournament champion of the WCHA, fell short of winning the NCHC's tournament championship. Its place in the league's hierarchy is upset. North Dakota is a much improved team since it lost to St. Lawrence at The Ralph. North Dakota hockey lives by high scoring and speed. The former has been missing in the postseason. Wisconsin, the more defensively minded of the two teams, has been outproducing Hakstol's squad by a margin more than two to one in goals scored. I think the historic powers of the WCHA exchange blows, but Mike Eaves comes out on top. Wisconsin wins. 

Quinnipiac - Union: East Regional Final, 3:00 pm March 29, 2014 
Another rematch? Why not? Expect the same outcome. Last season, I was far from mum about saying that I thought that Quinnipiac was achieving results well beyond its level of execution. This season, they are executing at a level far higher than last season and playing far sounder. Watching the game between Cornell and Quinnipiac at Lynah Rink made this clear. Last season, the Bobcats tended to coast at times on the play of their hot players, whether it was Hartzell, Peca, the Joneses, or Samuels-Thomas. This season, there are no freeriders. The Bobcats and Dutchmen have not tangled in the playoffs this season. The superb execution of Pecknold's squad should send the Dutchmen back to Schenectady early for the second season in a row. Quinnipiac wins. 

Denver - Boston College: Northeast Regional Semifinal, 4:00 pm March 29, 2014 
Denver had to win its way into the national tournament through a tough NCHC field for a championship. Boston College did not travel down the road to the Garden. The national tournament is not very kind to Jerry York when he does not win his league's tournament. York suffers early exits the few times that he has made it when he has not hoisted the Lamoriello Trophy. This year, the tournament will be no kinder. It may take Sam Brittain to steal the contest, but I think Boston College's last victory of the season was against Notre Dame in game two of that quarterfinal series. Denver wins. 

Robert Morris - Minnesota: West Regional Semifinal, 5:30 pm March 29, 2014 
You know the bracketology cliché: consider most of the favorites and then choose a key upset. Well, here it is. Derek Schooley has done phenomenal things with his Colonials program. For those who do not know, Schooley played under Schafer at Western Michigan and coached briefly with the Cornell coach on East Hill before taking the position of founding coach of Robert Morris hockey a few seasons later. He is a disciple of Schafer with regards to his emphasis on little battles, defensive mindedness, and shot-blocking. In other words, his teams do all the little things required to unseat and frustrate a skill-based and finesse team like Minnesota. In fact, Schooley has done it several times in the past with major upsets over teams ranked among the nation's elite including Miami when they were the best program in the nation. The Colonials will need a great outing from Shafer, Robert Morris's netminder, and a slightly less than average outing for Wilcox, but I think the Colonials become the second Atlantic Hockey program to upset Minnesota. Robert Morris wins. 

Colgate - Wisconsin: Midwest Regional Final, 6:30 pm March 29, 2014 
Spiro Goulakos stated in pre-tournament press conferences that his team is trying to build a culture at Colgate. Well, that culture has a strong foundation. Terry Slater in 1990 led his team from Colgate to the national title game. It was in that game that the Raiders fell to Wisconsin, 7-3. The Raiders may not be in Joe Louis Arena this time around, but the result likely will be no kinder and Mike Eaves's team no more forgiving than was that of Jeff Sauer. I would love to see Colgate in the Frozen Four, but I think history and perhaps psychology (a lack of knowledge on the team of the 1990 season may work to its benefit if it does in fact exist) ends Vaughan's third trek into the national tournament with just one win. Wisconsin wins. 

Minnesota State - UMass-Lowell: Northeast Regional Semifinal, 7:30 pm March 29, 2014
This is one of the more challenging first-round match-ups to predict. Both are league champions. Both faced opponents with similar philosophies to the opponent they will confront in this meeting. Norm Bazin has done great things at Lowell over the last few seasons, from a regional final loss to Union to the Frozen Four. I think that Mike Hastings at Minnesota State is too focused on ending his program's one-and-done luck and it will be enough to topple the River Hawks. I do not expect the Mavericks to ride that wave for long, but I think they will break a trend. Minnesota State wins. 

St. Cloud State - Notre Dame: West Regional Semifinal, 9:00 pm March 29, 2014
St. Cloud State did not do its part to boost attendance at the Target Center. The Huskies failed to reach a benchmark for that program by not appearing in the NCHC's championship weekend. The fact that a sweep arrested their progress makes that fact all the more painful. Notre Dame dominated Boston College in games one and three of a quarterfinal series. Notre Dame exited its new league's tournament in the semifinals. Rust will take its toll. The Irish likely will spring on the Huskies in a rematch of the game that ended Jeff Jackson's season last year. Jackson and the Irish may be without the leadership of Anders Lee who abandoned his program early, but Lucia, Tynan, and Rust with Summerhays were more than enough for the Eagles. Jeff Jackson and his corps of leaders does not lose rematches. Notre Dame wins. 

Denver - Minnesota State: Northeast Regional Final, 5:00 pm March 30, 2014
Will Jim Montgomery make what once seemed like a foolhardy decision seem brilliant? That will be the narrative for this final. Well, that and the fact that it is possible that no Eastern team is present in the Northeast Regional Final. Unlike the preceding game, I do not think Brittain will need to steal this one. Hastings's run will have ended and that talent of a battle-tested, but generally healthy, Pioneer squad (something that Gwozdecky had not had in a few seasons) will advance with a victory over the Mavericks. Minnesota State wins. 

Robert Morris - Notre Dame: West Regional Final, 7:30 pm March 30, 2014 
The clock inevitably strikes midnight. It is apparent that I have much respect for Schooley and his program. But, I think the rising power that is Notre Dame hockey under Jeff Jackson may prove too much for a young program dealing with the emotional highs of a national tournament win and championship all within one week. The Fighting Irish were spared a letdown like that of last season with its Mason Cup victory. Jackson, like I, think that a postseason loss can purge bad tendencies. I think Notre Dame will have purged most of their demons. This game will be close, but I think that Jeff Jackson takes Notre Dame to Philadelphia while Derek Schooley returns to the hockey town of Pittsburgh. Notre Dame wins. 

Denver - Quinnipiac: National Semifinal, April 10, 2014 
This game will be a roller coaster. The Bobcats will be so close that they can taste it again. Denver's team has been marginally better in the postseason than has Quinnipiac. Denver has been better in scoring margin, goals allowed, and goals scored. Quinnipiac has been better on both sides of special teams. That may tilt the balance. Call it intuition. Call it blind faith. I think that Quinnipiac does exactly what it did last season in the Frozen Four; it finds a way to win with its leadership stepping up for big plays and big goals. Quinnipiac wins. 

Notre Dame - Wisconsin: National Semifinal, April 10, 2014 
I think a low-scoring affair in which Rumpel and Summerhays duke it out will take center stage to decide which program will battle Quinnipiac for the national championship. With talents like Kerdiles, Mersch, and Zengerle and Johns, Lucia, Rust, and Tynan, I doubt that the game will be 1-0, but it will not see ten goals scored either. Both coaches are seasoned in the ways of winning national titles. Notre Dame's senior class tasted the Frozen Four in 2011. Wisconsin has not been back to college hockey's final weekend since 2010. Experience favors Notre Dame and even though I think Rumpel is one of the best, most reliable goaltenders in college hockey, I think the Irish in front of Summerhays go to the title game. Notre Dame wins. 

Notre Dame - Quinnipiac: National Final, April 12, 2014 
What's the lay definition of insanity? Well, let's walk down that road together. Again. Last season, I predicted that Jeff Jackson and Notre Dame would win Irish hockey its first national championship. Well, here I am again, looking at the bracket, and well, it falls that way again. I do not want to condemn Quinnipiac to a UNH-like always-a-bridesmaid-never-a-bride fate, but I think Notre Dame wins if it makes it this far. 

Notre Dame and Quinnipiac resemble each other. Both had great teams last season. Both lost tremendous parts of their programs. Both came back stronger than they were last season. A feat that many thought was impossible in such a short span. They are back. And I would not be surprised to see them in the biggest game of the season. 

Quinnipiac is a more whole team than it was last year. The Bobcats ran through the national tournament last season behind tremendous individual efforts from their best players. This season, I expect all hands to be on deck and the team to deliver one of the best performances at both ends of the ice in recent memory in the national tournament. I want the Bobcats to win and I will be there supporting them in Philadelphia, but in a game that will be a close toss-up, I think that the Fighting Irish come out on top. 

Keys to Quinnipiac's victory will be getting the first goal and preferably the second. Quinnipiac was winning last year's national title game until Yale deflated the Bobcats's bench with a late second period goal. If Rand Pecknold, Reid Cashman, and Bill Riga can keep their team on an even keel, not inflating the stakes of a national title game, then the Bobcats easily could pull this out even if by a razor's edge I think it prefers Notre Dame right now. Notre Dame wins.

Cornell ends a season of much apparently hollow talk with a deflating 5-2 loss to Union in the semifinal round. Colgate and Union advanced to play for the Whitelaw Cup. For the fourth consecutive season, Cornell ends a campaign having not achieved one of its perennial goals. Cornell has not appeared in the ECAC Hockey Championship Final in three seasons.

The postseason in particular is the time of year captured in moments. Elated and stunned fans alike find themselves pondering "what if" after each crucial play or development. This video series will chronicle the greatest moments for Cornell hockey during the 2014 ECAC Hockey Championships. Cornell seeks its 13th Whitelaw Cup in the ECAC Hockey playoffs. The postseason is a time of tremendous highs and devastating lows. Let's enjoy the ride as the Red looks to go on a run.

This series will be posted as the playoffs unfold. It will keep you appraised of Cornell's successes. Cornell hockey waits each season for the ECAC Hockey Championships. It is time to rally around the Red even more than you did during the regular season. This is the season when the greatest Cornell hockey teams shine and the greatness of Cornell hockey reigns.

The Field
The quarterfinal round of the 2014 ECAC Hockey Championships concluded late Sunday evening. Colgate, Quinnipiac, and Union dispatched with their respective challengers in two games. Clarkson was the lone competitor from the first round of the playoffs to take its host to three games. The Golden Knights did more than that. It took just over 12 minutes of overtime for Cornell to defeat the green and goldenrod.

Quarterfinal rounds around the Conference resembled one another. With few exceptions, one goal effectively decided those games that the host seed won. Fortune assisted inflation of Union's winning margins over Dartmouth. The Dutchmen punched in only one goal in game one that did not come from a penalty shot or an empty-net tally. The second contest in Schenectady included an empty-net goal. The four teams that remain advanced with 75% of the contests in the playoffs being decided by one goal. Quinnipiac is the lone exception. The Bobcats never allowed that series to be in question. Otherwise, parity and poise were the hallmarks of all contests in the quarterfinal installments of this postseason to date.

The semifinals are set. The brackets in Lake Placid represent 15 of the 52 Whitelaw Cups that have been won in the history of ECAC Hockey. Cornell accounts for 12 of that total. Intuition makes one inclined to believe that at least one of the contests in Lake Placid will not be as closely contested as the majority of the contests in the quarterfinal round. Will Colgate find its oppressive and smothering scoring? Can Quinnipiac continue its postseason dominance? Can Union bear the weight of history and media expectations about its chance to begin an attempt to tie a historic record? Can Cornell's offensively skilled players step up to deliver what their program demands at this time of season?

Semifinals
The second chapter in the new season begins. Cornell was the team tasked with defeating the best opponent in the quaterfinal round. The Big Red accomplished that feat. Games one and three of the series were the epitome of dominance and control. Neither game, even when headed into overtime, seemed out of Cornell's dictation. Game three showed a slight collapse. Suffice it to say that it is good to have gotten that out of Cornell's system before games where a loss has more drastic consequences.

Union has the second-most prolific offense in terms of goals per game in the playoffs. The Bobcats dwarf the Dutchmen's output by two goals per game. Any guesses who is third on the list? Not Colgate. RPI takes the honors of third place. The Engineers hit the links a week ago despite what appear to be intimidating offensive numbers in the playoffs.

Union is the best defensive team remaining. Cornell is the second best standing. The opponent that Cornell defeated, Clarkson, is second to Union. Cornell's preparation for last series will resemble those for its coming contest. The style of the quarterfinal series and the semifinal match-up between Cornell and Union will be similar. Despite somewhat inflated scores from last weekend, Union averaged two goals per game when normalized for empty-net goals and penalty shots.

Special teams may have been the actual and expected story of last weekend. It is hard to say if they will be in the coming semifinal game. Oddly, Cornell and Union are the third- and second-worst power-play units that have taken the ice in any round of the playoffs. Union is marginally better than Cornell on the penalty kill. The Big Red and Dutchmen have both allowed two power-play goals in the postseason. Cornell earned that mark against the best power-play unit from the first round while Union achieved its similar rate against the third-worst power-play unit from the first round.

Cornell's power-play unit needs to improve. This may amount to belaboring the point, but if Cornell wants its run to continue, pucks will need to find themselves in the back of opponent's nets while Cornell enjoys a man advantage. In 2012, Cornell's play on special teams was suspect and frustrating. It clicked at the right time against Michigan. Coach Schafer needs to have fine tuned special teams this week to render Cornell a more efficient machine in the deconstruction of opponents.

Union did not dominate against Dartmouth the way that many have indicated they have. The game was fairly evenly contested, despite the scores. The opposite can be said of games one and three of Cornell's series. Despite the close score, Cornell controlled the pace and flow of the game. Assuming somewhat dubiously that shots-on-goal differentials represent territorial advantage, Cornell is second in terms of territorial advantage. Union is at the median of the Conference and last of all teams still playing.

Special teams may give a slight edge to Union with its more shut-down penalty kill. Cornell's consistent dominance over a better opponent than that Union faced indicates that on even strength, the ice may tilt in Cornell's favor. Oh, the ice, apparently it is bigger. Who knew? Does that present an advantage to either team? Anecdotally, it favors the faster team. However, that does not yield an answer. There is only one team that Cornell has confronted that was appreciably faster. It was not Union.

Goaltending could become quickly the story of the semifinal battle. The match-up pits the two best remaining goaltenders against one another. Iles saluted his adoring hometown crowd with his best performance of his career at Lynah Rink. Stevens pitched a no-goal game at Messa Rink for Union's game-one victory. A 0.970 save percentage belongs to Stevens while Iles owns a 0.939 save percentage. That may be the whole story.

It probably is not. Goaltenders, even their save percentages, are products of their team defense to a great extent. Union's defense has been lagging behind that of Cornell. Stevens saw more rubber in 120 minutes of play than did Iles in 192:32. Iles's depreciated save percentage is a product of the fact that the Big Red has allowed a mere 22 shots per game. Last series, Iles outdueled Perry, a goaltender with a slightly higher save percentage. The real metric of a goaltender this time of season is whether he does what is necessary. Three years of Iles between the pipes in the postseason indicate he has the ability to go to another level to give his team a chance to win.

Unsurprisingly, Carr seems Union's go-to scorer in his last playoff run. He has scored three goals. One was off of a penalty shot. The other was into an untended net. Otherwise, Union resembles Cornell. There is no distinct reliance on any given line or player. Each generates well. Every other goal Union scored was scored by a different goal scorer. Cornell's four goals over the weekend were from different players.

There is one glaring absence from Union's scoring list. Gostisbehere, the program's vaunted defenseman, was silent in the first series of the playoffs. He scored no goals. He tallied no assists. Ryan, Cornell's offensive blueliner, recorded an assist on the overtime winner and scored the game-winning goal in the playoff's initial series. The blue line propelled Cornell last series.

At both ends of the ice, Cornell's blueliners frustrated Clarkson. Last weekend may have been the emergence of Clint Lewis as a responsible and reliable presence in Cornell's end. His smoothness and lack of hesitation proved vital in defusing many of Clarkson's most dangerous challenges on the fringe of the blue paint. MacDonald and Gotovets were as durable as ever with senior defenseman Gotovets deciding to try his hand at the other end of the ice opening Cornell's playoff scoring. 

Patrick McCarron? What can I say? He found a way to score when no other skater in red could. His skating is smooth and his shots well placed. It would not be surprising if he found the way to be the difference again this postseason. Bullishness about freshmen emerged over the weekend. Some of Cornell's best chances came from Buckles, Kubiak, and Weidner.

The freshmen are cordially invited to any scoring that may come in the playoffs. The Red upperclassmen need to finish the chances they develop. Cornell has generated innumerable high quality and high probability chances, but finished a mere four of them in the postseason. Necessity is the mandate of scoring, not some self-important desire for puffing. The purpose is not to light as many bulbs in the scoreboard as possible, but to put the game away when Cornell has earned the privilege of doing so. Bardreau, Ferlin, Hilbrich, Lowry, and J. McCarron have generated a majority of chances. This weekend, Cornell will need to lean on them to convert when others may be unable to find a way.

Much has been made of the fact that Cornell scored a mere four goals in the quarterfinal series while Clarkson scored five. Cornell, its forwards, defensemen, and goaltender, did what was necessary to win a series against a hard-hitting and sound opponent. Would it have been nice to put a few more pucks into Perry's net? Perhaps, from a self-aggrandizing standpoint, it may have been. Was it necessary? Evidently not.

A well circulated quote from the world's most consequential single-elimination tournament in hockey captures the true irrelevance of gaudy offensive numbers. Harangued by reporters about his team's lack of offensive production during its run to a gold medal, Mike Babcock remarked "does anybody know who won the scoring race? Does anybody care? Does anyone know who won the gold medal? See you, guys." The quote embodies the ethos of modern Cornell hockey: score when needed, defend always, and win. People remember champions and hardware, not statistical categories. Cornell needs to prove that it can do what is needed to be champions like generations of wearers of the carnelian and white.

The postseason in particular is the time of year captured in moments. Elated and stunned fans alike find themselves pondering "what if" after each crucial play or development. This video series will chronicle the greatest moments for Cornell hockey during the 2014 ECAC Hockey Championships. Cornell seeks its 13th Whitelaw Cup in the ECAC Hockey playoffs. The postseason is a time of tremendous highs and devastating lows. Let's enjoy the ride as the Red looks to go on a run.

This series will be posted as the playoffs unfold. It will keep you appraised of Cornell's successes. Cornell hockey waits each season for the ECAC Hockey Championships. It is time to rally around the Red even more than you did during the regular season. This is the season when the greatest Cornell hockey teams shine and the greatness of Cornell hockey reigns.

The postseason in particular is the time of year captured in moments. Elated and stunned fans alike find themselves pondering "what if" after each crucial play or development. This video series will chronicle the greatest moments for Cornell hockey during the 2014 ECAC Hockey Championships. Cornell seeks its 13th Whitelaw Cup in the ECAC Hockey playoffs. The postseason is a time of tremendous highs and devastating lows. Let's enjoy the ride as the Red looks to go on a run.

This series will be posted as the playoffs unfold. It will keep you appraised of Cornell's successes. Cornell hockey waits each season for the ECAC Hockey Championships. It is time to rally around the Red even more than you did during the regular season. This is the season when the greatest Cornell hockey teams shine and the greatness of Cornell hockey reigns.

The postseason in particular is the time of year captured in moments. Elated and stunned fans alike find themselves pondering "what if" after each crucial play or development. This video series will chronicle the greatest moments for Cornell hockey during the 2014 ECAC Hockey Championships. Cornell seeks its 13th Whitelaw Cup in the ECAC Hockey playoffs. The postseason is a time of tremendous highs and devastating lows. Let's enjoy the ride as the Red looks to go on a run.

This series will be posted as the playoffs unfold. It will keep you appraised of Cornell's successes. Cornell hockey waits each season for the ECAC Hockey Championships. It is time to rally around the Red even more than you did during the regular season. This is the season when the greatest Cornell hockey teams shine and the greatness of Cornell hockey reigns.

The postseason in particular is the time of year captured in moments. Elated and stunned fans alike find themselves pondering "what if" after each crucial play or development. This video series will chronicle the greatest moments for Cornell hockey during the 2014 ECAC Hockey Championships. Cornell seeks its 13th Whitelaw Cup in the ECAC Hockey playoffs. The postseason is a time of tremendous highs and devastating lows. Let's enjoy the ride as the Red looks to go on a run.

This series will be posted as the playoffs unfold. It will keep you appraised of Cornell's successes. Cornell hockey waits each season for the ECAC Hockey Championships. It is time to rally around the Red even more than you did during the regular season. This is the season when the greatest Cornell hockey teams shine and the greatness of Cornell hockey reigns.

The postseason in particular is the time of year captured in moments. Elated and stunned fans alike find themselves pondering "what if" after each crucial play or development. This video series will chronicle the greatest moments for Cornell hockey during the 2014 ECAC Hockey Championships. Cornell seeks its 13th Whitelaw Cup in the ECAC Hockey playoffs. The postseason is a time of tremendous highs and devastating lows. Let's enjoy the ride as the Red looks to go on a run.

This series will be posted as the playoffs unfold. It will keep you appraised of Cornell's successes. Cornell hockey waits each season for the ECAC Hockey Championships. It is time to rally around the Red even more than you did during the regular season. This is the season when the greatest Cornell hockey teams shine and the greatness of Cornell hockey reigns.

The Field
Then, there were eight. Four teams of ECAC Hockey played their last games of the 2013-14 season last weekend. The home-standing favorites St. Lawrence and Yale advanced with sweeps. Clarkson needed a third contest, but the Golden Knights were victorious over the Tigers in the second and third games of the series. Dartmouth, with some help from noteworthy bench coaching from Gaudet in game three, rallied from a one-game series deficit and two-goal hole in game three to upend the Engineers at Houston Field House. All higher seeds advanced save for RPI.

An improving and impressive Dartmouth squad journeys to Messa Rink with the hopes of arresting Union's slog toward the program's third-ever Whitelaw Cup. Don Vaughan, a deserving nominee for ECAC Hockey's coach-of-the-year award, leads his Raiders against the Saints of his alma mater. Quinnipiac will seek a modicum of redemption in ending Yale's national-title defense in a quarterfinal series at High Point Solutions Arena. At least one of the series seems ripe to go to three games while others seem capable of presenting upsets. Casey Jones, after an early playoff misstep, brings his Knights to Lynah Rink. This is the time of year for which Cornell and the Lynah Faithful live.

Quarterfinals
Cornell enters the series with two complete weeks of rest in its legs. Coach Schafer is accustomed to the week off. It is part of his well regarded and often successful stratagem of bringing Cornell postseason success. It has yielded five Whitelaw Cups and more NCAA Tournament victories than any coach active in the Conference. The first step was getting the coveted first-round bye that, along with home ice, eluded the Big Red last season. Now that the first step was taken, Cornell hopes to capitalize on its benefits. The first opponent that Cornell will meet in the 2014 ECAC Hockey Championships is Clarkson.

The playoffs are a new season. Clarkson began the playoffs last weekend while the Red prepared. Ammon of Princeton defeated Clarkson at home in the first round. Jones said that calm and poise returned to his line-up in the second game. The Golden Knights controlled the series after then. The third game was a closely fought affair, but the 4-0 victory over the Tigers last Saturday was far from it. 

Clarkson, a program that prides itself for its historically high winning percentages, celebrated the series-winning victory as it guaranteed that the Knights could not finish the season below 0.537. From a more Cornellian lens, Clarkson advanced for the first time in the ECAC Hockey Tournament since 2007. That seems a sad statistic. Consider that in 2007 Clarkson capped off its playoff run with a comeback victory over Quinnipiac for its fifth Whitelaw Cup. Jones likely has similar designs.

What carried Clarkson through the early goings of the playoffs? In two words, it was special teams. Clarkson scored only five goals on even strength over three games against a Princeton team that was allowing more than four goals per game headed into the series. The Golden Knights's goal production was only 74.4% that of the average opponent that played the Tigers. Jones's team relied on special teams for 44.4% of its goals. Clarkson entered the playoffs relatively impotent on even strength.

Potsdam's power play, with the top four seeds idle, roared to life in the series against Princeton. No power-play unit, not even that of St. Lawrence, was more dominant in the first weekend of the post-season. Clarkson made Princeton pay for four of the Tigers's 14 infractions over the weekend. The Golden Knights relied on two power-play goals to clinch the final game by a 3-2 margin. Clarkson did not go a game without scoring a power-play goal.

Penalty killing for Clarkson lapsed in 22.2% of its times taking the ice. A drop-off in penalty killing against the league's third-worst power-play unit exposes a possible Achilles's heel of Casey Jones's playoff squad. Goaltending may shore up that weakness. Steve Perry took both wins while Greg Lewis recorded the loss last weekend. 

Perry recorded an impressive 0.957 save percentage last weekend on 47 shots faced over two games. The team lobbing those shots was the worst team in ECAC Hockey in terms of offensive conversion rates. Perry's outstanding save percentage allowed Princeton to convert on only 4.3% of chances while Princeton is accustomed to converting on only 7.4%.

Cornell's victory or dominance in this quarterfinal match-up with Clarkson will depend on the Big Red's power play. Borderline terrifying special-teams play has been the hallmark of Schafer's championship teams. Cornell was the worst team in ECAC Hockey on power play after the semester's break. It was in the basement by a large margin. A new season begins. The power play on East Hill will need to prove it is as good as it was at the beginning of the regular season, not as snake-bitten and sometimes hapless as it was against teams like RPI.

The penalty kill of the Big Red needs to continue as it left off before the final weekend of the regular season. The Big Red allowed one-quarter of its power-play goals against during its season-ending clash with archrival Harvard. That needs to be proven early and often to have been an aberration. Otherwise, the potential of this team and the desires of its senior class will go unfulfilled. Poise and calm are prerequisites this early Spring.

Cornell generated considerable offensive chances against Union, Quinnipiac, Princeton, Dartmouth, and Harvard. Notwithstanding the inability of officials to count to seven or eight, Cornell emerged victorious from only two of those contests. Finishing chances and continued balanced scoring is required. This is the moment that players like Cole Bardreau, Rodger Craig, Brian Ferlin, Joel Lowry, Dustin Mowrey, John McCarron, and Joakim Ryan can grab immortality. The likes of Matt Buckles, Jeff Kubiak, Patrick McCarron, and Jake Weidner can begin adding to their young legacies.

It became apparent in the Union and Dartmouth games in particular that frustration took its toll. Only in the Dartmouth game was the phenomenal performance of an opposing netminder the predominant reason Cornell could not score. The coaching staff hopefully has instilled calmness and poise where angst found a home at the close of the regular season. If sticks are not gripped too tightly, this squad can do what Cornell teams have done like no other for generations.

Dominating the contest early with reminding the Lynah Faithful and Golden Knights that they are in fact in Lynah Rink will be essential. Clarkson dominated Princeton at Cheel. Let karma play its hand. Jones's team obliterated Prier's Tigers with averaging nearly 38 shots per game over the weekend and outshooting Princeton by an average of more than 12 shots per game. This reflects the territoriality of the contests as well. Cornell at Lynah will not abide this.

Take a deep breath. This is the playoffs; the most wonderful time of the year. Let's enjoy the run.