This past week was somewhat uneventful compared to how events will be in a few short weeks when the college hockey season begins in earnest on October 6. Nonetheless, there were a few key stories to which this week's post would like to draw your attention.
Looks Who's Coming To Scrimmage
Ithacan Dustin Brown guides the puck over Martin Brodeur during the 2012 Stanley Cup Finals
The new members of the Big Red hockey family made their trek up East Hill as students two Saturdays ago. This last Saturday, the famous, or infamous, conditioning test for Cornell hockey players awaited them. The twitterverse erupted when the men's ice hockey team discovered who would joined their ranks during the post-conditioning test scrimmage. I will let senior Greg Miller and freshman Christian Hilbrich tell you themselves:
Nothing like a morning skate with
— Greg Miller (@Gmillsy16) August 25, 2012@dustinbrown23 to start off your Saturday right.
100mx18 Under 15 sec/45 sec rest. PASSED. Scrimmy immediately after with surprise roster addition of LAs D Brown. Now paintball w/ the boys.
— Christian Hilbrich (@CHilbrich) August 25, 2012
 Jillson at Red Hot Hockey '09 |  Las Vegas Wranglers logo as of July 2012 |
Locke Jillson from last season's senior class will join the ECHL's Wranglers in Las Vegas for their upcoming season. The Wranglers are coming off of a successful season in which they appeared in the Kelly Cup Final but lost eventually to the Florida Everblades. Had last year's senior class graduated but one year earlier, Cornell's Jillson and Whitney would have faced off for the ECHL's championship cup as Whitney will join the Florida Everblades this coming season. Jillson will be missed at Lynah Rink. He was a great asset to the team over his four years and was the only player to score both times that he appeared at Madison Square Garden. The Big Red will miss such consistency when it faces the Wolverines on November 24.
Matt Underhill from early in the 2001-02 season when Cornell relied upon the tandem of LeNeveu and Underhill.
Statistically, Underhill amassed respectable numbers at Cornell that include a GAA of 2.30, a SV% of 0.913, and six shutouts. He was a recipient of the ECAC's prestigious Ken Dryden Award. His records compare favorably with those who have defended the twine at Lynah with both his GAA and SV% ranks eighth, just above Garman and Duffus respectively, and his number of shutouts ranks sixth among Big Red goaltenders tied with Cropper who led the 1969-70 team to its undefeated, untied season. Current netminder Andy Iles is tied with Cropper's and Underhill's record of six shutouts presently.
Even though Cornell had no committed players on the roster of the Waterloo Black Hawks, the clash against the Hawks and the OHL's Sudbury Wolves had cultural implications for the college hockey world
Thank You Terry (TYT) does a great job at capturing how the game between the USHL's Waterloo Black Hawks and OHL's Sudbury Wolves captured the imagination and attention of what are often described as two competing value sets and systems. Some might find his framing overwrought, but I think it is appropriate and represents what even the Russian broadcasters knew they had captured. A clash between the USHL-NCAA route of players and student-athletes, and the Canadian Major Juniors route of athletes. It is a conflict that is often oversimplified into one between Hockey Canada and USA Hockey. The dimensions of the game could not have been overstated in my mind.
"To many, this was a referendum on junior hockey. A Canadian major junior team and an NCAA team will likely never meet in any kind of meaningful context, but this was just about the next best thing, with college hockey's biggest feeder league, the only Tier I league in the United States, standing in."
The Black Hawks lost ultimately 2-0 to their OHL opponent. Nonetheless, the closeness of the game indicates how the USHL has come of age and can compete with what has been regarded as an athletically superior league of hockey players in the past. This clash was of importance to Cornell as well as Cornell's 2012-13 roster includes seven players who gained experience in the USHL. Among those seven players is sophomore Brian Ferlin who even injured for a significant portion of the season amassed the third-highest total of points for the team behind only senior Sean Collins and junior Greg Miller last season.
"To many, this was a referendum on junior hockey. A Canadian major junior team and an NCAA team will likely never meet in any kind of meaningful context, but this was just about the next best thing, with college hockey's biggest feeder league, the only Tier I league in the United States, standing in."
The Black Hawks lost ultimately 2-0 to their OHL opponent. Nonetheless, the closeness of the game indicates how the USHL has come of age and can compete with what has been regarded as an athletically superior league of hockey players in the past. This clash was of importance to Cornell as well as Cornell's 2012-13 roster includes seven players who gained experience in the USHL. Among those seven players is sophomore Brian Ferlin who even injured for a significant portion of the season amassed the third-highest total of points for the team behind only senior Sean Collins and junior Greg Miller last season.
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