​With just under half of the conference schedule played out, seeding is starting to settle in ECAC Hockey for where teams stand. While a casual observer might see Cornell settled into fifth place, she doesn’t take into consideration that two of the teams directly ahead of Cornell have played three more games than has the Red. What are the real standings heading into a tough road weekend in the North Country? Instead of points alone, let us use points per game – a metric that lets one realize the amount of points that a team tends to garner each game out of its total two points.

​Let the games begin.
 
The first half of the season is prologue. This season will be made or broken in the next several weeks. The non-conference schedule is fine and good, but the greatest of Cornell’s seasons are writ or erased in the closing of conference play.
 
Some readers or new congregants of the Lynah Faithful may find themselves questioning that contention. Is it not true that out-of-conference contests sow the seeds that may blossom into games played in late March or even April? Are not glorious at-large bids that have given the world Minnesota-Duluth, Yale, and Providence as national champions the product of admirable performances outside of conference play? Does it not matter where the Red ranks now in the premature pairwise of early January?
 
The last inquiry has caused considerable debate and underhanded sniping on social media between various commentators of college hockey. The answer to that question as posed above is an emphatic “no.” It does not matter where Cornell ranks in the Pairwise Ranking now. The volatility of its ranking makes projections from this moment all but meaningless. There is a caveat to this outright dismissal as there are to all great truisms.
 
Cornell’s ranking in the Pairwise does not matter now. However, the rankings of all programs are not irrelevant. Consider Cornell relative to current Pairwise-Ranking leader Penn State. As of December 15, the arbitrary date that most have used in this debate, the Red had played 11 games while the Nittany Lions had played 15 games. The Pairwise fluctuates with each win, loss, or tie. A larger sample size of results necessarily reinforces a more durable ranking by its parameters.
 
Quantifying this phenomenon is quite easy. Penn State arrived at December 15 having played nearly 45% of its regular-season schedule. Cornell approached the same date having completed 6.2% less of its own slate. Framed another way, the Central Pennsylvanians finished a 16.4% larger share of their completed schedule than had the Ithacans by the middle of December.
 
Each regular-season game that Cornell plays necessarily represents a larger percentage of its schedule than do the games that non-Ivies play as a product of the limitations of Ivy-League scheduling. Additionally, Cornell’s having played barely more than one-third of its games while other programs like Penn State have played nearly half of theirs by December 15 functions as a weighted average that allows violent variation in the former and considerable predictability in the latter. The former is easier to change for better or worse. The latter is more stagnant.
 
So, yes, for some programs, the Pairwise Ranking of December 15 is a worthy predictor of the likelihood of receiving an invitation to the Frozen Four First Round. It is not for Cornell. The 2013-14 and 2015-16 seasons provide a ripe anecdote of why. In both of those seasons, Cornell was “in” the national-tournament field as of December 15. Did Cornell play any games in the last weekend of March those seasons?
 
This writer so readily dismisses the value of a sound performance in out-of-conference play because over the last half-decade, Cornell has accumulated a 20-10-4 record in out-of-conference contests. Only once in that time did the Red not produce a winning non-conference record. Cornell made the national tournament in none of those four completed seasons.
 
The Red’s 5-2-0 non-conference record this season is promising. It remains but a very short line in the resume any or this Cornell team will need to draft to hear Buccigross call its name on March 19. The formula for earning entry into the national tournament is the template of the last season in which Cornell earned entry to the Frozen-Four tournament.
 
Which victory catapulted Coach Schafer and his 17th team into the national tournament? It was an instant-classic victory over Union in late February. Oh, yeah, Cornell did not have a winning non-conference record that season.
 
Cornell’s next berth in the national tournament will be like its last one: forged in the build-up to the chase for the Whitelaw Cup. The newest members of the Lynah Faithful should be more worried about playing in the penultimate weekend of March before focusing only on getting to that month’s concluding games. The formula for competing for and hopefully (it has been fartoo long) winning a Whitelaw Cup has not changed in Coach Schafer’s 22 years.
 
Coach Schafer took the reins of the Clydesdale that is Cornell hockey with four stated benchmarks for a good season: sweep Harvard, earn a bye in the playoffs, compete for the Whitelaw Cup, and make a run at a national title. Cornell has not accomplished the second of those benchmarks in two seasons. The means of achieving that goal were simplified in a way that only a great coach of the game could.
 
Teams that want to enjoy real home ice, the type that comes with a bye, must at least sweep at home and split on the road. This is the Schafer Formula. The Red has earned a bye every time that Cornell has earned conference points at a rate equivalent to that mandate. Only once have the carnelian and white won at that rate and not won the Whitelaw Cup.
 
Formula may be too mild a word on second thought. Perhaps, it is more aptly the Schafer Theory if not the First Law of Schafer. It works no matter the nomenclature. Oh, for those so inclined, each time that Schafer-coached teams earned conference points at an equivalent rate, Cornell advanced to the national tournament.
 
This Cornell team endured the longest roadtrip in the modern era of Cornell hockey to begin the 2016-17 season. The Red’s conference schedule reflects the frequency of games away from friendlier Lynah Rink. Cornell has played five games in ECAC Hockey on the road. It has played conference opponents twice at home. Cornell would have nine conference points if it produced results at the rate that the Law requires. Cornell owns exactly nine points.
 
Cornell was precisely on schedule with its in-conference results in the first half of the season. Check the tense of the verb in that sentence. The second season begins on Friday. Cornell positioned itself well for a big second half in ECAC Hockey. The skaters of East Hill sit at an effective fourth place in conference standings.
 
Only Union, Harvard, and St. Lawrence have made more of their in-conference opportunities than have the members of this Cornell hockey team. Cornell is currently earning 24.0% fewer points per game than is St. Lawrence. Union and Harvard are several steps ahead earning 0.41 and 0.38 more points per game than the Red is right now.
 
The Red has ground that it needs to make up over the next several weeks. A bye would award Cornell were the playoffs to begin before Friday. The playoffs do not begin for nearly two months. Those two months are a double-edged sword.
 
The weekends of those months provide ample opportunity for Cornell to plummet to the lower rungs of the conference like it did last season after challenging Quinnipiac for the league’s first seed. Coach Schafer will lead his squad in five games against the three teams currently outperforming it. This will provide this team with the rope to ascend the sheer cliff to a bye or to hang itself with the need to play in the first round for a third consecutive season.
 
The Law anticipates that a good season for wearers of the carnelian and white amounts to earning 1.50 conference point per game. However, Cornell has earned berths to the Frozen Four First Round and byes with rates not quite as lofty. The Red rolls at an average winning rate of 1.34 points per game when it earns a post-season bye.
 
This team gained credit toward seeding at a rate of 1.29 conference points per game in the first half. It was off pace by the 22-year average of rest-earning Cornell teams. The Red needs to improve to secure that elusive and all but necessary bye. The good news is the road ahead of this team.
 
The road to Lake Placid can be paved with fallen opponents whom Cornell enjoys felling. The latest regular-season installments of the contemporary rivalry with Union and historic clash with nemesis Harvard at Lynah Rink will provide ample motivation beyond mere getting points for three key clashes. The motivations for the remainder should be simple.
 
As one keen observer of ECAC Hockey reminds this writer from time to time, in the opinions of the 11 other members of ECAC Hockey, Cornell is often regarded as the most loathsome opponent in the conference. It is the big game. The travelling, obnoxious, and resurgent Lynah Faithful only will add to the stakes of each of the six remaining road games. This weekend sends the Red on the road.
 
Senior defenseman and alternate captain Patrick McCarron who has answered the call of Where Angels Fear to Tread and this contributor to be a mainstay point producer for Cornell (he is tied currently for the most points on the team) will lead his team against Princeton and Quinnipiac this weekend. Princeton may be winless since its attention-getting win streak broke on December 17. The Tigers nonetheless performed admirably against stout competition last weekend. Princeton traded offensive blows with Harvard during the Tigers’s last outing. It was not until a series of fortuitous power plays, a trend that is emerging in Cambridge, allowed the Crimson to pull away for good.
 
Quinnipiac is Quinnipiac. The Bobcats have put the Ithacans in the red too many times in recent memories. So, a 4-6-1 record since Cornell last fell to Quinnipiac should not give Cornell any undeserved confidence in approaching Saturday’s match-up.
 
Cornell needs to heed Drake’s ever-appropriate admonition for all the other contests. The Red has enemies. They have designs on draining the Red of any inertia it can muster to win a Whitelaw Cup.
 
Any effort less than this team’s best should be anticipated to be met with defeat.

​An undeniable sense of history and dignity will pervade the air this weekend when we return to Lynah Rink for the first time in 35 days. It is not a mistake of any of your senses, tactile, olfactory, sixth, or other. The programs that will face off in the opener of the second half of the season will write another installment between two integral programs of women’s hockey.
 
Infrequently does either the men’s or women’s hockey program on East Hill hold anything over the other in terms of historic accomplishments and prestige; as one would expect of Cornellians. The Lady Rouge has won ten post-season tournaments in 45 years while its more testosterone-endowed counterpart has won 15 playoff championships in a century of intercollegiate competition. The women edge the men in championship winning rate by nearly 50% while the men uniquely can claim that three times their program has been declared the best in college hockey. As Cornell women so often do, they have a formidable, if not decisive, rebuttal that may be the last word in this tiff.

The Ivy League’s tournaments from 1976 through 1979 served as de facto national tournaments for deciding which women’s hockey program was that season’s best. However, few without and within Cornell hockey were so bold to proclaim the carnelian and white, victors of all four of those tournaments, national champions. Things changed in the 1979-80 season.
 
The expansion of women’s hockey beyond the ivy-covered walls of the Ancient Eight necessitated a more inclusive national tournament to decide an actual national champion. Northeastern University began competing in women’s hockey in 1978. The University of New Hampshire sponsored its first female icers in 1975. Meanwhile, the Ivy-League Tournament always excluded the third-oldest women’s hockey program. It hailed from Providence College.
 
Enter Providence.
​
The Friars began competing in 1973. Their success, including a 17-0 dismantling of Harvard, and the competitive elevation of the other two non-Ivy women’s program in the Northeast revealed that no program rightly could claim that it was national champion any longer without competing with these three other programs. The Eastern Association of Intercollegiate Athletics for Women provided the first instrument for determining which hockey program was the best in a given season. It hosted its first tournament at the end of the 1979-80 season.
 
The structure of the tournament was simple. It mirrored the format that the NCAA used in its Frozen-Four tournaments from 1948 through 1976. Only the four best, in the case of the EAIAW tournament, the four highest ranked, teams received invitations to vie for the spot atop the hierarchy of women’s hockey. The 1979-80 season decided which programs grappled in the first tournament sanctioned nominally to decide a national champion.
 
The four teams that ultimately received entry into the first EAIAW tournament were New Hampshire, Providence, Cornell, and Northeastern. The Wildcats of the Granite State accumulated 18 wins outside of the national tournament in the 1979-80 season. They did not lose. Northeastern received an invite on the tail of a 7-1 humbling of Harvard in the Beanpot. The Friars of Providence College rode the wave of a 19-2-0 regular-season record into the first national final four in women’s hockey. Cornell punched its ticket in predictable fashion. The Red outscored opponents 15 to four in a run to its fifth consecutive Ivy-League Championship to culminate a 16-5-0 season.
 
The inclusion of Cornell was a foregone conclusion. Cornell was the second-oldest women’s hockey program in the nation. It had dismantled the oldest program in the Ivy-League Championship Semifinal in nearly quintupling its opponent’s output. The Lady Rouge coined a fivepeat before vernacular for such an accomplishment was known.
 
Cornell drew Providence in the first national postseason. The teams had met earlier in the regular season. The Big Red did not hand the Friars one of their two losses. Cornell and Providence had met twice in their programs’s histories. The programs exchanged visits. Providence was victorious at Lynah Rink and Schneider Arena.
 
In a twist of fate drafted seemingly to test the mettle of the student-athletes of New York’s land-grant university, Schneider Arena was the studio of the 1980 EAIAW Championship. The carnelian and white returned to Schneider Arena to contest for a national title in March 1980. The task before this revolutionary program and its pioneering athletes was not unlike that which laid before the heroes who won Cornell’s first hockey championship in 1911 against Harvard in Boston Arena.
 
The players were fit and prepped. If there was a team that Cornell University would want to represent it in its first post-season, this was that team. The list of legends was fit for historical rolls. Sarah Mott tended the Red’s net. Brenda Condon and Cathy Northrop patrolled the blue line. Then, the list of Cornell’s forwards read like an all-star roster. It included Diane Dillon, Cheryl Hines, Cindy Warren, and Digit Degidio.
 
The game was hard-fought. Cornell, a program that had lost its two previous meetings to Providence by being outscored three to one, made the contest contentious from start to finish. Nevertheless, Digit, just minutes from her home, and her proud team fell victim to the emergent dominance of the Friars in a 5-3 decision. Cornell routed Northeastern, 5-1, the next day and Providence fell to New Hampshire, the only team to beat the Friars that season.
 
A third-place finish is not one celebrated at a program where cups overfloweth trophy cases. The invitation to compete with the sport’s best in the first national tournament is one that should be remembered. It ought to be immortalized as Cornell’s more recent national post-season runs are above the ice of one of hockey’s great sanctuaries.
 
That accomplishment makes women’s hockey at Cornell distinct. Bragging rights on this topic between the locker rooms on East Hill shift in favor of the ladies. It took the men’s program of Cornell University ten seasons to be invited to the Intercollegiate Hockey Association’s national tournament. The women’s program of the University was an inaugural invitee to the EAIAW’s national tournament.

The Lynah Faithful await banners that rightfully honor the Red’s 1911 IHA championship and invitation to the 1980 EAIAW Tournament. Both contribute to the excellence of Cornell hockey.
 
So, this weekend, when enjoying the contest at Lynah Rink, take a moment to realize and reflect that these programs truly did something remarkable together on one Spring day nearly four decades ago.

​What can the fourth-best postseason program in college hockey have in common with a program pejorized often as "the University of No Hardware?"

The modern saga between the hockey programs of Boston University and Cornell sings itself into a ballad for Red Hot Hockey. Michigan as the program most decorated in the modern national tournament that suffered then-recent overtime elimination to Cornell printed the programs for the Frozen Apple. Even Penn State and Cornell shared a formative history as it was Dick Bertrand who gifted the equipment to a Cornellian who began the Icers that became the now-touted Nittany Lions of Division I hockey. A chapter between Cornell and New Hampshire will be written on November 26, 2016 in Midtown Manhattan. Is the story of these programs proportionate to venue?

Sorrow is the story between the celebrated hockey programs of Cornell and New Hampshire.

At least from the Cornellian perspective.

Promotional campaigns will spin one narrative. That story will be one of parity. Factually, the Red and the Wildcats sit presently at 13-13-0 across all meetings. Truthfully, the series has been lopsided. Generations of Cornellians would trade many of those wins for even a single senior-season victory.

Why is this? New Hampshire is the tatterer of carnelian dreams.

Cornell and New Hampshire have meet seven times in playoff contests. The Wildcats have emerged victorious in five of those meetings. Five promising and triumphant seasons were clawed from the record books at the hands of the Wildcats. 15 graduating classes of Cornellians have watched as their skating champions ended a season in defeat to a team from New Hampshire.

Cornell hockey's annual events in Manhattan are multi-generational affairs and reunions for alumni and someday alumni. The Frozen Apple 2016 will be no different. New Hampshire has carved a large precipice over more than three decades that numerous eras of Lynah Faithful bridge. In the spirit of reunion and community, the contributors of Where Angels Fear to Tread reached out to Cornell legends for whom their senior-season meetings with New Hampshire remain too raw for times otherwise fondly recalled playing for Cornell University.

​Time changes some things. It leaves others in tact. Even the sweaters that these alumni of Cornell hockey wore differ across era. However, their expectations are immutable. Fred Tomczyk '77, Lance Nethery '79, and Sam Paolini '03 all recall the similar demands of Cornell hockey.

The Lynah Faithful yearn for and their teams endeavor to deliver Eastern and national success. "Our primary motivation...was threefold - win the Ivy League, win the ECAC and get to the final four and compete for a national title." "All we wanted to do was win an ECAC title that year, and win a National Championship." Tomczyk and Paolini describe the expectations that their teams placed upon themselves nearly identically even though 26 years separated their careers at Cornell. The impetus for Nethery's senior campaign was no different as the team was "very focused and hungry to get back to the ECAC finals in Boston."

In the character of his legend as a walk-on player who according to Coach Schafer "talked his way onto the team," Sam Paolini expounds the most about the quality of program during his nearly unblemished 2002-03 senior season. That team was "[t]he absolute embodiment of what a team should be." Confidence became Cornell that unforgettable season as the Red "knew we were going to physically dominate [and] make it impossible for the other teams to breathe once the puck was dropped."

Cornell during the 2002-03 season "took tremendous pride in break the opposing team's will to compete" in a manner befitting the program's eventual description as a juggernaut. The team evinced the eternal ethic of Cornell hockey as "[e]veryone was the best at what they did and it all harmonized together without jealousy or envy." The Western New York native summarized, "[w]e competed so hard together all season long."

Lance Nethery with lethal succinctness states that the program during his tenure was on such a trajectory that the "team in 1978 had the potential and talent to win the NCAA title." Potential may be an understatement for a roster dotted with Jim Gibson, Roy Kerling, and Pete Shier in addition to the Red's all-time scorer. Great was the stuff and greatness was the metric by which they elected to be measured during the 1976-77, 1978-79, and 2002-03 seasons.

Those three seasons despite their promise share a common historical endpoint: loss to New Hampshire.

The end of one's time on East Hill is seared into the minds of Cornellians. The last note in the symphony of a Cornellian's time as a student member of the Lynah Faithful or student-athlete for the Big Red is one that will resonate forever. It has been 46 years since Cornell won the last game of the season. The terminating losses to New Hampshire are made no less painful by the fact that only once after defeating Cornell in the post-season have the Wildcats gone on to win a tournament title. The feelings that come to mind to the men who played those games are more complex.

Among the first words that stir in the minds of Tomczyk, Nethery, and Paolini are "intense," "disappointment," and "frustration," "pure frustration," when they think of the hockey program from Durham. Nethery's thoughts first turn to thinking of "New Hampshire hockey is 'successful.'" As one might expect of a New Yorker, the Crimson Killer's initial reaction rhymes with hockey's instrument of scoring. This contributor, whose senior season as a member of the Faithful ended in a loss to New Hampshire, cannot agree more.

Fred Tomczyk is the lone member among these playing alumni who remembers a victory against the Wildcats in the postseason. The victory during his sophomore year was the last time that the Red defeated New Hampshire in the playoffs. The 1975 ECAC Hockey Quarterfinal was different because Lynah Rink hosted the Granite Staters. Intensity was already an element of the series. "[T]he 1975 game...was at Lynah and the fans were as loud as they ever were." 

"There is always that extra shot of adrenaline you get playing at Lynah as a Cornell player." Cornell never trailed in the contest and left Lynah Rink victorious. Post-season clashes with New Hampshire took upon a starkly different tone as they moved to Boston Garden just two years later.

Tomczyk and Nethery were both on the carnelian-and-white squad that met New Hampshire in the 1977 ECAC Hockey Semifinal. The latter was a promising sophomore bound to lead his team in scoring. The former was a indefatigable defenseman who led his team as a senior captain. A victory over the Engineers of RPI at Lynah Rink sent Cornell to Boston Garden for the 12th consecutive season.

Cornell and New Hampshire gave ECAC Hockey fans at Boston Garden quite a spectacle. Lance Nethery describes that contest as "one of the wildest and most interesting games" with which he has been involved. The Red's senior captain recalls that the 1975 ECAC Hockey Quarterfinal and 1977 ECAC Hockey Semifinals both "were tight and intense." Tomczyk recalls that the stakes were high because the "winning team went on to the final four in the country back then."

Fans in attendance were different than those that aided Cornell to its victory two seasons earlier. "[M]any in the crowd were from New Hampshire...it was like playing an away game except in a packed Boston Garden." Fans whether supporting the team from the land-grant university of New Hampshire or New York witnessed a 19-goal affair. Cornell's then-dependable sophomore scorer remembers that "[e]motions were running high on both sides" as both sides grappled with "very poor" ice. "[T]he ups and downs were unbelievable" during the exhausting double-overtime affair.

Cornell gained and surrendered a two-goal lead in the last five minutes of regulation. Fred Tomczyk assisted on what stood as an insurance and then go-ahead goal for Cornell. It was Ralph Cox who tied the contest in regulation. Tomczyk's contributions were far greater than two assists as he "played the last 10 minutes" of regulation and "the entire first overtime period." Fatigue and dehydration overcame the senior during the intermission before the second overtime frame. "I was never so tired in my life even to this day," elaborates Fred Tomczyk.

"We had them by two goals in the third period and lost in double overtime." The series for Tomczyk remained contained to a lone loss that ended a career worthy of celebration. He opines that "[a]ny sense of rivalry during [his] time - not as much of a rivalry in the sense of Harvard or Brown." However, the seeds of the future and the first plots along a trendline were jotted on March 11, 1977. Lance Nethery remembers that "[a]fter the first semi-final game in 1977, the rivalry began to emerge and has continued on up until this day."

The Burlington, Ontario native faced New Hampshire again in the post-season. The contest once again occurred in Boston Garden in the semifinals of the Eastern playoffs. The 1979 ECAC Hockey Semifinal was unlike the encounter during Nethery's sophomore campaign during which he remembers "thinking that this game may never end."

New Hampshire tied the contest 19 seconds after Cornell took its first and only lead late in the first period at Boston Garden on March 9, 1979. Nethery three days earlier provided the heroic crescendo to Cornell's unlikely comeback against Providence in their quarterfinal contest. That immortal game saw the Red rally from a four-goal deficit in the third period to tie the game and ultimately win just four minutes into overtime. "[T]he fans after the game out on the ice was something special for all of the players." It was Nethery who scored the equalizer with 13 seconds remaining that preserved the Lynah Faithful's chance at celebration.

The game was memorable, perhaps too memorable. Lance Nethery recalls that it was "difficult to refocus" for New Hampshire and that "[m]any people were still talking about the Providence game." Cornell was never quite able to muster "the level [of play] [it] needed to beat [New Hampshire]."

New Hampshire defected from ECAC Hockey for Hockey East in 1984. This divide decreased the likelihood for the two programs to meet in the post-season. Playoff meetings took a 23-year hiatus. Some of the series's most heart-wrenching episodes still were to be played.

Cornell and New Hampshire first met after The Divorce on March 24, 2002. Sam Paolini scored a goal that briefly stood as the go-ahead goal on that evening in Worcester. New Hampshire ultimately emerged the victor of the programs's meetings in the 2002 Frozen Four Quarterfinal. The most tragic episode for Cornellians waited a little more than a year into the future.

The 2002-03 season could have been one of absolute redemptive retribution. Harvard eliminated Cornell in the 2002 ECAC Hockey Final. New Hampshire eliminated Cornell in the NCAA tournament. Paolini remarks that "winning the 2003 ECAC Championship and winning it in the fashion we did with a last minute comeback and OT winner...is burned in my memory forever." Earning in perpetuity the mantle of Crimson Killer, Sam Paolini scored Cornell's first goal and the overtime winner against Harvard for the 2003 Whitelaw Cup. 

So, did Cornell take note of the chance to end New Hampshire's season in Buffalo one season after the Wildcats had stopped Cornell in the national tournament? No. "We didn't care which team was in front of us," describes Paolini, "we just took on that 'Who's Next?' approach." Neither retrospect nor prospect hindered the Red's preparation.

"Every game we expected to win." This feeling was well founded. Cornell brought 30 wins in tow with it to Buffalo.

Many college-hockey fans and historians were rapt in discussion about the potential for a Cornell-Minnesota match-up in the national-title game. Cornell was consistently the best team in the nation that season. Minnesota was the defending national champion. The two played diametrically opposite styles between showy, offensive panache and bone-crushing, disciplined execution. None of these narratives scrolled through the minds of the Cornell players on April 10, 2003.

"We never looked beyond UNH...We were always focused on the task at hand and this was no different." Nothing was taken for granted. Focus was regained as it always was on this winningest of Cornell hockey teams. "Winning in double OT against BC to make it to the Frozen Four" is Sam Paolini's second fondest on-ice memory of his career. However, in the moment, the Schafer-led Frozen-Four team from East Hill narrowed its gaze to New Hampshire.

As is the case with memories too traumatic or unsettling to recall, Sam Paolini confesses that he "d[oes]n't remember a lot about that game." Paolini, the hero of one of Cornell hockey's greatest playoff victories in its near century-and-a-quarter existence, remembers "missing an easy rebound in front of the net...and Stephen Bâby hitting the goalie in the head during the last 30 seconds" as the Big Red sought desperately for an overtime-guaranteeing equalizer. The equalizer was never tallied. Arguably the best team in Cornell hockey history fell to New Hampshire, 3-2, that day in Buffalo.

The Cornell-New Hampshire series knows controversy well in its deep playoff history. The goal that New Hampshire scored in the final minutes of the second period of the 1979 ECAC Hockey Semifinal was reviewed. The goal was allowed. That marker stood as the game winner. Lance Nethery summarizes the event pointedly, "[t]he goal they kicked in was certainly a turning point."

The meeting between the Red and Wildcats in the 2003 Frozen Four witnessed perhaps the greatest controversy of the series. Shane Palahicky scored an apparent goal midway through the first period. The goal was reviewed. The goal would have been the first of the contest. The officials disallowed the goal. Sam Paolini does not remember much from that game "except the Palahicky goal getting called back." Few who understand college hockey from that era can disagree that the waiver of that goal was significant if not definitive in the result of the contest.

New Hampshire officially opened scoring a few minutes later. "[H]aving them score minute later was brutal." Paolini laments today, "if we get that goal we win, I'm 90% sure." The New Yorker knows that is team was "almost unbeatable with a one goal lead or scoring first." Like most who know the game from that era, Paolini concludes "I think things would've been different had that goal counted."

Both Lance Nethery and Sam Paolini never have allowed the controversy that contributed to the ends of their careers in carnelian and white to detract from their humble acknowledgements about New Hampshire in those contests. The former adds further that "the incredible emotional high after the Providence game on Tuesday night" contributed more than a controversial goal for New Hampshire in the Red's ultimate defeat. 

Lance Nethery remarks about the "talented offensive players which made [New Hampshire] difficult to play." He praises Wildcats against whom he played such as Ralph Cox, Bruce Crowder, Bobby Francis, and Bobby Gould. Fred Tomczyk adds to this list Rod Langway, Dave Lumley, and Bobbie Miller. Sam Paolini opines that "UNH was a very good team and they won the game fair and square." No matter the propriety of the results, the impact of the defeat still lingers for the program and the players who played in them.

Fred Tomczyk refers to the 1977 ECAC Hockey Semifinal as "the hardest game to lose." The pain still stings as he iterates that "[w]e were right there and the ECAC title game and a trip to the final four was without our grasp and we lost in double overtime." The 1977 and 1979 ECAC Hockey Semifinals struck Lance Nethery similarly as "bitterly disappointing." Agonizingly, "they beat us twice in the ECAC semifinals eliminating any chance for us to go on to the NCAA finals."

Both Tomczyk and Nethery identify their losses to New Hampshire during their respective senior seasons as the second-most unforgettable moments of their careers. How emotionally invested were these losses? "[P]laying Harvard at home for the time was special" and the moment more unforgettable for Tomczyk. The regulation hero of the 1979 ECAC Hockey Quarterfinal against Providence says that his last game at Lynah Rink "is etched in [his] memory forever." Only recollections of those events are as or more emotionally vivid than are their memories of their final games against New Hampshire.

The emotions still plague Sam Paolini understandably when he thinks back to just the fifth loss of his senior season. "I still have not watched any video clips or replay of that game." "It makes me sick to think about," shares Paolini. The emotions still wrapped up in that contest are proportional to the greatness attained, accolades sought, and moments forever given to the Lynah Faithful on that run. 

"All we wanted to do was win an ECAC title that year, and win a National Championship...we were devastated when the latter didn't occur," speaks Paolini for his team and the Lynah Faithful.

​Nothing can undo the past. The sting from senior seasons that New Hampshire cut short will return when we as Cornellians return to the streets of Manhattan after the contest ends at Madison Square Garden on Saturday. However, for those brief moments beginning just before 8:00 pm, let the 15 classes mourn the arrest of great potential that they witnessed as students together with generations of Faithful who know not our sorrow of success or who experienced Cornell's even greater greatest in their own times. Let us be lost in the moment of self-delusion in willing that defeat of New Hampshire and victory for Cornell on such a grand scale will somehow right the wrongs that the Wildcats have visited upon our great and decorated program.

The Lynah Faithful owe to New Hampshire a small debt of gratitude for the Wildcats have taught the hockey teams, students, and alumni of Cornell University something about being Cornellian. Fred Tomczyk related these sentiments about critical moments in life, "[w]hen you hit those moments, you want to make sure that you have nothing left, and I knew that I had nothing left. I gave it everything I had, and we still lost. There's no shame in that - no regret." It is unCornellian to give anything less than one's last full measure. New Hampshire is a program that has demanded and received that from many of Cornell hockey's greats.

Now, on Saturday, at "the world's most famous arena," let the collective rage of generations propel this Cornell hockey team to a much-needed victory that will give alumni but a respite from unpleasant memories as you give your last full measure (to be verified by a sound level meter). Whether you are from one of those 15 graduating classes or not, this team plays to make a statement on a large scale at our University's de facto hockey homecoming.

The Lynah Faithful are special. This is our event. The most lasting experience for Sam Paolini from his time donning a carnelian-and-white sweater was "the wonderful relationships [he] built with [his] teammates, coaches, and fans...You can't find that kid of love, dedication, and comradery anywhere else." Cornell hockey is special. Cornell University is special.

Now, let's hope this team can help Cornellians with some group therapy. 

The session begins 8:00 pm on November 26, 2016.

The season is young still for the Lady Rouge. In five games of consequence, three have been won, two have been lost, and no more than four goals has been scored combined in any of those games. Close games are to be expected more now than ever before with parity becoming less than a mere buzzword in women’s hockey. So while a team that is 3-2 overall and 1-2 within ECAC Hockey might not inspire passion in all, the way that this team has been playing should.

The college hockey world seems to be in a bit of an identity crisis right now if we look at standings alone. The North Country and Colgate are undefeated in ECAC Hockey play. Cornell has taken two losses in its three opportunities. Both losses were solid efforts, a 1-0 defeat at the hands of RPI and a late 2-1 defeat in the Red’s debut at Riggs Rink. However, a loss is a loss. Steve Hagwell will not gift points and playoff position for a “good” vs. “bad” loss. The simple fact is: Cornell needs points. By the end of this coming weekend, it will have played over 20% of its league schedule. Two wins could propel the Red solidly to the middle of the pack while two losses would likely relegate the Red to the bottom of the heap and require seriously heroic efforts to find themselves playing at Lynah in late February.

But this piece serves neither as an omen of things to come nor as a strict preview for this weekend’s games against Brown and Yale. This piece is about a four-letter word that this writer cannot help but feel every time that the team plays: hope.

Cornell lost a lot of great players from last season to graduation, injury, and more. These players were not solely flashy scorers or brick walls of goaltending. These players brought heart, character, and spirit to the team. Does this team have what it takes to give more and do something that Cornell has not done in 3 years? Does this team have some special magic to pull off something that Cornell has never done?

This writer is not talking about merely maintaining a streak of consecutive playoff berths or entrance once again to the NCAA tournament. Oh, no. This is Cornell hockey. This is playoff success and playoff victory. Does this team have what it takes to win Cornell’s fifth ECAC Hockey Championship? Or perhaps does it have what it takes to win Cornell’s first NCAA national title?

In order to be a team of championship caliber, Cornell needs to first, get to the dance. It is obvious that teams who host playoffs at home have a significant advantage to those who have to travel, but Cornell has won its ECAC Hockey Championships both ways. But will Cornell have what it takes to dance?

At first gloss, one might be worried. The team has a very short roster: 17 skaters with 2 defensemen. It seems like injuries could plague the team. That is always a possibility. But size doesn’t always predict success. In fact, of the four championship teams that Cornell has had, half of them have had as few or fewer skaters on the team. The 2009-10 team which saw Cornell capture its first ECAC Hockey Championship and reach the finals of the national tournament had but 16 skaters and 2 netminders on the team. Eerily close to the number of players that Cornell has on its rosters presently.

Injury cannot be predicted, but healthy bodies alone cannot predict a championship. This team has some solid and dependable players, some stars in the making, and some reliable contributors. Character is something that cannot be measured on a stats sheet. Character will only be seen when a team is truly put to the test. But this team certainly has potential. Our situation in net is enviable. We have two goaltenders in Big Paula and Marlene Boissonnault in front of whom any team would be confident to skate. Regardless of whether 31 or 1 backstops the game, the team has a fighting chance to win. You don’t lose games 1-0 and 2-1 when the goaltender is at fault. Our forwards are clicking in a way that hopefully will only improve with time and our defensive work from all players, d-corps and forwards alike, has been impressive thus far.

The one thing that gives this writer that dangerous four-letter word is something that is viewed as almost a truism in college hockey: in championship teams, freshmen do not play like they are freshmen.

Look at Cornell’s recent championship history: in 2010 were defensive dynamos Laura Fortino and Lauriane Rougeau playing like freshmen? How about another defensive duo in Alyssa Gagliardi and Hayleigh Cudmore, or forwards Brianne Jenner and Jessica Campbell, or freshmen netminder Lauren Slebodnick in 2011? What about last year’s graduating senior class? The character and skill of Cassandra Poudrier, Anna Zorn, Morgan Richardson, Taylor Woods, Stefannie Moak, and Jess Brown were far beyond those of mere freshmen in their first years donning their sweaters in 2013. That leaves some still familiar faces for this team: the 2014 ECAC Hockey championship was anchored by newcomers Hanna Bunton, Brianna Veerman, Caroline DeBruin, Sydney Smith, Kaitlin Doering, and Paula Voorheis. Those standout freshmen helped in no small way to lead Cornell to its fourth ECAC Championship. Their experience will be invaluable as the Red seeks its fifth title.

So while it is dangerous to suggest that all of the Red’s success rests on the backs of the septet of freshmen who have yet to take their first collegiate final exam, they’re already working to etch their way into Cornell history. Will we remember the names of Grace Graham, Hanna Mutschellknaus, Valerie Audet, Jaime Bourbonnais, Paige Lewis, Kristin O’Neill, and Amy Curlew in the same way that people discuss the near legendary players from above?

As the trusty magic eight-ball says, the answer is foggy, try again later. Maybe in March. After all, all we as contributors can do at this point is have hope.

It came down to one team. It was Cornell hockey’s first push toward greatness. One formidable foe stood between continued mediocrity and established greatness for the future of Cornell hockey. The ninth team answered in favor of the latter in winning the Red’s first playoff championship.

That contest left players unconscious. The Ithacans’s adversary needed to request stoppages in play to collect its incapacitated players. The physicality grew brutal. The carnelian-and-white goaltender made all efforts to best him look misguided. The stakes were high. Cornell rose to the challenge. The result sealed a perfect season and a national champion for New York’s land-grant university.

The characters were familiar ones in Frank Crassweller, Malcolm Vail, Edmund Magner, and Jefferson Vincent.

The opponent was Dartmouth.

What, you assumed this story was about something else?
The Big Green and Red have met seven times in the post-season since that game on February 18, 1911 in Matthews Arena. The count of seven excludes a meaningless meeting in the 1980 Frozen Four Consolation. Donners of carnelian and white cannot be too haughty toward the program of the other non-urban Ivy. Dartmouth did force a decisive game three at Lynah Rink during the senior campaign of Ray Sawada and Topher Scott.

The playoffs are in the distant future.

Dartmouth presented a formidable challenge for Cornell since the series between the hockey programs of the two universities began in 1909. The task grew all the more difficult after the 2005-06 season when the paradox of 1911 became at least a bi-seasonal occurrence. The Red clings to a barely winning record against Dartmouth under the current travel-partner arrangement of ECAC Hockey.

Cornell’s and White’s boys owned a 0.647 all-time record against the skating defenders of Wheelock’s honor before the latter began its do-si-do with their current partner. The Red may not have crashed to earth after the current arrangement, but its performance clearly rests upon the canopy of trees. Cornell owns a 0.589 winning percentage since the travel-partner pivot.

The situation grows bleaker with a little teasing. Of the 22 times that Cornell and Dartmouth have met in the regular season since the 2005-06 season began, the Red has won just ten contests. Yes, Cornell edges the Big Green by just one game in their record of regular-season meetings over the last 11 years.

That trend needs to stop. Cornell grossly overlooked an opponent last weekend. Its season may unravel rapidly this weekend if it elects to overlook the pitch that waits at Thompson Arena for Friday evening. Dartmouth has made a lucrative business of cashing in the Red’s underestimation, disrespect, and distraction for crucial wins.

Cornell ceded at least two and a half games of precious ECAC Hockey standing points to Dartmouth from this downturn in its winning rate against the Hanover natives over the last 11 years. Seeding matters and it is far too early in the season to fall behind preserving hopes of real home ice in the most crucial part of the season. Winning allays all fears.

It is even easier this season than most for the Red to overlook it opponent in the Freddy Krueger-sweater clash. The Big Green graduated ten members of a team that allegedly earned a berth to Lake Placid. This wave of departures washed away Dartmouth’s leading scorer, go-to goaltender, and three of its top five point producers from last season’s team.

Informed parties wrote the death certificate on Bob Gaudet’s squad before it even played a game. How could a team with so many holes be competitive? This rhetorical inquiry confuses uncertainty with inability. Dartmouth presents an unknown. That does not mean that it is untalented or non-lethal.

Did anyone expect Spink 1, Spink 2, and Kyle Baun to become top-five point producers on Colgate as freshmen and spend the second half of their debut season erasing the void left when Austin Smith graduated? Dartmouth may be Colgate ’12-13. Scoff at or ignore that possibility and Dartmouth may make a team pay like Colgate did eventual national runner-up Quinnipiac in that season’s late October.

Every freshman in Dartmouth’s line-up in its first and only contest tallied a point. Four freshmen recorded a point. It was Cam Strong who flashed the bravado enough to score a midgame go-ahead goal. It would not stand as the winner, but it shows the banner and trophy math does not intimidate the Big Green’s newcomers. Oh, yeah, the assists on that goal, freshmen earned those too.

Upperclassmen expected to contribute mightily like Troy Crema, Carl Hesler, and Corey Kalk have found their names already on boxscores. It may take some luck, but Dartmouth may not wander as adrift as many in the media expected this season. Let’s hope that Cornell does not do its part to make luck for its host on Friday.

The task before Cornell is identical to that which laid before it on February 18, 1911. Cornell needs to find offensive cohesion. Last season, when the Red was at its best, it muscled its way into the zone and harassed the net with shots at each high-probability opportunity and a presence in the Moulson-approved areas near the net waiting for the chance to convert any puck found in the slot.

The Red accommodated Merrimack’s defense early in the contest with reporting to the perimeter of the Warriors’s zone. Cornell abandoned the shooting mentality that Coach Schafer praised at the beginning of last season when Cornell earned much success in a string of considerable wins. The grapple on Friday evening may be a dull and disappointing affair if carnelian-and-white skaters, both forwards and defensemen, do not heed the advice of “Ithaca’s Rambo.”

The two freshmen who skated for Cornell impressed in the Merrimack contest. Jeff Malott gained confidence as the game grew older to forecheck opponents off of the puck in the dirty areas of ice. Malott also was the lone additional player who resembled Matt Buckles in taking almost every legitimate shooting opportunity that was presented.

Yanni Kaldis is an adept puck-moving defenseman as expected. The skillful blueliner transitioned more seamlessly to the collegiate game than one might expect reasonably. The game may remain somewhat faster than what the rookie defenseman anticipates. He will gain a step in the coming weeks of training. However, until then, like last weekend, his fairly refined fundamentals and vision of the ice more than compensate for any differences in pace.

Matt Nuttle wore the iconic Cornell sweater at Lawler Rink. This sight may become one to which the Lynah Faithful are accustomed. Nuttle’s instincts and ability to get the puck on net and low will pay dividends when this team decides to battle for every inch of ice and look for all shooting and scoring opportunity. The sophomore had a reassuring third game.

Cornell and Dartmouth played programs of equal palette but divergent prestige in their first contests. Blue and yellow was the common scheme. The fact that one should clarify the latter as “maize” says enough. Cornell lost by a 3-2 margin. Dartmouth reversed the Red’s fortune for a 3-2 victory. The Big Green defeated the most dominant program in the history of college hockey. Cornell lost to a program with no Division I playoff championships.

Dartmouth is the contest of this weekend. The preparation for and performance during that contest will tell far more about this team than any other game played in the next few days. The paradox of 1911 tests the fiber of this team.

Cornell claimed victory in a game of far greater consequence on January 28, 1911. Historians of college hockey view that contest as the one that sealed the Red’s fate as national champion in 1911. This may be a psychological or emotional truth, but it is not a fact. Cornell needed to defeat Dartmouth to preserve its perfect season and right to be called a national champion like no other.

Fixation on that other game and accomplishments achieved or yet to come would have given Dartmouth the space in which to upset the carnelian and white upending a season of destiny. The Big Green thrives in that lush space. Cornell needs to deforest it. The greatest teams of Cornell show the focus of 1911, respect Dartmouth, and deliver efforts devoid of retrospective or prospective distraction equal to the task.

The Lynah Faithful will find out on Friday if this team is fit for greatness.

A covenant renewed was the mantra of Coach Schafer’s season-opening media day. Cornell re-emerged last season as a legitimate national and conference contender after a season’s hiatus when Coach Schafer returned to the basics of his winning formula from seasons past and those that have led Cornell to success for over a century. The accompanying tenets are simple.

The team matters more than the individual. Attention must be paid in every aspect of the game. Nothing is given, everything is earned.

A team that represents a cohesive community must meet these criteria if those hallmarks reify the values of that community. Jurgen Klinsmann articulates that “[i]t has to be [a] goal to develop a style in which [people] recognize themselves.” Lynah Faithful, did you see yourselves in this team’s effort last Friday? Did this team even see itself?

This is not a singular rebuke of the team. This is a season-long invitation for introspection. This season, the 60th season played at Lynah Rink and the 100th season of intercollegiate play for Cornell hockey, must become one in which everyone associated with this often deservedly self-promoting and vaunted program tries to live up to the expectations of their predecessors.

The earning-it mentality must not be reduced to the double-speak aphorism of #EarnIt. Cornell University expects its pupils, whether students or student-athletes, to earn everything in their academic studies. It is imperative that Coach Schafer in the role of educator to his players continues what he expertly did last season and in seasons past. One result does not indicate whether he has or not. The line-up in the coming days may provide insight.

The carnelian and white etched the ice for the first time this season having earned nothing. They acted like they had earned much. A sense of entitlement pervaded the Red’s style of play. More than just the twill numbers stitched to the backs of the carnelian sweaters was oversized (for those who did not attend the game or purchase Merrimack’s feed, the dorsal numbers are now of the 12-inch rather than 10-inch variety that Cornell wears historically).

The defense scrambled. The attack did not put pucks on the net. Chemistry among forwards was unreactive.

Coach Schafer righted the course in one regard during the first intermission. The Red took the ice having been reminded of a crucial lesson from last season. Cornell took a shot when a lane to the net was open or attackers were ensuing. Matt Buckles was the lone player to trust his shot, as he so often does, during the entirety of the game.

Why then did the givers of regards to Davey not roar back to life in the second or third period then?

Team unity on the ice was abysmal. That neither exaggerates nor sugarcoats it. Players did not cohere in their efforts. Individual efforts produced the largest percentage of the offense that Cornell produced during the second period and the first half of the third period. Yes, skaters were taking shots as the new Schaferian mantra demands, but those shots were produced from singular scrambles in attempts to get Cornell back into a game that it was in only so briefly last Friday night.

The Lowe-Death-Cornell line, I mean, the Rauter-Fiegl-Buckles line was the one line with visible signs of communication and cooperation through the first period. They did not entirely outdo the tandem of Jeff Malott, Jake Weidner, and Eric Freschi. Buckles performed well, albeit angrily (I do not know about you, but I like my Buckles a little fiery), in relentlessly pummeling Merrimack’s Vogler. The Red’s first goal of the season rewarded the determined junior.

The carnelian-and-white net transitioned during the game as the visitors from Upstate New York allowed three goals on just 18 shots. Hayden Stewart was called into action in relief for the seventh time in his career. The junior netminder arrested all shots that he faced in nearly one-half of the contest. This was no surprise to the Cornell partisans in attendance.

Stewart has allowed no goals in five of the contests that he has entered in relief. Entering a game in relief when a team is chasing a game that has gotten away is a disadvantageous situation that no goaltender covets. Cornell’s net-minding Illinois native is undaunted in producing 1.63 goals-against average and a 0.930 save percentage under such unfavorable conditions. His performance Friday was matter of course. Stewie has earned the confidence of the Lynah Faithful if not more.

Cornell’s second goal of the contest was symbolic. Mitch Vanderlaan of the off-season’s much-ballyhooed line that shares a name with a program house in North Campus found the back of the net. Fitting for the evening, none of his typical linemates were on the ice with him. Jeff Malott and Jake Weidner joined those credited with assists, Dwyer Tschantz and Trevor Yates, in precipitating the Big Red’s last gasp at Lawler Rink.

Two things are obvious from that sequence of events. We found Bob Marley. Now, opposing fans always think the Lynah Faithful are looking for Waldo. Nope, it was looking for its Rastafarian frontman. A valiantly grappling Jeff Kubiak was unable to serve as the versatile conduit for the talents of Angello and Vanderlaan.

Kubiak’s leadership is essential to his expected line’s success. If that was not assumed before last Friday, it is a certainty now. Jeff Kubiak just had returned from injury. His game was ever-so-slightly off from what this contributor began to expect last season.

Cornell gained the man advantage shortly after the Warriors expanded their lead to two goals. The power-play including Angello, Kubiak, and Vanderlaan leapt over the boards. Angello guided the puck along an arc from the blue line to his senior center at the left face-off circle. The mismatch was there. The shooting lane was clear. Kubiak received the pass. He hesitated. The moment was gone. This would not have happened last season. Hopefully, it will become a rarity as this season progresses and Kubiak heals.  

It seems until Jeff Kubiak returns closer to his full potential that The Wailers will be jamming far less frequently than expected.

Arguably the largest moment of the night occurred with antics that occurred directly after a whistle. The team-first mentality vanished for but a second. Then, the Red was killing a major as it lost one of its most promising forwards in a deliberate, undisciplined act. Coach Schafer rightly critiqued the decision as “selfish.”

Lack of discipline and selfishness were what doomed Cornell in this season’s opener. Players began the contest acting like they had won already when they had earned no respect. Each season is different. Each team is different. This team has earned nothing yet. Its constituent members began Friday as though it had.

Merrimack paid Cornell the exact amount of respect that the Big Red exacted. Cornell earned little respect that evening. When the entitlement of the Red was not sated, players resorted to selfish efforts to attempt to score or succumbed to baser impulses in frustration that disadvantaged that team. This writer needs not expound upon the body of evidence of a truism of Cornell’s greatest teams among its 100 installments.

Cornell wins when it plays as one. It has done so for 105 years. While other programs rely upon arrogant self-indulgence and self-promotion, Cornell harnesses collective talent in a practice devoted to lifting the University.

The players on this team need to earn their playing time. The team needs to instill reverence in its opponents through its accomplishments in its own right. They are not the only affiliates of the University that must earn something this season.

We all need to earn something.

The Lynah Faithful need to become again “faithful.” The last three seasons of Cornell hockey have seen the worst average attendance since the most recent renovations to Lynah Rink. Last season was the worst for average attendance since the Rink’s seating capacity expanded. This is unacceptable.

It is offensive to the history of the venue for Lynah Rink to sit with crowds averaging less than 99.0% capacity. Nearly half of the seasons since expansion have reached that plateau. To earn the acclaim that the Lynah Faithful extoll on themselves as being the most rabid fans in college hockey, they need to hone the points their taunts and chants beyond ritual and fill the building to capacity so that this team may reach its potential.

Sadly, the “earn it” mantra has become more literal for far too many Lynah Faithful, alumni, and students. Over the last seven years, ticket prices for a non-playoff regular-season game at Lynah Rink have risen by one-third. Now, it may be a wise decision for Andy Noel, et al. to gouge the loyalty of patrons by an additional 33.3% over less time than a decade (inflation over the same span is but 10.7%), it engenders neither passion nor loyalty. Cornell Athletics should earn the devotion of its loyal fans rather than exploit it. This writer expects this to fall on deaf ears.

The pep band needs to be more creative. This writer has been to many away venues with the fanbases that are regionally and nationally known as the best. The Big Red Pep Band needs to dare to add things to its repertoire. The women’s opening series against Mercyhurst saw a pep band willing to experiment with new songs and arrangements. This should continue. The last time that this contributor checked, members of the pep band are Cornellians, dare make a legacy or tradition of your own! Rebel! Be Cornellian!

Finally, the role of our contributors, we pledge that we will dedicate ourselves to continuing and improving high-calibre and thought-provoking analysis that adds value to the experience of being Lynah Faithful, alumni, or students. Our goal is to provide something that you cannot find elsewhere. Where Angels Fear to Tread will continue to give its last full measure of devotion toward that end this season. He who expects great things of others must expect greatness of himself. We hope to continue to earn your loyalty and readership.

And to think, we are just one week into the season.