Defence and Special Teams First at Cornell

[NWTHabsFan]

As Cornell University (and Hab prospects Ryan O'Byrne and Jon Gleed) heads into the home stretch in regular league play, it is clear that both the special teams and team defence are a big reason why they are only 1 point out of first place in their conference and ranked 8th in the latest NCAA national rankings. Consider these interesting stats: Cornell currently is first in the NCAA in team defence (with lowest gaa in the NCAA Division 1), second in team PP, and third in PK. When Dan Linn (poster: montreal) mentions that we have two prospects in an excellent college hockey system, he is not kidding!!

For those that are interested in seeing them in action, Cornell takes on Clarkson this evening and the NHL Network is showing the game as part of its affiliation with CSTV to broadcast certain NCAA games. Game time is 8:00pm ET, 6:00pm MT.

Here is a recent blurb about the team and its recent success including some comments about their focus on defence first:

Then there's that defense thing the Big Red have a handle on. They've allowed just four goals in their last five games and have allowed more than two tallies in just three contests all season. It's a system that has worked extremely well since Schafer brought it to the upstate New York campus in 1995.

"People talk about our system all the time," said Schafer, "but what we do is get the puck back as fast as possible. We're an aggressive forechecking team, we're not a team that sits back and fires the puck down ice.

"The players know that if you want to play professionally, the guys need to learn how to be two-way players. You're not going to be a pro if you can't play defense, unless you're a great goal-scorer, and there are not too many of those in college hockey right now."


Read the full meal deal here:

-Cornell Link-

[montreal]

What's even more impressive about Cornell is that their goalie, the undrafted David McKee, isn't all that great. Don't get me wrong, he's solid indeed, but he tends to let in a softie every now and then. While his numbers are very good, he's not even the top goalie in the ECAC imo. Havard's Morris a flyers prospect is having an outstanding year.

As for tonights game, Clarkson has struggled this year, and Cornell has been dominate at home all year.

And our other NCAAer, J T Wyman seems to be adapting to the league, as I saw him play the first game of the season where he looked ok but I've recently seen two games and he seems much more confident. Of course picking up 4 points in those games, tends to help one's confidence, but he's looking stronger in the offensive zone and netural zone. Dartmouth as a team has also picked it up of late, so that I would think is a part of him playing better as the team has really found their offensive game of late. I look forward to seeing what Wyman does next year. Pitt did really well in picking Nick Johnson, who's looking great for a freshman.