3rd period notes

6:01pm: This one’s over, and it’s a nice scene at the end as Cornell and Colgate seniors congratulate one another on the ice. These guys have had basically the same travel schedule for the last four years together and know each other very well. Tyler Burton and Topher Scott are the last to shake hands. Another nice gesture — Red defenseman Mike Devin picks up the puck to give to Dan DiLeo. Had to be a thrill for him. Now, down to the press conferences. Will be back for the championship game in about an hour.
5:58pm: DiLeo makes his first career save but gives a rebound that the Raiders’ senior captain Tyler Burton puts home. Kind of one of those situations where everybody wins. Nice to see Burton get a goal in his final game. And DiLeo makes another save, covering up the puck, eliciting roars from the Cornell faithful in attendance.
5:55pm: How about this — Cornell junior goaltender Dan DiLeo has come in to spell Ben Scrivens. DiLeo has never appeared in a game in his career. Nice gesture by Cornell coach Mike Schafer, who also seems to be trying to get rookie Tyler Roeszler a goal by giving him some extra ice-time this period, including some time on the power play. Roeszler is the only non-goalie on the Red roster to not score a goal this season (thanks to Cornell SID Kevin Ziese for that information). Just over a minute remaining in the period.
5:51pm: Both Scali and Day picked up 10-minute misconducts and will watch the remainder of the third period from the penalty box.
5:48pm: Some completely unnecessary extracurricular activity going on now, as Cornell’s Joe Scali and Colgate’s Brian Day get into a scuffle, sending both players to he box. An additional penalty was assessed to Raiders defenseman Kevin McNamara, and the Big Red goes on the power play again… Just 7:42 left in the third.
5:40pm: Colgate just squandered a power play chance of its own, as the penalty parade continues here in this game. Colgate now 0-for-5 on the power play. Red goaltender Ben Scrivens, who let in a weak game-winning goal last night against Harvard, made a nice save on Colgate senior Tyler Burton.
5:36pm: Colgate rookie Brian Day takes a penalty, and the Big Red takes advantage. Cornell now 3-for-4 on the man-advantage. And it was another tip-in goal, this time by Colin Greening, who was camped out in front of Kowalkowski. Brendon Nash took the shot from the point after being set up by the aforementioned Riley Nash, his brother. The Big Red power play was setting up and generating chances with ease.
2nd period notes
5:29pm: Have I mentioned how good Riley Nash is? It’s a little scary sometimes, as he just weaves effortlessly through the Colgate defense. At around 2:30pm this afternoon, he sat quietly on the bench looking out onto the ice as the zamboni put a fresh sheet down. Probably only five other people were in the arena at the time. One was me. And another was senior captain Topher Scott, who sat in the top row of the lower bowl by himself, looking pretty meditative. Third period about to get underway now.
5:25pm: Some other notes while we await the third period: Cornell’s Michael Kennedy and Colgate’s Joe DeBello, both juniors, took matching minor penalties late in the period. And each player spent a good amount of his time in the box jawing at the other. Kind of entertaining to watch, but sadly, I was out of earshot. Cornell players have been fairly animated all day actually, starting with a boisterous stretching session in the bowels of the Times Union Center earlier. Attendance is pretty sparse this afternoon, as one might imagine, with less than half of the amount of Cornell fans than there were yesterday. I wonder what the attendance will be like for tonight’s Harvard-Princeton championship game. Will Princeton advance to its first NCAA tournament since 1998? Or will Harvard win it’s fourth ECAC title since 2002 (all in even-numbered years)? 5 minutes to go until the third period.
5:15pm: 2nd period ends. Shots were only 6-5 in favor of Colgate in the period, but Cornell scored on two of its five shots. One period left in the careers of Topher Scott, Raymond Sawada, Doug Krantz, Chris Fontas, Tyler Burton, Ben Camper, Dustin Gillanders, Mike Werner, Matt Torti, Mark Dekanich, and Justin Kowalkowski.
5:01pm: Oh boy — Colgate coach Don Vaughan switches goaltenders, putting Justin Kowalkoski (a senior backup) in. You hate to see Colgate senior netminder Mark Dekanich go out this way, giving up 3 goals on 15 shots before an unceremonious exit. I’d imagine Kowalkowski, a senior, was going to get playing time today anyway though.
4:58pm: Immediately after Cornell’s second goal, Colgate committed another penalty. And the Big Red took advantage immediately, with sophomore defenseman Justin Krueger scoring on a nice one-time shot. The pass came from senior captain Topher Scott.
4:56pm: Another senior scores for Cornell. This time, it’s Raymond Sawada on the power play, tipping in a shot by Mike Devin on the power play. It was one of those goals that you could see developing a good 3-4 seconds before it happened. Sawada was left all alone in front of Dekanich, who threw the puck out of the net in anger afterwads. Three of Cornell’s four seniors have scored this weekend. Ironically, both goals today against Colgate have been tip-in goals — just the type that Harvard was scoring in last night’s semifinal with the Big Red.
4:51pm: Big Red forward Joe Scali takes the first Cornell penalty of the game, 3:52 into the second period. Last night, an undisciplined Cornell team gave up numerous power play chances to Harvard, and the Crimson scored on three (out of six) of them.
1st period notes
4:29pm: First period comes to an end, and Cornell and Colgate are tied at 1-1. Shots were even, 12-12 in the period. More to come in the second.
4:23pm: Colgate ties it up with 3:56 remaining in the period, with sophomore Sean Carty finishing a 2-on-1 chance set up nicely by senior Mike Werner. Big Red freshman Riley Nash, by the way, is getting a lot of ice time this period. You wonder if Nash (the ECAC Rookie of the Year) will be sticking around next season, as he was drafted in the first round of last year’s NHL draft by the Edmonton Oilers. Nash is second on the team in scoring.
4:19pm: Cornell strikes first at 13:45 of the period, with Big Red assistant captain, senior Doug Krantz, tipping a Michael Kennedy shot between the pads of Dekanich. Cornell is carrying the play so far in what has been a surprisngly energetic first period for both teams.
4:14pm: Colgate senior goaltender Mark Dekanich just made a spectacular save (arguably the save of the tournament weekend) against Cornell’s Michael Kennedy, diving to his left to stop a one-timer during a Red power play chance. With 10 minutes gone by in the first period, he’s already made nine stops. Opposing forwards in the league won’t be sorry to see him graduate this year.
4:08pm: Welcome to another day of live-blogging at the ECAC tournament. About 7 minutes gone by in the first period of this third-place game in Albany, N.Y. between Cornell and Colgate. Unfortunately for the Big Red and Raiders, this is a fairly meaningless game from a national standpoint (unlike last year’s consolation game, which had NCAA tournament implications, with St. Lawrence winning and going to the tournament). Anyhow, it’ll be interesting to see the level of energy in this one, especially from the seniors on each team. At the very least, there’s some pride on the line.

Saturday, March 22nd, 2008 - 4:10 pm | ECAC Live Blogging