WolfeNotes.com

It was painful to watch Cornell lose 2-1 to Boston University in the regional final.

Cornell was a completely different team than the one that shut out and beat Denver.

They played a poor game: the defense gave up the puck several times in their own end, including the one that led to first goal and both defensemen made poor decisions that led to the second.

They gave up a half ice breakaway on an error.

There were at least 20 unforced errors and many bad judgments.

The breakouts were not well timed. There was sloppy and scattered positional play.

Cornell was conservative and tentative in first period (the typical Mike Shafer coached effort).

There was poor passing all game long, pucks repeatedly bounced off Cornell sticks, and Cornell lost many challenges on the boards and in the corners an failed to clear the zone.

There was no forecheck at all and little offensive zone possession.

Cornell gave away way too much ice and failed to put a body on #20, a slightly built but slick stick-handling freshman defenseman. The only way to defend against that it to take the body. Cornell didn’t do that.

There were undisciplined penalties.

Goaltender Ian Shane played another superb game.

Cornell scored with 28 seconds left by shooting the puck and crashing the net, something they didn’t do all game.

Amazingly, Cornell had a point blank (10 – 12 feet) open net shot from the slot with 5 seconds left and the shot went well wide.

BU played a good game, blocked many shots, and had strong goaltending.

But it’s one thing when you lose to a better team and play your best game. It’s completely another thing when you don’t play well and lose a game you might have won.

This one will leave a bitter taste in many mouths.