By EMILY BERMAN <\/p>\n
Less than five days after junior forward Brian Ferlins overtime goal sent the mens ice hockey team pouring over its bench and onto the ice to celebrate its game three ECAC Hockey quarterfinals victory over Clarkson in front of a raucous Lynah crowd, the fourth-seeded Red heads to Lake Placid for a Friday afternoon semifinals showdown with two-time defending league champion Union. <\/p>\n
Union, who entered the tournament as the top seed, swept Dartmouth in its quarterfinals matchup to extend its current unbeaten streak to 11. The Dutchmen recently jumped to second in the major national polls and previously grabbed the ECAC regular season title with an 18-3-1 league record. <\/p>\n
Theyre great defensively theyve got great stick position on the ice surface, they make it difficult to make plays on [and] theyre very committed as a group of players to the defensive side of the puck, head coach Mike Schafer 86 said of the Dutchmen. Everyone will go and point and say theyre one of the best offensive teams in the country, but they spring that a lot from the defensive side of it. <\/p>\n
Union is the only team to beat Cornell twice in the regular season, taking the Red, 3-0, in the first matchup and then beating the team, 4-1, at Lynah. While both Schafer and several players have cited the first game against Union as one of the low points of the season the Red mustered only 11 shots on goal throughout the entire game the second game was a physical, hard-fought battle with a more even balance of scoring chances. <\/p>\n
We had a tough game against [Union] here at home, we thought we played pretty solid and ended up losing the hockey game, but we were happy with our game plan and we were happy with how we played, Schafer said. <\/p>\n
Junior defenseman Jake Macdonald shrugged off the notion that the Red needed to make any drastic changes to the teams game plan to defeat the Dutchmen. <\/p>\n
Honestly, I just think we have to play the same way we did the last time we played them, he said. I thought that we outplayed them if we can continue to chip pucks into their zone and get pressure on their defense and just have an all-around solid game, I think well be in good shape. <\/p>\n
Two of Unions biggest threats stem from what Schafer called the one-two punch of defensemen senior Mat Bodie and junior Shayne Gostisbehere, who both figure prominently in the Dutchmens attack with 29 and 28 points, respectively. Gostisbehere was recently named one of 10 Hobey Baker award finalists. <\/p>\n
You have to be a little more careful with some of the talented D-men they have back there jumping into the play, junior forward Joel Lowry said. You dont want to give them too much time or space, you want to limit them and not let them jump up because they can make plays. <\/p>\n
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MENS ICE HOCKEY | Red Will Take on Union in ECAC Semifinals Showdown<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" By EMILY BERMAN Less than five days after junior forward Brian Ferlins overtime goal sent the mens ice hockey team pouring over its bench and onto the ice to celebrate its game three ECAC Hockey quarterfinals victory over Clarkson in front of a raucous Lynah crowd, the fourth-seeded Red heads to Lake Placid for a Friday afternoon semifinals showdown with two-time defending league champion Union. Union, who entered the tournament as the top seed, swept Dartmouth in its quarterfinals matchup to extend its current unbeaten streak to 11. The Dutchmen recently jumped to second in the major national polls and previously grabbed the ECAC regular season title with an 18-3-1 league record Continue reading