Big Red hockey team checks into the Frozen Four

By Blaine P. Friedlander Jr.

Cornell's Big Red hockey machine weaved its way through the NCAA East Regional men's hockey tournament March 29 and 30 in Providence, R.I., beating Minnesota State University-Mankato, 5-2, in the first round and Boston College, 2-1, in the final -- on a thrilling, sudden-death, double-overtime goal.

The team's next stop will be the NCAA Frozen Four tournament at the sold-out HSBC Arena in Buffalo, N.Y., where the Big Red will face the University of New Hampshire in the semifinal round at noon Thursday, April 10. The winner of the Cornell-New Hampshire game will play the winner of the University of Michigan-University of Minnesota game April 12 for the NCAA national championship. Cornell last won the championship in 1970 during its magical 29-0-0 season.

The national championship game will be broadcast on ESPN (Time-Warner Cable Channel 39 in Ithaca), and the semifinal games will broadcast on ESPN2 (Channel 58). On radio, all Cornell hockey games are carried in Ithaca on WHCU 870-AM.

Following the double-overtime victory in the final, on a goal scored by senior Mark McRae in front of 7,489 at the Dunkin' Donuts Arena, the Big Red team felt nothing but exuberance. "What a feeling," said head coach Mike Schafer to reporters at a post-game press conference. "This team has been driven since last year, a loss to Harvard in the [East Coast Athletic Conference] championship and a devastating loss to New Hampshire [in the NCAA regional tournament]. We've come full circle."

McRae, who scored the winning goal at 1:09 in the second overtime, remembered the final seconds. "The puck was there, and I had some space. The goalie was cheating far side and he had stopped me far side in the first overtime, so I decided to change it up a bit," he told reporters.

And how important was this goal? "Take my ... greatest goal and times it by a billion. That's how big this goal was," McRae said during the press conference.

After the Boston College game, Schafer reflected on his goalie, David LeNeveu. "He's the real deal. If an offensive player put up the best numbers in the history of the game, we'd talk about him for the Hobey Baker [Award, the annual honor given to collegiate hockey's top player]," he said. "David has put up the best numbers in the history of the game. That's why he should be the Hobey Baker [winner] in my mind."

The nation's top-rated goalie, LeNeveu has played in 31 games and seen 625 shots on goal, stopping 589 of them, for save percentage of .942. His goals-against average is 1.14, the lowest in collegiate hockey history.