Contending

So last night, Cornell came out to play the game like it always does. Weak, slow, lethargic, and unexcited. Honestly, I thought we'd lose or tie with the way they played into much of the second. And it's not that SLU was so great, it's just that the guys were slow. SLU had at least three one-timers that were three inches away from opening up the game, and finally one did. 1-0 SLU.

Strangely enough, the fan also weren't into it. Like the last home game we played against Yale, the score was 1-1 heading into the final period, but there was so much more energy then. I remember standing in the press box, having to shout to Bill Moore, feeling the concrete quiver beneath my feet. That's how loud Lynah was.

This week? Last night? Not the same, by a longshot.

But then they snapped out of it — the team, not the crowd — picking up a second, and game winning goal. They continued to pound away at SLU, dumping it into their end and beating them up along the boards. On one shift, Mike Iggulden left the ice, clearly winded, only to return and create a Cornell break away on the tail end of his next shift. For weeks, I've seen them dog it in the third, not give everything they had. This, and the following break away goal on the next shift, and the empty-netter punctuation mark, were signs of how things have changed.

And after Brown lost to Dartmouth, and Colgate lost to Clarkson, Cornell is just one point (and some help from SLU) out of first place in the ECAC. More importantly, this late in the season, the guys have put things together. For the first time this season, they looked like contenders.

Dare I say it? Froz ... no, not yet...