Harvard and Dartmouth

Cornell needs to secure at least three points this weekend against Harvard and Dartmouth. Anything less, and Cornell's RPI will drop substantially and it becomes increasingly difficult to imagine a scenario in which Cornell receives an at-large bid. Four points, and Cornell hangs on to hope of an at-large bid if they can't win the ECAC tournament.

On paper, this isn't a tough assignment. Eighth-place Harvard is 7-15-3 this season, including a weak 4-7-1 at home. Eleventh-place Dartmouth is 7-17-1 overall, 5-8-0 at home.

However, ask anyone who's made the trip in recent years, and they'll tell you that the normal Cornell hockey team does not tend to show up to these games. Instead, you see a squad which looks shockingly flat and plays down to the level of weaker teams. Last year's ugly weekend featured a sloppy overtime loss at Dartmouth and a painful loss to a terrible Harvard team which would lose in the ECAC quarterfinal round... at home... to Brown... without scoring any goals. And last year's Cornell team came within one period of reaching the Frozen Four.

As we wrote in our column, Cornell is just 1-4-0 in Cambridge since 2005 and 2-9-0 in Hanover since 1999. Ted Donato seems to have Schafer's number, both at Bright and in Albany, and Dartmouth tends to be a physical team which gives Cornell trouble on the road. Here are results from the past few years, with final records for some context.

                2009         2008        2007         2006        2005*

@Harvard        L, 4-2       L, 2-1      L, 3-1       W, 4-3      L, 1-0

@Dartmouth      L, 5-4       W, 4-1      L, 5-1       L, 6-1      L, 2-1

Final record    22-10-4      19-14-3     14-13-4      22-9-4      27-5-3

*Games were on separate weekends in 2005 due to Vermont's still being in the league.

With no margin for error, the team must show up to play. And they must avoid their typical Saturday night slump, particularly if they manage to beat Harvard tomorrow night. A two point weekend is simply unacceptable and places the team in a terrible position for purposes of making the NCAA tournament.

Just win.