Let’s Go Red, and Viva the Revolution

It seems that all my favorite sports teams had a pretty good weekend a couple weeks ago*. At Cornell, women’s hockey beat Harvard to win the ECAC Hockey championship.  Men’s hockey beat Princeton in a best of three series to move on to the ECAC quarterfinals.  Women’s basketball picked up a win against Dartmouth.  Over in Bridgeview, Illinois, the New England Revolution started their MLS season with an away win against the Chicago Fire.

It started Friday night with women’s basketball, but I was working and couldn't attend the game.  On Saturday, Lynah [Cornell's rink] was scheduled to host any and all of the ECAC action, so the first game (Cornell vs. St. Lawrence) started early, at one.  (If the men had gotten home ice for their first round games, the early start would have allowed games to be played at one, four, and seven – both women’s semifinal games followed by the men’s game.)

The women continued the trend of not jumping out to a 4-0 lead (like they sometimes did in the regular season) in the playoffs.  They scored two goals in the first period, but were matched by St. Lawrence in the second period, so we went into the third period tied.  Midway through the third period, Cornell got called for two penalties, leaving the team to play some 3 on 5 hockey and me, and the band, and probably a lot of Lynah, to think “we’re in trouble.”  But the team managed to kill the first penalty, and with less than two minutes to go, scored the winning goal.

After the game, since it was still early, I had a couple hours in the afternoon to do nothing get caught up on homework.  Later that night, I may have been simultaneously checking the score to the men’s second game against Princeton, watching the live comment feed of the Revolution vs. Fire game, and trying to Skype with my parents.  Turns out the Cornell men’s hockey team secured their second win to move on in the playoffs, and not only did the Revolution’s Jerry Bengtson score a goal, but the Revolution held on to their late lead to secure the win.  (Bengtson is fairly well known around MLS circles for scoring Honduras’ game-winning goal in the US-Honduras World Cup Qualifying match while also being seemingly unable to score for the Revolution.  Let’s hope he proves otherwise.)

Sunday, the women’s hockey team took on Harvard for the ECAC final.  It was similar to the St. Lawrence game, except with less goals.  Cornell scored first, then Harvard tied the game in the first period; nobody scored in the second, and we were down to the last minutes of the third period.  Once again, Cornell scored their game-winning goal with less than two minutes to play.  They almost made it 3-1 with an open net goal, but the puck hit the post and didn’t end up crossing the line.  And with that, the women move on the NCAA playoffs, the men take on Quinnipiac in the ECAC quarterfinals, and there may yet be hope for the Revolution.

(For anyone who doesn't understand why the title seems to be applauding a color and making marginally correct English sentences like “Live the Revolution”:  Cornell teams are often referred to as the Big Red, and fans often shout “Let’s go red” to cheer them on.  Last year, the Revolution’s home goal song was “Viva the Revolution.”)

*Blog time tends to move anywhere from a few days to a couple weeks behind real time. Since that weekend, a few somewhat demoralizing events have transpired; they will probably be featured sometime within the next weeks.