'''Good evening everyone! Reporting live from the North Press Box at Madison Square Garden in the Greatest City in the World, I'll be giving you periodic updates of the big game between Cornell and Boston University LIVE as it happens! Keep checking back for updates from New York City, and listen to WVBR and wvbr.com for full coverage tomorrow and Monday morning!''' ''7:20PM'' - Just went through security and was ushered into the John X. Kondon Press Room here at MSG. This room was like a VIP lounge compared to the press rooms I'm used to: a full bar, dinner service, phones for all the regular New York media outlets, this is the real deal. I look around and see plaques and posters commemorating the great MSG PA Announcer, and the stats sheets left over from today's Knicks game (they won). It took me a minute to find where I was supposed to go, but here I sit in the North Press Box, about 100 rows up from the ice in Madison Square Garden. It's all a little bit unreal ''7:25PM'' - The lights have just gone on and the players have taken the ice. The arena is maybe a quarter filled and its already rocking. Both bands are loud and fans from both sides are screaming already ... we're still 35 minutes away from game time and it already feels like a Lynah-esque crowd. ''7:45PM'' - They're playing a montage of Cornell and BU hockey and campus highlights over the Jumbotron. It's pretty cool to see the beautiful Cornell campus and the city of Ithaca on the big screen at Madison Square Garden. Arena is about half full, and really getting loud. ''7:56PM'' - Boston U. fans just started a "Harvard Rejects" chant. Cornell fans retaliate with "Cornell Rejects". Ahh, college hockey. ''7:59PM'' - Cornell Bear and Boston Terrier just got into a throwdown on center ice. The Bear won. ''8:07PM'' - The trumpet player from the Max Weinberg 7 just played the Star Spangled Banner, and got totally thrown off with the Lynah Faithful shouted "RED!" in the middle of the line "...and the rockets' red glare." Even at the Greatest Arena in the World, the Lynah Faithful is good and throwing off the action on the ice. ''8:14PM'' - 2 minutes in and both teams appear nervous from the outset. Sloppy hockey thus far, with more missed passes than made ones. ''8:18PM'' - Brian Strait in the box for BU. So far Boston has controlled the action thus far, and this is the first opportunity for Cornell to change the momentum. Let's see if the PP line will be able to take advantage. ''8:20PM'' - As time expires on the penalty, Chris Higgins takes Michael Kennedy down on his way to the goal. Another penalty! It's 5 on 3 for about 10 seconds, then another PP for the Red. They need to at least put some good shots on net here, or BU will have their number all night. ''8:23PM'' - As the first "Safety School" chants of the night come out, the power play expires and CU has nothing to show for it. They had a few decent opportunities, but BU turned them around into breakaways that were stopped by fantastic saves from Ben Scrivens. BU definitely has the advantage thus far, they're playing a much more physical game than Cornell. ''8:24PM'' - And as I finished writing the last entry, BU's Joe Pereira muscled his way into the attack zone and scored the first goal of the night. ''8:25PM'' - And then another! John McCarthy makes it 2-0 BU on a slapshot over Scrivens' left shoulder! Two goals in less than a minute. This is getting ugly fast. ''8:30PM'' - Brandon Yip makes it 3-0 BU. Boston is playing a more physical, faster, and better game than the Big Red. It looks like these teams shouldn't even be in the same league right now. Cornell is getting pummeled on both ends of the ice. ''8:40PM'' - Another Cornell Power Play, and although the Big Red got a good shot off, BU Goalie Brett Bennett made an acrobatic save to stop it. Nothing is breaking in Cornell's direction right now. ''8:44PM'' - A piece of metal holding two panes of plexiglass together just broke and fell out onto the ice, creating a stoppage of play. The Garden's falling apart ... it's starting to take after the Knicks. ''8:47PM'' - End of the first period, with BU holding a commanding 3-0 lead. The Red started playing better at the end of the first period, but it might be too little too late at this point. Boston has controlled the game up and down the ice thus far, and outshot the Big Red 16-11 in the first period. Those three goals came one after the other, and Cornell has really been reeling since. The Big Red defense has been almost non-existent, giving BU breakaways on five different opportunities, and the Lynah Faithful that was so vocal and raucous at the start of the game has quieted down considerably. If Cornell wants to have any shot to get back into this game, they're going to have to score a fast goal at the outset of the 2nd period to get the crowd back on their side, and they're going to get physical with the Terriers. ''8:55PM'' - Members of the 29-0-0 Cornell Hockey team from 1970 are taking the ice now, and must be disappointed by what they're seeing. It's great to see the guys from that legendary team back and supporting their alma mater. The crowd is receptive, but I have a feeling not as receptive as they would be if the Red were winning 3-0. '''STATS FROM 1ST PERIOD:''' CORNELL: Shots on Goal - 11 Goals - None Penalty Mintues - 4 BU: Shots on Goal - 16 Goals - Pereira (Bonino), Popko (Pereira, Cohen), Yip (Gilroy) Penalty Minutes - 6 ''9:06PM'' - Second Period underway. Crowd is definitely more subdued than the opening puck drop. Seems like the Cornell Faithful are discouraged, but not completely out of it yet. The Terrier Nation is confidently loud. The period starts with a BU penalty, and if they score here this game is more than likely in the books. ''9:08PM'' - Penalty killed, barely. Scary moment for for the Red at the end as the puck dribbles through the crease and almost in, but cleared out just in time. ''9:13PM'' - The Cornell Bear is running through the crowd trying to get the Red pumped up. I wonder if it's WVBR DJ [[link|keyword=djprofiles]]Lance Karlson[[end-link]] behind the mask? Can Lance skate? ''9:14PM'' - The Cornell Pep Band is playing the "Screw BU, (team name) too!" cheer, and the crowd is getting confused. The first "Screw BU!" is loud and clear, but then half of the fans say "BU too!", half the fans say nothing, and the other half just laugh. 150% all the time, baby. ''9:16PM'' - Ryan Weston takes the high sticking penalty for BU. Cornell really needs to convert on this power play. The crowd is getting back into it because of a lack of offense for BU, but they really need something to cheer about. ''9:22PM'' - One power play down and nothing to show for it for the Big Red. BU is playing a much more conservative brand of hockey this period. ''9:26PM'' - Three seconds left in power play number 2 and Riley Nash puts Cornell on the board! Finally, the Big Red has taken advantage of these unnecessary Boston penalties and put one in the back of the net. The Cornell crowd was sent into an absolute frenzy, and for the first time on the night I saw just how heavily-weighted this crowd is for Cornell. Following the loudest "It's all your fault" cheer I've ever heard, the Lynah Faithful added a couple extra "Sieve"s onto the end of their ritualistic post-goal chant. Pretty electrifying, but Cornell's still got a long way to go. ''9:37PM'' - BU scores again on the power play! Ben Scrivens made the initial save on a Pete MacArthur wrister, but it hit off Scrivens' right arm and trickled into the net. It's just not Cornell's night. One minute to go in period 2. ''9:41PM'' - End of the second period here, with BU leading 4-1. BU played more conservatively in that half, and forced Cornell to take a lot of off-target shots from the outside. Only one got by BU netminder Brett Bennett, which is a successful night so far for the Terriers. On the other end of the ice, Cornell can't seem to stop the fast attack of BU, and it seems as if the Terriers have a breakaway or an open look on every single possession. I predict that BU will come out playing physical hockey, and likely score 1 or 2 more. In the intermission BU brought out three alums who played on the 1980 Olympic US Hockey Team, including Mike Eruzione, who scored the winning goal in the upset against the Soviets. Cornell is going to need a "Miracle" to come out with a victory in this one. ''9:44PM'' - Time for the Mascot Shootout. The Bear won the boxing match before, let's see who's better at shooting..... Both mascots miss, threaten each other, with hockey sticks, and skate around for awhile. Thrilling. '''STATS FROM 2ND PERIOD:''' CORNELL: Shots on Goal - 7 Goals - Nash (Gallagher, Greening) Penalty Mintues - 2 BU: Shots on Goal - 16 Goals - MacArthur (Higgins) Penalty Minutes - 4 ''9:59PM'' - Third period begins and BU makes it 5-1 in just 1:17! Colin Wilson pushes it past Scrivens and completely knocks Cornell out of it. The crowd is beginning to leave now, with 18 minutes left in the game. Definitely not what most Big Red fans had hoped for tonight. ''10:03PM'' - Jared Seminoff gives the Lynah Faithful who have stuck around something to cheer about with a lovely slapshot from the blue line past Brett Bennett. Mike Kennedy had had a wide open shot from the left side and missed the net entirely, but it hit off the wall and straight to Seminoff, who capitalized for the goal. The crowd is still healthy here (85% full), but there are more and more empty seats by the minute. ''10:08PM'' - Another great save by Brett Bennett. Neither defense has been playing well all night, but Bennett has really outshined his counterpart. Although Scrivens has made some very nice saves, when a team takes 14 more shots than their opponents, more shots are bound to go in. That's been the difference so far. ''10:15PM'' - The game is getting pretty dry, so let's rank the teams based on other fun things: '''Mascot:''' They both were horrible at the shootout, but the Big Red Bear took the BU Terrier down at center ice before the game. ''Advantage: CU'' '''Pep Band:''' Both bands have brought everything they've got, but BU's cowbell player severly outplayed CU's player tonight. That, along with their mix of modern and classic tunes gives BU the edge. ''Advantage: BU'' '''Intermission Ceremony:''' BU had Olympic greats, Cornell had Cornell greats. Both brought fans of both sides to their feet. The difference is that Cornell's players were well-known because of their time at CU. BU's players were well-known because of the Olympics. ''Advantage: CU'' '''Timeout Video Montage:''' Cornell's wins hands down. It was about 10 minutes longer and featured pictures from campus, town, and people. BU's was a time lapse of the arena being built. Really? You couldn't find anything better than that in the entire city of Boston? Poorly played. ''Advantage: CU'' '''Cheers:''' Cornell set the tone in this category with their early rebuttal to BU's "Harvard Rejects" chant ("Cornell Rejects") and dominated from there. Even though BU had a lot more to cheer about, the Lynah Faithful were out in full force. Even the Athletic Director for BU, Mike Lynch, got booed. ''Advantage: CU'' '''Hockey:''' Oh yeah, that thing. BU still leads 5-2. But it's all about the atmosphere, isn't it? ''10:27PM:'' Another Cornell power play, perhaps a final chance to make this respectable. Five minutes to go, you know that Cornell wants to put one more in the net before it's time to say goodnight. ''10:28PM:'' What's this?? '''Another''' cowbell player for Cornell! This guy is an alum, sitting in the general section. They've even got a washboard over there! This could swing the voters. I'm almost tempted to call the pep band battle even now. But BU's band is playing a rousing rendition of "Carry On My Wayward Son" ... can't not give it to them. ''10:29PM:'' Another BU penalty, and Cornell's got a 2 man advantage for 1:05. The Cornell fans still here are really giving it their all, they deserve to see another goal before the night's over. ''10:31PM:'' And they get it! Riley Nash gets his second on the night and Cornell makes it 5-3 on a really ugly goal. They've got 1:45 on a power play left, can they pull within one? ''10:35PM:'' Scrivens is pulled with 1:30 to go. Cornell needs to get one fast... ''10:37PM:'' Bryan Ewing hits the wide-open empty netter for BU and that's going to put this one in the books. Gotta say, the "Sieve" chants are a little less forceful when there's no goalie. ''10:38PM:'' And the final buzzer sounds. An exciting game all around, with a ton of offense and enthusiastic players and fans. Congratulations to the Boston University players, coaches, and fans for a big win, and congratulations to everyone involved in putting this event together, all 18,200 people in attendance seemed to have a great time and saw an exciting hockey game. Cornell's defense really floundered in this game, and they were completely unable to come back from those 3 quick goals in the first period. Be sure to listen to [[link|keyword=SportsRoundup]] Sports Roundup [[end- link]] tomorrow night for a full recap of the game. I'll be posting a complete recap on the [[link|keyword=sports]] WVBR SportsLine [[end-link]] tomorrow as well. From Madison Square Garden, thanks for reading!