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Back to Class: Cornell’s head coach is good at airing out grievances

Mike Schafer - Cornell

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We’re taking you “Back To Class” for our roundup of the weekend’s action in college hockey. Look for more college hockey on NBCSN this Friday night for a doubleheader featuring Union College taking on Princeton at 7:30 p.m. ET followed by Nebraska-Omaha at Denver.

If you’re not familiar with Cornell head coach Mike Schafer, you’re missing out on one of the more unique personalities in college hockey. He leads a consistently strong team year in and year out and he demands a lot of his team and from everyone else as well.

After seeing his team get swept by Denver University this weekend, he focused his frustration not upon the opponent but on the WCHA referees instead as Avash Kalra of College Hockey News shares.

“It’s disgusting,” said Schafer, who has won five ECAC tournament championships as head coach at Cornell. “I won’t come back to the WCHA. I’m just not coming back out here. I pride ourselves in traveling everywhere. It was a great game besides that. The kids competed hard. Both teams. They’re well coached. The rest of it was disgusting.”

What set him off? The penalties his team got hit for in their 2-1 loss on Saturday night.

Cornell had two players kicked out for contact to the head penalties and then a litany of penalties at the end of the game including a spearing major, a major for obscene language, and a penalty for abuse of officials. In all they piled up 76 penalty minutes.

While it’s good for headlines (yeah, hello, right here) and for getting attention, it’s not Schafer’s first go-around in sounding off at officials. Heck, he’s even been suspended for ripping ECAC officials in the media, in the playoffs no less.

Opinions on him are wide ranging. He’s much beloved in Ithaca and rather roundly disliked elsewhere in the ECAC and it’s usually because of stuff like this. It’s tough to win friends when you threaten to not go back to play a team because of the conference they play in and their officials. That kind of “I’ll take my puck and go home” attitude is seen as childish.

What gets lost here in all the bluster is his suggestion for conference neutral officials for non-conference games is a good one. It’s something that’s done in other college sports, so why not hockey?

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Quinnipiac on fire: Give it up to the Bobcats. They’re 10-0-0 in the ECAC and 16-3-2 overall. They haven’t lost a game since November 6 (to AIC of all teams) and are unbeaten in 14 straight. Coach Rand Pecknold is pulling all the right switches these days.

Denver snapping out of it: After cooling off for a spell, Denver University is on a roll. Their sweep of Cornell tacked on to a sound drubbing of Boston University gives them three solid wins in a row out of conference. That might come in handy when it’s really Pairwise time to pick the tournament field.

Alber out: Boston College’s Patch Alber is out for three months after injuring his knee against Alabama-Huntsville. BC can’t afford to lose veteran leaders on the blue line like him.

College Hockey, Inc. doing work: Give it up to College Hockey, Inc. for hiring former Notre Dame player Kyle Lawson and promoting the super excellent Nate Ewell to a top position.

(Photo: Adriano Manocchia via CHN)