GameThread: #8 Syracuse vs. Cornell

As has become tradition, Syracuse will host a first round game in the Carrier Dome on the Sunday night immediately following graduation. The last time Syracuse has been in the Tournament and not hosted a game was back in 2012 when they played at Duke and the time before that was in 2005 when the Orange played at UMass.

Tonight the eighth seeded Orange will host the Cornell Big Red tonight in a rematch of a regular season 8-13 loss for SU.

The ‘Cuse enter the Tournament with an 8-6 resume and a tough opening round opponent. Cornell fell to Colgate in the season opener but the Big Red did manage to get their year back on track, culminating in a win over the Yale Bulldogs for the Ivy League Championship.

Coming into the game, Cornell is tied with Albany for points per game in the nation with 24. There is no question that this squad is offensively solid. The biggest threat is Jeff Teat who has 96 points on the season and put up six against the Orange during the regular season bout. Teat is a dynamic player, and the number one priority for SU. Shut him off and this will be a Syracuse win. Otherwise it will go sideways. Shutting him off will be where this game begins or ends.

In net, I have bought in hard on Dom Madonna. I believe he is one of the best players on the field. That being said, his defense needs to be as good.

This is about as bad of a first round matchup as could be had for Syracuse. Watch the faceoff game, Danny Varello will have a decent matchup at the X but will need to be better than usual to win this game.

The Orange will host the Cornell Big Red on Sunday at the Carrier Dome at 7:15 PM. The game can be seen on ESPNU and heard on TK99/105. Enjoy and leave your comments below.