It was the best of games, it was the worst of games, it was the period of wisdom, it was the period of foolish penalties, it was the epoch of NCAA beliefs, it was the epoch of new skepticism, it was the season of victories, it was the season of losses, it was the Friday of hope, it was the Saturday of despair, we had goals for us, we had nothing for us, we were going directly to the top of the standings, we were going straight the other way — in short, it was a tale of two games.

Dickens may not have realized it when he wrote A Tale of Two Cities exactly 150 years ago, but his 10th grade mandatory reading novel concerns more than just silly European ideals of liberty, equality and fraternity. Indeed, it functions as a lens through which Cornell’s last two weekends may be analyzed. Last weekend, Cornell trounced Brown but lost to Yale; this time, the Red routed Princeton but fell to Quinnipiac. The difference in on-ice product between those games was like day and night, making us toss and turn and keep stressin’ our minds (Note: never make similar reference again).

On Friday, it seemed as if Cornell could do no wrong. The Red outplayed, out-hustled and out-worked Princeton at every stretch of the game. Seniors Colin Greening and Blake Gallagher and junior Joe Devin again proved why they might be the most potent line in all of college hockey, and Gallagher picked up his third two-goal game of the season. Aside from a 10-minute lapse in the third period, the entire defensive corps looked sharp; after surrendering a questionable third goal to Yale, Scrivens went five shutout periods before giving up another.

To cap off the night, junior Riley Nash interrupted Princeton’s dream of a comeback by scoring his first goal of the season, a laser shot which beat preseason All-American goalie Zane Kalemba. After the game, Nash commented that it felt “a lot better than you guys think” to finally get the puck in the net.

Saturday, unfortunately, was a different story completely. The first period against Quinnipiac was one of the most painful stretches of Cornell hockey we’ve seen in recent years. Our top defensive pairing of senior Brendon Nash and sophomore Sean Whitney combined for six penalty minutes in the first 14 minutes of play. Greening was ejected from the game after a hit from behind. Then, just as it looked like the team would escape into the locker room down only 1-0, Quinnipiac’s Mike Atkinson snuck a puck under Scrivens’ pads with less than one second remaining. Stuck in its own end on the penalty kill, Cornell finished the period with a measly four shots on goal.

The loss of Greening, Cornell’s most dynamic offensive player, hindered efforts at a comeback. Until the last few minutes, the Red had only a handful of scoring chances.

Although the power play has been superb this season, it could not get the job done at key points of the game, just as happened during the loss at Yale. A too-many-men penalty on Quinnipiac handed Cornell 24 seconds of 5-on-3 late in the second period; instead of scoring to cut the lead to 3-1 with plenty of time remaining, the Red squandered the two-man advantage and lost the puck as the first penalty expired. Then, a fortuitous penalty on Quinnipiac towards the end of the game enabled Cornell to pull Scrivens for a 6-on-4 for the last 1:30 of the game. Having just scored twice to cut the lead to 3-2, Cornell had all the momentum. The crowd was energized, and the team was pinching and cycling well, but Quinnipiac held on as Cornell’s power play finished 0-for-5 on the night.

The good news is that there is plenty of hockey ahead this season, and Cornell will have another chance to beat Yale and Quinnipiac next semester. But the team must quickly shift focus to two more big games this week. By beating second-place Colgate tomorrow and then Boston University on Saturday at Madison Square Garden, Cornell can improve its record to an impressive 7-2-0. To do so, Cornell will need to avoid the undisciplined play which sunk the team on Saturday, they will need the top line and the first power play unit to continue to produce goals, and they will need to avoid the defensive errors which led to the loss against Yale. Accomplish this, and the Red will once again be on the road to NCAA beliefs.

However before tomorrow evening, we’d like to draw attention to a subject Dickens surely would have written another book about. The proletariat students again face oppression by the evil bourgeois Athletic Department for its new policy concerning our beloved Telephone Chant. In yet another effort to criminalize the Lynah Faithful and fan creativity, Marie Antoinette, Louis XVI and the rest of our militant Athletics Department has arbitrarily decided to cut the head off of cheers that single out opposing players. We can only assume that by adhering to this policy, the AD will soon ban any use of the word “sieve,” for that is directed solely at the goalie. Such a decision seriously calls into question the decision-makers in Teagle and Bartels who time and again institute flawed policies which only stifle fan creativity, decrease game enjoyment and turn Lynah Rink into a Bastille. Vive la revolution!