What do you say about a team that flopped?

Picked by many ECAC coaches to repeat as league champion this year, the Cornell men's hockey team didn't even make the playoffs. The Big Red finished with an 8-14 record and wound up ninth in the 12-team league.

In its 22 years of ECAC participation, Cornell had never failed to qualify for the post-season tournament.

"It's a disappointment not to make the playoffs," Cornell Coach Lou Reycroft said. "We had hope for this year. We really felt we could have done something in the post-season."

Blame Cornell's woes on graduation--Cornell lost Tri-Captains Duane Moeser, Peter Natyshak and Mike Schafer from last year's team.

Blame it on the pros--sophomore goalie Doug Dadswell packed his bags for the NHL minor league system last spring.

Or blame it on a poor start--Cornell stumbled to a 2-9 league mark at the beginning of the season.

Whatever the reasons, Cornell isn't in the playoffs. And the Big Red is feeling mighty blue.

"It was a really frustrating season," Cornell Co-Captain Joe Nieuwendyk said. "I guess it was a combination of things. It might have been that our chemistry wasn't good."

"As the season went on," Nieuwendyk continued, "we began to realize the importance of Moeser, Natyshak and Schafer. Those guys were good players but they also showed leadership off the ice."

Much of the scoring burden of this year's team fell on Nieuwendyk, a junior. He responded as best he could by pounding in 26 goals and recording 26 assists. He finished first in the ECAC scoring race with 25 goals and 24 assists.

But after Nieuwendyk, the Big Red didn't have many top-flight scorers. Sophomore Chris Norton--the team's second-leading scorer--netted 10 goals.

Goaltending was also a problem. Once Dadswell--who was named second-team ECAC and first-team All-America last year--left, the goaltending chores fell to sophomore Darren McInnis and senior Jim Edmands.

After earning the full-time starting role toward the end of the season, Edmands did well. He finished the year with a 7-7 record and a solid 3.71 goals-against average, but he lacked Dadswell's flamboyant talent. Dadswell, now in the Calgary Flames organization, could make easy saves look difficult, and difficult ones look easy. In doing both, he lifted his team to brilliant heights.

"Our goaltending this year was better than average," Nieuwendyk said, "but Dadswell played out of his mind sometimes."