CORNELL 3, @Dartmouth 2 … BOX | RECAP | VIDEO HIGHLIGHTS
@Harvard 6, CORNELL 2 … BOX | RECAP | VIDEO HIGHLIGHTS
It’s tough on the road and competition in the ECAC just gets better and better. Friday night we played a solid game and had a 3-0 lead. At 6:54 of the first period senior defenseman Sam Malinski scored first on a power-play with a shot from the right point that rang off the left post and into the net. Senior forward Jack Malone and freshman forward Dalton Bancroft recorded the assists. This made seven straight games in which we have scored an extra-man goal. Just 71 seconds later, junior forward Kyle Penney scored on the rebound of his initial wrap-around shot for a 2-0 lead.
Halfway through the second period, senior forward Max Andreev scored a power-play goal through traffic with a shot from the point. It was Max’s second point of the night, as he had an assist on the Penney tally. Malinski and Bancroft also recorded their second points of the game on the Andreev goal. We had many other good offensive opportunities, including a five-minute power play on a Dartmouth major penalty. We had 25 shots to Dartmouth’s six in the middle stanza. I thought Cooper Black, the Dartmouth goaltender, played very well, or our lead might have been even greater.
What happened in the third period is why coaches get gray hair! Holding a 3-0 lead with 13 minutes remaining, Dartmouth scored their first goal. Then, with 1:26 left in the game, the Big Green pulled their goaltender for an extra attacker, cut the deficit to 3-2 and they were still flying. With 30 seconds left, still with the extra attacker, the home team kept the pressure on. One shot went off Ian Shane’s pad and the rebound was cleared around the boards by Malinski. We prevailed but missed three empty-net shots during that time period. The last four games we played in Hanover have been decided by one goal.
Shane made 13 saves and the Dartmouth goaltender had 35 stops. We were 2-for-4 on the power play and the Big Green had no power-play opportunities; we did not take a penalty the entire evening.
Saturday night at Harvard was a different story. We had better support in the stands than on the ice, made a couple of mistakes and they made us pay.
The game started great for us. At 12:35 of the first period, Sophomore forward Ondrej Psenicka redirected a shot from the point by senior defenseman Travis Mitchell to give us the 1-0 lead with senior forward Jack Malone getting the assist. Harvard tied the game barely two minutes later at the 14:29 mark.
The second period was all Crimson and they scored three consecutive goals to go up 4-1, with one goal being a power-play tally. Malinski narrowed the gap to 4-2 at 13:09 with junior forward Jack O’Leary recording the assist. The goal extended Malinski’s point streak to eight games. At 12:17 of the third period, Harvard scored to make it 5-2 and then finished with an empty-net goal with 51 seconds remaining. It was an uphill battle for most of the night.
Shane made 23 saves and the Harvard goaltender stopped 31 shots. We were 0-for-2 on the power play and Harvard was 1-for-2. Our seven-game streak of scoring a power play was halted on Saturday night.
We are now 13-7-1 overall and 10-4 in the ECAC (third place). We maintain our #11 ranking in both the PairWise and national polls.
We’re home this weekend with the goal of getting back on the winning track. RPI is at Lynah Rink on Friday night and Union comes here on Saturday evening. Looking forward to a packed house with the Lynah Faithful at their loudest but we need to bring the fireworks.