@CORNELL 3, Colgate 2 … Box | Recap | Highlights
@Colgate 4, CORNELL 4 (OT) … Box | Recap | Highlights
This was not a weekend we want to see again. Every day, as a program, we want to be better and we weren’t in either game. Lack of discipline and focus is not how you want to characterize a Cornell team and yet that’s what you saw at different times this weekend. Colgate is a really good team and we can’t afford lapses in these areas.
Friday night at Lynah Rink was the first of two games against stiff-rival Colgate and it was disappointing to see us play that way against a good hockey team. Colgate opened the scoring on a 5-on-3 power-play at 7:07 with a goal by Ethan Manderville, the son of former Big Red skaters Kent and Kim Ratushny. Neither team showed much offense in the first period; we had seven shots-on-goal to five for Colgate.
Just 33 seconds into the second period, we tied the game on a goal by senior forward Zach Tupker and 33 seconds later, junior forward Kyle Penney made it 2-1 on a wraparound shot. At 2:53 of the second period, a Colgate defensive turnover led to another goal by sophomore forward Sullivan Mack putting us up, 3-1. Those goals early in the second period is how we won the game.
In the third period at 11:09, Colgate took advantage of another power-play, scoring to narrow the margin, 3-2. With their goaltender pulled with 1:28 remaining in the game, Colgate kept on the offensive pressure. During this extra man situation, senior defenseman Travis Mitchell and Penney blocked two of the four Raider shots on goal.
Sophomore goaltender Ian Shane made 11 saves and the Colgate goalie stopped 26 shots. We were 0-for-3 on the power play and the visitors were 2-for-3. The victory was the 600th all-time win at Lynah Rink for a 70.8% winning record. It was a good victory but we still have room to improve.
On Saturday night in Hamilton, we had a great start in the first period. Senior forward Ben Berard started us off at 1:13 of the first period jumping on a loose puck in front of the net. We went up 2-0 at 9:28, when junior forward Gabriel Seger won a faceoff in our offensive zone that went to Berard. Ben sent a pass to a falling freshman forward Nick DeSantis who pushed the puck into the net. DeSantis was named ECAC Rookie of the Week. Senior forward Jack Malone made the score 3-0 at 13:17 firing a shot from the left faceoff circle beating the goaltender on the glove side. Freshman forward Wallace Winter and senior defenseman Sam Malinski recorded assists. Malinski had seen his 10-game, points-scoring-string broken the night before.
We were on a roll but Colgate responded with four unanswered goals over a 16-minute span of the first and second periods to take a 4-3 lead. Two of the goals came in the later stages of the first period, the second with 0.4 of a second left on the clock. The Raiders were not finished and Manderville scored his second goal in two nights on the power play just 1:52 into the second period. It’s funny how one play can give a team momentum and when our defenseman turned the puck over in front of our net, they scored from the blue line.
At 12:01 of the second period, the home team was ahead for only the second time in two nights and the score remained that way until 15:53. Then senior Jack Malone converted a rebound on the doorstep to tie the game, 4-4.
The third period was scoreless sending the game into overtime. We dominated the 5-minute overtime period, recording all 12 shots. The game went to a shootout, which I disagree with but have to comply with the league rules. Colgate won in the seventh-round.
Ian Shane made six saves in the first period and freshman Remington Keopple played the next two making 16 saves. The Colgate goaltender made 27 saves. We were 0-for-2 on the power play and Colgate was 1-for-3.
Even without seniors Max Andreev and Matt Stienburg, I felt the team played solid on the road. In the future, we’ll need better goaltending and the special teams that carried us in the past didn’t perform up to snuff.
This weekend we play the final two home games of the regular season against Clarkson on Friday night and St. Lawrence on Saturday evening. On Friday night, we will honor alumni from the 1973 Frozen Four team, and on Saturday, the returning alumni of the 2003 Frozen Four team. On Saturday night we will also recognize our Seniors.
Lynah Rink was jammed to the rafters last Friday night and the team welcomes the fantastic support this coming weekend.