2014-2016 Tristan Slot - Utah Outliers (WSHL) 2014-2015 Nolan Stanley - Toledo Cherokee (NA3HL) 2014-2016 Dustin Truex - Fresno Monsters (WSHL) 2014-2015 Jeremy Velazquez.
This post has been updated.
The first tilt of men’s hockey’s home-and-home weekend series went Cornell’s way — with four goals from three Red players beating out Colgate’s sole tally.
- Following a face-off in the offensive zone, the puck bounced off the boards and back toward the slot. Sophomore winger Gavin Hanson rocketed a wrister by Hagen for the equalizer at 1-1.
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Cornell jumped out early with a goal from senior forward and captain Jeff Malott. 2:09 into the first period, Malott, assisted by junior forwards Kyle Betts and Tristan Mullin, sent one in from the slot.
The initial lead didn’t last long though, with the Raiders’ Bobby McMann taking advantage of a power-play opportunity to knot up the score 5:50 into the game.
But after that Colgate goal, Cornell would go on to score three unanswered goals — Betts earned his second point of the night on a shot 13:10 into that first frame. Saturday night’s game marked the forward’s return to action following an injury sustained during Jan. 17’s tie with Northern Michigan.
“A big goal by Kyle Betts, great to have him back in our lineup,” said head coach Mike Schafer ’86. “The energy for those first two goals [was] created by that line and their hard work and hustle.”
Next it would be junior forward and captain Morgan Barron, with not one, but two, power-play tallies for his 10th and 11th goals of the season.
The first was a one-timer from high in the slot 16:40 into the first period. The second was another snipe from behind the dot — the Colgate goaltender couldn’t match Barron’s speed and both shots went by him in a blink.
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Barron’s second goal closed out the scoring for the night at 4-1.
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“In the second period, to go up 4-1 is the key goal,” Schafer said.
A staunch Cornell blue line made it an uneventful night for junior goaltender Matt Galajda, who only saw nine shots. The Cornell offense finished with 25.
The power-play tally Galajda gave up in the first period was his fourth failed penalty kill in two games — Princeton scored three last Saturday.
“We made a mistake on the penalty kill … we can’t make mistakes anymore, because it ends up in the back of our net,” Schafer said.
Even so, five-on-five play proved suffocating for the Raiders, whose scoring chances were few and far between. Minimal mistakes were made by the Red following that Colgate goal in the first period.
“It’s much more of a team effort, of a committed effort, to get above people and take care of our defensive end,” Schafer said. “Having been doing that, we’re starting to create some offense because we’re getting turnovers and we can come back at teams with speed.”
Sophomore defenseman Joe Leahy almost made it 5-1 in the third period for his second goal of the season, only for the point to be taken away by a late offsides call after the officials conducted a quick review.
With 2:05 left in regulation, the Colgate skaters’ frustrations came to the surface. The Raiders’ Griffin Lunn was given a major game misconduct penalty for hitting freshman forward Matt Stienburg in the head. Following that play, a scrum broke out between the teams. When all was said and done following the lengthy skirmish, Mullin and Colgate’s McMann were also handed penalties.
The sequence resulted in six separate penalties, with each of those three players being assessed two apiece. On top of Lunn’s major and Mullin and McMann’s minors, each skater was also hit with a 10-minute game misconduct penalty.
Cornell went on a five-minute power play with 2:05 left in the game, but failed to capitalize on the man advantage in the dwindling minutes of the contest. The score was still 4-1 when the final buzzer sounded.
“I’m sure that their guys will be fired up and ready to play [Sunday],” Schafer said. “We kind of got lackadaisical a bit in the third … but we’ll be ready to play [next game].”
Following the postponement of Friday’s game due to snow, the second incarnation of the weekend series will take place Sunday at 4 p.m. Colgate will seek revenge at Lynah Rink.