This post has been updated.
Coming into its contest with Yale, No. 2 Cornell men’s hockey had the opportunity to clinch an Ivy League title. If the Red could secure a win over the Bulldogs, it could take sole possession of the Ancient Eight crown.
On Friday night, the Red wasted no time in claiming its 20th Ivy League title, dominating Yale, 4-0, thanks to a trio of first-period goals and a shutout performance by junior goaltender Matt Galajda.
“Just getting the 3-0 lead in the first — our guys played really well, and I thought we did a good job defensively, not giving them a whole lot.” said head coach Mike Schafer ’86. “It was a good win and nice to get the Ivy League championship out of the way tonight.”
As it has done this past month, Cornell excelled in the first period. Entering the game, the Red had tallied 14 first-period goals — a mark that led the nation. Against the Bulldogs, Cornell added three more tallies.
The Wausau RiverWolves got their first wins in the NA3HL this past weekend and no one was a bigger catalyst for their offense than Tristan Slot. The Kaukauna, Wisconsin native scored four goals, two in each game, while tacking on five assists.
It didn’t take long for the Red to strike first. On a delayed penalty, Cornell opted for an empty net and sent an extra skater on ice. This move paid off as junior forward Cam Donaldson received a feed from fellow junior Morgan Barron. Donaldson proceeded to beat Yale netminder Corbin Kaczperski from the left circle for the Red’s opening score.
While the Red whiffed on the ensuing penalty, it found the net shortly after. Twelve seconds after the penalty expired, junior forward Kyle Betts was left alone in the slot. Junior forward Tristan Mullin found his linemate, who punished the Bulldogs to double Cornell’s lead.
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After a flurry of penalties on both sides, Yale emerged with a power-play opportunity. It appeared that the Bulldogs had cut into Cornell’s lead when Jack St. Ivany rifled a shot past Galajda. But after a review, the officials ruled that Yale went offsides 20 seconds prior, nullifying the goal and preserving Galajda’s shutout bid.
“[Senior forward] Noah Bauld was the first guy to say they went offsides,” Schafer said. “We checked with the guys upstairs, and they were clearly offsides. Good call by those guys looking at it, and it was a big turning point.”
Cornell took advantage of the shifted momentum from the call as sophomore defenseman Joe Leahy hit twine to put the lead at 3-0. In the final minutes of the period, Yale unleashed several shots at Galajda, but the junior held firm to preserve the Red’s big lead.
“Joe [Leahy] has played with a lot of poise,” Schafer said. “He has his head up and makes plays, and he did a solid job again tonight.”
While the first period was filled with scores and penalties, the middle frame was more uneventful. Both teams only combined for nine shots with Cornell outshooting Yale, 6-3.
The lone penalty of the period was assessed against Betts for a high stick, but the Red’s defense suffocated the Bulldogs on the ensuing penalty kill. That same play occurred for much of the period. Cornell had several strong opportunities to extend its lead — including a breakaway by senior forward Jeff Malott — but Kaczperski buckled down between the pipes.
“You don’t have to press as hard,” Schafer said. “But we still created scoring chances and didn’t give up much. I was happy with the discipline.”
The same narrative continued early in the third period with neither team breaking through. A shift finally occurred when an unsportsmanlike penalty was assessed against Yale’s Billy Sweezey.
Though the Red failed to score on its fourth power-play opportunity, it once again found the back of the net moments after the penalty expired. This time, Malott beautifully maneuvered the puck between two defenders before dishing it to freshman forward Matt Stienburg, who scored the fourth and decisive goal.
From there, Yale did all it could to notch a single score, but the combination of Galajda in net and Cornell’s strong defense proved too much for the Bulldogs. Yale launched several shots in garbage time, but none of them hit their target as the Red secured the 4-0 victory and the first-place Ivy trophy.
Not only did the win secure the 20th Ivy League title in program history for Cornell, but it also moved the Red into sole possession of first place in the ECAC standings. Clarkson, who was tied with Cornell atop the league standings for several weeks, fell to Harvard on Friday night, giving the Red a two-point edge over its conference rival.
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Cornell will finish its road trip at Brown 7 p.m. Saturday night.
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.
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.
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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.
Barron’s second goal closed out the scoring for the night at 4-1.
“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.
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“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.
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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.
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“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.