CAMBRIDGE, Mass. –– Senior goaltender Ben Scrivens managed his 16th career shutout on Friday night at Harvard, helping the Red to a 3-0 victory over the Crimson on Friday night. This shutout –– his fifth of the season –– leaves Scrivens only two shy of the University record for most career shutouts, currently held by David McKee. It was also the first shutout that the Red has claimed over the Crimson away from Ithaca since 1967, and this had the numerous Cornell fans at Harvard’s rink –– affectionately called Lynah East –– bursting with excitement.
“Our coach puts a huge emphasis on blocking shots, being sound defensively … I mean everything is defense first, defense first and obviously good defense leads to offense as we saw tonight,” said junior forward Joe Devin.
Despite two power-play attempts for Cornell and one for Harvard during this first period, neither team was able to capitalize on the extra-man advantage, as both teams exhibited strong penalty kills throughout the entire game.
“Our penalty kill kind of dropped off a little bit; it’s been great in numbers but we thought our penalty kill about three weeks ago dropped off a little bit … tonight and during the last few games we have done a much better job,” said head coach Mike Schafer ’86.
The Red was able to get on the board halfway through the second period, when junior forward Tyler Roeszler made his fourth goal this month at the 10:14 mark, assisted by freshman defenseman Nick D’Agostino and sophomore forward Sean Collins. Just 25 seconds later, sophomore defenseman Keir Ross made his second tally for the year as he scored on Richter, assisted by junior forward Riley Nash and senior forward Colin Greening.
Cornell’s 2-0 lead persisted over Harvard until the last 22 seconds. The Crimson had pulled Richter from goal, and senior forward Blake Gallagher made a goal on the empty Harvard net, ending the game in a 3-0 blank of the Crimson.
“The guys have done a great job of tightening up, and the biggest thing was playing with a lot more poise with the puck … we wanted to win [the Yale game] badly, but now that we’ve given ourselves a chance, we’re tied for first and we’ll see what happens,” Schafer said.
The game also held some sentimental value for the Devin brothers and Sean Whitney –– all Massachusetts natives.
“Everything was clicking; all lines were playing very well. Especially for me, my brother and Sean Whitney to come into Boston and play Harvard and just get a win like that –– no words can explain, especially with all our friends and family here,” Devin said.
Original Author: Reena Gilani