The Red’s return to Lynah Rink Friday night after seven weeks away came following a five game undefeated streak, with contests in three corners of the country. While most of Cornell students were on winter recess, the men’s ice hockey team was at work toppling Clarkson, Colorado College and Quinnipiac. In the first installment of this past weekend’s color war, No. 9 Cornell (11-4-4, 8-1-3 ECAC Hockey) battled the Big Green of Dartmouth (8-8-2, 5-5-1 ECAC Hockey) into overtime. Freshman forward Cole Bardreau scored the winning point in the 4-3 game two minutes and five seconds into the fourth period off senior defenseman Sean Whitney’s rebound.
Dartmouth controlled the puck in the Cornell zone for the beginning of the first period, outshooting its home opponents 13-to-5 in the frame. Sophomore goaltender Andy Iles turned away a few good chances for the Green to score before the Red moved into Dartmouth’s zone. Freshman winger Brian Ferlin accepted a pass from freshman defender Joakim Ryan, brought it up the left side and backhanded the puck through sophomore goalie Cab Morris’ five hole.
“We could have made that game a little easier on ourselves, but overall we’re happy with the win,” Ferlin said.
Five minutes later, Ryan made himself useful on defense by shooing a puck out of the Cornell crease that would have otherwise been a goal. This allowed the Red to achieve a two goal lead early in the second with a shot by sophomore winger Dustin Mowrey.
Iles, who had not allowed a goal on Cornell property since the Red’s ECAC season opener versus Mercyhurst, was bested at 17:55 in the second by junior Mark Goggin. The Harvard winger has been drafted to the Boston Bruins like Ferlin. Goggin’s third goal of the season marked the end of a new program record. According to Iles, despite the goal he still remains confident in the Red’s defense.
Dartmouth’s senior forward Doug Jones sent another shot between the pipes less than a minute later after a careless roughing penalty by junior defenseman Nick D’Agostino.
“We took an undisciplined penalty and it came back and haunted us,” said head coach Mike Schafer ‘86.
The Red wasted no time before reclaiming control of the puck. Freshman forward Madison Dias knocked the puck away from the Dartmouth defense, where it was picked up by senior line-mate Locke Jillson. Jillson wound up and send a rubber bullet top right on Morris’ gloveside with just 26 seconds left in the second. Jillson, who has scored three times in his past five games,has been focusing on shooting more often when he has possession in the offensive zone.
However, Jillson was caught for tripping early in the third, which provided the Big Green with an opportunity to tie it up, forcing an overtime. After Bardreau’s regionally televised game-winning shot, he was swarmed in the corner by his teammates.
“It was pretty emotional,” Bardreau said. “The crowd really picked us up after those two [Dartmouth] goals.”
The Big Green posted two for four on the power play, sending 28 shots towards Iles in 62 minutes, and evenly split the number of faceoffs won with the Red, with both team winning 29.
“We had a realization as a young team how hard we are going to have to work to win in this league every night,” Schafer said. “We show character when adversity hits, but we need to turn a corner and not get to adversity in our hockey games.”
Original Author: Rob Moore