For an extensive play-by-play of the win over Miami, click here.
The Cornell men’s hockey team returned to Lynah Rink on Friday and captured the first game in a two-game home series against Miami (OH) by a score of 4-3 following several quick-turnaround games against Colgate and New Hampshire.
There is no place like home, but for the first two periods, home didn’t feel quite so friendly for the Red, which has played so much on the road. For the fifth straight game, the Red faced a deficit early in the game after the RedHawks went up 1-0 at the 14:00 mark of the first period. Freshman Carson Meyer scored his third goal of the season after an assist from Josh Melnick and Anthony Louis.
This was the eighth time that the Red began with a deficit this season, though the Red is now 5-3 in these games.
“If we keep going the way we’re going, we might want to keep doing it,” joked head coach Mike Schafer ‘86. “I don’t know what it is.”
There were moments where Miami looked as though they were going to extend the lead. Less than four minutes later, the RedHawks earned their first powerplay of the game after junior forward Alex Rauter was called for tripping, but the Red successfully killed the powerplay.
The second period was a physical one, and one that involved quite a few penalties. With 7:26 left in the period, Miami’s Justin Greenberg was called for tripping, setting up the second powerplay for the Red of the night.
Quickly after a Cornell’s first power play came to a close, Miami scored to extend its lead to 2-0.
“It was a slow start, and got even slower in the second,” Schafer said. “It was a weird game — I didn’t think we did a very good job of controlling their line. They’re a dangerous group.”
But the Red did not end the period without a fight, as Noah Bauld skated through, deked the RedHawks defense and slipped the puck into the net, bringing the score to 2-1 before the buzzer for intermission sounded.
The Red picked up the offense in the final period of play, starting with a goal by Beau Starrett that came off an assist from Eric Freschi, tying the game up 2-2 at the 9:50 mark.
“I think we just went back to the gameplan, and that worked a bit, especially in the neutral zone” Freschi said. “I thought we did a better job of talking, getting pucks deep, turning up and making plays.”
Just one minute and 23 seconds later, sophomore forward Anthony Angello came back with his fourth goal of the season to put the Red up 3-2. With 5:07 left in regulation, Miami was called for tripping, giving the Red yet another powerplay. Five seconds into the powerplay, the Red increased its lead 4-2, a goal that proved necessary for the victory, as Miami brought the score to within one with just over 3 minutes left to play.
“We’d definitely like to make better starts, we’re definitely a better team in the third period as [tonight] shows,” freshman forward Jeff Malott said. “I think it also shows that we have quite a bit of character – comeback wins aren’t always easy. I think if we get to that third period gear earlier there aren’t a lot of teams that can beat us.”
Despite the strong comeback effort by the team, Schafer recognized the need to play better hockey.
“For whatever reason, they were good and I thought they had a solid game,” he said. “We were just average and we need to play a lot better hockey than that tomorrow night.”
The Red and Redhawks will face off again in Lynah tomorrow at 7:00 pm.