November 7, 2010

Men’s Hockey Loses Friday Night Contest to Saints

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The men’s hockey team played its first road game on Friday night against St. Lawrence in Canton, N.Y. The Red fell to the Saints, 3-0, for its worst start since the 1979-80, as its season was brought to 0-3 (0-1 ECAC Hockey). St. Lawrence, meanwhile, notched its first win of 2010-11 during its first conference game of the season, bringing its overall record to 1-4-3.

Cornell’s junior goaltender Michael Garman was put in net for the night and posted 30 saves throughout the three to the Saints’ goalie’s 29. While the first two periods were held scoreless by both teams despite a couple of both full-strength and power-play opportunities that neither squad could capitalize on, it was the third period that served as a game-changer.

The Red was attempting to successfully kill the Saints’ power-play opportunity that came because of a minor roughing penalty by freshman forward Dustin Mowrey, when junior forward Sean Collins was called out for slashing and joined his teammate in the box. St. Lawrence then had five skaters to Cornell’s three on ice for slightly over a minute, and that was all the home team needed to put the score in its favor. A wrist shot from around the goal line made it in narrowly under the crossbar and over Garman’s head to put the Saints up, 1-0, at 6:47 into the third.

“We’re down in the penalty kill deep in the offensive zone that put us down to 5-on-3, and I thought we did a pretty good job of killing it but Flanagan was able to get it in the back of a net from a bad angle,” said head coach Mike Schafer ’86. “That’s a shot you have to give up … [w were] trying to pressure and get things going but then [St. Lawrence scored to make it 2-0] and we just couldn’t get back in it.”

St. Lawrence kept up the momentum, adding a second goal approximately eight minutes later. Attempting to engineer a comeback, Cornell pulled Garman from net with 1:45 to go in the game to add an extra forward. But the Saints scored on the empty net, bringing the score to 3-0, with the Red’s hopes shattered for a win during the first conference game of the season.

“They had seven power plays, we had three power plays. … One of the keys going into the game was to keep them off the power play; it was frustrating when we gave up,” Schafer said.

Reflecting on other aspects of the game, Cornell outshot St. Lawrence during the first two periods, 13-10 and 10-6, respectively, but to no conversion on opportunities. Then, the Red let down its guard and was abysmally outshot, 17-6, and, unfortunately for the visitors, the Saints were able to get three in.

“It was frustrating because I thought we played a really good first two periods and had a lot of good chances. … We played much better defensively than we did previously last weekend,” Schafer said. “We didn’t capitalize on our chances, sitting dead in the slot and not getting it done.”

And in the end, that was all it was a matter of –– getting it done.

“[St. Lawrence goaltender Matt Weninger] had a couple of huge saves in the second period –– he did a good job. They just did a better job than us in the third period. They came out and we didn’t execute and they did –– tip your hats to them,” Schafer said.

With the third loss under its belt, Cornell then regrouped and traveled to Clarkson on Saturday night, when it ultimately came out with its first win of the season.

Original Author: Reena Gilani