With the semester right around the corner, the men’s hockey team is kicking off classes with a pair of games against Colgate (3-18-1, 0-9-1 ECAC). The first game will take place tonight in Hamilton, N.Y., while the following game will be home at Lynah Rink 24 hours later.
Going into the games, the Red (7-9-1, 5-5 ECAC) is looking to improve on its previous matchup. Last weekend, Cornell faced RPI (13-6-3, 4-5 ECAC) on Friday night, skating to a 5-1 victory, before taking on Union (5-6-3, 7-2-1 ECAC) the following night to a less-than-spectacular loss by the same score.
The RPI game marked the third straight win for Cornell, which upset the No. 9/10 team at Lynah. Goals were scored by both senior defenseman Mike Devin and senior forward and co-captain Joe Devin, and additionally by freshman forward Rodger Craig and senior forward Tyler Roeszler — the latter of which successfully sent the puck to the back of the net twice. High on energy, the team improved upon its power play and maintained an early lead.
But while energy carried over to the next night against Union, the rest of the Red’s talent did not translate quite as well.
“Union beat us at every aspect of the game,” said head coach Mike Schafer ’86. “They were stronger than us, they played together as a team, they wanted it more.”
Cornell got onto the board very early in the game, as Joe Devin scored at just the 1:16 mark. But shortly thereafter, penalties on Red players proved costly, and the second and third periods saw five unanswered goals scored by the Dutchmen (two coming from the power play alone).
Schafer described the team performance as relatively poor for the speed the squad was going at, despite the incredible energy exhibited.
“The attitude on the bench in the previous three games is one of winning battles and intensity and focus. It wasn’t there [against Union],” he said.
Original Author: Reena Gilani