By TROY BRIDSON
One minute and ten seconds into overtime, freshman sensation Anthony Angello found some space and let a blistering shot fly into the back of the net, securing the win for the Cornell (5-1, 3-1 ECAC) men’s hockey team. It was the first points of the weekend for the talented right wing that now leads the Red in goals scored. The bench erupted and the whole team skated onto the ice to surround Angelo, who celebrated with outstretched arms.
Colgate (4-7, 1-3 ECAC) played their hearts out tonight, giving the Red all they could handle. The Raiders led Cornell 2-1 after the first period and appeared to be the more physical team early on in the evening.
In last night’s matchup, the Red used their size to dominate Colgate on the boards. Coming out physical in the early minutes was clearly something Colgate emphasized after Cornell ran away with an early lead Friday at Lynah.
“We got off to a real slow start,” said head coach Mike Schafer ’86. “I was disappointed with our effort, which led to a of penalties in the first period.”
The deficit could have been worse for the Red early on. In the first period alone, the Red gave up a breakaway goal to Colgate forward Tyson Spink and committed five penalties. Colgate was only able to score on one of their power plays, a five on three that led to a goal from defenseman Brett Corkey.
Junior defenseman Patrick McCarron continued his stretch of solid play tonight, adding a goal in the first period. He also moved the puck around well and created several scoring chances. McCarron, who was injured at the start of the season, has found different ways to contribute to the Red since getting healthy.
“Patrick keeps getting better and better,” Schafer said. “He’s really grown as a player back on the blue line and he had a great shot to get through to the net tonight.”
Late in the first period, Colgate had a chance to break open a two-goal lead with another five on three power play. The Cornell defense was resilient though and senior captain Teemu Tiitinen made a series of nice plays to get the puck out of the Cornell zone.
“When you don’t come out ready to play some nights you never get it back,” Schafer said. “The penalty kill at end of the first period was the turning point in the game where we were able to block some huge shots.”
When the Red tied the game in the second period on a goal from junior forward Matt Buckles, the momentum fully swung in Cornell’s favor. The Red settled down and began making fewer and fewer errors.
“It was huge for us to come out in the second and score the power play goal” Schafer said.
The tying goal seemed to deflate Colgate, as the team struggled to muster the same level of offensive pressure they put on Cornell in the first period.
“We had a tremendous amount of chances in the next two periods with 24 shots,” Schafer said. “We played with real good energy for the rest of the night.”
In the third period, the Red put consistent pressure on Colgate goalie Charlie Finn. Nonetheless, the goalie made several impressive games to keep the game knotted at 2-2. With a minute left in the third, Tiitinen saw a great shot denied by Finn.
As soon as overtime started, the Red continued their explosive play and Angello sealed the deal when Colgate got caught on a line change.
“We had them pinned down a little bit and we had talked about trying to catch Colgate on a line change before overtime,” Schafer said. “We got fresh guys on the ice and bumped the puck up from the neutral zone.”
“Anthony went back into the zone and shot the puck,” Schafer said. “Good things happen when you shoot the puck.”