This story has been updated.
PROVIDENCE, R.I. – In the first of back-to-back must win games, men’s hockey shutout Brown, 5-0, on Friday night.
The Red (17-9-2, 14-6-1 ECAC) used its size to control the pace of the game, outracing and bullying Brown (9-17-2, 5-14-2 ECAC) off pucks throughout the night. In the offensive zone, Cornell kept bodies in front of Brown’s Mathieu Caron and fired 47 shots on goal.
“We worked a lot on net presence all week and I think we did a good job of not only staying at the net but trying to get pucks there as well,” said sophomore forward Sullivan Mack.
Despite consistent pressure, goals did not come right away for the Red.
“I thought we had good patience,” said head coach Mike Schafer ’86. “If you move your feet and protect pucks you’re going to get opportunities.”
Cornell scored the only goal of the first period six-and-a-half minutes into the frame when Jack O’Leary sent the puck past Caron from the slot.
The Red played a clean first period, outshooting the Bears 12-4. Sophomore goaltender Ian Shane was up to the task on the few shots that he saw.
Senior defenseman Travis Mitchell and Brown’s Nathan Plessis took offsetting roughing penalties 15 seconds into the second period to create some extra space on the ice. Just over a minute into the four-on-four, sophomore defenseman Michael Suda was sent off for holding. The Red killed the brief four-on-three and then the remaining five-on-four.
Junior defenseman Tim Rego took a holding call four-and-a-half minutes into the period, but the Red penalty killers once again shut down the man advantage without incident.
Shane was locked in behind his defense, making an additional nine saves in the period, including a sprawling stop with about five minutes remaining. Shane finished with a 14 save shutout.
“[Shane] made a huge save when it was 1-0,” Schafer said. “We made a mistake in the neutral zone and they came in and made a nice play, but Ian was up to the task.”
The Red extended its lead when senior forward Ben Berard found the back of the net from just above the goal line on Caron’s stick side.
Cornell took the 2-0 lead into the third period.
The Red went on its first power play of the game five minutes into the third, but could not make anything happen with the man advantage.
“I thought in the third we did a tremendous job of not taking any penalties and staying above them,” Schafer said.
Mack put Cornell in firm control just past the halfway point of the period when he scored with a wrist shot on an open look from the slot.
Two-and-a-half minutes later, Mack tacked on another from the same spot. He collected a pass from senior forward Jack Malone, toe-dragged around a defender and beat Caron top-shelf over his stick side to give Cornell a 4-0 lead.
“I just caught the defense flat-footed, was able to get around him and just tried to get a quick shot off. It happened to go in,” Mack said with a grin as he recounted the highlight reel goal.
Senior forward Zach Tupker added Cornell’s fifth of the night with just over a minute left shortly after a power play expired.
“We did a good job not getting frustrated when it wasn’t going in the second period,” Mack said. “Staying consistent for 60 minutes and tiring them out – tonight they got pretty tired and that’s when the goals started coming.”
After the dominant win, Cornell will look to close out the regular season with a sweep on Saturday night at Yale.