“Anytime you give up ten shots, you’re doing something right,” said head coach Mike Schafer ’86.
Cornell extended its unbeaten streak to a whopping 13 games on Friday night after it defeated Brown, 3-0. While the goals didn’t come as easily as they have in recent games, Cornell dominated the Bears, aided by junior goaltender Ian Shane’s third clean sheet of the season.
“I thought we created an awful lot of offense,” Schafer said. “It was a good, solid team effort.”
The Red out-chanced and outworked Brown enormously, amassing a 33-10 advantage in shots. Brown’s ten shots against marks the fewest number of shots given up by Cornell all year.
Sophomore forward Dalton Bancroft and freshman forward Ryan Walsh tallied two points each, as their line –– complete with junior forward Ondrej Psenicka –– factored into both of Cornell’s goals against the Bears.
“They were outstanding,” Schafer said of his second line. “I told [Bancroft] after [the game] it was one of the best games I’ve seen him play in a [Cornell] uniform.”
Cornell rattled off four shot attempts in the opening moments of the contest, but only two were on net. Around four minutes into the game, Psenicka and Walsh fired two consecutive wrist shots, both of which rattled off the iron. Cornell hit three posts in the first period alone, and four in the game.
“[Walsh] hit a post, hit another post [and] then scored on a shot from a real bad angle, which was an unbelievable shot,” Schafer said.
It was another hit post that ultimately factored into the Red’s solo tally of the first –– Walsh, a victim of the pipe just minutes earlier, fired a puck off the crossbar just under seven minutes. Walsh then corralled the rebound and fired a sharp-angle shot –– below the blue line –– that snuck over the shoulder of the Brown goaltender.
“You can’t let the little things affect you,” Walsh said, referring to the second post he hit in the first period. “You [can] take a quick second [to think], ‘should’ve scored that,’ but you just have to continue. So, to find the back of the net there was good.”
Cornell dominated from then on, attempting 26 shots (13 on goal) to Brown’s six (three on goal). Brown didn’t register a shot on goal until nearly 13 minutes into the contest.
Brown’s Lawton Zacher made a couple of stellar saves, but the glaring difference-maker was Cornell’s puck luck, or lack thereof –– multiple shots just slithered wide, while others took abnormal bounces or hit the pipe.
Freshman forward Luke Devlin got injured early into the first period, forcing the extra skater –– freshman defenseman Marian Mosko –– to fill in Devlin’s position.
“First time in his life,” Schafer said about Mosko’s switch from defense to forward. “And he did a tremendous job.”
While the second period still resembled a hockey game, it evolved into a track meet –– neither team surrendered a penalty in the middle frame, allowing for 5-on-5 hockey for a full 20 minutes and very few stoppages of play.
In fact, the first-period penalty by Brown was the only infraction in Friday night’s contest altogether.
“We discuss [discipline] all the time,” Schafer said. “We’ve talked about controlling our sticks in the offensive zone and not putting ourselves at risk to trip somebody or inadvertently get a stick and we’re gonna step on it. So other guys did a good job of keeping the sticks down, keeping them out of harm’s way.
Both teams combined for just nine shots on goal in the second –– six from the Red and three from Brown.
Cornell’s puck luck didn’t change much in the middle period, as the Red hit yet another post –– senior forward Gabriel Seger the culprit –– and struggled to convert on a few wide-open attempts.
The Red’s stingy defense was ultimately the difference-maker — on a night where the goals didn’t come as easily, the forecheck prevented Brown from any true high-danger chances.
“We didn’t give up much,” Schafer said. “[Brown is] a good rush team and their defense will get up ice and get involved. I thought our guys did a good job of staying above them throughout the course of the game.”
With just over a minute left in the second, the Red notched an imperative goal to double its lead heading into the locker room for the second intermission. Freshman defenseman Hoyt Stanley tallied his second collegiate goal on a lasered wrist shot to the top corner of the net.
Things got interesting early in the third when Cornell and Brown traded off some prime opportunities, including three straight shots on net for the Red around five minutes in.
The game opened up more in the final frame, as Cornell racked up scoring chances, but ultimately couldn’t find an answer to Zacher.
It wasn’t until the closing moments of the third period that Cornell found the back of the net. Brown pulled its goaltender with 2:20 left in the game in an attempt to cut into the Red’s two-goal lead.
Bancroft earned himself a wide-open opportunity after forcing the Bears to turn the puck over, but his shot missed the vacant net by no more than an inch.
However, with just over a minute remaining, a hard-nosed effort by junior forward Kyle Penney gave Cornell the breathing room it needed. Penney fended off two Brown skaters pressuring him, muscled his way through the offensive zone and tapped the puck into the goal, sealing the game for Cornell.
The Red has the opportunity to clinch at least a share of the Ivy League title on Saturday night.
“The biggest thing is that we’re playing for a championship this weekend,” Walsh said. “If we win [and] if we get six points this weekend, we clinch the Ivy [title] and get a ring. … So, to start this weekend off with a win tonight is really big and obviously a big one [again] tomorrow.”
The Red takes on Yale on Saturday at 7 p.m. at Lynah Rink.