Saturday marked the 167th meeting between No. 6 men’s hockey and No. 20 Harvard.
The Red had gotten the better of the Crimson in its recent bouts, having won the last three meetings, including a sweep of Harvard in the ECAC quarterfinals at Lynah Rink in March.
This time around, Harvard was eager to avenge its recent results. The Crimson outplayed Cornell, but a late power play goal from Cornell tied up the game and resulted in a 2-2 draw. Cornell got the extra point in the shootout on sophomore defenseman Ben Robertson’s highlight-reel winning goal, an important grab regarding the ECAC standings.
Despite Harvard’s strong start, firing multiple shots on senior goaltender Ian Shane, it was the Crimson that took the game’s first penalty. The Cornell power play –– one of two units left in the country without a power play goal –– got a chance early on to take the lead.
The best chance, though, came off a Harvard stick on a breakaway. Senior defenseman Tim Rego promptly made an outstanding play on the backcheck to prevent a shot on a clear-cut Crimson one-on-none.
A scary moment came with 7:23 left in the first, when a high hit was laid on freshman defenseman Nicholas Wolfenberg. After Wolfenberg skated off, play was stopped and attention was drawn to the Cornell bench. Wolfenberg was looked at by the trainers before heading to the locker room. The play was reviewed for a major penalty for contact to the head, but no penalty was ultimately called.
The injury to Wolfenberg is the latest ailment to ravage the Red, forcing the extra skater on Saturday, junior defenseman Jack O’Brien –– who spent time on the wing and on defense on Friday night –– to play bigger minutes alongside Wolfenberg’s d-partner, senior defenseman Hank Kempf.
With just under three minutes left in the first, Harvard earned its first power play after Kempf was sent off for interference. Cornell’s penalty kill, which surrendered two goals to Dartmouth the night prior, did a good job making clears and fending off the Crimson.
But just seconds after the teams returned to even strength, Harvard ultimately found the back of the net as Ryan Fine beat Shane to give Harvard the lead. Then, with just 15 seconds left in the first, junior forward Dalton Bancroft was given a game misconduct penalty for contact to the head.
In just a minute, all momentum was shifted in Harvard’s favor. Cornell would have to play two-thirds of the game down two skaters and a major penalty to kill.
Starting the second period with almost the entire major penalty to kill, the Cornell PK unit came up big. The defensive group played stingy and made many big clears en route to a successful kill.
Rejuvenated after holding the Crimson scoreless, the Cornell attack responded. A great pass from junior forward Nick DeSantis found Rego, who fired a wrist shot that flew over the shoulder of Aku Koskenvuo, evening the score.
Despite looking a bit stronger on the puck after getting the relieving tying goal, Harvard ultimately retook the lead. A shot from the point made its way through traffic and just got past Shane, giving the Crimson a 2-1 edge. It appeared that Harvard might’ve skated offside prior to the goal, but after losing a challenge earlier, another lost review would’ve resulted in a Harvard penalty. Head coach Mike Schafer ’86 refrained from challenging.
After a few minutes of back-and-forth play, Harvard earned another power play when DeSantis was nabbed for holding. In the first 30 seconds of the man advantage, Shane made a pair of impressive saves, including a highlight-reel diving save with his blocker.
Shane ultimately aided Cornell to a successful penalty kill. As the fourth Harvard power play expired, the shots were a whopping 23-8 in favor of the Crimson.
Another unsuccessful Cornell power play came and went before the period’s end, forcing the Red to enter its locker room down in the score once again.
As time kept ticking in the game, Cornell’s frustration was evident. The final shot count was 34-24 in favor of the Crimson.
With 11:35 remaining, another unfortunate call went Harvard’s way as Cornell was caught with too many skaters on the ice. The penalty was killed but wasted two crucial minutes for a Cornell, team desperate to tie the game.
Harvard continued to play stingy and, perhaps, handing Cornell a taste of its own medicine. While Cornell is typically a team to keep its opponents off the box score by limiting shots –– the Red have allowed the fewest shots per game on average thus far this season –– Harvard largely kept Cornell to the outside.
However, Cornell’s first power play goal of the year came at an apt time. With just under seven minutes left, freshman forward Charlie Major sent a beautiful feed across the crease which sophomore forward Ryan Walsh easily tapped in past Koskenvuo.
One more power play chance came and went for Cornell as time trickled down, ultimately sending the game into overtime tied at 2-2.
Cornell dominated possession in the three-on-three overtime period, often deploying two defensemen in Robertson and sophomore defenseman Hoyt Stanley. Despite its offensive push, five minutes came and went and the game was forced to be decided via shootout.
Shane stopped 32 shots in regulation and was exceptional in the shootout. He stopped both Crimson shots, while senior defenseman Michael Suda and Robertson scored in the shootout to clinch the extra point.
Cornell will return home to Ithaca for a series against Princeton and Quinnipiac next weekend. Puck drop is slated for 7 p.m. for both games.