This story has been updated.
NEW YORK –– Under the brightest of lights and on the biggest of stages, No. 11 men’s hockey has often flourished.
Unbeaten in eight of its last nine games at Madison Square Garden, New York City has served as a home away from home for the Red, rallying Cornell fans and alumni together to watch what has often been some of their team’s best hockey.
Saturday’s game was no exception. Despite a second-period scare that saw the score change from 2-0 Cornell to 3-2 Quinnipiac, the Red rallied back and forced a 3-3 tie. Junior forward Dalton Bancroft scored in the shootout while senior goaltender Ian Shane made two saves and forced a Quinnipiac miss that clinched the shootout victory for the Red.
“It was a special night. [It’s my] last time being down here at Madison Square Garden as a coach,” said head coach Mike Schafer ’86. “Not too often do you get a team that, after that second period, can get challenged to come back in the third period and [respond]. It just doesn’t happen very often in sports.”
The first 20 minutes couldn’t have gone much better for Cornell, searching for its eighth win at Madison Square Garden in its last 10 matchups. Two goals, including a shorthanded one with just over a minute left, sealed an opening-period effort that saw the Red outshoot the Bobcats 15-6.
It didn’t take the Red long to get on the board at the “World’s Most Famous Arena.” A coast-to-coast effort by sophomore forward Jonathan Castagna ultimately found senior forward Sullivan Mack in the slot. Mack ripped a wrister that beat Quinnipiac goaltender Dylan Silverstein. Mack’s goal came after the Alaska native missed the last four games due to injury.
“Sullivan is one of our best players. We’ve missed him. He’s been out of the lineup now for two weeks,” Schafer said. “He stepped up to the plate. .. For not [being able] to play for a couple weeks, then come back in and overcome injuries and [on the] big stage –– [it’s hard] to come out and play the way he did.”
It took nearly seven minutes for the Bobcats to register a shot on goal –– by that point, the Red mustered five on Silverstein.
The teams traded tripping penalties midway through the period, both successful penalty kills. Cornell’s power play –– looking to find its groove after it registered two goals against Princeton last Saturday –– came up short, but the team moved the puck well along the perimeter and generated four shot attempts.
Late in the first, a senior forward Jack O’Leary tripping penalty tasked the Red with another penalty kill.
After a key save from Shane, sophomore forward Ryan Walsh picked the pocket of a Quinnipiac skater and the Red found itself two man up against zero Quinnipiac defenders.
An easy play saw Walsh dish the puck to Bancroft, seamlessly firing it over a sprawling Bobcat netminder to double the Red’s lead on the power play. It was the second goal of Cornell’s that has come shorthanded this season, a goal that Quinnipiac coach Rand Pecknold called “embarrassing.”
“Scoring a penalty kill goal was the craziest thing for me,” Bancroft said. “It’s my first year on the penalty kill as a junior, so that was pretty cool to get one of those.”
After a quick start to the first by the Red, Quinnipiac began the second even quicker. 14 seconds into the middle frame, the Bobcats beat Shane, and Cornell’s lead was halved.
And then by the 15:05 mark, the game was tied. A strong shift by Quinnipiac in its offensive zone led to a cross-crease pass that Aaron Schwartz buried past Shane. On the ensuing faceoff, Castagna was nabbed for a faceoff violation penalty that sent Cornell back on the kill for the third time that evening.
Just as easily as Cornell amassed a two-goal lead, it lost one. Castagna left the penalty box with the score unscathed but with all the momentum in the Bobcats’ favor.
Another Castagna penalty –– this time for high-sticking –– imposed the Red with its fourth kill of the night. But just 16 seconds into it, senior defenseman Tim Rego drew a hooking penalty while carrying the puck into the Cornell offensive zone.
Just as Cornell was readying for a brief power play after 1:44 of four-on-four play, Quinnipiac stormed into the o-zone and rifled the puck past Shane on a one-timer from the right circle. The goal was counted as a shorthanded goal for the Bobcats, giving it the lead for the first time that evening.
Then senior defenseman Hank Kempf was called for interference, forcing Cornell to kill yet another Quinnipiac power play. Discipline got away from the Red in period two, as Cornell was sent to the sin bin four times in the second period alone.
While the PK unit delivered, the offense did not. After notching three shots in the first two minutes of the second, Cornell went 10 minutes without registering a shot. After outshooting the Red 14-4 in the middle frame, the Bobcats had the edge in overall shots after 40 minutes, 20-19.
As the puck dropped for the third period, a quick retaliation was what the Red would need to sway the Bobcats’ momentum.
And a quick response is what the Red would deliver. O’Leary cleaned up a rebound from Mack’s shot just 1:12 into the third period, knotting the score at 3-3.
“It’s pretty cool. Lynah [Rink] is obviously great, but [this] is a little different atmosphere,” said Mack, who made a great individual effort on O’Leary’s goal. “And it seemed like there [were] a ton of people here this year, I think even more than last year. So it was really cool.”
The Red looked much stronger in the third, notching 10 shots on goal in the first 12 minutes. Both teams played tempered and disciplined hockey in the final frame, compared to the frantic pace of the opening 40 minutes.
Despite giving up three goals –– his most at Madison Square Garden in three games played –– Shane came up big for the Red when needed in the third, albeit infrequently compared to Cornell’s offensive pressure. A highlight-reel glove save by the senior netminder came with around five minutes to go, keeping the score leveled.
Cornell nearly took the lead with less than a minute left after not generating much down the stretch. A flurry of opportunities hit the rubber of Silverstein, as the Red mustered five shot attempts in the final 30 seconds.
Extra hockey was needed to settle the score between two ECAC rivals, and the Bobcats seemed to control it from the opening faceoff.
Sophomore defenseman Hoyt Stanley, Kempf and O’Leary stayed on the ice for nearly three minutes as Quinnipiac sustained pressure in its offensive zone. The Bobcats ate the clock down to just 18.6 seconds, barring the Red from getting a shot until just a second left in the extra period.
“I think they were on the ice for two and a half minutes. … They just gutted it out and did whatever they needed to do in order to get a whistle,” Schafer said. “That was an outstanding effort by those guys.”
That shot, which came off the stick of sophomore defenseman Ben Robertson, nearly beat Silverstein with no angle. The puck wasn’t visible under the Quinnipiac goaltender’s pad, and a challenge from Cornell confirmed the no-goal call.
In the shootout, one Bancroft goal was all the Red needed. Shane forced a Quinnipiac miss and made a pair of stops, as his team swarmed him and sent the 16,593 fans –– many of them Cornellians –– home happy.
“It’s just another home game,” Bancroft said. “When you’re standing on the blue line for the national anthem and you hear ‘red’ echo through the stadium, it’s going to be a good night. So just a really cool atmosphere [and a] really cool venue to play in. And obviously, the boys found a way to get it done tonight.”
The Red will be back in action next Friday as it plays the first of two games against Colgate. Puck drop at Lynah Rink is set for 7 p.m.