Cornell prepared for its final five weeks of regular-season play in ECAC Hockey with an unusual weekend set at Lynah Rink. For starters, the Big Red’s guests from North Dakota were just the second WCHA team to visit Ithaca in Lynah Rink’s 53-year history. Secondly, the Big Red were outplayed by a slight margin and outshot on their home ice on back-to-back nights. Standout forwards Riley Nash and Colin Greening were held without a point.
Ben Scrivens
Despite all of that, Cornell managed to get a series split against North Dakota – ranked fourth in the INCH Power Rankings and both national polls.
“I think facing a team like North Dakota, one of the top teams in the country, they really challenged us,” Cornell forward Blake Gallagher said. “It put everything into perspective in terms of where we are as a hockey team and where we need to go and what we need to improve on. Playing a tough team like that, I think both teams got better this weekend.”
Friday’s 1-0 Cornell victory featured one of the best performances of the distinguished career of senior Ben Scrivens. The netminder’s shutout was the 14th of his career, moving him to second on Cornell’s all-time list past third-place Ken Dryden. Scrivens showed early in the game that he was going to have a big night. While North Dakota carried the play and generated quality scoring chances, Scrivens was sharp in tracking the puck well, controlling his crease area and making certain that no loose pucks or errant rebounds were left for Sioux players to pounce on.
“I felt pretty good from start to finish,” Scrivens said. “You try to prepare the same way for every game, but today it felt like the puck was sticking to me, not kicking out to bad places. When you play to your potential you want to build off of that and keep it going with a strong second half.”
By all accounts, Cornell played better Saturday despite losing 3-1. They had more scoring chances and didn’t turn the puck over as much as the previous night.
The end of the result of the weekend, a series split against an elite team that leaves the Big Red with the confidence that they can play with the nation’s best and the knowledge that there’s room for improvement.
“It was a hard-fought series and we knew that coming in. Both games were a real grind and I talked to our team after ward and said this is going to make us a better hockey team and will help us prepare for the next five, six, seven, eight weeks,” Cornell coach Mike Schafer said.
THREE MORE THINGS WORTH KNOWING
• Senior standouts Kain Tisi and Travis Vermeulen have carried St. Lawrence in recent weeks. The Saints are surging and Tisi, the senior goalie, is playing the best hockey of his collegiate career. Tisi has a .959 save percentage and 1.23 goals-against average in the Saints’ last four games. Vermeulen had six points on nine St. Lawrence goals last weekend – a sweep of Brown and Yale, and factored on all four goals with two goals and two assists in the win over Yale. Vermeulen leads the Saints in goals (11) and points (24) and has 11 points in his current six-game point streak. Senior forwards Mike McKenzie (5-13-18) and Alex Curran (6-10-16) also rank among SLU’s top-five scorers.
• Full credit goes to Harvard, one of the hottest teams in ECAC Hockey, for maintaining its unbeaten streak behind a third-period rally at Rensselaer on Saturday afternoon. The Crimson trailed 2-0 after two periods on a pair of soft goals allowed by goalie Ryan Carroll (who was sensational in a 47-save victory over Union one night earlier). Kyle Richter took over between the pipes in the third period and the Crimson got on the board 20 seconds into the period, but RPI regained its two-goal lead just 51 seconds later. Alex Killorn answered for Harvard and Louis Leblanc scored with three seconds left in the third and the goalie pulled to knot the score. Leblanc capitalized on a loose puck at the weak side post and tucked it into the net prior to the buzzer sounded and before a scrum in the crease dislodged the net.
• The Good: Princeton returned from its exam break with an 8-1 win over Connecticut on Monday. Eric Meland had three goals and two assists in the game, the first hat trick of his college career. The Bad: The Clarkson Golden Knights are just 1-7-2 in road games this year. Even worse news, Clarkson’s next four games are on the road. The Ugly: Cornell hasn’t scored in its last 28 power-play opportunities.
