PRINCETON, N.J. — The Cornell men’s hockey battled back from a two-goal deficit with freshman forward Brenden Locke scoring the winner with 6 minutes, 41 seconds left in the third period of the Big Red’s 5-4 victory over Princeton on Saturday night at Hobey Baker Rink.
Cornell (4-0, 2-0 ECAC Hockey, 1-0 Ivy League), which entered the weekend ranked 18th nationally in the USCHO.com poll, is joined by St. Cloud State as the last undefeated and untied Division I teams in the country.
Senior goaltender Hayden Stewart earned the victory by stopping 13 of 14 shots after coming on in relief to start the second period. The lone goal he surrendered pushed the Princeton (1-1-1, 0-1-1, 0-1) lead to 4-2 with 15 minutes to play in the second period, then Stewart made a couple of key stops on a power play shortly thereafter to keep the Big Red in the game.
“’Stew’ has worked really hard to get his opportunity and really rose to the challenge,” said Mike Schafer, the Jay R. Bloom ’77 Head Coach of Men’s Hockey. “He made a huge save in the second period when the game could have gone to 5-2. It was huge that he got that job done.”
Yanni Kaldis and Trevor Yates then scored goals just 49 seconds apart to pull the Big Red even. The visitors regrouped in the second intermission and drew a couple of power plays early in the third, but Princeton goalie Ryan Ferland made his best stops of the night to keep the teams even into the final half of the third.
That’s where Locke scored his first collegiate goal, picking up a loose puck near the Princeton blue line and skating to the top of the circle before snapping a shot over Ferland’s blocker.
“He’s got a lot of poise offensively,” Schafer said. “It’s funny, because he played left wing and right wing (tonight), and I don’t know if he’s ever played those positions in his life.”
The Big Red’s first two goals came on the power play, with junior Alec McCrea scoring his second of the season in just the game’s second minute. A blueliner has opened the scoring for Cornell in each of its first four games.
Princeton tied it up on a power-play goal of its own — ending the Big Red’s string of 17 consecutive penalty kills to start the season — then senior forward Alex Rauter, playing in his native New Jersey, restored the visitors’ lead. Princeton struck back with two goals late in the period to hand Cornell its first deficit of the season.
“They won battles and they did things that we usually take a lot of pride in,” Schafer said. “I feel like we really got away with one tonight. … It was just an up-and-down game and they’ve got a good hockey team.”
How The Goals Were Scored:
Cornell’s 1st Goal
1st period, 1:43 (PP) • Cornell 1, Princeton 0
• Working on an early power play, the Big Red’s forward corps of Malott, Starrett and Barron kept possession with yeoman’s work along the back boards. Starrett bumped it to Malott coming around the net to Ferland’s left, and he fed a wide-open McCrea toward the top of the circle. He fired a shot over the glove of Ferland inside the far post.
Princeton’s 1st Goal
1st period, 10:16 (PP) • Cornell 1, Princeton 1
• The Tigers entered the Cornell zone on the right wing, then fed a pass all the way across ice off the boards that Véronneau collected at the top of the left circle. He took space on a backward diagonal toward the middle, then let loose a shot wide of the far post that was knocked in out of mid-air against the grain by Hallisey.
Cornell’s 2nd Goal
1st period, 17:48 (PP) • Cornell 2, Princeton 1
• After Yates’ goal-mouth feed slid wide of the far post, Donaldson tracked down the loose puck in the left and circled back up the halfwall. He zipped a perfect pass between a defender’s stick and skates all the way to Rauter on the right faceoff dot, and he took a touch before unleashing a shot over the blocker of Ferland and inside the near post.
Princeton’s 2nd Goal
1st period, 18:36 • Cornell 2, Princeton 2
• Princeton won a board battle on the right wing in Cornell’s zone, with Eric Robinson popping a pass out to the top of the left circle for Josh Teves. As his defender stumbled slightly, Teves was able to stick-handle around the pokecheck and fired a shot that went past Hallisey’s screen and Galajda’s glove.
Princeton’s 3rd Goal
1st period, 19:43 • Princeton 3, Cornell 2
• After prolonged possession in the Big Red zone, Yochim took a shot from the left side that was blocked. Yochim then tracked it down all the way on the right half wall and as Big Red defense tried to sort itself out, he walked into the right circle and took a wrister that Galajda stopped — but the puck trickled behind him inches from the goal line, and it was swatted in by Ryan Kuffner.
Princeton’s 4th Goal
2nd period, 4:47 • Princeton 4, Cornell 2
• With Stewart now in goal for the Big Red, Véronneau’s shot from the left circle on a two-on-two was saved before dribbled to the back wall. The Tigers regained possession, and Alex Riche fed Véronneau coming across the slot, and he finished high over Stewart’s blocker.
Cornell’s 3rd Goal
2nd period, 11:03 • Princeton 4, Cornell 3
• The Big Red possessed the puck in the Tigers’ zone with Malott sending the puck to Rauter from the left wing to back the goal. Rauter circled along the perimeter for what seemed like an eternity — first toward the right corner, then all the way back behind the goal and up the left half wall. With the Tigers’ defense starting to fray, Rauter picked out Kaldis at the top of the opposite circle, and he walked in toward the dot and snapped a shot between Ferland’s pads.
Cornell’s 4th Goal
2nd period, 11:52 • Cornell 4, Princeton 4
• Angello made a nice play along the wall at the Cornell blue line to send Yates into the zone on a two-on-two. He chipped it across to Barron, who cut back from the slot toward the left point to wait for reinforcements. With none coming, he whipped a shot toward goal, which was deftly redirected out of mid-air by Yates and past Ferland’s glove.
Cornell’s 5th Goal
3rd period, 13:19 • Cornell 5, Princeton 4
• Vanderlaan entered the Tigers’ zone on the left wing with the rest of his teammates executing a fire-wagon line change behind the play. A defenseman poked the puck away, but Locke entered the zone fresh off the bench and carried the puck to the top of the left circle before unleashing a shot over Ferland’s blocker to the far corner.
Up Next:
• Cornell returns to Lynah Rink for a home stand of five games over a span of 12 days, starting with four ECAC Hockey contests.
• The stretch starts at 7 p.m. Friday against visiting Dartmouth, then the Big Red hosts defending league champion Harvard at 7:30 p.m. Saturday.
