ITHACA, N.Y. — Yale scored twice in the opening six minutes and used a stellar first period to take control, then held off the men’s hockey team for a 4-2 victory on Saturday night at Lynah Rink.
Senior forward John Knisley and freshman forward Alex Rauter scored for Cornell (12-8-5, 7-7-4 ECAC Hockey), but the Big Red was in a hole of which it couldn’t dig out. John Hayden had already tacked on his second goal of the game to give Yale (16-5-4, 11-4-3) a three-goal lead, which it then later restored when Cody Learned finished off a two-on-one early in the third period.
Knisley’s third goal of the season came at the 8:45 mark of the second, coming on a three-zone rush. Using pure speed up the right wing, Knisley cut around his defender in the circle and glided toward goal. As Yale goalie Alex Lyon got set for an attempted poke check, Knisley quickly slipped the puck between the goalie’s knees to get the Big Red on the board.
Rauter then capped the scoring with 31.3 seconds left in the third period with his first collegiate goal, lifting his own rebound past Lyon’s right shoulder. Knisley and junior forward Eric Freschi assisted on the goal.
Sophomore goalie Hayden Stewart made his season debut for the Big Red, coming on in relief and making 19 saves in 36-plus minutes while allowing just one goal on an odd-man rush.
Cornell returns to action with two more Ivy League games next weekend, traveling to Harvard on Friday and Dartmouth on Saturday.
