ITHACA, N.Y. — All of the déjà vu analogies can officially be put to bed.
Mitch Gillam made 27 saves for his seventh shutout of the season, and Holden Anderson scored on a one-timer with 6 minutes, 12 seconds left in the third period to lift the Cornell men’s hockey team to a 1-0 victory over Union on Friday night at Lynah Rink. The Big Red takes a 1-0 lead in an ECAC Hockey Championship first round series with a chance to close out the best-of-three series in Saturday’s Game 2. But the win also essentially erased haunting memories of Union’s first-round sweep of Cornell last season and the Dutchmen’s 5-1 win over the Big Red on the very same Lynah ice exactly one week ago.
On the game’s only goal, junior forward Jeff Kubiak cleanly won a faceoff to the left of Union goalie Alex Sakellaropoulos in the Dutchmen zone. From the halfwall, freshman forward Mitch Vanderlaan laid a pass into Anderson’s wheelhouse for a blast that sailed past Sakellaropoulos’ blocker, off the far post and into the net to send the goal-hungry crowd into a frenzy.
The goal seemed imminent for Cornell (14-9-7), seeded eighth in the tournament and ranked 18th in the USCHO.com national poll, which took control of the game in the third period. Gillam then made the lead stick with 3:20 to play by stopping Matt Krug’s high shot from the point and Mike Vecchione’s quick swat at a rebound from the top of the crease. Junior forward Jake Weidner then won a pair of draws in the Cornell zone with less than 8 seconds to play to ice the victory.
The teams traded punches in the first period, with nine of Union’s 14 shots on goal coming in the opening five minutes when the Dutchmen forced the puck to the net at seemingly every opportunity. Gillam was equal to it all, including four successful minutes on the penalty kill. Cornell had the best scoring chance of the frame, when Anthony Angello created a turnover on the forecheck. Kubiak swept in and passed from the right halfwall to Vanderlaan breaking down the slot, and his shot went past Sakellaropoulos’ blocker before ringing off the post.
The second period featured the same dearth of scoring, but Cornell slowly started to take over the run of play. Vanderlaan set up Angello from the slot on the rush, but his shot hit Sakellaropoulos’ left foot. But as the Big Red started to gain more and more traction, Union created a prime scoring opportunity with just 1:25 left before the break. A puck was passed into the middle for Vecchione, but Gillam slid across to his left to make the save and keep the game scoreless.
This was the Big Red’s fourth 1-0 victory of the season, which extends a program record. The shutout was also Gillam’s seventh of the season, which both moves him into a tie for second-most in the country and a tie for third-most in program history for a single season, equaling Ben Scrivens’ seven shutouts in both the 2008-09 and 2009-10 seasons.
Game 2 is scheduled for 7 p.m. Saturday. If necessary, Game 3 would be at 7 p.m. Sunday.
