ITHACA, N.Y. — Freshman goaltender Matthew Galajda made 28 saves to buoy a stellar penalty-killing performance, then sophomore forward Jeff Malott scored a pair of goals to cement the Cornell men’s hockey team’s season-opening 5-1 victory over Alabama-Huntsville on Friday night at Lynah Rink.
Cornell (1-0) had points from nine of its 12 forwards, and the penalty kill was a perfect 5-for-5 against an Alabama-Huntsville (1-4) power play that entered the night firing at a 29.4% success rate. That set the stage for the Big Red’s opportunistic offense to provide its most comfortable victory in a season debut since a 7-1 defeat of Army to open the 2004-05 campaign.
The Big Red was also 2-for-4 on the power play, including a strike from sophomore defenseman Alec McCrea just four seconds into Cornell’s first opportunity on the man advantage and just 4:39 into the game. The Chargers won the draw in their own zone, but a clearing attempt caromed off junior forward Beau Starrett and landed on the stick of McCrea toward the left point. His seeing-eye shot found its way off the far post and in, giving the Big Red’s top defensive defenseman as many goals as he had while playing in all of last season’s 35 games.
Cornell then ran into significant penalty trouble later in the opening stanza. A major penalty bookended a pair of minors, leaving the Big Red shorthanded for a consecutive stretch of 5 minutes, 2 seconds — including a whopping 3:18 of two-man disadvantage. Galajda made six stops over that span, including a show-stopping glove save on Kurt Gosselin with 26.1 seconds remaining in the first that left the UAH player with his hands on his head.
The Big Red completely the penalty kill early in the second period and quickly blew the game open. Though a possible goal at the 3:14 mark was waved off for being played with a high stick, Cornell tacked on two that would count shortly thereafter. Senior forward Trevor Yates redirected a shot from freshman Cam Donaldson for a goal at the 5-minute mark, then freshman forward Morgan Barron potted his first at the collegiate level 1:48 later. The New York Rangers draft pick forced a turnover on the forecheck to create a two-on-one with senior forward Jared Fiegl, then he swatted in a rebound of a Fiegl shot that was stopped by UAH goaltender Jordan Uhelski.
Malott extended the lead with two more goals in the third, marking his second collegiate multi-goal game. The first was a natural hat trick in a span of 10 minutes on Jan. 13. Galajda was in line for a shutout until a goal with 3:08 to play from Brennan Saulnier (younger brother of Jillian Saulnier ’15, a standout with the Cornell women’s hockey team).
Seven freshmen debuted for the Big Red, including a standout effort from Galajda and two assists from Donaldson. In addition to Barron’s goal, freshman forward Brenden Locke recorded his first collegiate point with an assist on Malott’s first strike.
The teams will face off in a rematch at 7 p.m. Saturday at Lynah Rink. Tickets are available at CornellBigRedTickets.com.
