OXFORD, Ohio — The Cornell men’s hockey team wasted little time responding from just its second loss of the season, scoring three goals in the opening 13 minutes then riding strong play from senior goaltender Hayden Stewart to a 4-0 victory Saturday over Miami at Cady Arena.
Senior forward Alex Rauter had a goal and two assists, and junior forward Anthony Angello and senior forward Trevor Yates each had a goal and an assist
Stewart made 26 saves for his third career shutout in just his ninth collegiate start, helping Cornell (10-2) earn a weekend split against Miami (7-7-2). It was his first start of the season after freshman Matthew Galajda earned the nod in the first 11 games.
“It wasn’t so much all what Matt was doing, but it also had something to do with what Hayden was doing,” said Mike Schafer, the Jay R. Bloom ’77 Head Coach of Men’s Hockey at Cornell, about the decision to start his senior goaltender. “He’s played hard and practiced hard. Unfortunately for him, he got hurt (in November). … I thought he was solid.”
The Big Red’s special teams responded in a big way after a disppointing spell over the last several weeks, producing power-play goals by junior forward Anthony Angello and senior forward Trevor Yates to give Cornell a two-goal lead by the 12:01 mark of the opening frame.
A pretty passing play led to freshman forward Kyle Betts’ first collegiate goal just 35 seconds after Yates’ team-leading eighth goal of the season, and Cornell was quickly out to a commanding 3-0 lead that it essentially rode for the rest of the game.
The pair of power-play goals came after a stretch of just one goal on the man advantage over the Big Red’s last 21 opportunities. On the other end of the ledger, Cornell’s penalty kill was a perfect 3-for-3 after killing just six of its opponents last 14 power-play chances.
“Bottom line is that we just won the special teams war tonight. … That was huge for us,” Schafer said. “We just talked about getting back to the fundamentals — blocking shots and being in our lanes and having good clears, winning draws. All those things paid dividends for us tonight.”
Senior forward Alex Rauter provided the exclamation point with an empty-net goal in the final minute.
With the win, Cornell tied its fifth-best winning percentage through 12 games in the modern era of program history. It’s also the second time in the last three seasons it has a .833 winning percentage after 12 games, after the Big Red started the 2015-16 campaign with a 9-1-2 mark. Cornell entered the weekend ranked fifth in both major national college hockey polls.
“We’re looking forward to the break,” Schafer said. “We have 10 freshmen, and they’re tired. I think they’ve done a great job, but I’ve looked at them at times and they’ve seemed mentally and physically fatigued at points.”
How The Goals Were Scored:
Cornell’s 1st Goal
1st period, 9:24 (PP) • Angello 3 (Yates, Rauter) • Cornell 1, Miami 0
• On the power play, Alex Rauter’s pass from the right point down to Trevor Yates was a little off-target, but Yates got his stick to it to poke it toward the wall. The puck bounced back out, where Angello swooped in and carried behind the net. He pulled up as he got to the bottom of the left circle and looked toward Yates at the top of the crease, then sneaked a shot between Ryan Larkin’s legs.
Cornell’s 2nd Goal
1st period, 12:01 (PP) • Yates 8 (Yates, Angello) • Cornell 1, Miami 0
• Again on the power play, Angello won a faceoff from the right dot in the offensive zone straight back. Striding in from the wall, Kaldis reached to keep the puck in the zone, then quickly snapped a shot from center point that was tipped under Larkin by Yates from his office at the top of the crease.
Cornell’s 3rd Goal
1st period, 12:36 • Betts 1 (Rauter, McCrea) • Cornell 3, Miami 0
• About as pretty a passing play as you’ll see on a five-on-five goal from just in-zone possession. Brendan Smith passed from the left half wall to Alec McCrea at the center point. He passed to Rauter on the right half wall, who quickly dished to Kyle Betts coming down the slot for a conversion inside the wide side of the net.
Cornell’s 4th Goal
3rd period, 19:09 (EN) • Rauter 4 (Bauld) • Cornell 4, Miami 0
• With the RedHawks pulling Larkin in favor of an extra attacker for a lengthy period of time, the Big Red broke pressure when Miami tried to force the puck down the left wall and had it bounce off Bauld’s shin pads. Rauter collected in the neutral zone, weaved toward the middle to gain the red line before sliding a long shot into the empty net.
Up Next:
• Cornell takes a four-week hiatus for final exams and the holiday break before starting its unofficial second half of the season on Saturday, Dec. 30. The Big Red will host Canisius at 4 p.m. that day before embarking on 16 straight ECAC Hockey games to close out the regular season.
