ECAC Hockey

January 11, 2008

Cornell Returns to ECAC Hockey Play with Win at Rensselaer

TROY, N.Y. -- The Cornell men's hockey team returned to ECAC Hockey action for the first time in nearly two months, taking a 2-1 contest at Rensselaer on Friday night in Troy, N.Y. The Big Red got goals from Michael Kennedy and Topher Scott, while sophomore netminder Ben Scrivens picked up 29 saves in goal for the Big Red.

Rensselaer got the game's first power play at the 13:12 mark of the game when Justin Krueger was whistled for holding. The Engineers got a pair of shots off with the man advantage, both of which were blocked by the Big Red defense as Cornell escaped. After the power play, RPI's Chase Polacek tried to wrap the puck around the post, only to be foiled by the right leg of Scrivens.

With 3:54 to play in the first period, the Big Red got its first power play opportunity when RPI's Jeff Foss was called for interference. The Big Red ripped off a pair of shots that were both stopped by Lange as RPI killed off the power play. With 11 seconds remaining in the penalty to Foss, Cornell's Raymond Sawada was asssessed a two-minute penalty for hitting after the whistle, giving RPI its second power play of the night. With its second chance, the Engineers nearly gave up the game's first goal, as Chris Fontas narrowly missed hitting Joe Scali on the back post on a rush down the ice. Despite not getting the shorthanded goal, the Big Red killed off the power play, sending both teams to the locker room after a scoreless first period.

Early in the second period, Sawada made a pass from the corner to Michael Kennedy in between the circles, but Kennedy's point-blank shot was kicked away by Lange. Kennedy got his shot at retribution five minutes later, as Cornell took a 1-0 lead.

Cornell (7-5-2, 5-2-0 ECAC Hockey) cleared the puck out of the zone, with Sawada hustling after the play. The senior won the puck at the RPI blue line and chipped it out in front to Topher Scott coming down the middle. Scott skated in on Lange but fed a quick pass to his left to Kennedy, who beat the junior netminder high to the near post.

Cornell made the score 2-0 with 9:34 to play in the second as Topher Scott tallied his fifth goal of the season, chipping a puck up and over the outstretched arm of Lange. Scott took a pass from Sawada and curled around a defender before beating Lange with a backhand attempt with Michael Kennedy getting the second assist on the play.

RPI (8-11-3, 3-3-2 ECAC Hockey) got on the board just 31 seconds into the third period as the Engineers' Garett Vassel fired a shot into Scrivens' midsection. Scrivens made the stop, but slid back into the goal. The whistle blew at the same time that the goal judge turned on the goal light, leading to a headed discussion both from the Cornell captains and from the bench, yet the goal stood.

The end of the game took an ugly turn at the end of the third period. Joe Scali was hit from behind into the glass by Burgdoerfer near the Cornell bench and dropped immediately to the ice with two minutes to play. Sawada was issued a 10-minute misconduct for his protesting of the hit on Scali, though Burgdoerfer was given a major and a game disqualification penalty. Seconds later, Jared Seminoff was given a penalty for contact to the head-elbowing, ending the Cornell power play and having the two teams at 4-on-4. RPI pulled Lange for the remaining 1:38, but could not get a shot off as Cornell finished off the final score.

Cornell went 0-for-5 on the power play on the night, while RPI, which entered the game with the nation's lowest power-play percentage, was 0-for-4 on the night.

Cornell returns to action on Saturday night, staying in the Capital District to take on Union in a 7 p.m. contest at Messa Rink in Schenectady. Saturday night's game can be seen in both the Capital District and in central New York on Time Warner Sports (channel 26 in Ithaca).