Cornell Nets Road Win at Yale

Photo by DSPics.com

Box score

NEW HAVEN, Conn. -- Riley Nash and Colin Greening scored goals and Ben Scrivens made 23 saves as the Cornell men's hockey team picked up a 2-1 victory at Yale on Friday night. The Big Red improved to 2-2 on the year and 2-1 in ECAC Hockey play, while Yale slips to 1-2-2 overall and 0-1-2 in league action.

Nash finished the night with a goal and an assist after chipping the puck out to Greening on the eventual game-winner. It was the first multi-point game for the freshman to go along with his first collegiate goal.

With 4:34 to play in the first period, the Big Red got on the board first as Nash beat Yale goalie Billy Blase with a low shot between the pads. After Evan Barlow circled around the red line, he flipped the puck into the Yale zone, where it was gloved down by a Bulldog defenseman. As he went to play it, he got checked by Greening, and the puck squirted loose to Nash, who ripped his low shot past Blase.

With just over a minute, Mike Devin nearly made it 2-0 for the Big Red when his shot on the power play from between the circles rang off the goal post and into the netting behind the Yale goal.

With just under two minutes to go in the second period, Scrivens made a pair of saves in quick succession to keep the Bulldogs off the scoreboard. Yale's Jeff Anderson fired a shot from the left of the sophomore netminder, who deflected the shot off to his right side. Standing on the back post was Brendan Mason, who got a stick on the puck in mid-air, but Scrivens was quick to the back post to get his left leg on the puck and knock it into the corner.

Cornell came out quick in the third period, testing Blase with a pair of strong efforts. Nash was foiled on an effort after skating right around a Yale defenseman. Seconds later, after Greening forced a turnover in the Yale end, Evan Barlow fed the sophomore with a pass in front, though his backhand attempt went just wide with Blase sprawled out in the crease.

With a minute left in the contest, the Bulldogs pulled Blase for the extra skater. The Big Red took no time in capitalizing, as Colin Greening took a loose puck around center ice and flipped a shot into the open net for the 2-0 lead.

Scrivens nearly had the shutout until with 5.7 seconds left, Yale's Sean Backman found himeslf open with on the back post with the puck. Scrivens attempted to get over to cover, but Backman lifted the shot top shelf to ruin the shutout bid, but it was not enough for the Bulldogs.

The Big Red finished the contest 0-for-4 on the power play, while Yale wound up 0-for-2 with the man advantage. Cornell, which entered the game ranked second in the nation with 22.7 minutes per game, was whistled for just two infractions in the contest for four minutes.

Cornell returns to action on Saturday night as the road trip continues on to Providence. Cornell will battle Brown on Saturday at 7 p.m. at Meehan Auditorium.