Cornell Drops Season Opener To RIT

Photo by Eric Stewart/Ithaca Journal Staff

Box score

ROCHESTER, N.Y. -- The Cornell men's ice hockey team dropped a 4-1 contest to Rochester Institute of Technology on Saturday night in the season opener at the Blue Cross Arena in Rochester, N.Y. RIT scored a pair of power play goals in the first period, and, staked to the early lead, held on for the victory.

Buoyed by the large, vocal, pro-RIT crowd, the Tigers stormed out to the lead with 5:45 to play in the first period. Following a charging penalty on Dan Nicholls, RIT's Matt Smith fired a shot past the screened Ben Scrivens, sneaking its way into the back of the net.

Just 10 seconds later, Colin Greening was whistled for a five-minute major for hitting from behind, and had his night end with the subsequent game misconduct penalty. On the ensuing major, RIT's Sean Murphy took a pass from Matt Crowell, skated around several Big Red defenders and got to the left faceoff dot, firing a wrist shot over the right shoulder of the sophomore netminder.

Scrivens kept the Big Red in the contest in the first period, making 13 stops, including 11 while RIT had the man advantage. In the second period, he held the Tigers at bay, making another seven saves.

Cornell, meanwhile, struggled on the power play, missing out on its first six chances, including 10 seconds of a 5-on-3 early in the third period.

Without the services of Greening for the final two periods, the Big Red was forced to shuffle the lines, leading to missed chemistry on the offensive end. Still, in the third, Cornell was able to turn up the offensive intensity, as they held the puck in the RIT end for long stretches at a time. Cornell peppered RIT goalie Louis Menard with seven shots in the first half of the third period, but could not solve the sophomore netminder.

With 9:52 remaining in the third period, all that changed. As Cornell continued to pressure the RIT goal, Joe Devin had a shot from the right post of Menard that went wide. As the freshman went behind the goal to pulay the puck again, he flipped it right between the legs of Menard, who was backing up into the goal. With the puck trickling towards the goal line, Devin snuck his stick behind the goaltender and tapped the puck into the net, cutting the deficit in half.

With just under four minutes to play in the third period, a series of quick passes through the neutral zone led to Cornell having a rush going with Riley Nash and Raymond Sawada. Nash's wrister went wide of the cage, and RIT was off to the races. The Tigers' Dan Ringwald made an outlet pass to Simon Lambert, who skated in alone against Scrivens, slipping in an insurance goal with 3:32 remaining in the contest.

Scrivens, who was lifted with 2:22 remaining as Cornell put an extra skater on the ice, finished the game with 23 saves on 26 shots, while Menard was credited with 20 saves on 21 Cornell attempts. With the empty net, RIT's Tyler Mazzei scored to provide the final 4-1 margin.

Cornell returns to action next weekend, playing host to Princeton and Quinnipiac in a pair of ECAC Hockey contests at Lynah Rink. The Big Red and Tigers will do battle on Fri., Nov. 2, while Cornell will battle the Bobcats on Sat., Nov. 3. Both games will begin at 7 p.m.