Well there’s no more teams in Division I college hockey with a perfect record as No. 5 Cornell dropped their first contest of the season Saturday evening to the No. 7 Clarkson Golden Knights.
The Big Red were shutout 4-0 after defeating St. Lawrence on Friday night 5-1. It’s the second time Cornell has given up four goals this season. They gave up four in a 5-4 victory over Princeton two weekends ago.
The loss right now doesn’t seem big, but it could be a loss we come back to later in the season when it comes to playoff seedings. Right now they sit two points behind the Golden Knights in a tie for second place with Union and on point ahead of Colgate.
Harvard and Quinnipiac are off to slow starts to the seasons, but they are expected to turn things around before it’s all said and done. That’s five teams right there who all want a top four seed, so if Cornell goes on a losing streak, it could be two points they want to have back. Then again the other 11 teams in the conference will have a game or two they want back throughout the season.
The Crimson losing skid continues
It wasn’t the weekend Ted Donato and company were looking for as they traveled out to Minneapolis to face the Golden Gophers as they now have lost four games in a row. Friday night, it was a very slow start as Harvard fell behind 4-0 before as Casey Mittelstadt led Minnesota with a goal and an assist. Jack Badini scored his first career goal and Ryan Donato scored in the third period for the Crimson.
On Saturday, the score was closer, but the stats say Minnesota dominated in the 2-1 victory. Henry Bowlby scored his third goal of the season in the first period before Rem Pitlick scored late in the third period and had an assist on Tyler Sheehy’s goal 35 seconds into overtime on the power play.
The Golden Gophers outshot the Crimson 50-16.
That was quite the performance for Merrick Madsen to keep his team in the game with 48 saves.
The last time Harvard lost four in a row was during the 2014-2015 season. That season they made it to the NCAA Tournament losing in the first round to the University of Nebraska Omaha.
Quinnipiac gets their first conference wins of the season
It’s odd saying the Bobcats finally get their first victory in ECAC play after the third weekend of November. They blanked Brown on Friday night as Landon Smith had a natural hat trick and added an assist in a 5-0 victory.
On Saturday, they played Yale and pulled away from their rival with two third period goals in a 3-0 victory.
Andrew Shortridge recorded his second and third shutouts of his career this weekend for the Bobcats. He also had a shutout last season against Brown.
Weekday picks
This weekend 9-3-0
Overall: 26-14-5
All games are 7 p.m. starts
Tuesday, November 21
Holy Cross at Brown
This will be an intriguing game as it’s the Brown’s first non-conference game of the season. Holy Cross has faced a couple of ECAC teams so far this season in Dartmouth and Princeton. They beat the Big Green and lost to the Tigers. The Crusaders are playing some decent hockey right now. Holy Cross wins 4-2.
Niagara at Cornell
This would be a trap game if Cornell was still undefeated heading into their battle with Boston University on Saturday at Madison Square Garden. With the loss against Clarkson, the Big Red will be looking to get a win under their belt before heading to New York City. The Purple Eagles are 1-2 against ECAC teams this season. The Big Red wins 5-2.
Wednesday, November 22
Bemidji State at Princeton
Both teams are still trying to find a rhythm to their season as both teams are hovering around .500 this season. Neither team has won more than two games in a row this season. It’s an interesting series as they play Wednesday, take Thanksgiving off and play the second game on Friday. I have the Tigers winning 4-3.
