SPRINGFIELD, Mass. — You won’t have ECAC Hockey to kick around anymore — for one more night, at least.
Cornell made sure of that on Thursday, asserting itself with a goal in each period to earn a 3-1 win over Maine of Hockey East in the first round of the NCAA tournament before a crowd of 5,765 at Mass Mutual Center.
“The ECAC gets slept on a little bit,” said Big Red goalie Ian Shane, who finished with 31 saves. “We like to kind of keep that chip on our shoulder. Coming in here, winning (the ECAC) championship last weekend, we wanted to make sure we kept that underdog mentality, keep that chip on our shoulder, wanting to make sure we weren’t complacent.”
Sullivan Mack scored twice for Cornell, including the game winner in the second period.
Cornell (22-6-6) now advances to Saturday’s regional final, where it will face Denver for a shot at its first trip to the Frozen Four since 2003. Maine saw its season end at 23-12-2. The Black Bears were making their first NCAA tourney appearance since 2012.
On the game winner, Mack scooped up a loose puck near the boards at Maine’s blue line, skated across the faceoff circle with the puck and fired it past Maine goalie Victor Östman for Mack’s sixth goal of the season, giving the Big Red a 2-1 lead.
Maine finished with a 27-18 edge in shots.
The Black Bears got on the board first when Harrison Scott scored his 15th goal of the season. Donovan Villeneuve-Houle shed Cornell defender George Fegaras on the left wing and sent it to Villeneuve-Houle high in the slot, where the senior forward made a quick move and sent a wrister past Shane at 5:43.
Maine’s best chance to assert itself and expand its lead came later in the period when Cornell’s Ryan Walsh was sent off ice for a five-minute major hitting-from-behind penalty at 6:38. Shane turned away all nine Black Bear shots.
🚨 RED ALERT. 🚨
It’s now a two-goal lead for No. 3 @CornellMHockey over No. 2 Maine in the @NCAAIceHockey Springfield Regional after another tally from Sully Mack. 🌿🏒 pic.twitter.com/xJWrDWHg1W
— Ivy League (@IvyLeague) March 29, 2024
“That, to me, was the turning point of the game,” Cornell coach Mike Schafer said. “They’re one of the best power plays I’ve seen on video. They move it around. They got a couple of different looks and we were fortunate.”
Cornell tied it up at 13:56 of the opening frame when Gabriel Seger swiped the puck from Maine’s Parker Lindauer with a hit on the right boards and sent it behind the faceoff circle to Kyle Penney, who then skated to the center and pounded it past Östman (15 saves). It was Penney’s 10th goal of the season.
“They capitalized on most of their scoring chances,” Maine coach Ben Barr said. “That was the difference in the game. It was tough for the boys — they played really hard. Obviously, I’m proud of our team and how far they brought this program this year. But this one will sting for a while.”
Mack made it a 2-goal night when he skated across two zones and appeared to go five-hole on Östman to double Cornell’s lead at 10:31 of the third period.
“I was just trying to get my feet moving, something we were trying to do all night,” Mack said. “I was kind of surprised with how much room I had. (I) was just happy to get a clean shot.”
Saturday’s contest will be a rematch of last year’s regional semifinal, won by Cornell 2-0 in Manchester, N.H. Cornell fell to Boston University in the regional final.
