ITHACA, N.Y. — Christian Hilbrich was a man on a mission on Friday night for Cornell.
He scored the game’s opening goal, then added the game-winning tally before his unselfish play in the third period led to the Big Red’s third goal, as Cornell skated away with a 4-1 victory over the Denver Pioneers.
A blown tire from a Denver defenseman near the goal line led to Hilbrich’s first goal in the first period. He kept his stick on the ice to pick up the loose puck, then fired one past the low blocker side of Denver starting goalie Evan Cowley to give the hosts an early lead.
“Christian was above him and he had his stick down on the ice,” said Cornell head coach Mike Schafer. “He was doing a lot of good things in order to get it.”
The first Hilbrich goal came after an opening first 10 minutes that was by and large dominated by the Pioneers as Jim Montgomery’s bunch came out flying following a long plane ride from Colorado and a week off following their win over Wisconsin on Nov. 22.
“I thought we had a really good week of practice,” said Montgomery. “We had a lot of puck possession in those first ten minutes. We were making them chase us and we have to do more of that tomorrow night.”
A slow start offensively snake bit the Big Red for the first few games of the season, as they were only able to notch seven goals in their first six contests. Ever since a 4-2 home loss to St. Lawrence in mid-November, Cornell has won four in a row, while scoring at a 3.50 goals per game pace.
“If you look at a lot of the goals we’ve scored, we’ve been at the net and stopping at the net,” said Schafer on his team’s offensive outburst. “It’s good offensive habits and not turning pucks over at the blue line.”
Denver, a team that came into Friday’s contest having been the most prolific offensive team in all of college hockey for the month of November, was able to find a response late in the first period thanks to their top line.
Daniel Doremus used his speed to get the edge on a Cornell defender. Doremus then threw a saucer pass in front of the crease to find Trevor Moore, who was able to bang it home past Cornell starting goalie Mitch Gillam.
While the Moore goal evened up the score late in the first period, Cornell found momentum in the second period, as Hilbrich’s second goal turned out to be the game-winner.
Fresh out of the penalty box, Hilbrich moved to the center of the ice as linemate Jake Weidner was killing off the final few moments of the minor penalty. Once Weidner saw the streaking Hilbrich, he lifted a pass over a defender’s stick to get it to Hilbrich, who fired a wrist shot low glove side and past Cowley.
The goal doubled Hilbrich’s total for the season, but he was not done, as he took a bruising hit to set up the final Cornell goal.
“There was a battle on the wall and I opened my hips to the wall,” said Hilbrich after the game. “I exposed my head and the guy just rocked me, hitting essentially only my head.”
The rest of the play, which Hilbrich was unable to watch as he scrambled to his feet, had Patrick McCarron fire a shot from the point, which ended with John Knisley finding a rebound and depositing it top shelf for his first goal of the year.
The goal came in the opening minute of the third period, which gave the Pioneers plenty of time to respond. A barrage of rubber came Gillam’s way, as he made 17 stops in the closing frame to keep Denver at bay. The 31-save performance keeps the sophomore rolling, as he continues to rank in the top 10 nationally in both goals-against average (1.53) and save percentage (.951).
Both sides will go at it again tomorrow evening, and Hilbrich downplayed Cornell’s victory when talking about Saturday evening’s contest, saying, “Tonight won’t mean anything if we don’t win tomorrow.”
