ITHACA, N.Y. — A pair of quick strikes in the early moments of the second period lifted Dartmouth past Cornell 3-0 at Lynah Rink on Friday night.
The two teams skated to a tight opening frame, but the Big Green got enough of a push in the opening three minutes of the second period to run away and hide from the host Big Red as senior netminder Charles Grant made 18 stops to secure his second shutout of the season.
The Big Green opened the evening’s scoring when Brett Patterson threw the puck into a mass of sticks and bodies right at the top of Cornell goalie Mitch Gillam’s crease. Kevan Kisistoff crashed the net hard and found a way to put a skate blade on the puck and past Gillam to notch the freshman’s first career goal and open up the hectic scoring span from the visitors.
“We knew it was going to be a tight game,” said Dartmouth coach Bob Gaudet. “Getting the first goal was great, then getting the second goal was another one where we were hanging around the net and got a piece of it, but it was a huge turnaround for us.”
Dartmouth’s press continued on just 37 seconds later when Troy Crema threw a shot from the left point in Gillam’s direction. With screeners located in the shot’s path, Gillam had a tough time finding the puck and it sailed past him and into the top shelf to double the Dartmouth advantage.
Unlike most opponents that come to Lynah, the Big Green had plenty of familiarity skating with a lead in Ithaca, as they have notched three consecutive wins now on East Hill. It came as a shot in the arm for a team that entered with just a 2-6-1 record away from Thompson Arena on the year.
“There’s a lot of energy in the building and they have great fans,” said Gaudet. “But we’ve played really good hockey in 2016. We were inconsistent in the first part of the season playing the toughest schedule in the country, but I think it helped us and we just need to get consistenly better at playing 200 feet.”
Dartmouth is now 6-1-0 since the turn of the calendar into 2016 after a 3-7-1 start, while the Big Red have hit the skids over the past eight days after a blazing start to their 2015-16 campaign.
Friday’s affair marked the second time Cornell had been shut out in their past three games, which is uncharacteristic for a side that had averaged 2.59 goals per game in its first 15 contests.
“We have a lack of work ethic – as a hockey team, we think we’re better than where we are right now,” said Cornell coach Mike Schafer. “We refuse to stay in front of the net, we refuse to shoot pucks, [and] now we want to make one extra pass as opposed to putting it on net. Tonight, we didn’t come out with the compete level and intensity, and we’re going to go back to ground zero tomorrow.”
Offensive struggles came at a bad time for the Big Red as Dartmouth has still yet to surrender three or more goals in their seven games played in 2016, with Grant’s defense in front of him clamped down on the Cornell attack for most of the evening.
“He’s played very solid, he’s focused and is seeing the puck well,” said Gaudet on his goalie. “I like the ways the guys are defending in front of him, but I think there’s a lot of confidence in him in that he can erase a mistake.”
