The Cornell Big Red, ranked 13th in the country in both Division I polls, scored six unanswered goals, four of them in the second period, and went on to an 7-2 win over Vermont in ECAC men’s ice hockey action Friday at Lynah Rink.
Cornell, 9-4-1 overall and 5-1-1 in the ECAC, remains unbeaten at home with the win. The Big Red are now 6-0-0 at Lynah Rink.
The Catamounts took a 1-0 lead midway through the second period when sophomore Patrick Sharp scored his team-leading seventh goal of the season, completing a two-on-one break with Scott Mifsud. Sharp got the puck at center ice and skated in on Cornell goaltender Matt Underhill, using Mifsud as a decoy before ripping a wrist shot from 10 feet out that beat Underhill cleanly.
Cornell tied it at 17:32 of the first when Stephen Baby scored off a deflection in front of the Catamount cage.
Vermont, 2-12-2 overall and 2-4-1 in ECAC play, took a short-lived 2-1 lead early in the second period when sophomore defenseman Oriel McHugh scored his third goal of the season, unassisted, from the right point. McHugh knocked down a Cornell clearing attempt at the blue line, settled the puck and ripped a shot by Underhill for the tally at 1:04 of the middle frame.
From there on, though, it was all Cornell, as four different Big Red skaters scored to give the home team a 5-2 lead after two periods.
Mark McRae tied the game at 2-2 just 61 seconds after McHugh’s goal, firing a wrist shot from the left circle that beat UVM goalie Shawn Conschafter.
Denis Ladouceur then scored his fourth goal of the season, finishing off a
two-on-one Cornell break with Sam Paolini. Shane Palahicky made it 4-2 Cornell at 5:50 of the period, completing a quick counterattack with a long rebound goal off an assist from Travis Bell. Junior defenseman Doug Murray then scored on the power play at 15:51, placing a slapshot up high into the corner of the net to Conschafter’s stick side, with assists going to Baby and sophomore Ryan Vesce.
Cornell finished off the scoring in the third period, with Mike Knoepfli scoring 1:19 into the third period and Paolini scoring his second of the night on the power play at 4:41. Cornell was two-for-four on the power play.
Conschafter made 27 saves and allowed five goals in 40 minutes of action for the Catamounts, while Tim Peters came on in the third period and made seven saves while giving up two tallies. Underhill had 18 saves for Cornell.
Vermont plays at Colgate Saturday night, while Cornell hosts Dartmouth.
