A short-handed goal from John Knisley was the difference on Saturday night at Lynah Rink, as Cornell knocked off Union 2-1.
Cornell raced out to a 2-0 lead by the midway point of the second period, as Knisley’s short-handed goal, after Dwyer Tschantz tallied his second of the season in the first period, gave the Big Red the advantage. Union, a club that had not scored for nine periods entering Saturday’s contest with the Big Red, made a game out of it on Cornell’s senior night.
The Big Red opened up the scoring in the first period when Tschantz finished off a mad scramble in front of Union goalie Colin Stevens. Jacob MacDonald fed Matt Buckles at the left faceoff dot, who unloaded a shot that was stopped by Stevens, but the loose puck sat in front of the senior goaltender. Both Tschantz and Jeff Kubiak had whacks at the puck, but it was the former who narrowly pushed it past Stevens.
Union’s power play, which ranks in the top third of the nation, had five opportunities on the evening, but it was Cornell that took advantage of a second period penalty kill.
Madison Dias made a strong play along the wall to clear the zone, then he flipped a backhanded saucer pass through the middle of the ice to Knisley. With the puck still airborne, Knisley knocked down the puck, controlled it, then sped in on a breakaway and ultimately beat Stevens high to the blocker side.
“I thought Madison Dias was an unsung hero tonight,” said Cornell associate coach Ben Syer. “He made that play there and he gave Knisley the opportunity to make that play.”
The score remained 2-0 as the game entered the final stanza, which extended Union’s scoreless streak to 11 periods, but the Dutchmen did not go down quietly.
With the Dutchmen on another power-play chance, some puck luck finally came their way when their leading scorer notched his 24th of the year. Mike Vecchione fired a high shot on Cornell goalie Mitch Gillam that rebounded to his left. Daniel Ciampini fought his way loose to get a stick to the biscuit, pushing it past Gillam, which gave the Dutchmen new life just two and a half minutes into the closing frame.
“I know for one guy (Ciampini) it looked like a refrigerator fell off his back,” said Union coach Rick Bennett on the first goal that ended a scoreless drought of 233 minutes and 40 seconds. “It’s a physical thing, where we need to get to the goal, then it becomes a mental thing where you have the monkey off your back and hopefully that gets them going.”
With the demons gone, Union seemed destined to even the score, but the nation’s top goaltender proved his worth in the final period.
“I would say he made a handful or more big-time saves,” said Syer of Gillam. “He made some game changing saves for us … he bailed us out on a couple different occasions tonight.”
Gillam’s final line included 26 stops on 27 shots, as he picked up his ninth victory on the year.
Even though it was the Dutchmen’s fifth consecutive defeat, Bennett was proud of his team’s effort.
“I thought we showed a lot of heart and a lot of guts. From top to bottom, we played a good game. But hey, they just played a little bit better.”
Bennett also lauded the efforts of Gillam saying, “He made some fabulous saves; we’re just getting everyone’s best game right now.”
Cornell coach Mike Schafer was not on the bench on Saturday evening, as it was confirmed around 45 minutes prior to game time that he was too ill to coach when he called Syer. With the victory, Syer now holds a 4-0 record as a head coach, including a 3-0 mark when replacing Schafer at Cornell.
