The Union Dutchmen ended the season of the Cornell Big Red on Saturday night at Lynah Rink, and they did it in dominating fashion to finish off a two-game sweep.
A 7-0 win marked the 10th consecutive postseason victory for the Dutchmen, and they made it look awfully easy in front of a Lynah crowd that had never seen their Big Red exit in the first round of the current ECAC playoff format. Colin Stevens had 29 saves to secure the Dutchmen victory.
Union turned up its game to a different level over the weekend, and Union coach Rick Bennett lauded his players for their ability to come through in the clutch.
“This is one of those things where it’s all the players,” said Bennett. “It’s not what I say or someone on our staff, it comes from them, and I would say that the players play the game and they deserve all the credit.”
The Big Red came out with good pace in the opening minutes of play, but the Dutchmen quickly squashed that momentum. Freshman Spencer Foo found the twine when he crashed the net off of a rebounded shot from Matt Wilkins that quickly silenced the building.
The rout was on after that, as Michael Pontarelli got a skate to a shot from Sam Coatta that trickled past Cornell goalie Hayden Stewart. The Big Red tender got the start in place of Mitch Gillam, who gave up four tallies in game one of the series.
The Dutchmen were not done in the opening frame after Pontarelli’s goal, as Union beat a long-standing Cornell streak to extend the lead to three.
Not since February 11, 2012 had the Big Red given up a goal by way of the five-on-three power play, but Eli Lichtenwald batted home a centering feed from Daniel Ciampini to end the streak. A grand total of 19 minutes and 24 seconds of penalty killing time had elapsed during the Big Red’s streak.
“We wanted to keep it simple, they have an excellent specialty teams,” said Bennett. “You have to make them work and be aggressive. When the puck got there and we let them do the work, we capitalized.”
Cornell coach Mike Schafer had seen enough after one period of play, and the freshman netminder Stewart was lifted for Gillam, but the onslaught continued.
Mike Vecchione’s 18th of the campaign and Foo’s second of the night put the game out of reach in the second frame. Foo, a freshman, was one of seven first-year players on the roster for the Dutchmen, who lost a healthy amount of scoring from their championship squad.
“I think Friday night helped them a ton,” said Bennett in regards to his freshmen. “The guys took their diapers off and they played like men tonight.”
While the Dutchmen youngsters stepped up in the bright lights, the Big Red did not have an answer all weekend for Union’s offensive onslaught.
“It all unraveled tonight,” said Cornell coach Mike Schafer. “From special teams to discipline, to goaltending to you name it, it happened.”
Schafer noted some structural issues that led to Cornell’s underwhelming season, as the Big Red regressed in 2014-2015 following a trip to the ECAC semifinals last season.
“I tried to make some changes this year, and they failed miserably,” said Schafer. “We’ve got to go back to the drawing board. I did one thing a certain way for 19 years, then I changed something this year, but I’m going to go back to it next year.”
The Dutchmen have ample time to prepare for their next opponent, the Quinnipiac Bobcats, after knocking out the Big Red in the minimum two games.
