ITHACA, N.Y. — It was a night of firsts for Cornell as a trio of skaters notched their first goals of the season to lead the Big Red to a 3-2 victory over Yale on Friday night.
After the Bulldogs knotted the game at two early on in the third period, Christian Hilbrich sniped the far side to give Cornell the lead for good.
Jake Weidner started the winning play when he made a move around a defender to get the puck to Cole Bardreau between the circles. After closing in towards the right circle, Bardreau dropped a pass to Hilbrich, whose wrist shot just beat the blocker side of Yale goalie Alex Lyon. The goal was Hilbrich’s first of the season.
The Hilbrich marker was in response to the Bulldogs tying goal, which came off of an odd carom just six minutes before the Cornell goal.
Ryan Obuchowski started and finished the second Yale goal when he dumped in the puck to the left corner behind the Big Red cage. From there, he dug out the puck and swung it towards Cornell goalie Mitch Gillam as he was retreating to his crease. The puck caught the skate of Gillam and bounced into the back of the net.
“We want all five of our guys on the attack,” said Yale coach Keith Allain. “We don’t necessarily want them forechecking on a regular basis, but if they’re the first one to the puck, we expect them to go get it.”
The Bulldogs attack started early as they would strike first when they capitalized on the game’s first power play opportunity just a little less than six minutes into the opening period.
Tommy Fallen picked up a loose puck at the right faceoff dot, then decided to skip on an open shot, only to leave a drop pass for Yale leading scorer John Hayden at the top of the circle. With room to maneuver, Hayden unloaded a wrist shot that beat Gillam past the stick side and just inside the left post.
The quick start from the visitors could have been disastrous for the Big Red, as Yale was riding momentum into Ithaca having swept on the road the previous weekend, while Cornell has been an offensively-starved squad to begin the year. Much to the relief of the Lynah Rink crowd, the home side had a quick response.
“We talked this week about having a great bench and a positive mentality when things go wrong,” said Cornell coach Mike Schafer. “We went down 1-0 and we didn’t see a lot of hanging heads.”
Two minutes after Yale’s man-advantage marker, the Big Red got its own chance with the man up. After Joel Lowry got the puck to Jake Weidner on the right half wall, Weidner fed it to Reece Willcox at center point. Willcox took a slap shot that eluded a screen, and clanked off the right post before settling in the back of the net. It was the junior defenseman’s first goal of the season, and just the third of his career.
“Reece hasn’t played here in that position since he got here,” said Schafer. “He does a real good job of keeping it simple and moving the puck and taking shots.”
Willcox was thrust into that position of quarterbacking the top power play unit ever since Joakim Ryan went down with an injury.
The power play of the Big Red, which had seen its struggles in the early parts of the season, kept on rolling when freshman defenseman Ryan Bliss found the twine for his first collegiate goal a little over halfway into the frame.
Jeff Kubiak entered the zone from the left point, then wheeled his way around the net, eventually getting the puck to Bliss at the right faceoff dot. Bliss held, while looking for a shooting lane. When he found it, he put the puck towards a horde of bodies, including classmate Trevor Yates, who seemingly tipped the puck home, but it was confirmed to be Bliss’ goal.
Bliss discussed his first career tally after the game: “It felt awesome. Especially trying to get the lead, it was pretty special and it was something I will always remember.”
