David McKee made 13 saves to record his second shutout of the season and seventh of his career, as Cornell ended a four-game winless streak with a 3-0 win over Canisius Saturday evening at Lynah Rink.
Matt Moulson and Byron Bitz each had a goal and an assist, while Shane Hynes had three assists for the Big Red, which improved to 5-2-2. Canisius goalie Bryan Worosz made 36 stops, including 17 in the second period, for the Golden Griffins, which fell to 6-6-1.
Cornell outshot Canisius 12-4 in a scoreless first period. The Big Red had just finished killing off a 5-on-3 penalty, when Bitz skated in on Worosz and fired a hard shot that bounced off the goaltender’s pad. Canisius had its best chance of the night while playing shorthanded late in the first period. Joel Kitchen and Michael Cohen caught the Big Red on a 2-on-1 but were unable to score. Kitchen fired a shot that hit the right post, and shot the rebound back at McKee, but the Big Red netminder was able to get his glove on it.
Moulson tallied his sixth goal of the season at 1:26 of the second period for a 1-0 Cornell lead. Hynes and Bitz combined to set up Moulson, who slid a shot along the ice that deflected off the skate of Worosz and into the goal. Bitz knocked in a rebound at 5:05 of the middle period with assists going to Hynes and Moulson for a 2-0 Big Red advantage. Cornell picked up the pace after the second goal, but Worosz made several excellent saves to keep his team in the game.
The Big Red continued to execute defensively in the third period and kept the Golden Griffins off the board. Canisius pulled Worosz with over a minute to play for an extra skater, but Mike Iggulden tallied an empty-net goal with 70 seconds left to play in the game for his third marker of the season to clinch the win.
