At Starr Rink, when the Big Red of Cornell come to town to face the Colgate Raiders, the simple game of hockey means so much more.
Fans, players, coaches all give a little bit extra to earn the victory. It is one of the more storied rivals in school history and from the way the game was played, it was made clear why.
Although both teams have been struggling, the full house witnessed old-school hockey at its finest. Both teams were grinding and fighting for 65 minutes, and in the end, each team came away with a point, after a 1-1 tie.
In the first period, the physical play dominated, as the offense was lacking.
Colgate held the edge in shots, 7-4, and also hit the post. With 12:35 left in the opening frame, Colgate had a goal disallowed. Brian Day redirected a Robbie Bourdon slap shot and beat Cornell’s Mike Garman. The puck, however, was redirected with a skate and immediately waved off.
After the ensuing faceoff, Colgate’s Christian Long nailed Kirill Gotovets from behind in the corner and received a five minute major and a game misconduct. Extracurricular activity followed, as all 10 players were grabbing and punching anyone they could find.
Coincidental minor penalties followed for Cornell’s Mike Devin and Colgate’s Jack McNamara, each for hitting after the whistle. Following the mess, Cornell would end up with a full five minute power play, but could only muster 1 shot.
The first period ended scoreless, and the second period followed with much of the same.
The amount of shots picked up but the quality of shots decreased. In the second frame, Cornell nicked the post once on Colgate netminder Eric Mihalik. On the other end of the ice, Mike Garman made, at the time, the save of the game. Colgate’s Chris Wagner hopped out of the box after serving a minor penalty and skated right to the slot. The puck came to his stick and Wagner wrapped it across the crease. Garman kicked his leg out and made a spectacular toe save, with 8:37 left.
Cornell finally opened up the scoring with 16:45 left in the game. Locke Jillson picked up the puck in the left corner and wrapped around the circle, getting to the slot untouched. Jillson beat Mihalik over the right shoulder with a fluttering backhand.
The offensive pace was favoring Cornell and the Big Red were throwing everything they had at Mihalik. At the 14-minute mark, Colgate defenseman Thomas Larkin gave the puck away and Cornell’s Dustin Mowrey went in on a breakaway. Mihalik was equal to the test.
It looked as if the losing streak for Colgate would continue until the tail end of the third period. Off an offensive face-off, Colgate’s Francois Brisebois kept the puck in the zone and sent it deep to Brian Day. Day passed the puck across the middle to a streaking Jeremy Price, who ripped a shot that beat Garman with only 1:35 remaining to tie the game at one.
In overtime, both teams had their fair share of shots, but none could beat either goalie, and the game ended in a 1-1 draw.
Garman made 24 saves for Cornell while Mihalik made 18 for the Raiders. Both teams were poor on the power-play, with Colgate going 0-2 and Cornell 0-3.
Colgate (3-18-2 overall, 0-9-2 in the ECAC) and Cornell (7-9-2, 5-5-1) will battle once again tomorrow night at Lynah Rink in Ithaca.
