ITHACA, N.Y. — One bad pinch at the attacking blue line made the difference for Clarkson, as Cornell skated away with a 2-1 overtime victory on Friday night at Lynah Rink.
A five-minute major penalty for boarding gave the Golden Knights a golden opportunity in overtime to notch their second league victory, but Cornell’s Eric Freschi had other plans.
Just a little over a minute into Clarkson’s man advantage, defenseman Kevin Tansey pinched at the attacking blue line. Cornell’s Joel Lowry took advantage of this and was able to fake a chip off the boards to create space. When Lowry got past Tansey, he was on a 2-on-1 with Freschi on his right.
Lowry, a left-handed shot, came in on the left wing with Clarkson defenseman Kelly Summers between the two Cornelians.
“At first, I was thinking about shooting, and then I wanted to slide it across, but I didn’t really have a lane,” said Lowry, “and then [Summers] slid and I had to go around him and I got it to Freschi and he made a good shot.”
The senior’s contributions did not end there, as he put the Big Red on the board with a second period tally as well.
While on the power play, Cornell was able to take advantage of a bad line change to tie the score at one. Big Red starting netminder Mitch Gillam was the one that got it all started when he flew a saucer pass from his own goal line to the waiting stick of Cole Bardreau right in front of Cornell’s bench at the red line. Bardreau was able to flip a pass to the center of the ice, where Lowry received it and was able to make a move to beat Perry low to the blocker side.
The assist for Gillam marked the second point of the sophomore goalie’s career. The first point was actually a goal, as he scored an empty-netter against Niagara on Nov. 26, 2013. The puck-playing tender now holds a career stat line of six games played, with one goal and one assist.
“We dumped it in the corner we want to put it in, but our guys took their eyes off the puck, then we got one guy back on the ice, but he didn’t check over his shoulder,” said Clarkson coach Casey Jones when describing the play. “He wasn’t aware there was a second guy behind him and Lowry made a good play.”
Clarkson found the twine first on the evening when they took advantage of a line change from the Big Red early on in the second period.
Jordan Boucher chipped the puck past a Cornell defender at the red line to get it up to Pat Megannety, who had Nic Pierog on his left on a 2-on-1 break. With a Cornell forward back checking hard on Pierog, Megannety opted for the shot. Megannety fired one from the right faceoff dot that made its way over the left shoulder of Gillam, giving the Golden Knights the lead.
The lead for the visitors was short lived as Lowry’s marker came just six minutes later.
Ben Syer, assistant coach for the Big Red, who was handling head coaching duties for Cornell on the evening as normal bench boss Mike Schafer sat out a one-game suspension, commended Lowry’s entire performance following the game: “He made a lot of key plays, he really put us in an opportunity to win the game tonight.”
