NEW YORK — It took Cornell a while to get its offense going this season, as the Big Red scored just seven goals in its first six games.
It took a while for the Big Red to get it going Saturday night as well.
After falling behind in the first period, Cornell roared back with three goals in the final 26:01 to beat Penn State 3-1 in the Frozen Apple match at Madison Square Garden.
The Big Red’s modest scoring outburst gives Cornell 10 goals in its last three games.
David Goodwin opened the scoring for Penn State (7-4-2) at 9:11 of the first period. He took a centering feed from Taylor Holmstrom that was tipped by Casey Bailey and beat Cornell goalie Mitch Gillam high to his stick side.
Gillam and Hayden Stewart have earned praise this season in the Cornell crease.
The first period was otherwise uneventful with no penalties for either team. Despite that, Nittany Lions’ coach Guy Gadowsky didn’t think the two teams were feeling each other out.
“Cornell is – guys know them,” said Gadowsky. “They’re an extremely well-coached team. They’re extremely disciplined in what they do and they’re tough to play against that way. I don’t think that we necessarily felt that way [feeling each other out]. I thought that they were playing the game they wanted to play. I thought there were some good saves on both sides of the rink. I don’t think it was a feeling out process. I think the game sort of went similar to what we thought it would, to be honest.”
Partly due to a lack of crisp passing, the Big Red offense remained dormant until 13:59 of the second period, when Holden Anderson took a slap shot from the left point that John Knisley tipped between the circles for his first goal of the season.
Joel Lowry felt that Knisley’s goal gave Cornell (4-4-1) a big confidence boost.
“I think we weren’t doing things that make us successful,” Lowry said. “We weren’t getting to the net enough. We weren’t getting pucks down on the net. We weren’t playing strong and I think those are our strengths. We didn’t put the puck down low and use our size and our strength. We had some chances, but we didn’t really do that enough in the first period. I think we started to do it a little more [in the second period]. Our first goal was a deflection in front. We started getting to the net more, started having more chances. After that we just got it going, we got that goal and I just think we got a little more confident. Some of the young guys settled down a bit and we just started rolling from there.”
Lowry scored the game-winner for the Big Red at 11:28 of the third period when he took a cross-ice feed from John McCarron and beat PSU goalie Matthew Skoff low to his glove side. The goal was Lowry’s third of the season.
Knisley rounded out the scoring with an empty-net goal off a feed from Lowry at 18:54 of the third.
Cornell coach Mike Schafer was happy with the nail-biting win, saying that his team typically gets stronger as the game goes on.
“We’re really comfortable with that,” Schafer said. “We’re not going to be the highest scoring team. We don’t have to win games 5-2, but we do have to be comfortable in 0-0 games and 1-1 games and take the opportunity to score the third goal or the fourth goal when it comes.”
Tonight’s game was only the second time Cornell and Penn State have faced off in hockey. The previous match was won by the Big Red in Ithaca, N.Y., 8-1, during the 1943-44 season.
