ITHACA, N.Y. — Eric Freschi was the hero on Friday night at Lynah Rink as his tally in the dying moments lifted Cornell to a 3-2 victory over archrival Harvard.
With the clock winding down in the third period, the two sides seemed destined for an extra session, but a poorly executed line change from the Crimson opened the door for the Big Red.
An attempted Harvard dump-in was stopped by Joakim Ryan at his own blue line. Ryan then fired a stretch pass to Cole Bardreau at the opposite blue line. Bardreau entered the zone, then dropped a pass to Freschi, who made no mistake as his wrist shot beat Harvard goalie Steve Michalek low to the blocker side.
“At the very end, I threw Freschi on the ice because he has more experience in the defensive zone,” said Cornell coach Mike Schafer. “It was a big shot by him to score the goal.”
A scoreless first period set the tone for the rest of Friday’s contest as the two teams traded blows, but neither squad found the twine. With the game open for the taking, it was the Big Red that utilized their loud barn to find their stride in the second.
The play was carried by Cornell throughout the second period, but it was the Crimson that lit up the scoreboard first, as Harvard’s most consistent forward pushed his point streak to a national-leading 17 games.
Wiley Sherman ripped a point shot that was stopped by Cornell goalie Mitch Gillam, but the tender left a juicy rebound in front. Jimmy Vesey outmuscled a Big Red defender to get his stick to the loose puck and just narrowly tucked it inside the near post.
“I thought he was excellent tonight,” said Harvard coach Ted Donato about Vesey. “He was skating well and battling. He’s been consistently productive for us all season long.”
The Big Red responded right away to the Vesey strike, as a wave of momentum led to Bardreau’s second tally of the season. Jake Weidner entered the zone on a 2-on-2 with John Knisley. With Knisley charging the net, Weidner threw a saucer pass to the trailer, Bardreau, who received the pass and went top shelf with a wrist shot to knot the score at one.
Cornell’s surge would continue two minutes later when Christian Hilbrich converted on a nice passing play that started at the red line.
Ryan Bliss intercepted an elevated pass at the red line, then handed the puck off to Dwyer Tschantz to begin a 2-on-2 rush. Tschantz feathered a saucer pass to the cutting Hilbrich, who went to his backhand side to flip one over the left shoulder of Michalek.
The score would remain at 2-1 at the end of the second period, but it could have been a lot worse for the Crimson, as a couple of injuries forced the hand of Donato, as he had to shuffle 16 skaters throughout his lineup for the majority of the game.
While it could have been considered a crutch, Donato shook it off.
“I don’t feel like we wore down,” Donato said. “I thought the guys really battled and I was really proud of the effort. I just thought we could have been a little bit smarter at times.”
With that short bench on the Crimson side, it was that more of a challenge to even the score in the third period, but a seeing-eye shot was just what the doctor ordered for the visitors.
A little over six minutes into the closing frame, Victor Newell threw an ankle-high shot towards the Cornell goal. Eddie Ellis was able to come free and put a tip on the shot, which eluded the legs of Gillam to put the teams back to even.
Harvard would eventually outshoot Cornell 9-3 in the third period, but Freschi’s late goal was just enough to clinch Cornell’s sixth league victory.
Schafer was pleased with the win, but he stressed his club’s problems with consistency.
“It’s a good win, but it won’t mean anything if we don’t come out tomorrow night,” Schafer said.
