ITHACA, N.Y. –Holden Anderson’s first career goal was the difference on Saturday night as Cornell found a way to slip past Princeton 4-2 in a back-and-forth game at Lynah Rink.
With the two clubs knotted at two early in the third period, Alex Rauter worked the puck along the wall to Anderson. The sophomore fired a pass along the ice to his partner, Joakim Ryan, whose return pass was nearly picked off at the blue line. With the Tiger skater out of position, Anderson walked in, and fired a slap shot through a heavy screen that eluded Princeton goalie Colton Phinney.
“It’s a good feeling – it’s been a while since I scored,” said Anderson. “It was a great feed from Joakim, then I picked up my head and just fired it on net.”
A night after both clubs were shut out, both Princeton and Cornell got on the board early, as the Big Red found the scoresheet just a little over two minutes in.
Jacob MacDonald started a breakout on his own and as Madison Dias streaked through the middle, MacDonald found him at the red line. Dias came in on Phinney on his own and flipped a wrist shot high past the glove side of the sophomore ‘tender.
“It was a bad read on the gap play,” said Princeton coach Ron Fogarty in regards to the game’s opening goal. “Then they go in and score on the breakaway, but it’s a 60-minute game and our guys know that they need to be patient throughout, and I thought we battled back.”
The Tigers did not need much time to get back on track, as Kyle Rankin was the beneficiary of an errant clearance from Cornell goalie Mitch Gillam. After a dump-in on the power play, Gillam tried to clear the puck out of the zone through the middle of the ice. The clearance attempt was stopped by Quinn Pompi at the blue line, who then took a wrist shot towards goal. Rankin got free from a defender, then put a tip to the shot, which snuck under the pads of Gillam to even the score.
“Mitch threw it up the middle, which he shouldn’t do,” said Cornell coach Mike Schafer.
The Big Red bailed out their goalie just over a minute later when Christian Hilbrich and Cole Bardreau tag teamed on a nifty two-on-two. After he entered the zone, Hilbrich dumped off a pass to Bardreau. As Hilbrich streaked towards the cage, Bardreau gave a return pass in the slot, which is where Hilbrich whipped a shot on the ice, just sneaking through the five-hole of Phinney.
A first period controlled by the Big Red led to a strong second period from the Tigers, as Fogarty hinted at some adjustments made during the first break: “We saw that they were making a lot of D-to-D passes, so we tried to jump the second defenseman, and then we started turning pucks over.”
That strong second period ultimately led to a game-tying marker, as Rankin found the sheet for the second time on the evening. Mike Ambrosia dug the puck out of the right corner, then whipped a centering feed to the slot, where Rankin collected it and put in past Gillam.
Unfortunately for the Tigers, Anderson’s third-period goal squashed any momentum that they might have carried over into the closing frame. An empty-net goal from Jake Weidner ultimately sealed the deal with 90 seconds left to play, as the 17 stops from Gillam were enough for his eighth victory of the season.
Even with the win, Schafer was not impressed with his team’s effort against the last place Tigers.
“I was really disappointed overall with how we played, especially with our attention to detail and our effort in certain areas,” said Schafer.
As Fogarty noted, the game had the potential to go either way.
“We had three chances to score on the power play in the third period, and they killed them off, which was ultimately the difference in the game,” Fogarty said.
