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COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. – Sophomore goalie Andy Iles made 39 saves, spurring the #13/14 Cornell men's hockey team's defense as first-period goals by senior forward Locke Jillson and freshman forward John McCarron stood up in a huge 3-1 win over #6/8 Colorado College on Friday night at World Arena.
 
In the Big Red's first visit to the Mountain Time Zone since 1995, Cornell (9-4-1) looked right at home after some early sloppiness on the Olympic-sized sheet of ice. The Big Red scored the pivotal first goal with Jillson's second strike of the season. The assist went to sophomore Dustin Mowrey after he won a one-on-one battle with a CC defenseman in the right corner. The puck came back to Jillson on the halfwall. After he faked a pass back to the blue line, he twirled and found space just outside the right hash mark. With freshman forward Cole Bardreau creating traffic in front of the net, Jillson wired a shot over CC goalie Josh Thorimbert's glove to give Cornell a 1-0 lead. Jillson continues to show a knack for scoring goals in big games – his first tally this season came in front of a sold-out crowd at Madison Square Garden against BU, another ranked opponent.
 
McCarron doubled the lead with 1:42 remaining in the opening frame with spectacular individual effort. The puck squirted out of the Cornell zone along the right wing, sending McCarron and a CC defender away on a high-speed battle. The 6-foot-2, 225-pound McCarron won, getting free on the outside to set up a blast that sailed over Thorimbert's blocker. It was McCarron's first collegiate goal to complement his six assists.
 
Colorado College (12-7) held a 9-8 lead in shots on goal after the first period, but six of those shots came from the distant perimeter. The second period would be a different story, even if no goals were produced.
 
After the Big Red came up empty on an early power-play chance in the middle stanza, CC went on a two-man advantage for 1 minute, 45 seconds – with two of its best penalty-killing defensemen in the box, to boot. The trio of Sean Collins, Sean Whitney and Braden Birch played then next 1:20 to spearhead a game-changing penalty kill which featured a pivotal save from Iles. A cross-slot pass set up Tigers leading scorer Rylan Schwartz for a one-timer at the bottom of the right circle, but Iles stretched his left pad to the post to foil the offering and keep CC at bay. Cornell survived another penalty kill later in the frame to successfully survive until an intermission that helped the team collectively catch its breath – no small feat at the venue's elevation of 6,000 feet.
 
The third period featured much of the same – both in the Tigers' relentless pressure and Iles' outstanding goaltending. A mix-up at the Cornell blue line led to a solo dash down the slot from CC's Archie Skalbeck, but Iles stood tall and squeezed off the offering in his mid-section. The Big Red then looked to be in control when the Tigers were whistled for cross-checking with 1:43 remaining in the game. But CC stormed right back on a shorthanded two-on-one almost immediately. Iles made a scrambling save on David Civitarese to keep the Big Red in front, but the ensuing scrum led to a Cornell penalty that evened up the teams' man power.
 
The Tigers then pulled Thorimbert with 1:20 remaining in favor of an extra attacker, essentially giving CC's high-powered power play its fifth opportunity of the game. It didn't take long for the nation's sixth-best power play to create another Grade-A chance, but Iles gloved a shot from Scott Winkler off a goal-mouth feed from Alexander Krushelnyski with 1:02 left to keep the lead intact.
 
Cornell then iced the game with junior forward Greg Miller's second empty-net goal in as many games with 7.6 seconds remaining, set up by a blocked shot from classmate Erik Axell. Freshman defenseman Joakim Ryan also picked up an assist.
 
Cornell concludes the non-league portion of its schedule at 9:07 p.m. Saturday with a rematch against the Tigers at World Arena before returning east for ECAC Hockey contests at Quinnipiac (Friday, Jan. 13) and Princeton (Saturday, Jan. 14).