Box Score
ITHACA, N.Y. -- Blake Gallagher had two goals, while Colin Greening had the game winner and assisted on two others as Cornell (2-0, 1-0 ECAC Hockey) defeated Dartmouth (0-2, 0-2) 5-1 in a men's ECAC Hockey game Friday evening at Lynah Rink.
John Esposito and Brendon Nash also scored for the Big Red, while goaltender Ben Scrivens made 21 saves. Peter Boldt scored for the Big Green and goaltender Jody O'Neill stopped 29 shots, including 13 in the third period.
The Big Red finished the night 4-for-7 on the power play, while holding Dartmouth to just one power play goal in seven chances. The two teams combined for 77 minutes worth of penalties, with 59 of those coming during a testy second period.
Gallagher scored his first of the game at 2:13 of the opening period as Cornell capitalized on its first power play of the night. Brendon Nash sent the puck toward goal from the faceoff circle to the left of O'Neill, where Greening tipped the puck to the weak side for a wide-open Gallagher, who buried the easy chance for the early Cornell lead. The lead would stand through the remainder of the period as the first ended with the Big Red up by one.
In the second period, things got heated early when Dartmouth's Evan Stevens was called for a hitting from behind major on a hit on Cornell's Joe Scali, earning a game misconduct in the process. On the ensuing five-minute major, Dartmouth had skated off all but 17 seconds before Greening buried a snap shot from the faceoff dot to O'Neill's left for the 2-0 lead.
Midway through the second period, tempers again flared following an open-ice hit on Cornell's Locke Jillson that left the sophomore laying on the ice. Jillson was helped off the ice and did not return to the game. Seconds later, both Scali and Dartmouth's Conor Goggin were assessed 10-minute misconducts for an after-the-whistle skirmish as the referees tried to regain control. In all, 12 penalties were called during the second period, six to each team, with Dartmouth accumulating 39 minutes worth.
In the third period, the Big Red opened up the floodgates with Gallagher again scoring a weak-side goal at the 3:36 mark of the period to make the score 3-0, again taking a pass from Brendon Nash in a near carbon copy of his first tally of the night. Then, 40 seconds later, with the teams at even strength, Nick D'Agostino sent a puck along the boards behind the Dartmouth goal, where a nifty pass from Tyler Roeszler sprung Esposito in front of the Big Green net. Esposito deftly manuevered around O'Neill and slid the puck into the gaping net for a 4-0 lead.
Dartmouth ended the shutout bid on a power play at the 5:21 mark of the game when Peter Boldt's shot from the point glanced off the stick of a Cornell defenseman and caromed into the top netting of the Cornell goal, past a helpless Scrivens.
Cornell capped off the scoring on the night with Brendon Nash's goal at the 14:53 mark of the third period, taking a cross-ice pass from his brother, Riley, and ripping a shot from the faceoff circle to O'Neill's left, the same site of Nash's two assists to Gallagher.
Cornell returns to action on Saturday when it plays host to Harvard in a 7 p.m. game at Lynah Rink.
