Box Score

ITHACA, N.Y. -- Freshman Dustin Mowrey scored a pair of goals in his collegiate debut, but the Cornell men's hockey team dropped a 7-4 contest to New Hampshire in the season opener for the Big Red on Friday night at Lynah Rink. Nick D'Agostino and John Esposito both had a goal and an assist on the night for the Big Red.

Mike Sislo and Stevie Moses had a pair of goals for the Wildcats (2-1-2), while Mike Borisenok had a goal and two assists. Austin Block and John Henrion both added a goal, with Connor Hardowa, Dalton Speelman, Paul Thompson, Blake Kessel and Phil DeSimone each chipping in an assist. Matt DiGirolamo picked up the victory, stopping 31 shots on the night.

Dan Nicholls, Sean Collins and Sean Whitney each added an assist for Cornell. Mike Garman got the start and made 17 saves on 23 shots faced. Freshman Andy Iles came on in relief for the final 15:08 and stopped all seven shots he faced.

Cornell finished the night 2-for-6 on the power play, while New Hampshire was successful in one of its six power-play chances.

The Wildcats struck for an early goal, converting on a Cornell turnover deep in the defensive zone. Thompson worked the puck behind the net to DeSimone on the right post of Garman, and slipped a pass to a wide-open Sislo on the weak post, and he easily tapped the puck into the net for the 1-0 lead just 23 seconds into the game.

Cornell fought back, with D'Agostino firing a shot from the faceoff circle to the right of DiGirolamo that hit the stick of the netminder and caromed up underneath the cross bar at the game's 5:38 mark. 

The Wildcats again took the lead at the 7:05 mark of the first period, with Block scoring a power-play tally with assists to Speelman and Hardowa as UNH took a 2-1 lead into the first intermission.

Cornell again tied the score, this time with Esposito scoring a short-handed tally at the 2:59 mark of the second period. Birch started the play by knocking a puck out of mid-air to Esposito with the back of his hand, and the sophomore raced down the ice before ripping a well-placed shot past DiGirolamo, again knotting the score.

New Hampshire took the lead for good just two and a half minutes later when Moses scored the first of his two goals, recording a short-handed tally of his own after being sprung on a break off a Borisenok pass. Borisenok then added to the margin at the 10:30 mark of the period with his goal off a pass from McCarey, and the Wildcats took a 4-2 lead into the second break.

With Cornell trailing by two goals, the Big Red began to pressure more on offense, and the Wildcats, a strong team in transition, quickly tallied a pair of goals in the first five minutes of the third period to take a 6-2 lead and chase Garman from the contest. Sislo and Henrion both scored goals off of defensive miscues to bring Ithaca-native Andy Iles off the bench for his first collegiate action.

Cornell began to chip away at the lead, though, as Mowrey scored a power-play tally at the 7:47 mark of the period, with Colins and Whitney collecting assists. Mowrey would score again on the power play, this time with Cornell having an extra skater with Iles to the bench to set up a 6-on-4 power play. D'Agostino started the play by keeping the puck in the offensive zone on a missed clearance by the UNH defense, and fed Mowrey for his second marker of the contest.

With the deficit at two and less than two minutes to go in the contest, Iles again came to the bench for the extra skater, but Moses capped the scoring with an empty-net goal with 1:06 to play in the contest.

The Big Red returns to action on Saturday night, taking on Rochester Institute of Technology in a 7 p.m. contest at Lynah Rink.