ITHACA, N.Y. – The Big Red men's hockey team let its opposition hang around in its exhibition opener on Friday night. It didn't make the same mistake Saturday.

Cornell scored the first five goals of the game against Carleton on Saturday – including two on the power play – and cruised to a 5-1 victory in front of a crowd of 4,155 at Lynah Rink.

Freshman Cole Bardreau scored for the second straight game, and classmate Joel Lowry got on the scoresheet with a goal and an assist against the Ottawa-based Ravens.

Lowry's goal broke a scoreless tie with just 21 seconds remaining in the opening frame. The Big Red entered the zone on the left wing, but the play was broken up. Carleton defenseman Charles Carre attempted a cross-ice clear that was intercepted by Big Red senior forward Sean Collins near the blue line. Collins stepped into space in the high slot, then slid a pass to Lowry breaking toward the far post for a tip-in and a 1-0 lead. Despite the tight score, the Big Red held a 15-2 advantage in shots on goal after 20 minutes.

Bardreau tallied the winning goal 3:19 into the second on two-man advantage – the first of two such scenarios on the night for Cornell. The Big Red ended the night 2-for-11 overall on the power play, exercising outstanding discipline to only yield one Carleton power play (which was killed).

Junior Braden Birch upped the Big Red's lead to three less than two minutes later, firing a shot that knifed through traffic and splashed the net behind Carleton goalie Ryan Dube. Armand de Swardt had his first of two assists on the play. After John Esposito scored his second goal of the weekend just before the game's midway point off a Brian Ferlin feed, the onslaught was on.

Starting goalie Andy Iles was lifted 70 seconds later, having stopped the only seven shots sent his way. Junior Omar Kanji – who hadn't seen action outside of the Red/White Game in his first two seasons on East Hill – took to the crease for the rest of the second period, but was never called on to make a save. Freshman Vincenzo Marozzi then made five saves in the third period.

The Big Red once again didn't use specific units on the man advantage in favor of rolling its lines. Junior forward Erik Axell closed out Cornell's scoring on the night with a power-play goal 4:41 into the final frame.

Brandon MacLean scored on a spectacular individual effort 62 seconds later to get Carleton on the board, but it was one of the few bright spots on the evening for the Ravens. The Big Red had the game's first shots and a dominating 41-13 edge by game's end.

Cornell becomes the second to last Division I to open its season at 7 p.m. on Saturday, Oct. 29 when Mercyhurst visits Lynah Rink. The Big Red then kicks off the ECAC Hockey the following weekend with a trip to Yale and Brown.
 
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