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ITHACA, N.Y. — The men's hockey team's offensive struggles continued Saturday with a 3-1 loss to Rensselaer at Lynah Rink. Junior captain John McCarron scored the lone goal for #10/11 Cornell (12-7-5, 8-6-4 ECAC Hockey), which scored just once for the third consecutive game.
 
After 17 games without surrendering two or more goals in the first period to start the season, the Big Red conceded two goals in the opening frame on Saturday for the sixth time in its last seven games. Rensselaer (13-12-5, 7-7-4) jumped on the board in the seventh minute on Brock Higgs' rebound conversion of a Ryan Haggerty shot.
 
Cornell made a bid to knot the game at the 11:30 mark when leading scorer Brian Ferlin sprinted down ice on a breakaway. He deked RPI goalie Scott Diebold to the ice, but the shot clanked off the post. The Engineers then doubled their lead on a controversial goal with 3:54 left before the first intermission. Bo Dolan sent the puck from the right point toward the slot, and Mark McGowan redirected it past Iles with his skate. After video review, the referees deemed there was no distinct kicking motion and the goal would stand.
 
Rensselaer scored its third goal of the lead late in the second period when Matt Tinordi's shot from the left circle sailed just under the crossbar for a power-play marker.
 
McCarron got the Big Red on the board 3:32 into the third on his fifth goal of the season. Jacob MacDonald appeared to ice the puck along the right-wing wall, but Joel Lowry was first to the puck in the corner to cancel the icing call. As RPI tried to recover defensively, Lowry found McCarron alone in the middle of the ice, and he blasted it off Diebold's glove to cut the home side's deficit to two.
 
But that's as close as the Big Red would come to equalizing. Cornell was 0-for-3 on the power play, leaving it scoreless on its last 26 opportunities on the man advantage.
 
The Big Red is back in action next weekend with road games Friday at Quinnipiac and Saturday at Princeton.