Box Score (PDF)

ITHACA, N.Y. — Jeff Kubiak and Reece Willcox scored second-period goals and Mitch Gillam made 26 saves for his fourth shutout of the season as the Cornell men's hockey team kicked off the new year with a 3-0 blanking of Merrimack on Friday night at Lynah Rink. Mitch Vanderlaan and Patrick McCarron had two assists apiece, and Dwyer Tschantz iced the game with an empty-net goal.
 
In a matchup of two defensively sound teams, #9/9 Cornell (10-2-2) struck first in transition. Working on the forecheck in the neutral zone, a puck deflected off Anthony Angello's skate and Vanderlaan chased it down and gained the Merrimack zone while absorbing a check to send Kubiak into the right circle. Cutting toward the middle, Kubiak snapped a shot past the blocker of Merrimack goalie Collin Delia and inside the far post at the three-minute mark. The goal was Kubiak's fifth of the season, and he has continued to have points in any game this season in which Cornell has scored at least three goals.
 
The Big Red carried the run of play for the rest of the middle frame, earning three power plays — the second of which produced Willcox's goal. After swift puck movement on the perimeter by Vanderlaan and McCarron, Willcox unleashed a slap shot from the center point that sailed through traffic and beyond Delia's pads. The goal ended a string of 19 unsuccessful power-play opportunities for Cornell.
 
Gillam made sure the lead would stand, making a big glove save on Hampus Gustafsson with 3:58 to play in the second period after a Big Red penalty-killing unit was caught on the ice for nearly the entire two minutes of the man advantage. Merrimack (7-8-5) was then unable to generate much in the third period until the late stages, but Gillam stood tall again. A turnover gave Gustafsson another quality chance which was gloved with 12:32 to play, then Gillam flashed his left pad out to toe away a shot from Brett Seney with 1:30 left.
 
Protecting the lead, Cornell didn't have any shots on Delia in the third period — but it did pad the lead with 16 seconds to play on Tschantz's empty-netter.  The Big Red was the last team in the country to either produce or concede an empty-net goal this season, and that was the first empty-netter Merrimack has yielded. Cornell is now 12-2-3 in its first home game following the semester break since 1999.
 
The Big Red will wrap up its non-conference slate at 7 p.m. Saturday in a rematch against the Warriors at Lynah Rink.