ITHACA, N.Y. – Cam Donaldson scored his first goal of the season and Yanni Kaldis' second power-play goal of the night also came in the third period, but the Cornell men's hockey team couldn't dig itself out of a big hole and ultimately suffered a 4-3 loss to Michigan State on Saturday night at Lynah Rink.

Kaldis opened the scoring for Cornell (0-2) late in the first period, but Michigan State (3-1) stormed ahead with three goals in the latter half of the middle frame. Mitch Lewandowski scored one and assisted on another, then his long pass set up Tiro Hirose's goal in the first minute of the third to push the visitors' lead to 4-1.

"That was a team that was willing to do anything to win," said Mike Schafer, the Jay R. Bloom '77 Head Coach of Men's Hockey. "We've got to get back to that mentality."

That ended the night for Cornell starting goaltender Matthew Galajda, but it also ignited the Big Red. Cornell had the game's next 11 shots on goal, including the two goals to cut its deficit to one with a little more than five minutes to play. The Big Red played the last two minutes with the goaltender pulled in favor of an extra attacker, but Michigan State held on right to the end with John Lethemon stopping Morgan Barron's bouncing shot from near the blue line at the final buzzer. It was his last of 36 saves on the night.

The 0-2 start is Cornell's first since 2010-11 — a season in which it ended up advancing all the way to the ECAC Hockey championship game.

"Hockey's a funny game," Schafer said. "It will turn around. There will be games when (Galajda) saves our butts. But we've got to get back to doing the little things well."
 

The Big Red's lineup:

 
 

How The Goals Were Scored:

Cornell's 1st Goal
1st period, 16:52  •  Kaldis 1 (Mullin, Barron) (pp)  •  Cornell 1, Michigan State 0
• Morgan Barron won a faceoff cleanly to start the man advantage, and the Big Red came out shooting with a couple Tristan Mullin shots blocked. The Spartans had an attempted clear knifed down by Kaldis at the point, and after a couple passes he was set up with the puck at the point. He opted to wrist one down toward goal, and it hit the first defender in the right hand and fluttered into the net through Michael Regush's screen.
 
Michigan State's 1st Goal
2nd period, 10:24  •  Khodorenko 2 (Hirose, Lewandowski) (pp)  •  Cornell 1, Michigan State 1
• Only the power play, the Spartans gained the zone and kept possession with a ring around the boards before setting up Hirose at the center point. He fed Patrick Khodrenko in the left circle, who picked a spot over Galajda's right shoulder and inside the near post.
 
Michigan State's 2nd Goal
2nd period, 14:40  •  Lambdin 1 (Osburn, Saliba)  •  Michigan State 2, Cornell 1
• Logan Lambdin worked the puck up the wall for a shot from distance by Zach Osburn. Galajda got a glove to it, but the puck bounced back out to the goal mouth for Lambdin to flip under the crossbar on the backhand.
 
Michigan State's 3rd Goal
2nd period, 16:09  •  Lewandowski 2 (Hirose)  •  Michigan State 3, Cornell 1
• The Spartans stormed up ice on the rush, but the Big Red had plenty of players in position defensively. Khodorenko cut to the middle, only to have Betts come in and poke the puck away. But it went straight to Hirose, who trailed the play, and he entered the slot before dishing off to the right circle for  Lewandowski's one-timer into a mostly open net.
 
Michigan State's 4th Goal
3rd period, :41  •  Hirose 4 (Lewandowski, Rosburg)  •  Michigan State 4, Cornell 1
• Toward the end of the period's first shift, Hirose blew the zone and received a long outlet pass from Lewandowski on the left wing. Though the play seemed innocuous, Hirose escaped his defender just inside the Cornell zone to create a little bit of an angled lane toward goal, then he slid a shot through Galajda's leg from the bottom of the left circle.
 
Cornell's 2nd Goal
3rd period, 3:43  •  Donaldson 1  •  Michigan State 4, Cornell 2
• On a four-on-four, Tirose was forced out of the Cornell zone under pressure from Kaldis, then he dropped the puck back to Jerad Rosburg as he drifted backward through the neutral zone. Rather than peeling off to stay in his conventional position, Kaldis pressed the play and created havoc between both Spartans defensemen. That led to a turnover in the high slot, where Donaldson arrived and quickly zipped a shot over Lethemon's blocker.
 
Cornell's 3rd Goal
3rd period, 3:43  •  Kaldis 2 (Regush) (pp)  •  Michigan State 4, Cornell 3
• In the early stages of a Big power play, Regush cleanly won a faceoff to Lethemon's left to Kaldis on the top of the right circle. He wasted no time in firing a shot that beat the goalie to the glove side to make it a one-goal game.
 

Up Next:

• The Big Red embarks on ECAC Hockey and Ivy League play with home games against Yale on Friday, Nov. 2 and Brown on Saturday, Nov. 3. Cornell then hits the road for the first time with a pair of games Nov. 9-10 at Northern Michigan.