HANOVER, N.H. – There were a lot of firsts in the Cornell men's hockey team's last game of the fall semester. The Big Red was held scoreless in the second period for the first time. It entered the third period trailing for the first time. It had 40 shots on goal for the first time. It had five more power plays than its opponent for the first time.
 
And it all added up to Cornell losing for the first time.
 
Junior forward Morgan Barron scored his team-leading seventh goal late in the first period, but the Big Red's 10-game winning streak to start the season came to a close Saturday night with a 2-1 loss to Dartmouth at Thompson Arena.
 
"I don't think we were as sharp as we've been collectively as a group," said Mike Schafer '86, the Jay R. Bloom '77 Head Coach of Men's Hockey at Cornell. "Even though we had a lot of scoring chances through the course of the game, they did the job on special teams to beat us tonight. From in net to our blue line to our forwards, we had to play better."
 
Cornell had a golden opportunity to jump out to a lead inside the first minute on senior forward Jeff Malott's shorthanded breakaway, but Adrian Clark made the save on a forehand move aimed at sliding the puck between the Dartmouth goaltender's legs. That stop loomed even larger 90 seconds later, when John Losurdo scored in the closing second of the Big Green's power play.
 
Entering Saturday night's game as the nation's last unbeaten team and on the program's best start in 50 years, Cornell trailed for a total of just 16 minutes, 5 seconds over its first 10 games. It surpassed that number in just the first period alone against Dartmouth, but not without a reprieve in the form of Barron's strike just 12.2 seconds before the intermission.
 
While goals inside the final minutes of a period are often perceived to be momentum-changers in hockey, Dartmouth wasted little time turning the tables back in its favor. The Big Green quickly regained the lead 45 seconds into the second period on Matt Baker's sharp-angle strike, putting the Big Red back in the unfamiliar position of being behind the 8-ball. Even when Cornell did seem to break through, it hit the crossbar once and the post twice.
 
"We hit a lot of goal posts, missed (a breakaway), had a three-on-one where we didn't even take a shot," Schafer said. "But that's just a symptom of not being fully prepared to get after it. That was a big mistake on our part tonight."
 
Clark made the skinny lead stand up. He made 21 of his 39 saves in the third period with Cornell frenetically pressuring. The Big Red earned five of the game's six power plays and got off 10 shots on target over those stretches, but it came up empty each time. That leaves Cornell's power play on an 0-for-19 skid entering its annual mid-season hiatus.
 
"We've got to make some adjustments on special teams," Schafer said. "We haven't scored a power-play goal in five games now. Even though we've had tons of chances, we're not scoring. So we've got to figure out what we're doing in that area."
 
Freshman defenseman Travis Mitchell and sophomore forward Max Andreev earned the assists on Barron's goal. Junior goaltender Matthew Galajda made 15 saves for the Big Red.
 
Even with the loss, Cornell remains in solo possession of first place in ECAC Hockey thanks to Colgate's overtime victory at second-place Harvard. Though the setback was just the Big Red's third in its last 26 Ivy League games, it creates a three-way tie atop the Ancient Eight standings between Cornell, Dartmouth and Harvard – all sitting 4-1 at the season-within-a-season's midway point.
 
The Big Red now enters an idle stretch for four weeks while it tends to final exams and a break for the holidays. It will reconvene late this month to prepare for the Fortress Invitational in Las Vegas, where it opens the tournament against Ohio State at 8 p.m. PT on Friday, Jan. 3. Cornell will then play either Providence or Army West Point the following night.
 
"I'm just really disappointed we finished off the first semester like this," Schafer added. "But (we'll) park it, get to work and try to do some of the things necessary to get better as a hockey team."

The Big Red's Lineup:

How The Goals Were Scored:

Dartmouth's 1st Goal
1st period, 2:20 (pp)  •  Losurdo 2 (Hesler, Less)  •  Dartmouth 1, Cornell 0
•  At the tail end of a Big Green power play, Losurdo found room to the enter the bottom of the right circle from the half wall as his defender sagged. Losurdo lined up his shot and zipped the puck over Galajda's shoulder and under the crossbar to give Dartmouth the early lead.
 
Cornell's 1st Goal
1st period, 19:47.8  •  Barron 7 (Mitchell, Andreev)  •  Cornell 1, Dartmouth 1
•  Cam Donaldson wheeled the puck to Andreev along the left half wall, and he sent it back to Mitchell at the left point. He drifted toward the middle before taking a shot that hit traffic in the slot converging on Donaldson's screen of Clark. The puck then bounced into the right circle, where Barron pounced on it and buried a shot under the crossbar.
 
Dartmouth's 2nd Goal
2nd period, :45  •  Baker 4 (Strong, Demler)  •  Dartmouth 2, Cornell 1
•  A failed clear out of the Big Red defensive zone allowed the Big Green to move down the left wall and behind the net. Strong set up Baker for a sharp-angle shot from the bottom of the right circle that soared over Galajda's shoulder a moment before the net came off its moorings.

Up Next:

•  Cornell will remain idle for four weeks while it tends to final exams and a holiday break, reconvening to prepare for the Fortress Invitational in Las Vegas. The Big Red opens the tournament against Ohio State at 8 p.m. PT on Friday, Jan. 3, then plays either Providence or Army West Point the following night.