ITHACA, N.Y. — Even though it was a weekend with Valentine's Day, it felt like Groundhog Day at Lynah Rink.
 
If you're not familiar with the 1993 comedy starring Bill Murray that shares a name with the bizarre tradition of observing Punxsutawney Phil's shadow on Feb. 2 every year, it's a movie where the protagonist gets stuck in a time loop and relives the same day repeatedly for several years, if not decades. Set aside that time frame, and the Lynah Faithful might tell you it just endured the same fate.
 
But even though the score might have you believe otherwise, the results from Friday were very different from those on Saturday.
 
First, the back story: The Cornell men's hockey team entered last weekend on a modest three-game winning streak since being trounced by Quinnipiac on Jan. 31 – just the team's second loss of the year. In the two games immediately following, the Big Red yielded next to nothing in five-on-five play against Princeton and Colgate. But then last Sunday in the rematch against the Raiders, a should-have-been rout turned from 5-1 to 5-3.
 
It wasn't the first time a comfortable margin turned into a stressful finish, and so the questions circulated inside the team's walls at Lynah about why such a trend had been emerging. Plenty was written on the subject in this space alone.
 
Lo and behold, the Big Red built another big lead Friday against visiting Union. Senior defenseman Yanni Kaldis doubled his season's goal total in a span of 35 minutes, with his two goals book-ending junior forward Morgan Barron's laser on the power play to give Cornell a 3-0 lead late in the second. It was a chance to bury the hatchet – only it nearly turned into a shallow grave for something else.
 
The Dutchmen scored the next two goals to draw with one with just under 10 minutes to play, then appeared to score the tying goal with 6:13 left in regulation. A video review by the officials would eventually lead to the goal being waved off, then the Big Red held on until a pair of empty-net goals by Barron and Malone made the final margin deceivingly wide.
 
This recurring problem drew the ire of Mike Schafer '86, the Jay R. Bloom '77 Head Coach of Men's Hockey, after last Sunday's effort against Colgate. It's rare to hear a coach's third word after a weekend sweep be "disappointed", but Schafer has been around long enough to know when such a thing is a fluke and when it's a danger of becoming a recurring issue. His post-game summary on Friday was succinct.
 
"Good start. Poor second. Worse third," he said.
 
It wasn't exactly the same, though. Schafer's frustration from after the Colgate game turned more toward incredulity on Friday. As questions poured in from the media asking for specifics, Schafer dutifully detailed some of the transgressions. The Big Red was turning the puck over too much, it was deviating from the game plan, and it was just plain being outworked in the trenches.
 
"I think it's more about what we did in the first period. I thought we played really well. Almost no turnovers; got the puck in deep; went to work," Kaldis said. "After that, I think we just complicated our own game and we just started giving them chances."
 
So – just like poor Phil Connors awaking to "I Got You Babe" in a small Pennsylvania town – the Big Red came back Saturday and built a three-goal lead against against Rensselaer. For a second night in a row, the goal make it 3-0 was a power-play strike off Kaldis' stick. But then RPI scored early in the second. And then again early in the third. A three-goal lead had been cut to one – again.
 
Here is where the paths mercifully diverge. Even though the lead remained at one until junior forward Brenden Locke swept in an empty-netter in the final minute, the difference was palpable at ice level.
 
"We kind of just regrouped after last night – because we had gotten out to two leads, and the second and third (we were) letting teams get back into games.," said Locke, who had two assists to go with his eighth goal of the season. "It was just a collective from within to just say, 'Let's just do it. Let's not make any excuses. Let's stop letting teams get into it, and let's just play.'"
 
Added Schafer: "I thought we didn't give up many scoring chances throughout the course of the game. Our energy was good; our talk was good. They came back and made it a game, but much different than last night's game when I didn't think we were alert on the bench. We had some great scoring chances, even in the third period."
 
In the end, maybe it was another Groundhog Day – because it was another win.

Healthy Scratches

•  By topping Union, Cornell broke a three-game winless skid on Valentine's Day games. The Big Red is now 3-5-3 in its last 11 on Feb. 14.
•  With Saturday's win, the Big Red's seniors have now swept the regular-season series against nine of ECAC Hockey's 11 teams at least once over their collegiate careers. There's still a chance to check off the other two if Cornell can win Friday at Yale and Feb. 29 vs. visiting Clarkson.
•  The Big Red leads the nation with nine power-play goals and 23 total goals so far in February.
•  For the first time in Schafer's coaching era, the Big Red has scored four or more goals in five consecutive games twice in the same season (discontinuously). The last time Cornell has accomplished the feat was during the 1983-84 season, when Schafer was a sophomore defenseman.