By Brandon Thomas
Cornell Athletic Communications

ITHACA, N.Y. – It took a little extra time to do it, but the Cornell men's hockey team scraped out a victory in its season opener Friday. But the general consensus after the game was that an improved performance will be necessary to repeat the result in the rematch tonight at Lynah Rink.
 
Tickets for Saturday's game remain on sale, and can be purchased through BigRedTix.com.
 
"We've got a lot of work to do, and there will be a lot of new guys in the lineup," Mike Schafer '86, the Jay R. Bloom '77 Head Coach of Men's Hockey said after Friday's 3-2 overtime victory. "We've talked about setting the standard, and we didn't travel in packs, we didn't flood to each other and support each other, and we left each other out on an island."
 
In other words, the team's systems are still a work in progress – which shouldn't a surprise, given the extraordinarily long layoff since its last regular-season action and the fact that there are 14 newcomers to competition this year. The amplified anticipation of the game may have taken a toll, too.
 
"We looked tired. I think that happens when you get emotionally wound up and ready to play, being too geared up can drain you," Schafer said. "For some guys, they looked really fatigued tonight. It's hard work to play against a team like that."
 
It's commonly accepted around the college hockey world that a two-game sweep of one opponent in a weekend is a bigger feat than two victories against two different foes. But against a team like Alaska (1-6), the mountain may prove to be even taller.
 
Cornell (1-0) had the benefit of a pair of exhibition victories to get the group up to game speed, yet the Nanooks' level of individual competition level proved to be a different ball of wax in the series opener. Alaska had early advantages in faceoff victories and shots on goal, and it eventually used a pair of goals 84 seconds apart in the second period to hand Cornell it hadn't really seen yet – adversity. And the Big Red responded.
 
While the Big Red's second goal could ultimately be quantified as a fluke, the run of play was hinting at an eventual equalizer – and the fact that senior Kyle Betts didn't even need to touch the puck to be credited with the goal belies the fact that he created the strike with a tenacious forecheck that forced a Nanooks defenseman to hurry a pass that clanked off his own goalie's skates and into the net.
 
So while it took a while to get there, Cornell found some of the rhythm it will look to build upon tonight.
 
"We need to come back out and match and surpass their work effort, which is tough because they're a really hard-working hockey team and do a good job of playing their system," Schafer said.
 
Another area to watch is the Big Red's power play, which largely struggled to an 0-for-5 performance – though the special teams were balanced by a dominating 3-for-3 showing on the penalty kill. Schafer said his team's effort on the man advantage was 'too predictable.'
 
"It was tough. Our (power play) was definitely not clicking tonight," said senior Brenden Locke, who scored the winning goal 40 seconds into the three-on-three extra session. "I don't think it's a matter of switching things up, I think it's more execution. We've got to be a little more dialed in. I think we were a little lackadaisical at times."

Assistant director of athletic communications Brandon Thomas is in his 11th season as his office's primary contact for the team. He can be reached at brandon@cornell.edu.

Game Information:

Alaska at #16 Cornell
TIME: 7 p.m. Saturday, October 30 
BROADCAST: ESPN+
RADIO: WHCU (870 AM, 97.7 FM)
TICKETS: BigRedTix.com
STATS: CornellBigRed.com
GAME NOTES (PDFs): Alaska | Cornell