HAMDEN, Conn. — Needing positive results to ensure it hangs on to fourth place and the subsequent first-round bye through the ECAC Hockey Championships, the Cornell men's hockey team took another big step toward that end on Friday with a 1-0 victory over Quinnipiac at Frank Perrotti Jr. Arena.
Junior forward
Jack Malone scored on the power play 5 minutes, 58 seconds into the game, and freshman goaltender
Ian Shane took care of the rest with a career-high 42 saves to earn his second collegiate shutout.
By completing the season sweep of league-leading Quinnipiac (27-5-3, 16-4-1 ECAC Hockey), which entered the week ranked fifth in both major national polls, Cornell (16-8-4, 11-6-4) maintains a three-point lead on Colgate for fourth place in the league standings. That means the Big Red can wrap up a first-round bye with at least one point in Saturday's regular-season finale at Princeton or anything less than a regulation-time victory by Colgate at Quinnipiac.
The Big Red had to topple the best in the league to get to this point – first with a 6-2 victory over second-place Clarkson last Saturday, then with Friday's shutout of the team that leads the nation in shutouts.
Just as it did in the first meeting of the season between the teams, Cornell essentially won Friday's game on the balance of special teams. Two power-play goals fueled the 2-1 overtime victory on Jan. 22, while just one did the trick this time around against a tidy 2-for-2 performance on the penalty kill.
The winner came after Malone helped the Big Red fish the puck out of a scrum that involved three players from both teams in the corner to the right of Quinnipiac goaltender Yariv Perets. Sophomore defenseman
Tim Rego quickly moved the puck across to junior defenseman
Travis Mitchell for a one-timer from the top of the right circle that was aimed wide of the far post for Malone to tip in from the door step. It was the eighth goal of the season for Malone, and his second on the man advantage.
Shane took care of the rest, turning in a crown jewel of a performance in his 12th collegiate start.
The Big Red concludes the regular season at 7 p.m. Saturday, when it visits Ivy League foe Princeton.
