Round One Of ‘Rivalry’ Goes To Cornell

The fanfare surrounding it may be one-sided, but as far as the folks in Ithaca, N.Y., are concerned, this was The Game.

The No. 15 Harvard men’s hockey team fell to No. 8 Cornell, 5-2, Friday night in a game short on Harvard hoopla but long on flying fish and converted scoring opportunities by the Big Red.

Despite the setback, Harvard (5-2-0. 5-2-0 ECAC) still had two points to show for its second long road trip in as many weekends. By virtue of its 7-1 blowout of Colgate on Saturday, the Crimson—who swept Clarkson and St. Lawrence one week earlier—remains tied with Cornell for the ECAC lead.

“Coming out with six of eight points from the two longest road trips of the year is pretty good,” Harvard junior forward Tim Pettit said.

Harvard 7, Colgate 1

Colgate (5-7-1, 2-4-0) was outskated and outshot, 43-26, as Harvard took out its aggression from Friday’s loss on the hapless Red Raiders.

After a scoreless first frame, the Crimson offense ignited in the second, tallying four even-strength goals in quick succession before some extracurricular activity distracted both teams in the third. Pettit, junior Kenny Smith, sophomore Noah Welch and senior Aaron Kim all tallied strikes as part of the potent Crimson attack in the frenzied second period.

Harvard scored three more times in the third to pad its lead, receiving goals from junior Tim Pettit, freshman Charlie Johnson and sophomore Tom Cavanagh.

In between all the scoring, things turned ugly, as the teams combined for a mess of 15 third-period penalties, including a bench minor to Harvard at the 16:23 mark.

Pettit, last week’s ECAC Co-Player of the Week, had two goals Saturday to add to his team-leading point total (5 goals, 5 assists).

Pettit’s co-honoree from last week—sophomore goaltender Dov Grumet-Morris—saved 25 shots against Colgate. He has logged every minute of ice time for Harvard this season.

Cornell 5, Harvard 2

A capacity crowd at Lynah Rink saw the Big Red (6-1-0, 5-1-0) end Harvard’s four-game winning streak.

Unlike last year when Harvard was blown out of Ithaca by a deceptively close 6-3 score, this year’s Crimson kept pace with Cornell for much of the game before falling too far behind late in the second period.

With less than two minutes to play in the middle frame, Cornell’s Shane Palahicky redirected a Charlie Cook shot past Grumet-Morris to increase the Big Red lead to 4-2.

Forty seconds later, forward Stephen Baby powered a path to the net, directing a pass to Cam Abbott on the doorstep of the crease for the game’s final score.

On the night, Grumet-Morris faced just 24 shots, but stopped only 19 of them. Most of the shots were quality scoring chances, launched from close range or else with heavy traffic screening Dov’s field of vision.

Both of the Crimson’s goals came on the power play, scored by captain Dominic Moore and junior forward Tyler Kolarik.

Despite outshooting Cornell, the Crimson had difficulty with the Big Red’s size and strength on defense, an area Harvard will hope to improve on before the Big Red arrive at Bright Hockey Center in February.

“Obviously it was disappointing to lose on Friday to Cornell,” Moore said. “We’ll face them again later though.”

Tuesday night, as Nowak will be serving an automatic one-game suspension.

The senior forward was whistled for a game misconduct for spearing as part of the combined 24 penalties called during the Harvard-Colgate contest Saturday.

That can only help the Terriers who last faced Harvard a year ago at Bright. The Crimson hopes to erase memories of that 8-4 blowout and prove itself against one of the nation’s premier hockey programs.

“It’s always nice to play tough nonconference opponents, especially cross-town rivals,” Moore said. “We haven’t had much success in the Beanpot as of late. We’ve got to earn respect, and this is chance to prove it.”

The game will be televised live on Fox Sports New England. Coverage begins at 7 p.m.

—Staff writer Timothy M. McDonald can be reached at tmcdonal@fas.harvard.edu.