TROY, NY – Six combined goals in the second period highlighted the action at the Houston Field House Saturday night, as the Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute (RPI) men's hockey team was topped by the No. 18 Cornell Big Red by a final score of 6-4. With the loss, RPI falls to 8-12-1 overall and 3-7-0 in ECAC Hockey, while Cornell improves to 10-5-1 and 7-3-0 in ECAC Hockey play.
Cornell got things going early in the first period, scoring just 2:11 into the game as Hank Kempf collects a goal as he threw a puck through a traffic, as a screen in front of the net helped the puck elude the glove of
Jack Watson to give Cornell the 1-0 lead. The Big Red made it 2-0 at the 9:49 mark when Ben Berard scored to make it 2-0. His goal came off a pass from Nick DeSantis that ran across the crease, finding Berard on the back door for a tap in.
Before the end of the period, Cornell was given a game misconduct with 14 seconds remaining. That allowed RPI to open the second period on the power play for just over four and a half minutes. In that span, the Engineers found three goals to take a 3-2 lead.
Jack Agnew got the ball rolling with a wrist shot from the slot 40 seconds into the period, with
Jakob Lee and
Ryan Mahshie collecting assists.
Freshman
Sutter Muzzatti was responsible for the tying and go-ahead goals, as they came less than two minutes apart at the 2:18 and 4:11 marks of the second period. Muzzatti's first goal was a tip in from a shot from the blue line by
Max Smolinski, while he stuffed the second home on a scramble in front of the net.
Austin Heidemann earned an assist as well on the tying goal, while
TJ Walsh and
Kyle Hallbauer earned helpers on the go-ahead strike.
However, the lead didn't last long as Cornell tied the score at 3-all just 37 seconds after Muzzatti's go-ahead goal. RPI found themselves defending a break away by Cornell's Zach Tupker, and drew a penalty giving Tupker a penalty shot. Tupker converted it, tying the game at 3-3.
Cornell scored two more goals before the end of the second period, with Sam Malinski scoring the go-ahead goal at 7:56. A puck ended up in the right wing corner, and found the stick of Berard. He tossed it across ice for Malinski, who beat Watson inside the left post for a 4-3 lead from the slot. Gabriel Seger then made it 5-3 at 11:56, as he helped the Big Red convert in a 4-on-3 opportunity.
Each side scored one goal apiece in the third period, with Sean Donaldson making it 6-3 Cornell midway through the third period in unassisted fashion after stealing the puck behind the net, skating around front and throwing the puck into the net. RPI's fourth goal came in the final seconds courtesy of Hallbauer, who scored on the power play to make it 6-4 on a wrist shot from the left wing circle.
Watson snagged 22 saves for RPI, while Cornell's Ian Shane made 10 official saves. Heidemann and Muzzatti each had three shots on goal apiece for RPI to lead the offense, with Malinski recording four for Cornell to lead all skaters on the night.
The Engineers return to the ice on Friday, January 13 at 7 p.m. when they take on the Yale Bulldogs in New Haven in ECAC Hockey Action.
