Cornell Scores Late, Wins Goaltending Battle 2-1
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Wally JohnsonKain Tisi had another tremendous night in a 2-1 loss at Cornell
Junior wing Patrick Kennedy snapped a 1-1 tie with just 1:37 to go in regulation time as Cornell ended St. Lawrence University's four-game unbeaten streak with a 2-1 victory at sold-out Lynah Rink Friday night.
Kennedy finished off a three-on-two with his fifth goal of the season, deciding a game which saw Saint goalie Kain Tisi keep his club in contention despite heavy pressure by the Big Red. Cornell, ranked eighth nationally, improves to 11-5-3 overall and 8-2-2 in league play while the Saints are 13-9-4 overall and 7-4-2 in the league.
The game featured a matchup of the top two goalies in the ECAC statistically as Cornell's Ben Scrivens is the overall leader in goals against average and save percentage with the Saints Kain Tisi second in both categories and Tisi is the leader in those two categories in league play only with Scrivens second in goals against and third in save percentage. Tisi finished with 32 saves for the Saints while Scrivens made 15 for Cornell.
"That was another tremendous performance by Kain," said Saint coach Joe Marsh. "He gave us a chance to win, but Cornell blocked a ton of shots and then finished it off with the three-on-two. We made some defensive mistakes that Kain bailed us out of, but no one was going to stop that last one."
The Big Red, which had scored just one goal in each of its previous three games, got the first of the game after the Saints had several chances to clear the puck, but couldn't do it. Sean Collins took the first shot after a Saint turnover near the top of the faceoff circle and while Tisi was able to stop that one with a pad, he could do nothing against Joe Devin's shot from point blank range at 6:37.
The Saints came right back to tie it at 9:24, converting on their first power play chance of the game. Defenseman George Hughes pinched in from the point and received a pass from Brandon Bollig in the short slot. Hughes one-timed the pass past Scrivens for his fifth of the year.
Tisi made a big save on Collins to start the second period and while the Saints generated some offense on an early power play, the Big Red had a long stretch of pressure in the Saint zone during which the Saint goaltender came through with some big saves. Cornell outshot the Saints 10-6 in the scoreless second period.
Cornell had a 12-1 edge in shots on goal in the third prior to Kennedy's game winner which was set up by a pretty cross-crease pass by Colin Greening. The Saints pulled Tisi for an extra attacker with 1:32 to play and got three more shots on goal, but could not get another shot past Scrivens.