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The harsh reality was evident early on — Cornell was simply a better hockey team than RPI on Friday night.
The Big Red's play was filled with smooth and precise passing that led the No. 2-ranked team to multiple scoring chances in a 3-0 win over the Engineers in ECAC play at Houston Field House.
The loss drops RPI (8-11-1, 5-6-1) into a sixth-place tie in the conference with Dartmouth, two points behind fifth-place Colgate, RPI's opponent Saturday night in Troy.
"They are a good hockey team," RPI coach Dave Smith said of Cornell. "They are a team that defends very well. There are areas of the game that you can expose on them but you have to have high energy and you have to have great puck placement and puck control. When we had those items, we were able to generate chances. When the game was on the line, Cornell was at their best and we weren't at our best."
RPI came into the game looking for a quick start similar to the one it had in last week's 3-1 win over then No. 4-ranked Clarkson. However, Cornell (12-1-1, 8-1-0) took command early by outshooting RPI 16-3 in the opening 20 minutes. When RPI's David DiGrande was whistled for holding at 15 minutes, 10 seconds into the first, the Big Red took advantage.
Cornell had pressured RPI goaltender Linden Marshall throughout the period, then broke through on the power play with a sequence of crisp, tic-tac-toe-style passes from Brenden Locke and Michael Regush. The result was Tristan Mullin's goal from the slot at 16:46.
"It seems like they are a team that really possesses the puck and they seemed to have the puck a lot tonight," RPI senior defenseman Will Reilly said. "It was tough for us to try to get back into it."
Cornell continued to roll in the second, increasing its lead to 3-0 on Locke's goal following a nifty feed from Cam Donaldson at 7:10 and Jeff Malott's rebound goal at 9:29.
Just more than a minute later, Alec Calvaruso replaced Marshall in goal, a move Smith made to try to spark his team.
"Just trying to change the mojo," Smith said. "When you have three goalies that you like and one guy is in for three (goals), none of which were attributed solely to him, give a guy some minutes. Just trying to shake things up a bit."
RPI responded well following the goaltending change, outshooting Cornell 7-1 the rest of the period, but the Engineers were unable to beat Big Red goaltender Matthew Galajda, who came into the game sporting a goals-against average of 1.46 per game.
Galajda recorded 25 saves in the shutout win.
Cornell entered the contest with the country's second-stingiest defense and lived up to its ranking by packing its defensive zone with the lead in hand. Although RPI outshot Cornell 8-7 in the third, the quality of the Engineers' chances was limited. Forward Zach Dubinsky had an opportunity to avoid the shutout halfway through the period, but was denied.
"I didn't think we completed those moments as well as we are capable of," Smith said. "Cornell defends very hard, we needed to get quicker pucks through the pads for a rebound, keep them off the goalie's hands a little bit. We did generate chances but not enough second chances and not enough first chances."
Sean Martin, a local freelance writer, is a frequent contributor to the Times Union
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January 11, 2020 at 12:07PM
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No. 2 Big Red earn road shutout over Engineers - Times Union
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