GRAND FORKS, N.D. — The Cornell men's hockey team capped a rare two-game sweep of North Dakota at Ralph Engelstad Arena, scoring three unanswered goals for a second straight night for a 3-1 victory on Saturday. It was the first time the Fighting Hawks have been swept at home in more than four years.
Freshman goaltender Ian Shane continued the stellar start to his collegiate career by making 32 consecutive saves to close out the game after North Dakota (13-8) scored its lone goal on its first shot of the night at the 2-minute mark on a power play. Returning to the state in which he played much of last season with the North American Hockey League's Bismarck Bobcats, Shane improved to 2-0 with a 1.51 goals against average and .951 save percentage over his first three appearances.
SCOREBOARD: Here are all the scores from a packed weekend of men's college hockey
Arguably the most pivotal save of Shane's night came in the only four-plus minutes of the game in which Cornell (11-3-1) trailed. North Dakota's Mark Senden was pulled down on a shorthanded breakaway, leading to the first penalty shot against a Cornell goaltender over the program's last 96 games. Shane made the save, keeping the Big Red's deficit at one goal with 15:31 to play in the first period.
The stop loomed even larger when Cornell pulled even about two minutes later. On a play that closely resembled his game-winning goal from Friday night, Kyler Kovich swept in a rebound from the top of the crease to tie the game at 1. Another freshman forward, Ondrej Psenicka, then pulled the Big Red ahead with his seventh goal of the season when he tipped in a point shot from classmate Hank Kempf with 3:21 to play before the intermission.
North Dakota had the edge in play during the second period, but got nothing to show for it thanks to nine saves from Shane. The Big Red then earned a little breathing room with 7:52 to play in the third on Brenden Locke's fifth goal of the season. He swept in a rebound created by a shot from senior defenseman Cody Haiskanen, a native of nearby Fargo. Freshman forward Justin Ertel earned the secondary assist to push his scoring streak to four games.
RANKINGS: Check out the latest Power 10
While the victory officially goes down as the 492nd in the career of Mike Schafer '86, the Jay R. Bloom '77 Head Coach of Men's Hockey, Schafer was not present at the rink due to illness. Associate Head Coach Ben Syer improved to 8-0-4 as an acting head coach in his career, with all but one of those games coming in his 10-plus years at Cornell.
The victories pull the Big Red to 4-2-1 over its first seven games of nine straight away from home — a stretch that is scheduled to conclude Friday and Saturday at Yale and Brown, respectively. It also marked the first time North Dakota lost a two-game home weekend since Nov. 16-17, 2018.
