One out of three ain’t good.
The Boston University hockey team (7-5-2, 4-3-0 Hockey East) ended the Thanksgiving break on a rough note, losing to Cornell University, 5-1 and 4-1, on Sunday and Saturday, respectively, after starting the break off with Sean Fields shutout in a 3-0 win against Harvard University last Tuesday.
The Big Red dominated on Sunday, putting four goals past junior netminder Fields before BU could manage its lone tally in the final frame.
Forward Shane Hynes started things off on Sunday, giving Cornell a 1-0 lead 7:32 into the game. Defenseman Jeremy Downs knocked what would be the game-winner past Fields 15 minutes into the period, and Cornell captain Stephen Baby put a power play goal in at 17:43 to give Cornell its second three-goal first frame in as many days.
With 9:27 left in the second, forward Greg Hornby essentially ended it, putting Cornell up, 4-0.
BU gained a small measure of revenge on junior forward Mark Mullen’s unassisted shorthanded goal 8:47 into the third, but the final score was settled when forward Mike Knoepfli made it 5-1 at the 11:21 mark.
Sophomore goalie David LeNeveau made 26 saves for the win, with Fields making 24.
Forward Sam Paolini was the hero on Saturday, scoring a goal and adding two assists as the Big Red handed freshman goalie Stephan Siwiec his first loss in the scarlet and white in his second start.
Cornell got to BU early, scoring three goals on only four first-period shots. Paolini struck first on the power play at 11:21. Forward Mark Moulson got the next one for the Big Red less than five minutes later when he put the eventual game-winner in the net for another power play tally.
Hynes got the final goal of the first, with Paolini assisting, to give Cornell a three-goal cushion with only 1:10 remaining.
Siwiec settled down and made 18 saves after the brutal first frame, but the damage was already done.
Sophomore center Brian McConnell put in his fifth of the season on a second period power play for BU, with freshman left wing David Vander Gulik and senior right wing John Sabo earning assists. McConnell took advantage of a Cornell defenseman pushing Vander Gulik into Big Red goalie LeNeveau to draw the Icedogs within two, at 3-1.
From there, LeNeveau and the Big Red were too much, and Ryan Vesce put in an empty-netter to ice the game.
The sweep followed a solid start to the break as Fields sparkled in his third career shutout, beating Harvard on Tuesday.
Fifteen minutes into the first, senior forward Brian Collins, who has seemingly been snake-bitten for goals over the last two seasons, deflected his first goal of the year off a slapper by senior captain Freddy Meyer on the power play. Sophomore defenseman Brian Miller started the play.
From there the goalies took over, as both Field and his Harvard opposite, Dov Grumet-Morris turned aside all second period shots in a superb goaltending matchup.
Sophomore center David Klema made things happen in the third period, fighting off a Harvard defenseman and pushing a one-handed pass to freshman forward John Laliberte, who fluttered a wrister over Grumet-Morris’ glove hand.
Down 2-0, the Crimson mounted a furious attack, and Fields was equal to all comers, making 19 saves in the third for his first shutout of an opponent not named Merrimack College. All that was left was for Mullen to put in a pretty empty-netter from a near impossible angle down the left wing with 1:15 left. Senior defenseman John Cronin provided the only assist.
The Icedogs face off next against the Minutemen of the University of Massachusetts at Amherst in a home and home matchup on Friday and Saturday nights.