SCHENECTADY, NY -- Seniors
Jason Walters and
Mario Valery-Trabucco each scored as the Union College men's ice hockey team went toe-to-toe with seventh-ranked Cornell in a 2-2 tie on Saturday night at Messa Rink. The Dutchmen extend their unbeaten streak to eight games -- second most in program history -- and remain without a loss in league play with a 3-0-3 record. Union, which is tied for fourth with Yale (4-2-1), is 7-3-5 overall, while Cornell (7-2-2) sits in second with a 6-2-1 record.
Freshman goaltender
Keith Kinkaid delivered another stellar performance, turning away 26 shots in 65 minutes of action. He is now 4-1-2 for the season and 4-0-2 in his last six outings. At the other end, Cornell's Ben Scrivens, who entered the game with 51 career wins, made 28 saves.
Union came out aggressive early, and the Dutchmen's early surge nearly paid dividends at the 5:38 mark of the first period when Walters skated in, faked around Scrivens and sent a pass in front of the goal crease, where
Jeremy Welsh jammed it home, but not before a Union player had knocked the goal off its moorings. Officials reviewed the play and ruled that the goal came off before the puck went in, as Cornell got its first video replay break of the season.
Union would broke into the scoring column at the 12:56 mark of the second period when Walters got credit for his sixth goal of the year. The play began with Cornell's Patrick Kennedy getting checked down with the puck in the slot in front of Union's goal by Walters. The Dutchmen came out of their zone down the right wing. Valery-Trabucco sent the puck into the middle for Walters, who faked his way past Scrivens and slipped a shot toward the Cornell goal that glanced off the skate of Justin Krueger and into the Cornell net.
Back-to-back Union penalties gave Cornell a 5-on-3 advantage late in the second. Union killed off the majority, but with 18 seconds left on the two-man advantage, Cornell got a faceoff in the Union end. Cornell coach Mike Schafer called timeout to rest his top line, a move that paid off when Brendon Nash ripped a one-timer from the center point off a pass from Riley Nash with seven seconds left on the 5-on-3.
The second penalty expired with the score tied at one, and Union pulled ahead with 2:34 to play in the second when
John Simpson carried the puck up the side boards and laid it off to Valery-Trabucco as the trailer on a 3-on-2 rush. Trabucco's shot came just as Cornell defenseman Mike Devin stood up at the top of the crease, inadvertently screening the shot as the Dutchmen took a 2-1 lead, a lead they would carry into the second intermission.
Cornell got the tying goal with 5:44 to play in the third period on a rush started by Mike Devin. Devin carried the puck into the neutral zone and laid it off to Kennedy at the blue line. Kennedy took the puck into the Union zone and passed ahead to Nash, who tipped the puck up and over the glove-side shoulder of Kinkaid before the freshman had time to react.
The Dutchmen conclude the 2009 portion of their ECAC Hockey schedule with a 7 p.m. start at RPI on Wednesday.
