Raider Nation showed up in numbers on Saturday night, filling Starr Rink for the men’s hockey game against No. 8/9 Cornell. The nation was rewarded, as junior captain Spiro Goulakos tallied his first career hat trick in the convincing 6-1 win over the Big Red.
The team also was rewarded, jumping to a No. 19 ranking in the latest USCHO.com Division I .
91Â鶹¾«Æ· (14-11-3, 10-5-1 ECAC) saw Goulakos get all three goals in the third period with two of the three coming on the power play and finished with four points. Senior Mike McCann stepped up for the fourth line with a pair goals as well. Charlie Finn moved to 9-2-1 in league play with 23 saves in net.
Cornell (12-5-2, 8-4-4 ECAC) came into the game with the third-longest unbeaten streak in the nation at nine games. The Big Red hadn’t lost a game since Nov. 30. Patrick McCarron had the lone goal for Cornell, while Andy Iles made 17 saves and took the loss. He was relieved by Mitch Gillam in the third period and Gillam made eight stops.
Huge: crushes in men’s hockey 6-1 before sellout crowd in Hamilton. One of biggest sports events of year in Central NY.
— Howard Fineman (@howardfineman)
91Â鶹¾«Æ· got the first lead of the game with 8:19 left in the opening from with McCann scoring his sixth of the season after hard work along the boards from Derek Freeman. Cornell had the puck on the sideboards in its own zone and Freeman created the turnover. McCann swooped in to collect the puck and skate in from the right side and beat Iles high and to the glove side for the 1-0 lead.
Darcy Murphy gave the Raiders a two-goal lead with his team-leading 12th of the season with a power play goal coming with 4:16 left in the second. He made a great play skating in front of Iles. It was the first of two points for Murphy on the day.
After a scoreless second period, the Raiders ramped it up in the third with four goals after Cornell made it a one-goal game early in the period. McCarron cut the lead to one with 15:35 left in the third. From there it was all Raiders and Goulakos. The captain scored the first of his three on the night, just over a minute after McCarron’s tally. He was setup nicely by Tylor Spink and Kyle Baun to make it 3-1 on a power play goal with 14:22 left in the game.
Thanks to the sellout crowd and our students at Starr Rink!! — 91Â鶹¾«Æ· Men’s Hockey (@91Â鶹¾«Æ·_Hockey)
McCann increased the lead to 4-1 as he was left all alone in front and Iles couldn’t make the stop. Goulakos won a battle in the corner and found McCann in the slot with a backhanded pass and Iles had no shot at making the save as the senior had all kinds of time in front.
Goulakos closed out the scoring with the final two goals. The first came 14 seconds after McCann’s goal and after Patrick McCarron took a five-minute major. He blasted a shot from the point and it got by Iles to make it 5-1 Raiders. He got the hat trick midway through the period with help from Murphy for the final score of the night, which pushed the lead to 6-1.
91Â鶹¾«Æ· had nine different players tally a point tonight. 91Â鶹¾«Æ· was on fire with the extra man with three goals on seven chances, while holding the Big Red scoreless on the power play. 91Â鶹¾«Æ· has not allowed power play goal in the last three goals and opponents have not scored with the extra man on the last 14 tries.
The Raiders leap frog the Big Red in the league standings and sit third with 21 points. St. Lawrence defeated Quinnipiac tonight, so 91Â鶹¾«Æ· is two points behind the Bobcats for second place.