Men's Hockey Tops Dartmouth, 5-1, Moves Into ECAC Hockey Lead

THACA, N.Y. – The Cornell men's hockey team extended its unbeaten streak to seven games and moved into a tie for first place in ECAC Hockey thanks to a 5-1 victory over Dartmouth on Saturday evening at Lynah Rink. Five different players scored goals, and Matt Nuttle and Morgan Barron had two assists apiece for Cornell (11-5-1, 7-2-1 ECAC Hockey), which now sits alongside Quinnipiac and Yale with 15 points in the conference – though the Big Red has two games in hand on the Bobcats and one on Yale. And Cornell kept its winning ways going on Saturday despite not even having enough healthy skaters to fill the lineup. "We had a (defenseman) playing forward and guys playing in all kinds of different positions," said Mike Schafer '86, the Jay R. Bloom '77 Head Coach of Men's Hockey at Cornell. "We didn't play great off the bat, but we got a big goal from Connor Murphy." After playing just 11 games in his first two seasons on East Hill, Murphy has was playing his 12th game of this season. By sliding in his own rebound, he scored his second goal of the year and gave Cornell the game's first goal for the 14th time in 17 contests. "He brings a lot of energy," Schafer said. "Even if you just look at the penalty he drew in the third period. His feet never stopped moving all the way down to the ice. He just wouldn't be denied." After Dartmouth (7-9-2, 6-4-1) tied the game at 1 early in the second, Cam Donaldson and Mitch Vanderlaanscored on Cornell's first two power plays of the night to give the hosts a two-goal lead after 40 minutes. Since Dec. 1, the Big Red's power play has been clicking at a 40 percent success rate – which leads the nation.