Dutchmen skate past Big Red 5-1

Box Score

by Ryan Fay

There was good news and bad news for Union on Friday night.

The good news? The Dutchmen picked up a 5-1 ECAC Hockey win over 16th-ranked Cornell at Lynah Rink to extend their unbeaten streak to three games.

Union's Eli Lichtenwald scored twice to lift
the Dutchmen to a 5-1 win at Cornell.
(photo: Union College Athletics)

The bad news? With Clarkson's 2-1 victory over Harvard, the Dutchmen were mathematically eliminated from finishing in eighth place and having the final home ice spot in the opening round of the ECACH tournament next weekend.

Union is locked into ninth place, regardless of what happens in today's 2:30 p.m. regular season finale at Colgate. The contest will be the final game at the 57-year-old Starr Rink, which is getting replaced with a new facility set to open in the fall.

The Dutchmen will play a best-of-three opening round series next weekend at the team that finishes in eighth. Clarkson, Cornell and RPI are all possibilities.

Union jumped out to a fast start at Cornell (13-9-6 overall, 8-8-5 ECACH). Matt Wilkins gave the Dutchmen a 1-0 lead just 38 seconds into the first period after knocking in a loose puck on a scramble in front of the Big Red goal.

Just over eight minutes later, Eli Lichtenwald doubled Union's advantage after scoring his third goal in as many games off a centering feed from Michael Pontarelli.

Christian Hilbrich cut Union's lead to 2-1 at 6:04 of the second after taking advantage of a juicy rebound. But Cole Maier responded for the Dutchmen at 18:39 after finishing a two-on-one rush with Mike Vecchione.

Maier struck again at 13:47 of the third to push Union's lead to 4-1. Lichtenwald notched his second of the night just over a minute later with an empty-net goal.

Union (13-11-9, 6-9-6) picked up a season-high 36 saves from goaltender Alex Sakellaropolus, including 16 stops in the first.

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