With both teams penalized more than 10 times, including three Dartmouth 10-minute misconducts, the men’s hockey league opener on Friday night was plenty exciting. The Red opened its ECAC Hockey season and showcased its special teams, as four power-play goals made the difference for No. 5 Cornell (3-0, 2-0 ECAC), as it skated to a 5-1 victory over Dartmouth (0-3, 0-3 ECAC).

“Our power plays were the difference tonight. The guys right from the get-go had opportunities all through the course of the game and we capitalized on our scoring chances,” said head coach Mike Schafer ’86. “After we broke them down, they were tired, so our power play did a good job of moving around and finding seams. Some great individual plays … that’s what carried the game.”

From the first faceoff, the Red took control of the puck in its offensive zone in various attempts to get the puck in the back of the net. Just more than a minute into the game, a Green player drew a penalty. Cornell tallied the fist goal of the game after senior defenseman Brendon Nash sent the puck to senior forward Colin Greening, who found senior forward Blake Gallagher wide-open on the weak side.

“We worked around the power-play pretty well. It was a good force by Brendon that hit either Greening’s stick or skate and I was just Johnny-on-the-Spot there to tap it in,” Gallagher said.

Throughout the remainder of the first period, Cornell continued its offensive attack when junior forward Patrick Kennedy cleared a rebound by Scrivens. Kennedy proceeded to skate down the ice, steal the pass and centered it to junior forward Riley Nash. Nash evaded one Green skater, fell to the ground and tried to lift the puck past Dartmouth goalie Jody O’Neill, but he snagged it out of the air with 19.2 seconds remaining in the first period.He’s no sieve: Senior goalie Ben Scrivens makes a save during the Red’s 5-1 defeat of Dartmoth on Friday. Scrivens finished the game with 21 total saves.

“It’s always nice to get the lead and not have to come from behind. It gives us a boost of energy, when the crowd is with us and we had the lead early so we can play our game,” said Brendon Nash.

Dartmouth’s frustration began to show early in the second period, when the Green was called for a five minute-major for hitting from behind just under four minutes into the frame. Although the Red didn’t take a shot for the first minute of its one-man advantage, the power play unit continued to effectively maintain the puck in its offensive zone, further exhausting the Green penalty kill unit. With 17 seconds remaining in the power play, Greening skated uncontested from the goalie’s left, took a shot from the circles, bounced off the goalie’s pad and into the net, resulting in the second goal of the night.

The tension in the arena peaked with 8:32 remaining in the period, when an open hit on Locke Jillson left the sophomore forward lying on the. Jillson was helped off the ice by his teammates and did not play for the remainder of the game, or against Harvard on Saturday.

“Locke was definitely in a vulnerable position, but it looked like the guy hit him in the head first,” Brendon Nash said. “You definitely get emotional when you see a teammate go down like that.”

Just seconds later, a frustrated scuffle after the whistle caused senior Joe Scali and Dartmouth’s Connor Goggin to each receive a 10-minute misconduct. Overall, six penalties were called to each team throughout the second period, with the Green collecting 39 minutes worth.

“Our guys were pretty fired up on the bench about it,” Schafer said. “To see the passion we had on the bench for one of their teammates getting hurt is understandable. I'm just glad it didn’t cost us from that standpoint. Good job on the penalty kill of taking care of things.”

For the remainder of the second period, the Red’s penalty kill unit did a great job after Gallagher, Riley Nash and Kennedy were all sent into the penalty box. Cornell utilized its big three defenders — Brendon Nash, Justin Krueger and Sean Whitney — on the 5-on-3 to shut down Dartmouth’s attempts.

Going into the third period, Schafer spoke to the skaters in the locker room about discipline and the importance of remaining a low penalized team. With a one-man advantage after a Dartmouth player was called for interference, Greening rifled a shot on the net, Gallagher collected the rebound and scored the Red’s third goal of the night. Forty seconds later, Cornell freshman John Esposito notched his first career goal, making the score 4-0.

A Cornell shutout was out of question when a penalty on freshman defenseman Braden Birch led to the Green’s first and only goal of the night. The Red finished its scoring for the night when Brendon Nash took a cross-ice pass from his brother and fired a shot from the faceoff circle and in the goal.

The Red went 4-for-7 on power plays and was able to kill off all but one of its own seven penalties.

“We knew what was out there so it made it easier for us to make those plays,” Brendon Nash said.