NORTHFIELD, VT – The Cortland men's hockey team scored three goals in the first 13 minutes of the contest to earn a 3-1 victory over Misericordia to kick off the Norwich Northfield Savings Bank Holiday Tournament.
 
Cortland improves to 7-4-1 with its third straight victory, while Misericordia is 1-8-1. The Red Dragons will face the winner of the other semifinal contest pitting Norwich against Nazareth in the championship game tomorrow. If Nazareth is victorious, the game time will be 1 p.m., and if Norwich is victorious, the contest will be at 4 p.m.
 
Alex Zakrzewski (Buffalo/Rochester Jr. Americans), Conor Humphrey (Penfield/Rochester Jr. Americans), and Brady Hildreth (Lockport/New Jersey Titans) each tallied a goal for Cortland, while Shane Shelest (Pointe-Claire, QC/Wellington Dukes) stopped 12-of-13 shots in goal for the victory.
 
Cortland outshot Misericordia by a significant 60-13 margin, but the Cougars' goaltender Ayden Pierce made 57 saves, including a perfect 33-for-33 over the final two frames. Misericordia's lone goal was scored by Brendan Vettraino, assisted by Charlie Mulligan.
 
The Red Dragons needed just 1:38 to open the scoring in the game, with Zakrzewski's first collegiate goal. After an initial shot from the right point by Zakrzewski was saved following a feed from along the left boards by Sam Christiano (Buffalo/Buffalo Jr. Sabres), Garrett Krieger (Skaneateles/Utica Jr. Comets) was able to pry the puck out of the goal crease, and Zakrzewski deposited a shot into the left corner of the goal.
 
Cortland doubled its lead just past the midway point of the frame. A shot by Matthew DeSpirt (Hamburg/Northeast Generals) at the left point was stopped by Pierce, but Thomas Rockey (Mullica Hill, NJ/Rochester Jr. Americans) tapped the rebound out to Humphrey at the left side of the goal, and the sophomore flicked a wrist shot into the goal for his fifth goal of the year, and third goal in the past two games.
 
The Red Dragons made it 3-0 less than 2:30 later, as Stephen Kyrkostas (Selden/Johnstown Tomahawks) stole the puck below the Misericordia goal line, and sent a feed to Hildreth out front of goal. The junior quickly wristed a shot that deflected off the stick of a Misericordia defenseman and into the back of the net for Hildreth's third goal of the year, also his second straight game with a goal.
 
The game remained 3-0 into the intermission, as Cortland outshot Misericordia 27-7 in the frame, and Shelest was able to stop all of the Cougars' attempts on goal.
 
Cortland continued to control play through the second period, but could not add to its lead despite firing 14 more shots on goal in the second period. Meanwhile, Shelest was not tested much in the second period, being forced to make only two saves.
 
The Cougars got on the board five minutes into the third period, as Vettraino deflected a shot low and into the bottom right corner of the goal to pull Misericordia back to within two goals.
 
Cortland had two opportunities on the power play in the final 10 minutes of the game, but couldn't capitalize with the extra man due to an excellent diving save by Pierce to deny Colby Seitz (Eden/Corpus Christi IceRays). In the final minute, the Cougars pulled Pierce for an extra attacker, but couldn't find another goal to put pressure on the Red Dragons.