ITHACA, N.Y.—It took 56 minutes of “safety school” and “Murphy beats his wife,” but Cornell fans finally got it right.

“Zero offense.”

Harvard’s struggling scorers couldn’t solve the No. 12 Big Red’s forecheck or netminder David McKee, spending the majority of their ice time struggling just to crack the offensive zone before falling 2-0 for their fourth consecutive road loss in the series.

Colgate’s defense wasn’t nearly as stingy Saturday afternoon, but the Crimson couldn’t find the net until the third period, and a late-game offensive flurry from the Raiders proved insurmountable, as Harvard fell, 4-1.

“Well we’re disappointed,” Harvard coach Ted Donato ’91 said. “We knew it was going to be a difficult task to come up against two of the top teams in the league on the road early on in the season. But there’s no excuses.”

CORNELL 2, HARVARD 0

Renewed emphasis on clutching and grabbing penalties should have favored Harvard (0-1-1, 0-1-1 ECACHL).

It didn’t.

The officials whistled the Crimson for three minors in the first six minutes—seven overall—handing the Big Red (3-0-0, 1-0-0) early momentum Harvard never countered.

Though its special teams managed to kill 1:45 of 5-on-3 play early in the first period, the Crimson found itself on the defensive throughout the period with few, brief exceptions. But a man advantage, Harvard’s first of the game, awarded with two minutes left in the frame, presented the Crimson with a chance to not only catch its breath, but change the complexion of the game as well.

Yet despite the extra skater, Harvard failed to establish a presence inside the Cornell zone. A series of lackluster passes sent the Crimson scrambling back towards its own goalmouth, where junior defenseman Tom Walsh coughed up the puck to the Big Red’s Mitch Carefoot. As the two tussled behind the net, Carefoot slipped the puck out to teammate Mike Knoepfli as he streaked towards the goal.

The Cornell captain one-timed the feed, beating netminder Dov Grumet-Morris from point-blank range for the game-winning tally.

“I think there’s no doubt the game was lost for us on the special teams,” Donato said. “[We had] killed off a 5-on-3...We get on the power play. Now we have a chance to do something, and not only do we not score, but we allowed them a goal at the end of the period to get them going.”

The Big Red, fed by the energized Lynah crowd, staved off the overwhelming majority of Crimson attempts to even penetrate McKee’s zone. Harvard mustered just 17 shots and, more often than not, had trouble stringing together the necessary passes in the neutral zone, allowing Cornell to keep the puck on Crimson ice.

Under fire throughout as a result, Grumet-Morris, who recorded 32 saves, singlehandedly kept Harvard in contention with his spectacular play in net.