Box Score

ALBANY, N.Y. -- Junior Colin Greening's wrist shot from between the circles with 10:06 to play in the second overtime lifted the Cornell men's hockey team to a 4-3 victory over Princeton on Friday night at the Times Union Center in Albany, N.Y. The win sent the Big Red into the championship game of the ECAC Hockey playoffs, where it will face top-seeded Yale on Saturday at 7 p.m.

With the score tied at three at the end of regulation, the two teams battled through a scoreless first overtime and half of the second overtime before the shot that sent Cornell into the title match. A puck that came out to Jared Seminoff at the blue line was mis-hit, but ended up on the stick of Tyler Mugford. Mugford laid the puck off for Greening coming from the faceoff circle to the left of Princeton goaltender Zane Kalemba, and he skated in between the circles before ripping a wrister that beat Kalemba, the league's player and goaltender of the Year, high to the glove side, sparking a wild celebration in the corner to Kalemba's right.

Greening and Mugford both finished the game with a goal and an assist, while Evan Barlow and Riley Nash both added goals for Cornell in the win. Locke Jillson, Sean Whitney, Michael Kennedy and Seminoff each had an assist for the Big Red (21-8-4).

For Princeton, Cam MacIntyre had a goal and two assists, while Dan Bartlett had a goal and an assist. Sam Sabky had the third goal for the Tigers (22-11-0).

Cornell goaltender Ben Scrivens picked up 37 saves on 40 Princeton shots, while Tigers netminder Kalemba made 39 stops on 43 Cornell shots. Neither team had success on the power play, as Cornell went 0-for-4 with the man advantage and Princeton was 0-for-5, though neither team had a power play in the overtime periods as no penalties were called after regulation.

Following a scoreless first period, Princeton took a 1-0 lead 1:40 into the second period as Cam McIntyre took a shot that Scrivens stopped, but left the rebound out in front for Sam Sabky. Sabky fired one shot that Scrivens stopped with his left leg, but Sabky cleaned up his own rebound, sliding the puck around the outstretched leg of the junior netminder for the game's first goal.

Cornell evened things up nearly midway through the period as a busted play in the Princeton end led to a loose puck in between the circles. Sean Whitney came charging in and fired a shot that was blocked, but came off to Locke Jillson. Jillson then ripped a shot of his own that was blocked, but again the rebound took a Cornell bounce onto the stick of Mugford, who clamly slotted the puck around the outstretched leg of Kalemba.

Princeton regained the lead with 5:57 to play in the second period, as Dan Bartlett skated in on the goal to Scrivens' left, getting the junior to his knees in anticipation of the shot. Bartlett then skated around the back of the goal and wrapped the puck into the weask side before Scrivens could recover to put the Tigers back up by one.

Princeton went up 3-1 with 8:51 to play in the third period as McIntyre skated in along the goal line and cut in toward the top of the crease and slid a shot that skimmed low under the outstretched glove of Scrivens.

Cornell again cut into the lead, this time with Evan Barlow making an end-to-end run down the ice with the puck. Barlow made a good move to strip a Princeton forward of the puck in front of the Cornell goal. Barlow then made a run down the ice with the puck in front of the two team benches, then cut at the hash marks and faked out a defenseman before flipping the puck over the flailing save attempt by Kalemba.

Cornell tried to clear the puck out of its own zone to get Scrivens to the bench for the extra skater, finally doing so with one minute to play. Blake Gallagher got off a shot from the bottom of the faceoff circle to Kalemba's right, but the junior was there to snag the puck with his glove hand.

The Big Red won the ensuing faceoff and kept the play in the Princeton end. A scrum in front of the goal ended up with Evan Barlow being checked over top of Kalemba, and with the reigning league player of the year on the ice, Nash flipped the puck inside the near post for the game-tying goal with 24.1 seconds left in the third period. 

Cornell will try for its 12th ECAC Hockey championship in program history on Saturday night, taking on top-seeded Yale in a 7 p.m. contest at the Times Union Center in Albany, N.Y. Saturday night's game can be seen live in Central New York on Time Warner Cable Sports and in Canada on the NHL Network. The game can also be seen on tape delay on the NHL Network in both the US and Canada on Sunday at noon.