Box Score

HAMDEN, Conn. – For the first since 2005, the men's hockey scored two shorthanded goals in a game, using the third-period strikes by senior Sean Collins and freshman Joel Lowry to erase a one-goal deficit and notch a hard-fought 3-2 victory on Friday night at Quinnipiac.
 
Collins' goal came unassisted just 2 minutes, 17 seconds into the third period to tie the game at 2. He poked the puck away from a Quinnipiac player at the left point in the defensive zone, then won the race down the wing to set up a breakaway. He beat Bobcats goalie Eric Hartzell with a low shot. It was his sixth goal of the season.
 
Collins then set up the winner a little more than 10 minutes later on a rush that started with the teams skating four-on-four. Junior defenseman Braden Birch started the play with a pass up the left wing to send Collins away on a two-on-two. He waited until Lowry beat his defender to the top of the crease, then laid across a perfect that Lowry chipped over Hartzell to put #9/9 Cornell (10-4-2, 7-1-1) on top for good. The goal came just as a Quinnipiac (12-8-5, 4-5-4) player emerged from the penalty box, giving the Big Red two shorthanded goals in the same game for the first time since March 11, 2005 (Mike Knoepfli and Mike Iggulden).

The Big Red then staved off the Bobcats from there, with sophomore goalie Andy Iles racking up 31 saves for the victory. He made a save on Russell Goodman from the right circle with 6:11 remaining, but the situation turned frenetic when Quinnipiac pulled Hartzell for the final 2:06. The Bobcats kept the Big Red pinned in its own zone from there. Iles made a post-to-post save on a one-timer from Lorren Barron with about 1:30 remaining, then stuff Cory Hibbeler on the doorstep with 14 seconds left. The threat then ended in dramatic fashion when Barron's shot from the top of the left circle clanked off the near post and deflected out of play with 4 seconds on the clock.
 
It was stark contrast from the first period, which was clean and brisk with no penalties, good pace and plenty of action along the walls. The Big Red's bid to take control early was countered with a pair of odd-man rushes the other way. But Cornell's defense and goaltending were equal to the task. Sophomore defenseman Kirill Gotovets foiled a two-on-one break by picking off a pass at the 4:28 mark. A minute and a half later, it was junior defenseman Nick D'Agostino sliding across to his right to thwart a late-breaking three-on-two rush.
 
Just like in last weekend's series at Colorado College, senior forward Locke Jillson kicked off the Big Red scoring. A huge hit by freshman forward Cole Bardreau left a Quinnipiac defenseman struggling to regain position in the zone. Sophomore forward Dustin Mowrey then forced a turnover on the opposite wing, Bardreau collected and dropped it to Jillson at the top of the left circle. He stepped into a slap shot that launched over Hartzell's blocker at the 15:22 mark in the first period, giving Jillson his third goal of the season and Cornell a 1-0 lead.
 
The Big Red continued to threaten late into the frame until the penultimate shift turned sour. Freshman defenseman Joakim Ryan decked Quinnipiac forward Spencer Heichman to the ice, but Heichman was still able to direct the puck to Jeremy Langlois standing directly to Cornell sophomore goalie Andy Iles' right. Langlois jammed a shot toward goal that caromed off a Big Red defender's skate and inside the far post, knotting the score at 1.
 
The second period had a much more urgent feel, spurred by the game's first penalty 30 seconds into the stanza. D'Agostino had a golden opportunity from the slot that had Hartzell beat, but deflected off the shaft of the goalie's stick and harmlessly over the glass. The Bobcats killed the rest of the Cornell man advantage, then got its own opportunity before the midway point.
 
It took Quinnipiac just 17 seconds to do damage with Zack Currie netting a rebound goal at the 7:48 mark. Connor Jones worked the puck from right to left along the blue line and fired a shot that Iles kicked away to his right. But Currie was crashing toward goal from the circle and buried the rebound to give the Bobcats a 2-1 lead. The goal ended a streak of 33 consecutive Cornell penalty kills against Quinnipiac that dated back to Nov. 21, 2009.
 
The victory gives the Big Red a 4-0-1 mark all-time at TD Bank Sports Center, and a 6-0-1 mark in its last seven league games. With Colgate's 6-2 loss at Princeton on Friday, the Big Red now leads ECAC Hockey by two points over Union even with the Dutchmen playing one more game to date. Cornell also improved to 7-0 on Friday nights.
 
The Big Red concludes its six-game stretch away from home with a 7 p.m. game Saturday at Princeton (5-10-4, 4-8-1). The game will be televised on tape delay by Verizon FiOS 1 in Long Island and New Jersey regions, while Jason Weinstein will provide live play-by-play on both WHCU-AM 870 in Ithaca and Cornell's Redcast service worldwide.
 
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