Box Score
Photo Gallery (Photos by Dave Burbank)

ALBANY, N.Y. -- New Hampshire had a trio of players score a pair of goals as the Wildcats knocked the Cornell men's hockey team out of the 2010 NCAA tournament with a 6-2 loss on Friday night at the Times Union Center in Albany, N.Y.

Cornell got goals from Tyler Roeszler and Dan Nicholls in the contest, but the Big Red could not overcome a pair of goals from Bobby Butler, Mike Sislo and Paul Thompson as the Wildcats knocked Cornell out of the NCAA tournament in the first round since the 1996 season.

Ben Scrivens took the loss in goal for the Big Red, allowing five goals on 31 shots. Brian Foster got the win for the Wildcats, stopping 24 Cornell shots. The Big Red was held scoreless in its two power-play chances, while New Hampshire was held scoreless in its only power-play opportunity of the night.

Cornell took a 1-0 lead with 48.5 seconds left in the first period when Joe Devin skated to the post with the puck and flipped a shot that was blocked by Foster, but Roeszler picked up the loose puck in front of the crease and skated past Foster, lifting the puck into the net byeond the outstretched arm of the senior netminder. The Big Red then got a pair of saves from Scrivens in the closing seconds of the period to take a 1-0 lead into the first intermission.

In shades of last year's East Regional contest between Vermont and Air Force, New Hampshire's Butler got a turnover in the Cornell zone and ripped a wrist shot from between the circles that beat Scrivens, but officials did not see the puck enter the net. At the next stoppage in play at the 2:29 mark, they reviewed the play, and ruled the puck went through the netting, tying the score at one with 3:13 to play. The goal snapped Scrivens' shutout streak at 267:11, the third longest streak in NCAA history.

The Wildcats then took the lead at the 2:47 mark when Mike Sislo took a cross-ice pass from the point and fired a low wrister that slipped between Scrivens and the near post for the 2-1 lead. New Hampshire took that lead into the second intermission, and Cornell trailed by a 2-1 score after two periods for the third straight regional semifinal contest.

Unlike the previous two games, though, it was New Hampshire that scored the next goal, as Paul Thompson put the Wildcats ahead by a 3-1 margin. Thompson ripped a wrist shot from the faceoff dot to the left of Scrivens that slipped under the glove of the senior goaltender at the 2:52 mark of the period.

Butler got a breakaway with 6:36 gone in the third period and faked his way past Scrivens, firing a wrist shot into the goal to the left of the senior for the 4-1 lead.

Sislo added his second of the game with 4:46 to play in the third, taking the puck into the Cornell end, waiting for the Big Red defense to skate by, and ringing a wrister that clanged off the bar and into the net.

Cornell finally ended the 5-0 New Hampshire run when Dan Nicholls popped a loose puck over the shoulder of Foster off a shot that Greening fired on net, only to be blocked down by a Wildcat defenseman. The puck was tangled up in the defenseman's skates before the junior lifted it out and over Foster's shoulder and into the net.

Scrivens came to the bench for the extra skater with 1:33 to play, but the Wildcats were able to ice the puck with 45.6 seconds left. Cornell coach Mike Schafer burned his only timeout, trying to set up a play for his offense, but New Hampshire ended up winning the draw and skating in with Thompson scoring the empty-net goal for the final margin of 6-2.

Game Notes
- Cornell fell to 0-3 against New Hampshire in NCAA tournament play. Cornell lost to the Wildcats by a 4-3 score in the East Regional final in 2002 in Worcester, Mass., and in the national semifinals by a 3-2 score in 2003 in Buffalo, N.Y.
- Scrivens' shutout streak ended with Butler's first goal in the second period. The streak reached from March 12 against Harvard until March 26, and included three straight shutouts. Total time of the streak reached 267:11, making it the third-longest streak in NCAA history, behind only Blaine Lacher's 375:01 in 1994 and Brian Elliott's 269:52 in 2006.
- With Tyler Roeszler's goal in the first period, Cornell avoided being shut out for the entire season. The last time Cornell scored at least once in every game came during the 1998-99 season, when Cornell finished with a 12-15-4 record.
- Cornell was eliminated in the regional semifinal round of the NCAA tournament for the first time since the 1996 season, Mike Schafer's first year behind the Cornell bench. That year, the Big Red fell to Lake Superior State, 5-4. The location of that loss: the Times Union Center in Albany, N.Y. In between, the Big Red was eliminated in the regional final four times and once in the national semifinals.
- The loss was Cornell's worst loss in NCAA tournament play since the Big Red dropped a 6-2 decision to North Dakota on March 23, 1997, in Grand Rapids, Mich.