ITHACA, N.Y. -- It's not every day a hockey team loses a game that it led by five goals with about five minutes left in third period. But the unique format of the annual Red-White Game allowed the White team to do just that on Saturday night, rallying for a 7-6 victory at Lynah Rink.

Down 6-1 heading into the third, the White team scored a pair of goals 17 seconds apart, then closed the gap to two goals with an extra-attacker goal with 17 seconds left on the clock. The White team then scored the only three goals of the shootout, including Dustin Mowrey's winner that sent the squad spilling off the home bench in celebration.

But more importantly, the event drew more than 1,000 fans to the rink with donations totaling $1,845 to benefit the university's Emergency CARE Fund (the exact amount will be announced at a later date).

The Emergency Cornellians Aiding and Responding to Employees (CARE) Fund is a program offering financial assistance to faculty and staff who have experienced a non-recurring sudden or emergency-related financial hardship due to an unforeseen or unavoidable event. Some of the events that fund recipients have endured include house fires and unforeseen medical or funeral expenses, but the devastating floods that hit the area in early September has decimated the fund.

For the first time in recent memory, the intrasquad game featured three periods -- though the third period was shortened to 16 minutes. With both the men's and women's teams alternating pairs of shifts, it enabled teams to stay fresher than in the past.

In all, the women's team scored seven of the game's 13 goals, including six of the 10 scored in regulation time.

It didn't take long for the scoring to start. Emily Fulton jammed in a shot from the top of the crease after Chelsea Karpenko crashed the net from the right corner, giving the White team a 1-0 lead.

The Red team then rattled off the next six goals. Rebecca Johnston zipped a shot over Katelyn Pippy's blocker on a two-on-two rush at the 8:09 mark. Freshman Jacob MacDonald gave Red the lead 16 seconds later.

John Esposito put the Red team up 3-1, taking a long breakaway pass up the middle from Nick D'Agostino before shrugging off a defender and slipping a shot through Andy Iles' legs. Kendice Ogilvie's pinballing shot in the slot closed out the first period scoring.

Power plays were awarded evenly at set times throughout the game. Any infractions that were detected by the officials resulted in penalty shots, which produced three goals on five attempts. The first two pushed the Red team's lead to 6-1 early in the second period -- first with Armand de Swardt shooting a low shot past Iles, then Johnston lifted a backhand past Pippy after a move that involved kicking the puck to her stick.

White's rally started 9:54 into the third, with sophomore forward Brianne Jenner's centering pass from the bottom of the left circle caroming in off a defender in the low slot. Sixteen seconds later, freshman forward Joel Lowry sent a low shot by Vince Marozzi's right skate to cut the deficit to 6-3. With Mazzotta pulled late in the third, Karpenko converted a goal-mouth scramble to give the White team a managable two-goal deficit heading into the game-ending shootout.

The Red team couldn't convert any of its 10 shootout attempts against Iles (four saves, one shot wide) or Mazzotta (three saves, one shot wide and one -- from Jillian Saulnier -- off the post).

Karpenko scored the White team's first shootout goal with a shot between Lauren Slebodnick's legs. Junior forward Greg Miller then tied the game at 6. The teams traded misses over the next seven shots before the lefthanded-shooting Mowrey skating up the left side of the slot and fired a shot over Omar Kanji's glove to end the game.

Up next for the Big Red men's team is a two-game exhibition season, including home games against a pair of Canadian universities. Guelph will visit Lynah Rink on Friday, Oct. 21, with Carleton following for a Saturday, Oct. 22 contest. Faceoff for both games is 7 p.m.

Cornell's women's team, ranked second in the latest national poll, kicks off its season Tuesday, Oct. 25 at ECAC Hockey rival Colgate.