Box Score

PROVIDENCE, R.I. -- The Cornell men's hockey team rallied late in the third period from a two-goal deficit, only to fall in overtime, 3-2, to Brown on Friday night at Meehan Auditorium in Providence, R.I.

Tyler Roeszler and Sean Collins both scored a power-play goal for the Big Red (13-12-3, 11-8-2 ECAC Hockey) in the final 10 minutes of the third period to send the game to overtime, but Brown's David Brownschidle scored off a rebound 30 seconds into the extra session to lift the Bears to the win. Greg Miller, Nick D'Agostino and Locke Jillson each recorded an assist on the night for the Big Red, while Andy Iles made 31 saves in taking the loss. Cornell finished the night 2-for-5 on the power play.

For Brown (9-13-5, 7-11-2), Harry Zolnierczyk had a pair of goals, but also a costly hitting from behind major late that gave Cornell the momentum to tie the contest. Brownschidle added an assist to his game-winning goal, while Dennis Robertson had apair of assists and Jeff Ryan and Jarred Smith had one each. Mike Clemente made 31 saves in the win for the Bears, who finished the night 1-for-3 on the power play.

Brown got on the scoreboard midway through the first period, converting on the power play to take the 1-0 lead. With Brown on the power play, a missed clearance at the Cornell blue line resulted in the puck getting chipped back into the slot, where Zolnierczyk back-handed the bouncing up over Iles and into the net.

In the second, a great individual effort by Zolnierczyk doubled the Bear lead, when, at the 8:18 mark of the period, he was sprung on a breakway by Brownschidle, leaped over the leg of a Cornell defenseman, and backhanded a shot that Iles saved, but the puck slipped underneath him, and the freshman accidentally knocked the puck into his own goal with his outstretched right leg as Brown took a 2-0 lead into the second intermission.

Cornell came out sluggish to start the third period, prompting head coach Mike Schafer to call his only timeout of the contest just 2:04 into the period. The squad responded, and had several scoring chances before a penalty on Robertson gave Cornell just its third power-play chance of the night. With 23 seconds gone on the penalty to Robertson, Zolnierczyk crunched D'Agostino into the boards in the corner to the right of Iles, prompting a five-minute major and game misconduct for him, putting Cornell on an extended 5-on-3 for 1:37. 

Roeszler finally put Cornell on the board with seven seconds left on the two-man advantage, sneaking to the back post and jamming home a pass from Miller along the goal line with 8:06 to play. Then, Jillson fired a shot on goal from the slot that Clemente stopped, but the rebound came off to an unmarked Collins, who wheeled around and fired the puck into the open net, knotting the score at two with 5:55 to play in the contest.

As neither team could find the net in the closing minutes of regulation, the game headed to overtime, where Robertson's first chance of the extra session was stopped by Iles, but the rebound remained in the slot, where Brownschidle buried it just 30 seconds in, sending the Big Red to defeat.

Cornell is now tied with Princeton for the fourth and final bye in the upcoming ECAC Hockey playoffs with one game remaining for both teams, and with Rensselaer lurking one point back. Cornell needs only to match their results on Saturday night to clinch the bye as the Tigers play at Union and Rensselaer plays host to Quinnipiac. Cornell will face off in the regular-season finale on Saturday night at Yale in a 7 p.m. contest at Ingalls Rink in New Haven, Conn.