Box Score
 
ITHACA, N.Y. – Freshmen Joakim Ryan and Joel Lowry scored goals, and sophomore goalie Andy Iles made 31 saves to spur the men's hockey team to a 2-2 tie against rival Harvard in front of the perennially spirited sold-out crowd Saturday night at Lynah Rink.
 
Cornell (11-4-4, 8-1-3 ECAC Hockey) never trailed for the third consecutive game, extending its unbeaten streak to a national-best seven games (4-0-3) and its league unbeaten streak to 10 (8-0-2).
 
“You look around the league, and it's really hard to get points right now,” head coach Mike Schafer said. “So to get three points out of the weekend, it's huge for us a team to keep stepping forward.”
 
Lowry kicked off the evening's scoring 9 minutes, 2 seconds into a physical first period that saw big hits thrown from both sides. Defensemen Mathieu Brisson and captain Keir Ross worked the puck up the left side to Lowry, who wristed a shot from the top of the left circle that sailed over the glove of Crimson goalie Steve Michalek.
 
Harvard (4-6-8, 3-4-6) climbed back into the game on the strength of its potent power play, which entered the night with a 34.7 percent success rate – tops among Division I's 58 teams. The Crimson took to the man advantage late with 2:06 remaining in the first period, then ended just 21 seconds later on Marshall Everson's goal. He tipped a point shot from junior defenseman Danny Biega out of mid-air, leaving Iles virtually no hope of making a save. It was the eighth time in the Crimson's last nine games that it has scored on its first power-play chance.
 
But as potent as Harvard's power play is, the Big Red stood tall to it in the second period with Iles making 10 saves on three successful kills. The first two came in quick succession – with the Crimson whistled for too many players on the ice following the completion of the second.
 
That led to Ryan's fifth goal of the season, giving the Big Red a 2-1 lead at the 10:34 mark. Junior forward Greg Miller had a shot blocked from the left side, but he collected the puck and quickly sent a pass to the center point that Ryan blasted past Michalek's glove hand and off the post before it splashed the net. Junior defenseman Nick D'Agostino also assisted on the play, his second of the weekend. D'Agostino, Miller and freshman forward Brian Ferlin are now all tied for the team lead in points (17).
 
About three minutes later, a turnover in the neutral zone led Harvard away with Alex Killorn pushing the puck ahead to Colin Blackwell for a clear-cut breakaway. Blackwell made a move to his backhand, but Iles stretched out his right pad to make the save and bring the Lynah Faithful to its feet.
 
But the Crimson would eventually equalize in the second half of the third period. Blackwell's wraparound attempt was deflected into the air by a Big Red defender, but the puck bounced right to Killorn in the slot. He was able to chip a shot over Iles to tie the game at 2.
 
Harvard threatened again late in the third period, but Iles got a piece of Killorn's shot from the left circle with 1:23 remaining in regulation, then squeezed off a shot from Patrick McNally off the ensuing faceoff. But overtime yielded little in the way of ominous chances either way, and the score stayed knotted.
 
With the result, Cornell extended its lead in the league standings to two points over Union, which lost 3-2 on Saturday at Brown. The Big Red has also played one fewer game than the Dutchmen. The deadlock also leaves Cornell with a substantial lead in the Ivy League standings, where the Big Red is 5-1-2 (12 points) with just visits from Yale and Brown remaining. Princeton is in second place with five points and can't catch Cornell, but there are several other schools with games in hand. The Big Red's last Ivy League title was in 2005.
 
The season doesn't slow down any next week for the Big Red, which will play its annual pair of games against Central New York rival Colgate. The 18th-ranked Raiders will visit Lynah Rink at 7:30 p.m. on Friday, Jan. 27 for a nationally televised contest on CBS Sports Network. The teams then square off in a matchup at 7 p.m. on Saturday, Jan. 28 at Colgate's Starr Rink.
 
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