Box Score
 
ITHACA, N.Y. – Sean Whitney picked a good time for his first goal of the season.
 
The senior defenseman sent a snap shot over the shoulder of Dartmouth goalie Jody O'Neill with 2 minutes, 20 seconds remaining in the second overtime period on Friday's Game 1 of an ECAC Hockey quarterfinal series, giving the Big Red men's hockey team a 4-3 victory and 1-0 series lead.
 
The teams will meet again in Game 2 of the series at 7 p.m. Saturday at Lynah Rink, with the Big Green needing a victory to force a decisive Game 3 on Sunday night.
 
Sophomore Kirill Gotovets started the decisive play, moving the puck along the boards in the Big Red zone for classmate Armand de Swardt to carry up the left wing. De Swardt cancelled a Dartmouth defender in the neutral zone, allowing Whitney to skate on to the puck and gain the zone with forward Cole Bardreau toeing the blue line as Whitney moved paralell toward the right. With Bardreau crashing the net, Whitney uncorked a shot that O'Neill appeared to never see, clanking off the back crossbar in the net.
 
The play ended the longest game in Lynah Rink history, the second-longest game in program history and 11th-longest in ECAC Hockey history. The longest game in Cornell men's hockey history was 111:13 on March 26, 2006 in an NCAA Regional Final against Wisconsin.
 
Whitney has a track record with goals in big games, too. His last goal also came against Dartmouth in a 3-0 victory against the Big Green in an ECAC Hockey semifinal on March 18, 2011. He also scored against Union in another 3-0 victory in the ECAC Hockey Championship on March 20, 2010. Earlier that season, he scored in the Big Red's sold-out game at Madison Square Garden.
 
Friday's heroics would have never happened without several spectacular stops from sophomore goalie Andy Iles, who made a career-high 46 saves on the night. He stopped Brandon McNally on a two-on-one 2:25 into the first overtime, then made a point-blank save on Alex Goodship four minutes later after a defensive turnover. Iles then turned away clean one-timers from the circles by Connor Goggin and Goodship in the second overtime, then got a little help when Eric Neiley's shot 3:28 into the period slid along the ice and caromed away off the post.
 
Junior John Esposito scored two first-period goals for second-seeded Cornell (16-7-7) in his first game since Feb. 11 and just his third appearance in the Big Red's last 14 games. Sophomore Dustin Mowrey netted Cornell's other goal to cap a wild five-goal first period that left the hosts with a 3-2 lead.
 
Just as in its last Friday home game – a 3-2 win against Union on Feb. 24 – the Big Red fell behind early. Ninth-seeded Dartmouth (13-15-4) earned a power play on the second shift of the game, then converted just 2 minutes, 20 seconds off the opening faceoff. Cornell cleared the puck and forced the Big Green to regroup in its own zone, but the visitors quickly gained ground on a solo rush up the middle by Matt Lindblad. Both Big Red defenseman converged on Lindblad as he drove down the slot, leaving Tyler Sikura free to pop a rebound past Iles.
 
Cornell would counter then take a 2-1 lead with Esposito's goals 4:10 apart – the first of which can only be chalked up as bizarre. Junior Greg Miller worked the puck behind the goal from the left wing, but the puck flipped onto the back of the net. As players from both teams gathered to take a whack at the mesh and try to dislodge the puck, it was Mowrey who was finally able to direct it out to the far side. Esposito converged and slid the puck toward the front and off a defenseman for Cornell's first strike at the 6:10 mark – just as a power play expired.
 
Esposito's second goal came from equally short distance, but this time on the man advantage. Junior defenseman Nick D'Agostino ripped a shot from the top of the circle that crashed off the post behind O'Neill. Esposito was able to find the riccochet first and convert from the crease and give Cornell a lead.
 
But Dartmouth equalized on the power play, highlighted by another spectacular individual effort. From the top of the slot, defenseman Connor Goggin toe-dragged the puck around a pair of would-be shot-blockers and found himself pivoting a three-on-one from in tight. He uncorked a high wrister that blasted Iles in the mask, then found the rebound and scored before the defense could recover.
 
Mowrey's goal capped the frenzy 1:49 before the intermission. Gotovets moved down the left side of the zone and sent a shot wide of the far post. Miller gathered the puck in the right corner and maneuvered around traffic along the back wall before feeding a perfect pass to the slot for Mowrey to send over O'Neill's glove.
 
With all of the unabashed blows the teams traded in the first period, the second period had a decidedly more calculated flavor. Cornell established a more physical tone and kept Dartmouth from getting a shot on goal until the frame was nearly nine minutes old.
 
But it was still the Big Green that scored the stanza's only goal – from one of the most unlikely sources. Senior Kyle Schussler, playing in just his seventh collegiate game, was free in the slot to cash in a shot after Charlie Mosey was thwarted at the opposite post at the 12:32 mark. Jason Bourgea drew the other assist on the goal, which knotted the score at 3.
 
With the win, Cornell improves to 11-1-2 on Fridays this season. With a win on Saturday (or Sunday, in an if-necessary Game 3), the Big Red can assure itself of at least one more Friday game – an ECAC Hockey semifinal on March 16 at Boardwalk Hall in Atlantic City, N.J