Box Score

ESTERO, Fla. -- Andy Iles made a season-high 44 saves and Florida native Brian Ferlin scored the winning goal to lead the men's hockey team to a 4-2 victory over New Hampshire on Saturday night in a first-round game of the Florida College Hockey Classic at Germain Arena. The Big Red will face Maine in Sunday's championship tilt.

Joakim Ryan scored the go-ahead goal, and Joel Lowry had a pair of assists for the Big Red.

Cornell (8-4-2) was put on its heels early in its first game action in three weeks, falling behind by a goal less than five minutes into the game. New Hampshire (9-10-1) had a 17-7 advantage in shots on goal in the first period, aided significantly by receiving all three power plays of the frame. But with Big Red goalie Andy Iles stopping 16 of the Wildcats' shots in the first 20 minutes, Cornell entered the first intermission tied -- thanks to captain John McCarron's fourth goal of the season.

McCarron skated up the right wing and delayed after gaining the zone, which allowed Lowry to cut across the middle and receive McCarron's pass while coasting toward the bottom of the circle. McCarron alerted darted into the vacated space down the slot and backhanded Lowry's return pass past the blocker of UNH goalie Casey DeSmith at the 8:57 mark.

Cornell pulled ahead for good with a superior second period. Ryan's fifth goal of the season gave the Big Red the lead at 2:30. Reece Willcox started the play with a breakout up the middle and flipped dump-in to the right corner of the UNH zone. Jeff Kubiak was quick to the puck and wheeled behind the net and back up to Ryan at the left point. His shot sailed past traffic and DeSmith.

A huge defensive play then set up Ferlin's winning goal on the power play. New Hampshire's Matt Willows entered the Big Red zone on the left wing on a two-on-one. Freshman defenseman Patrick McCarron slid across to knock down Willows' attempted pass toward the middle, then Ryan quickly turned the puck up ice in transition. Dustin Mowrey set up Ferlin for a shot from the right circle that DeSmith stopped, but the hulking winger got free to convert the rebound for his team-leading eighth goal of the season. Ferlin is familiar with Germain Arena, having played at the youth level with a Florida Junior Everblades that was based in Estero.

New Hampshire bounced back when Justin Agosta's 100-foot dump-in took a fluky bounce into the Big Red net just 2:09 into the third period, but the Big Red held on to improve to 7-0 this season when leading a game after two periods. Iles made a handful of enormous saves down the stretch. After stopping a Trevor van Riemsdyk point shot, Iles slid across to his left to thwart Grayson Downing on the rebound with 8:34 to play. A minute later, Iles stuffed van Riemsdyk's shot from point-blank range following a turnover on an attempted Big Red breakout.

Cole Bardreau iced the game with an empty-net goal with 1:02 to play, set up by Lowry's pass from the left corner. It was Bardreau's sixth goal in just his eighth game of the season.

For the second straight season, Cornell will take on Maine (10-6-1) in the championship game of the two-day tournament. The Black Bears defeated Princeton, 4-0, in Saturday's other first-round game. Princeton and New Hampshire will play in the event's consolation game at 4:05 p.m., followed by the title game at 7:35 p.m.