Box Score

HAMDEN, Conn. — There was no late letdown at High Point Solutions Arena this time.

Juniors Joakim Ryan and Brian Ferlin scored goals, senior goalie Andy Iles made 40 saves, and the men's hockey team staved off a late surge by Quinnipiac to earn a crucial 2-1 victory Friday night. With the victory, 13^th-ranked Cornell (13-7-5, 9-6-4 ECAC Hockey) ended a three-game losing streak and climbed into sole possession of fourth place in the league standings with three games to play. The top four teams earn first-round byes in the playoffs and advance straight to a best-of-three quarterfinal series at home the following week.
 
The last time the Big Red was at Quinnipiac's rink, it led for 58-plus minutes of a winner-take-all ECAC Hockey quarterfinal Game 3 in March 2013. But the Bobcats scored an extra-attacker goal to force overtime and eventually won in the second extra frame.
 
Iles had his second-highest save total of the season, topped only by his 44 stops Dec. 28 in a 4-2 win over New Hampshire. He now sits just 33 saves behind Ben Scrivens '10 for the program's all-time saves record (2,873).
 
Quinnipiac (21-7-5, 11-5-3), ranked fifth in the USCHO.com poll and sixth in the USA Today/USA Hockey Magazine poll, opened the scoring at the 12:54 mark. A rebound of a shot from the right-wing halfwall was kicked toward the top of the left circle. Connor Clifton took a shot which Iles saved, but Tommy Schutt got to the rebound and put it back into the blue paint and banked it in off a defenseman.
 
But the Big Red was quick to answer, knotting the game at 1 just 40 seconds later. Great work along the end boards by Joel Lowry and John McCarron allowed the latter to pick out Joakim Ryan in space toward the top of the left circle. The junior defenseman calmly waiting for a would-be shot-blocker to slide by and beat Bobcats goalie Michael Garteig with a low shot just inside the near post.
 
The game stayed that way until Cornell started to gain a territorial edge toward the middle portion of the second period. A line rush with Jeff Kubiak feeding John McCarron and setting up Joel Lowry for a shot from the slot narrowly missed at the 8:49 mark. Four minutes later, Patrick McCarron took a hit to set up John McCarron in space at the edge of the right circle. He stepped into a shot that Garteig saved, and Lowry's rebound attempt was similarly thwarted.

But the Big Red broke through to take a 2-1 lead on the next shift. A neutral-zone turnover allowed Cole Bardreau to send Brian Ferlin off on a breakaway from the blue line. He lifted a shot over Garteig's glove at the 13:27 mark to give Cornell its first lead since the end of a Feb. 1 victory at Brown. It was Ferlin's team-leading 11^th goal of the season.
 
Iles made sure that lead would stick, with Quinnipiac pouring on the pressure in the third period. Kellen Jones broke up the middle 1:19 into the final frame, but Iles was equal to his low shot as Kirill Gotovets started to gain ground from the forward's right. Working on the power play a little later, the Bobcats came even closer. Iles shrugged off Van Brabant's drive from the right circle at 7:43, then Derek Smith's center-point shot sailed through traffic and clanked off the post five seconds later.
 
There were plenty of anxious moments with Garteig pulled in favor of an extra attacker for the final 2:18 of the game. But Bardreau won a key faceoff with eight seconds remaining and Ryan ran off the clock along the wall, sending the Bobcats to their second consecutive loss for the first time since Oct. 27 and Nov. 6, 2012. Cornell also clinched a home playoff series with Friday's win.
 
With Dartmouth defeating Brown in overtime Friday, the Big Red didn't clinch the Ivy League title outright – but it can do so with a tie or win in its next game, 7 p.m. Saturday at Princeton.