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ITHACA, N.Y. -- The men's hockey team closed out the regular season in style on Saturday night against rival Harvard with Joel Lowry jamming home a rebound with 36.3 seconds left in overtime to lift the Big Red to a dramatic 3-2 victory over Harvard on Senior Night. With the victory, Cornell finishes fourth in the ECAC Hockey standings and earns a bye through the first round of the playoffs.

Junior forward Cole Bardreau created the winning goal with an end-to-end dash, weaving through several bodies in the neutral zone before beating his defender wide on the right wing. As he forced the puck toward the net, John McCarron and Lowry started pounded away before Lowry was credited with the goal with Harvard goalie Steve Michalek's leg, glove and the puck drifting behind the goal line.

It was the third unanswered goal of the game for Cornell (15-8-5, 11-7-4 ECAC Hockey), ranked 11th in the USCHO.com and USA Today/USA Hockey Magaznie polls, which had a rare off night on the penalty kill. Harvard (10-15-4, 6-12-4) jumped out to an early lead on Sean Malone's back-door conversion in just the second minute of the first period, then the Crimson extended its lead to two goals on Alexander Kerfoot's power-play marker with 9 minutes to play in the second period.

After getting shut out Friday by Dartmouth, Cornell was seemingly in danger of being blanked in back-to-back games for the first time since 1963. But those fears were quashed just 1:46 after Harvard's second goal, with McCarron's seventh goal of the season cutting the home side's deficit back to one. Lowry took a shot from the left circle that was stopped, but junior defenseman Jacob MacDonald had jumped into the play and muscled away his defender to get to the rebound. MacDonald then fed the puck back to McCarron at the open left point, and his shot sailed into heavy traffic and splashed the net high to the stick side.

Cornell continued to pour it on in front of the fevered crowd, eventually equalizing on a freshman connection. MacDonald was once again a factor, gaining the zone on the right side and drawing attention from the defense before passing back toward the middle to create an odd-man break in tight quarters. Jeff Kubiak drove toward goal and passed across to Matt Buckles, who finished a shot past Michalek's right pad to tie the game at 2 with 2:42 left before the intermission.

While the Crimson only had 19 shots on goal, Cornell goalie Andy Iles was called upon several times to make game-saving stops -- especially in overtime. Kyle Criscuolo was set up in the slot with 3:47 to play in the extra frame, but was foiled by Iles. A defensive-zone turnover led to a Harvard three-on-one with 2:02 to play, leading to Kerfoot's quality chance from the inside of the right circle. But Iles was once again equal to the task, finishing the night with 17 saves.

After the game, the Big Red honored its six seniors -- Iles, Dustin Mowrey, Kirill Gotovets, Rodger Craig, Armand de Swardt and Craig Esposito.

Cornell's prize for finishing fourth in the league standings is a coveted first-round bye. While eight of the league's other 11 teams are battling in the first round, the Big Red, first-seeded Union, second-seeded Colgate and third-seeded Quinnipiac will enjoy a week of rest. The four winners of the best-of-three first round will advance to the quarterfinals, where they will travel to the home sites of the top four seeds for another round of best-of-three series. The Big Red will take on the highest-remaining seed March 14-16 at Lynah Rink. Possible opponents include Clarkson, Yale, Rensselaer, St. Lawrence and Brown.