Box Score (PDF)

CAMBRIDGE, Mass. — In a combined 121 career games, senior forward Teemu Tiitinen and sophomore defenseman Dan Wedman had scored two collegiate goals entering Friday's game — but their next two goals lifted the Cornell men's hockey team to a 2-2 tie with rival Harvard on Friday night at Bright-Landry Hockey Center. The Big Red fought off a pair of one-goal deficits, and junior goaltender Mitch Gillam made 33 saves to help Cornell gain a valuable point the ECAC Hockey standings.
 
Friday's tie moved Cornell (12-8-6, 7-7-5) into a tie with Clarkson for seventh place with three games to play in the regular season. The Big Red, currently ranked 16th in the country in the USCHO.com poll, remains one point behind Rensselaer for sixth and just three points behind Dartmouth and St. Lawrence for fourth. The top four teams in the final standings earn a first-round bye in the ECAC Hockey Championship playoffs.
 
The last time these teams met last month in Ithaca, N.Y., the Big Red got into early penalty trouble and the Crimson's vaunted power play helped it build a formidable early lead. Cornell found itself just shorthanded just 20 seconds into Friday's affair, but produced a better result with a successful penalty kill. Anthony Angello forced the first quality save of the game, but Harvard's Merrick Madsen was equal to his one-time from the slot set up by Mitch Vanderlaan in the game's fifth minute.
 
The Crimson then took advantage of a puck bounce off one of the referees to take the lead on Sean Malone's goal at the 8:32 mark. Cornell stopped a Harvard rush up ice, and fought for a loose puck along the back wall. A Cornell defenseman swatted the puck from behind the net toward the corner, but the puck caromed off a referee's shin and back to Malone. He swooped in from the corner and buried a shot into the open net before Cornell's defense could recover.
 
Gillam made a pair of big saves on Jake Horton and Tyler Moy in the ensuing minutes to keep the deficit minimal, then the Big Red — with the help of two power plays — started to generate the best scoring opportunities of the period. Patrick McCarron set up Angello against from the slot with 2:55 left in the period, but his shot hit Madsen's left foot. About a minute later, Christian Hilbrich's stuff attempt was thwarted, then Madsen flashed his blocker to make a remarkable save on Matt Buckles' shot from the bottom of the far circle. The puck then bounced off a defenseman's back on top of the crease and was ticketed for the goal before being swept away by backchecking Harvard forward positioned on the goal line.
 
The Big Red returned the favor on a similar sequence just three minutes into the second period to keep its deficit at one goal. Moy deked a defender to the ice and walked across the slot, making several shot fakes to pull Gillam to the ice. He eventually got off a shot bound for the center of the net, but Gillam made a miraculous lunging glove save. Moy regained position along the goal line halfway to the corner and put the puck back on net, but Reece Willcox was kneeling at the near post to block it away.
 
Two minutes later, Cornell equalized on Tiitinen's second goal of the season. Freshman defenseman Alec McCrea casually started a breakout from behind the Cornell net as Harvard set up its forecheck, but then alertly zipped a pass straight up the middle to send Tiitinen in stride up the slot. With a defender closing quickly, Tiitinen ripped a shot under Madsen's blocker to tie the game at 1.
 
What transpired next was the tale of two whistles — one that sounded too early, in the opinion of the visitors, and one that didn't sound fast enough. Cornell contended it had taken the lead in the final minutes of the second period when a goal-mouth scramble eventually sent the puck over the goal line, but the whistle had already blown the play dead. Then in the eighth minute of the third period, 13th-ranked Harvard (14-8-4, 10-5-4) took the lead after Seb Lloyd was awarded a power-play goal after a scramble that featured eight skaters within five feet of the crease.
 
But Cornell proved to be resilient. On a night when Harvard won 42 of 72 draws, the Big Red's main exception to the rule was Angello. The winger was 6-1 on draws — none bigger than a clean win to Madsen's right a couple shifts after Harvard took the lead. Wedman gained control at the center point and fired a shot which deflected off a Harvard defender's skate and past Madsen. It was Wedman's first goal in his 54th collegiate game.
 
The teams remained deadlocked for the rest of the way and through overtime. Cornell has now lost just four times in its last 17 meetings with Harvard.
 
The Big Red wraps up the road potion of its regular season schedule at 7:05 p.m. Saturday with a visit to Dartmouth. The game will be broadcast on the Ivy League Digital Network.