HAMILTON, N.Y. – With eight seconds to play in a 5-5 contest, John Edmonds took the ball and wrapped around the Colgate cage. He was knocked off his stride by a Raider defenseman, but the senior attackman found a small sliver of space to slip a cross-crease pass to freshman Zach Ward, who scored at the buzzer to hand the Big Red its 11th straight win over Colgate. The win also improves Cornell to 3-2 on the year.
 
Ward was the only Big Red player to score twice in the contest, while Edmonds tallied two assists.
 
Coming off the best came of his career, Brennan Donville, the reigning Ivy League Player of the week, was outstanding yet again with 14 saves and a career-low five goals-against for a career-best .737 save percentage. 
 
While Donville did his best to limit Colgate's scoring opportunities, junior Domenic Massimilian was instrumental in keeping the ball away from the Raiders by dominating in the face-off circle, winning 10-of-14 restarts with five ground balls.
 
Ryan Bray was the only other multi-point scorer for the Big Red with one goal and one assist, while Cornell received goals from Clarke Petterson, Jack Bolen and Emmy Poccia.
 
Colgate was kept in the game by its goalie Brandon Burke, who was nearly as impressive as Donville with 13 stops and six goals-against in taking the loss.
  
The game was remarkably close throughout with Cornell holding a slight edge in shots (34-29) and ground balls (24-18). Both teams put 19 shots on goal and neither team scored on their extra-man opportunities.
 
The Big Red had two extra turnovers (14-12) and had four failed clears (10-14) to Colgate's one (20-21).
 
The game started sloppy for both teams, with four turnovers in the first four minutes, two by each team, but Colgate struck first when Chase Wittich sent a brilliant cross-crease pass to Anthony Abbadessa to put the home team up 1-0 at the 10:16 mark.
 
Cornell had a great opportunity to tie the game on the man-up, but Bray's point blank shot was saved, and moments later Donville stopped a man-up chance by the Raiders.
 
With time winding down in the quarter the Big Red lost possession for the fourth time but Colgate's last second chance sailed wide and the teams went into the break with the home team leading, 1-0.
 
Cornell had a great opportunity to score in transition to open the second quarter but a brilliant doorstop save by Burke denied Bolen. Donville responded with back-to-back saves and on Cornell's next possession Petterson rewarded his goalie when he caught a pass on the run from Bray and fired it home to make it a 1-1 game at the 10:01 mark.
 
Poccia gave the visitors its first lead (2-1) when he collected a pass from Edmonds and beat Burke down low with 3:04 remaining in the quarter. Bolen extended the Cornell lead to 3-1 at the half with a goal in transition off a clear that was nearly turned over, but was saved by Donville on the end line and sent the other way.
 
Peter Donato scored just 53 seconds into the third quarter when he was left all alone on the doorstep and caught a pass from Jack Stebbins that he one-timed past Donville to make it a one-goal game.
 
Donville responded with two more outstanding saves and Cornell scored consecutive goals to close a 5-1 run and take a three goal lead (5-2) at the 7:55 mark. Ward scored his first of the day when he used an outstanding move to beat Burke for his first career goal and just over one minute later Bray scored on a near-impossible angle for his lone goal of the game.
 
Tyler Rigo ended the Cornell run when he scored an opportunistic goal, scooping up a ground ball after a Donveille save and converting to make it a two-goal game once more at the final break.
 
Donville opened the fourth quarter with his best save of the game by stopping Donato's point blank shot, but Burke answered with a spectacular save of his own to give the ball back to the home team. Donville had another solid stop, but the Raiders retained possession and moments later Abbadessa made it a one-goal game with 11:18 to play. Just under three minutes later, Colgate's Duncan Hoskinson knotted the game at 5-5 with a bouncer that just sneaked in under the crossbar.
 
Cornell won the ensuing face off, but a save by Burke with just over five minutes to play gave the ball back to the Raiders. The home team held the ball for more than two minutes and during that span Cornell's defense put the ball on the turf twice, but unlucky rolls gave the ball back to the home team both times.
 
Donville's 14th save of the game gave the ball back to Cornell with just under two minutes to play and Edmonds got a great look but put the ball off the crossbar with just 31 seconds showing on the clock. The Big Red backed up the shot and Coach Kerwick called a timeout to set up the game-winning goal.
 
Cornell opens Ivy League play when it welcomes Yale to Schoellkopf Field on Saturday, March 19 at 1 p.m.