ITHACA, N.Y. — Junior forward Anthony Angello set up goals from sophomore forward Jeff Malott and senior forward Alex Rauter, and the Cornell men's hockey team survived Friday's game against Brown to secure a 2-1 victory at Lynah Rink.

Once it had the lead, Cornell (21-3-2, 15-2-2 ECAC Hockey) ran into several obstacles the rest of the way, but freshman Matthew Galajda made 16 of his 26 saves in the final 20 minutes to earn the win. The victory also allowed the Big Red to stay four points ahead of second-place Union in the ECAC Hockey standings with three games remaining in the regular season. 

Malott opened the scoring just 87 seconds in, and Cornell looked like it might cruise against Brown (6-16-4, 5-13-1). But the Bears eventually gained some momentum that carried into the early stages of the second period, and Tyler Bird's tip-in of Josh McArdle's point shot pulled the visitors even. 

Cornell then had to kill a five-minute major penalty in the third period, which it did with aplomb. The game's final moments were particularly frenzied, with the Bears pulling their goalie in favor of an extra attacker. In the game's final 20 seconds, Brown won a faceoff in the Cornell zone and mustered five shots. Four of those required stops by Galajda, the last ended up in his glove after Zach Giuttari's desperation backhand at the buzzer. 

While the result mirrored the goal for the evening, the Big Red still left frustrated with how it got there.
 
"Lackadaisical effort … I'm not very happy with our guys," said Mike Schafer, the Jay R. Bloom '77 Head Coach of Men's Hockey at Cornell. "That was one of the worst games we've had this year as far as effort is concerned, attention to detail, and the selfishness that crept into our hockey game today."

The Big Red's Lineup:

How The Goals Were Scored:
Cornell's 1st Goal
1st period, 1:27   •  Malott 5 (Angello, McCrea)  •  Cornell 1, Brown 0
•  Brown softly dumped the puck into the corner, where McCrea collected and quickly whipped the puck back up along the wall. A Bears defender raced in to try to cut it off at the blue line and keep the play onside, but he ended up popping the puck into the air. The 6-foot-5 Angello swatted at it with his hand, then raced away up the right wing to create a two-on-one. As his angle to shoot dissapted, he slowed down to set up Malott steaming down the middle for the tap-in goal.
 
Brown's Goal
2nd period, 3:59   •  Bird 7 (McArdle, Corcoran)  •  Cornell 1, Brown 1
•  The Big Red turned the puck over at its own blue line and while it was able to recover to thwart a chance on the rush, the Bears kept possession. Schoo rolled down from the left point to pass to Corcoran, who slid a quick pass across to McArdle for a shot that got through traffic and was tipped in by Bird at the top of the crease.
 
Cornell's 2nd Goal
2nd period, 13:26 (pp)   •  Rauter 8 (Angello, Yates)  •  Cornell 2, Brown 1
•  Quick movement started with Kaldis jamming a puck down the right wall from the point. Yates collected behind the net and quickly passed to Angello in the right circle. With the defense scrambling and Kania committed to the shot, Angello slid a pass across the slot to Rauter for an easy finish.

Up Next:
•  Cornell hosts its annual Senior Night after a 7 p.m. Saturday game against Yale at Lynah Rink, honoring the final regular-season home game in the careers of Jared Fiegl, Alex Rauter, Hayden Stewart, Dwyer Tschantz and Trevor Yates. The game is already sold out, but will also be broadcast on the Ivy League Network.