POTSDAM, N.Y. — ECAC Hockey's top two teams played to a scoreless stalemate on Friday night, with freshman goaltender Matthew Galajda making 34 saves for his seventh shutout to lead the Cornell men's hockey team at Cheel Arena.
 
In a lot of ways, it was the type of game that was to be expected between late-season contenders and statistically the nation's top two defensive teams. Galajda and Clarkson goaltender Jake Kielly (32 saves) remained tied for the national lead with seven shutouts, and Cornell posted its fourth shutout over the last seven games.
 
With the tie, #3/4 Cornell (19-3-2, 13-2-2 ECAC Hockey) stays three points clear of #7/7 Clarkson (19-6-4, 11-3-3) for first place in the league standings with five games left in the regular season. While the Big Red – which lost last Saturday to Rensselaer, 2-1 – has now stayed winless in consecutive games for the first time this year, it's averted consecutive losses for the first time, too. Also, with Colgate losing to St. Lawrence nearby, Cornell clinched a first-round bye in the ECAC Hockey Championship playoffs, meaning it will host a best-of-three quarterfinals series March 9-11 at Lynah Rink in Ithaca.
 
"I thought it was a gritty effort by our guys," said Associate Head Coach Ben Syer, who was filling in at the helm with Mike Schafer, the Jay R. Bloom Head Coach of Men's Hockey, unable attend due to illness. "There were a lot of blocked shots at different times of the game. I thought we some stick jams and pucks going into the crowd."
 
Entering the game 1-3-2 in their last six, the Golden Knights came out strong in front of their boisterous home crowd. Clarkson took a firm territorial advantage as the first period wore on, outshooting Cornell by a 13-6 margin in the opening stanza. But Galajda settled in and made key stops on Dylan Gareau's angled breakaway and a Sheldon Rempal's clean shot off a faceoff win on the power play.
 
"When he's calm in net, he tracks pucks and he competes. I thought he did that," said Syer, who remains undefeated in his career while serving as a head coach (5-0-2; all but one of those games at Cornell). "There were times when he had some good looks, because we did a good job of boxing out. But I also thought he saved us a couple times where they left guys lurking on the back side and he did a great job sliding over and being in position."
 
The Big Red ran into early penalty trouble against the nation's second-most efficient power play, but three successful kills inside the first 29 minutes were followed by an even more plausible defense – no further trips to the box. As more of the game was played at even strength, Cornell began to gain momentum – and it also threatened several times on its own power play.
 
To wit, one of the game's craziest sequences happened inside the final 10 seconds of the second period, when sophomore defenseman Yanni Kaldis fed senior forward Trevor Yates for a shot from the left circle that went wide. Junior forward Beau Starrett gained possession behind the net and forced it back into the fray around the crease, but the puck popped out toward the right point. Clarkson's Nico Sturm's diving swat not only dispossessed Cornell, it also tripped up the defender – and then he sent Jack Jacome away on a clean breakaway with just seconds on the clock. He made a move to his backhand and got it over Galajda's glove, but off the crossbar it clanked.
 
Just as it seemed the teams would skate through a quiet overtime, Clarkson was whistled for a slash in the offensive zone and Cornell was put on an overtime power play for the first time this year. Kielly turned away a couple of jam attempts from Starrett on top of the crease, and the Knights ended the night a perfect 4-for-4 on the kill.
 
"We obviously wanted to get a lot of pucks to the net," said Alex Rauter, a senior forward and co-captain. "Especially in overtime, any shot's a good shot. I think Yates had a couple chances and (Anthony Angello) had a good look. But it is what it is. They blocked a lot of shots, and we weren't too poised to pull it around them."
 
The game was Cornell's first 0-0 tie since Nov. 20, 2015 in a game at Yale when Mitch Gillam '17 made 30 stops. The Big Red returns to action at 7 p.m. Saturday, when it treks across the county to take on St. Lawrence at Appleton Arena in Canton.

The Big Red's Lineup: