ITHACA, N.Y. – The Cornell men's hockey team's season is on the brink.
 
Union scored twice in the final 10 minutes on Friday to rally for a 3-2 victory over Cornell in Game 1 of an ECAC Hockey Championship quarterfinal at Lynah Rink. The implications of the loss most likely result in second-seeded Cornell (17-9-4) needing to at least win the second game of the best-of-three series to stay in contention for an at-large berth to the NCAA tournament. If the Big Red does manage to stave off elimination from the ECAC Hockey tournament in Game 2 at 7 p.m. Saturday, the teams would meet in Game 3 at 4 p.m. Sunday.
 
Union (20-11-6), which finished seventh in the ECAC Hockey standings but is right next to Cornell in the Pairwise rankings, effectively survived on its heels for the first half of the series opener before opportunistically surging ahead late. The Dutchmen hadn't scored any five-on-five goals in its regular-season meetings with the Big Red, but it got three on Friday to move within one win of a berth in the league semifinals.
 
"We were in the same situation two years ago Clarkson," said Mike Schafer '86, the Jay R. Bloom '77 Head Coach of Men's Hockey at Cornell, referring to a resounding 6-2 loss in Game 1 of a quarterfinal. "We really got our butts kicked and had to grind out a couple games after that just to move on. That's where we are right now."
 
Unlike that harrowing weekend against the Golden Knights in 2017, the Big Red showed no signs of rust on Friday. Cornell outshot the visitors in the first period, 12-4, though it didn't have any goals to show for it. The best chances came late. Junior defenseman Yanni Kaldis joined the rush to create a three-on-two with 1:30 left in the frame, but his open shot from the slot hit the post past Union goalie Darion Hanson's catching glove. After a faceoff just 13 seconds later, sophomore forward Kyle Betts cut across the top of the goal mouth after a faceoff win, only to be denied by Hanson.
 
Cornell continued to put on pressure early in the second. After senior forward Mitch Vanderlaan beat a defender one-on-one with the Big Red shorthanded, he set up Kaldis crashing the net on the weak side. Hanson slid across to his right to make that save. A little more than a minute later, a defensive turnover to Hanson's left resulting in a mad scramble around the Union crease, and sophomore forward Brenden Locke's pass to tee up sophomore forward Cam Donaldson from the high slot beat a scrambling Hanson – only to be denied by defenseman Michael Ryan standing in the crease.
 
Though no penalties were called in the second period, the officials kept busy with three video reviews of possible goals. That started with Ryan's goal-mouth save, which was the most uneventful of the bunch. Sebastian Vidmar's wraparound goal gave Union a 1-0 lead, but Cornell countered with a goal from senior defenseman Matt Nuttle less than three minutes later. The Dutchmen challenged if the play leading up to the goal was offsides, but the call on the ice stood and the game was tied at 1.
 
Union then appeared to take the lead with 4:11 to play in the second when Liam Morgan cashed in a rebound from the slot after Anthony Rinaldi's shot from the left circle was stopped by Cornell's Matthew Galajda, but the goal was ultimately waved off after video review revealed Cole Maier crashed into and interfered with Galajda on the play.
 
Cornell made good on the mulligan, taking its first lead on sophomore forward Kyle Betts' first goal of the season just 62 seconds before the intermission. It marked the 21st time in 30 games this season that the Big Red entered the third period with a lead – and the only loss to date was Nov. 16, when Quinnipiac took advantage of a fluke goal that came from the neutral zone via the glass behind the net and Galajda's back.
 
But this lead wouldn't last. Vas Kolias beat his defender wide on the left wing, then set up Maier for a redirection after he blew past his defender down the slot with 9:20 to play.
 
The winner then came from Brett Supinski with 4:33 to play. His shot came from the top of the left circle, aided by a deflection off an attempted shot-blocker's skate at close range before zipping high into the far corner of the net.
 
"We had some major mistakes from some of our best players," Schafer said. "That really cost us a chance to win the game.
 
"The good news is that we rolled four lines pretty much all night," he added. "So we should have lots of jump to come back tomorrow night."
 

The Big Red's Lineup:


How The Goals Were Scored:

Union's 1st Goal
2nd period, 9:37  •  Vidmar 10 (Rinaldi, Campbell)  •  Union 1, Cornell 0
• After some possession in the offensive zone, a turnover at the blue line left the Big Red a little fatigued as it started to defend in its own zone. Rinaldi found open space entering the left circle, taking a shot that Galajda stopped. Vidmar was first to the rebound and took a shot that missed wide on the short side, but the puck bounced right back to him before he wheeled behind goal and wrapped it around the far post and off Galajda's left skate and into the net.
 
Cornell's 1st Goal
2nd period, 12:34  •  Nuttle 3 (Locke, Barron)  •  Cornell 1, Union 1
• After a first attempt to move through the neutral zone was thwarted, Locke regained possession and started back up before feeding Nuttle steaming up the right wing. Not afforded any space by the closing defender, Nuttle opted to just fire a shot from beyond the far hash mark that squeaked between Hanson and the near post.
 
Cornell's 2nd Goal
2nd period, 18:58  •  Betts 1 (Mullin, Bauld)  •  Cornell 2, Union 1
• Betts crashed into the wall along with a defender directly behind the Union net, then the Dutchmen took possession and started to move up ice. Bauld jarred the puck loose, setting up Mullin for a quick shot from the top of the left circle. Betts had worked his way to the net front in time to redirect the puck past Hanson's glove.
 
Union's 2nd Goal
3rd period, 10:40  •  Maier 9 (Kolias, Morgan)  •  Cornell 2, Union 2
• The Dutchmen rushed through the neutral zone, but the Big Red had four defenders back and seemed to be in good shape. But Maier passed from the middle of the ice to Kolias up the left wing, and he beat his defender wide into the circle. That gave him the space for a return pass to the middle, where Maier got past his defender and deflected the puck over a sprawling Galajda's catching glove.
 
Union's 3rd Goal
3rd period, 15:27  •  Supinski 9 (Estes, Vidmar)  •  Cornell 3, Union 2
• Some possession in the offensive zone led to Estes feeding the puck from the left point down to Supinski breaking in from the half wall. The play was well defended, but Supinski's shot from the top of the circle hit the would-be shot-blocker in the skate and ramped through traffic and over Galajda's glove.