ITHACA, N.Y. – After a good start turned bad, the Cornell men's hockey team saved the best for when it counted most.
 
The Big Red split the first two games of an ECAC Hockey Championship quarterfinal series, then they stayed even through two periods of Sunday's winner-take-all Game 3 before the Big Red got goals just 42 seconds apart from sophomore forward Tristan Mullin and junior forward Jeff Malott to secure a 4-2 victory at Lynah Rink.
 
With the victory, Cornell (19-9-4) will be the top seed of the four remaining teams in the hunt for a league championship, returning to the league's championship weekend for a third straight year. The Big Red – which is now the top remaining seed in the tournament after eighth-seeded Brown swept top-seeded Quinnipiac in a quarterfinal series earlier this weekend – will now draw the upstart Bears in the first semifinal at 4 p.m. Friday at Herb Brooks Arena in Lake Placid.
 
"They were 16th in the Pairwise. We had the toughest matchup (for a favored team) in the country this weekend," said Mike Schafer '86, the Jay R. Bloom '77 Head Coach of Men's Hockey at Cornell. "We knew it would be a battle, and it was. It just came down to the third period."
 
The winning goal proved to be the only strike in 23 opportunities between the two teams on the power play all weekend – and it was far from your typical power-play goal. Union (20-13-6), whistled for a kneeing major penalty late in the second period, was 10 seconds away from the major boost that comes with killing off a major penalty. A faceoff was in the Union zone to the left of goaltender Darion Hanson, and the Big Red eschewed deploying a traditional power-play unit in favor of a five-on-five forward line of Kyle Betts between Mullin and Bauld. To advance the 'Plan B' picture further, Betts was kicked out of the draw.
 
The edict from Schafer was to get the puck to the net if Cornell won the draw. Bauld did just that, and Mullin cut from the half wall toward the slot. Realizing he wouldn't have the angle on his forehand, he cut back and whirled a backhand toward the goal mouth. The puck went between the legs of an attempted shot-blocker, then got through Hanson.
 
It capped a stellar series for the forwards on the line. Specifically, Betts and Bauld entered the weekend with a combined eight points on the season – all on assists. In these three games against Union alone, they equaled that output. Bauld led the team in scoring this weekend with five points (one goal, four assists), and Betts had two goals and one assist for three points.
 
"Those are the kind of guys who are such a big part of who we are as a team," Schafer said. "They kill penalties; they block shots. They've been unheralded guys all year, but they're an integral part of our team."
 
On the next shift, Cornell got a huge insurance goal from Malott. Senior forward Mitch Vanderlaan gained the zone on the right side, then found junior defenseman Yanni Kaldis skating in toward the left circle. As he started to run out of an angle to attack directly, he fed Malott popping back to the top of the slot, and he made no mistake with a fade-away one-timer over Hanson's glove.
 
Cornell's three unanswered goals followed a wild start to the game with three goals inside the first six minutes. With the Big Red washing away the sour taste of a 3-2 loss to Union in Friday's Game 1 with a resounding 4-0 victory in Saturday's Game 2, the early stages of Sunday's game figured to be pivotal. After all, Cornell leads the nation in first-period goals, and any expansion of that would create tough sledding for a Union squad looking to find traction in hostile territory.
 
So when Cornell got another early goal, there was an immediate feeling in the rink that perhaps Saturday's success would repeat itself with ease. A Union center turned the puck over behind his own net, then Bauld quickly steered it toward the slot for Betts to convert into his second goal of the weekend just 57 seconds in.
 
Instead, the game reversed course – quickly. A neutral-zone turnover in open ice turned into Anthony Rinaldi's goal at the 4:31 mark, then Sean Harrison's sweeping backhand off a defenseman's stick and over sophomore goaltender Matthew Galajda's glove 72 seconds later gave the upset-minded visitors the lead. With 3,575 fans and the team itself stunned, the Big Red was fortunate to get to the first intermission trailing by just one.
 
Galajda helped keep the deficit at one goal, making a glove save on Liam Morgan's open shot from the slot during a four-on-three power play early in the second period. A broken-down Union opportunity on the rush a few minutes later led to another save on Vas Kolias from the slot.
 
Consecutive shifts with prolonged pressure in the Union zone started to give Cornell some momentum for the first time since the game's opening minute. The Big Red then equalized on senior forward Beau Starrett's goal at the 8:29 mark.
 
Starrett won a draw to the left of Hanson back to the top of the circle, where Vanderlaan reached to corral it and got off a shot that was tipped by Starrett. Hanson poked at it with his stick, sending the puck into the air. Starrett then jostled with his defender at the post the Hanson's right, and the puck descended off the defenseman's back and into the net to tie the game and set the stage for three unanswered goals.
 

The Big Red's Lineup: