ITHACA, N.Y. — There are no points in the standings for non-league games in college hockey, but the Cornell men's hockey team's performance over the weekend against Northern Michigan carries with it a lot of value. The Big Red scrapped out a 2-2 tie in the series opener on Friday night, then secured a 3-1 victory in the rematch on Saturday in a series at Lynah Rink that carried with it some significant weight in the all-important Pairwise Comparison Ratings.
 
From a mathematical stand point, the results essentially helped the Big Red keep pace with North Dakota and Minnesota State as the national leaders in the Pairwise. But from inside the walls at Lynah Rink, it provided something a little more valuable – a spark.
 
It may be hard to fathom at face value, but Cornell (13-1-3) – ranked #1 in both the USCHO.com and USA Today/USA Hockey Magazine polls for consecutive weeks for the first time in program history – seemed to hit a mid-season lull. Mike Schafer '86, the Jay R. Bloom '77 Head Coach of Men's Hockey at Cornell, even went so far as to suggest the Big Red had got a little bored of winning.
 
"I think the travel has taken a toll more physically than I thought it had. … To be really truthful, we got accustomed to (winning), and then (Saturday) when the chips were down, at first we didn't play great," he said. "But then we came back out and played with a lot more passion and energy. The bench was alive. So it was great to see."
 
So how could this perceived apathy come to be with the nation's last one-loss team? One explanation would be the dearth of adversity. For a program that was absolutely demolished with injuries last year, it only seems fair that the Big Red would cruise through the first half of its regular season with minimal injury-related absences. The consistent lineup was surely helpful, though the narrative all along was that the team's improved depth was something that elevated it above previous versions of the team. The thing is, that theory was seldom tested – until this weekend.
 
Coming off a disheartening 3-3 tie Jan. 11 at Union, Cornell was primed to use its last week of intersession to really fine tune its craft in advance of its last two non-league games of the season. A disappointing result can often fuel the fire for the next game. But something that loyal fans of singular teams often forget is that *two* teams play in a game – so even though the Big Red was ready to take on the Wildcats, the visitors displayed a hard-nosed, skillful brand of hockey the hosts seldom sees.
 
Northern Michigan also had something else Cornell hadn't yet seen this season – a hot goaltender. Sophomore Nolan Kent would make 31 saves in Friday's game, including a handful of Grade-A chances throughout the night.
 
"I thought their best defenseman was their goaltender," Schafer said. "I thought he was outstanding. We had great looks. He made a great save on Morgan Barron in the second. … I thought he was outstanding."
 
Friday's series opener started off well enough for the Big Red, which earned a couple power plays before the game was seven minutes old. While chances were generated, none of them resulted in a goal – then Northern Michigan countered with the game's first goal, scored at the 12:20 mark of the first period by Union transfer Ben Newhouse.
 
The goal itself wasn't a stunning blow – that came 11 seconds later, when the Big Red was whistled for a five-minute major penalty. Cornell's beleaguered penalty kill was on the spot early on, and it came through in a somewhat unorthodox fashion. Junior forward Kyle Betts drew a holding penalty to not only cut two minutes off the Wildcats' extended power play, the resulting run of four-on-four play resulted in the tying goal, scored by sophomore forward Michael Regush. In the last two-plus seasons spanning back to the beginning of the 2017-18 campaign, Regush's goal marked the eighth four-on-four goal for the Big Red against just one for its opposition.
 
The good vibes wouldn't last terribly long. Two Big Red players were hobbled by borderline hits that were ultimately ruled clean by officiating crews. Northern Michigan then took the lead with 2:51 left in the second period on a toe-drag and snipe from Vincent de May.
 
Cornell's power play was 0-for-3 to that point, and adjustments were made to counter Northern Michigan's approach. Specifically, the Wildcats seemed to key on junior forward Morgan Barron, who they had seen first-hand last season when he wired a five-on-three goal from his familiar post in the right circle.
 
Early in the third period on Friday, those adjustments paid off. With the Wildcats' penalty-killing forwards collapsed below the top of the circles to shade toward Barron, junior forward Brenden Locke was able to tee up freshman forward Ben Berard for a one-timer from Barron's normal spot at the right faceoff dot. Berard's blast beat Kent over the right shoulder, tying the game at 2.
 
"They were trying to take Morgan away on the power play, so we just moved him around a little bit," Schafer said. "We had some really good looks in the first period. … I think that we missed some good looks. We basically had guys key wide open, and we weren't moving pucks quick. When our power play's going well, our power play moves pucks really, really fast. When it's not going well, we hold pucks. I think every power play's like that."
 
Added Berard, after scoring his fourth goal of the season: "I just tried to get everything behind it and it just found its way through. It was nice, because we had some chances earlier on the PP that didn't go in, so it was nice for that one to be able to find its way."
 
Cornell would go on to kill yet another major penalty with the help of yet another Northern Michigan penalty to truncate the opportunity. The teams ultimately engaged in overtime, with no victor to emerge. At the final buzzer, there was only silence. The Wildcats lost a pair of one-goal leads against the #1 team in the country; the Big Red had failed to win on home ice; and the crowd was far from energized from a deadlock. With multiple video reviews and high drama around the major penalties, it was also an exhausting game for all of those involved.
 
All told, it took an exorbitant 2 hours, 42 minutes. That probably had something to do with the mood. But so did the taste of adversity. Two players had been ejected and two more suffered injuries that would ultimately keep them out of the lineup on Saturday.
 
"We were kinda quiet out there today and not getting excited," Berard said after the game. "So I think we just need to come in and just have that winning attitude and come back ready to go (tomorrow), and we should be OK."
 
He was right – though it wasn't as immediate as the Big Red would have hoped. A quick strike by junior defenseman Alex Green in transition just 64 seconds into Saturday's rematch masked what was a pretty thorough period for the visitors. Cornell yielded just four shots on goal below the faceoff dots in Friday's game. On Saturday, it yielded nine – in the first period. That required junior goaltender Matthew Galajda to be at his best, which he was to the tune of 16 saves. That doesn't even include a stop he made on a breakaway in the seventh minute, which he thwarted by poke-checking Andre Ghantous before he could get off a shot.
 
The only blemish came after a careless turnover in the defensive zone would lead to Adam Roeder's goal at the 14:26 mark, and the teams once again entered the middle stanza even at 1.
 
"I think he saved us," Schafer said. "In the first period, he made a number of in-tight chances, controlled rebounds, and when he gave them up he was there to take things away. He's an outstanding goaltender."
 
For all intents and purposes, this is when the Big Red flipped the switch. Junior forward Brenden Locke won a battle along the boards to set up a two-on-one break for Barron coming down the left wing. His initial shot from the circle was stopped by Kent, but Barron got to the rebound and whirled a backhand toward the goal mouth. It found the path of junior forward Cam Donaldson, who redirected the puck between Kent's legs. Just 48 seconds into the second, Cornell had taken a 2-1 lead – and it ran with it.
 
"We've had three ties the last couple of weeks, so we were just kind of looking around and saying, 'Hey, what's going on?' In the first intermission, we looked at each other and said, 'Let's pick it up,'" Donaldson said. "The second period, we were all on our feet – not sitting down. We were energized whenever somebody blocked a shot or whenever somebody made a good play, we were up on our feet banging the boards, congratulating them. I think just getting some energy playing as a team, and playing as a pack was beneficial."
 
The Big Red dominated the rest of the period, outshooting the Wildcats by a wide 17-6 margin. The hosts then got a desperately-needed insurance tally from freshman forward Ben Tupker – one of the players inserted into the lineup because of Friday's injuries. The depth that Cornell has boasted about delivered the knock-out blow.
 
"It's all created by guys being around the net. (Freshman forward) Matt Stienburg and Ben Tupker coming to the net," Schafer said. "We talked about that a lot in the morning, about getting people in front of the goaltenders. Tonight, it paid dividends. Cam went to the net and scored the second one, and then Ben Tupker also scored on a rebound by the net. It was something the guys paid attention to and did a good job."
 
Galajda stopped all seven shots he saw in the third period, pushing his total for the night to 29 in a 3-1 victory. Cornell was pushed extremely hard by a Northern Michigan squad that is pushing its way back into national prominence, but it emerged without a loss. The spoils – keeping its perch atop both national polls and staying near the top of the Pairwise.
 
The last 12 games on the docket are exclusively within ECAC Hockey's footprint, starting with a big home weekend against Dartmouth (7 p.m. Friday) and Harvard (7 p.m. Saturday).