ITHACA, N.Y. — Senior forward Jeff Malott scored early in the third period to cap the Cornell men's hockey team's rally from a pair of one-goal deficits in a 3-2 victory over Dartmouth on Friday night in front of a raucous sold-out crowd at Lynah Rink. The victory pushes the Big Red's unbeaten streak to seven games and avenges the team's only loss to date.

Senior defenseman Yanni Kaldis assisted on all three goals for Cornell (14-1-3, 9-1-1 ECAC Hockey, 5-1 Ivy League), which sits atop both the USCHO.com and USA Today/USA Hockey Magazine polls for a second straight week. Like it did in the season's first game against 20th-ranked Dartmouth (10-6-3, 7-4-1, 5-2), Cornell peppered goaltender Adrian Clark. But this time, the Big Red found a way to break through — even if a couple lapses allowed Dartmouth to take the lead twice.

Cam Strong opened the scoring for Dartmouth, but junior forward Tristan Mullin countered for the Big Red at the 15:32 mark of the first. It was his team-leading fourth power-play goal of the season.

Cornell then came out strong on the first shift of the second period, with junior forward Cam Donaldson igniting the crowd with a three-zone rush that required a quality save from Clark, followed by a thundering hit by Mullin off the ensuing faceoff. But Dartmouth silenced the crowd again just seconds later, when Tanner Palocsik sneaked into the slot after a defensive scramble and picked his spot past Cornell goaltender Matthew Galajda (20 saves).

The Big Red continued to generate scoring chance after scoring chance, but looked every bit as snake-bit as it was on Dec. 7, when a 40-17 edge in shots on goal still led to a 2-1 loss to the Big Green. Donaldson turned the tide for Cornell on this night, pinging a shot from the right circle off the post and in with 4:48 left in the second.

That set the stage for Malott's winner, which came just 12 seconds after he had emerged from the penalty box. He took the puck off the wall toward the middle and zipped a past under Clark's glove. The Dartmouth goaltender ended the night with 35 saves.

Cornell returns to action at 7 p.m. Saturday, when it hosts ECAC Hockey and Ivy League rival Harvard. The game is already sold out, but can be viewed on ESPN+.