LAS VEGAS – Any non-win for a program near the top of the national rankings comes with some degree of disappointment. That fact is accentuated when the opposition has an opportunity to celebrate a tie like a victory. But for the Cornell men's hockey team, a 2-2 deadlock with Providence in Saturday's championship game of the Fortress Invitational came with positive overtones.
 
The Big Red got two goals from junior forward Morgan Barron to rally from a pair of deficits, the latter with the goaltender pulled in favor of an extra attacker with just 1:12 left in the third period, to grind out an arduous tie against a Providence squad that ended Cornell's season a year ago.

Still, it was the Friars afforded the opportunity to do the majority of the celebrating at T-Mobile Arena because of a lengthy process to declare a champion for the two-day tournament. The teams remained scoreless after the NCAA-mandated five minutes of five-on-five overtime, then five more minutes of three-on-three overtime. That prompted a shootout to declare a champion, which started with two scoreless rounds – one including a stick save by junior Matthew Galajda. Providence (11-5-5) then got a goal from Jack Dugan in the third round to claim the tournament title.
 
Entering the weekend ranked second in both the USCHO.com and USA Today/USA Hockey Magazine polls, Cornell (11-1-1) stayed undefeated in non-league play as it nears the end of a long and winding seven-game stretch away from home.
 
"At the end (of this tournament), to be 11-1-1 is absolutely huge for our hockey team and for our program," said Mike Schafer '86, the Jay R. Bloom '77 Head Coach of Men's Hockey at Cornell. "Like I said before (to the team in the locker room), when we finish next weekend we'll have played 12 of our first 16 on the road. That ability to continue to get the job done (is big), because we haven't been home in a long, long time. We've got to finish off this trip at RPI and Union, but that tie is absolutely huge."
 
There are several reasons why. Among them:

• The math: This one is obvious. A tie is better than a loss in terms of the Pairwise Comparison Ratings, which are used to determine and seed the NCAA tournament field in March.
   
• The 'how': The rematch of the 2019 NCAA East Region title game proved to be every bit as grueling as was expected, with open ice hard to find. Cornell seemed to have its fair share of adversity on top of that – most notably a short 18-hour turnaround after Friday's semifinal victory over Ohio State, the unusual circumstance of playing most of the game trailing (a Big Red opponent scored first for just the third time in 13 games this season), and even more unusual penalty trouble.
  
  "That's only the second time we've been down this year going into the third period," Schafer said. "They do some great things with being above you, and it's very difficult to generate offense. So getting back to watching video, it will be an outstanding opportunity to teach and say 'here are some things we did well,' and 'here are some things we made mistakes on' against a good hockey team."
   
• The experience: People in and around the participating programs in the tournament remarked on how the week had the feel of an NCAA regional. The venue – home to the NHL's Vegas Golden Knights – is way bigger than most college rinks, and there was clearly no home team (though, unsurprisingly, Cornell brandished by far the best support from a traveling fan base).
  
  "It obviously left a little bit of a bitter taste in our mouth the way it ended, but the whole experience here I think really mimics what (an NCAA) regional would be like at the end of the year," Barron said. "At the end of the day, that's when we want to peak and be at our best in March and April. So this is a great experience to get ready for that."
   
• The quality: Relative to Pairwise values entering the weekend, the Fortress Invitational had the strongest field among Division I's eight in-season tournaments this season. All four of the team's were ranked in the USCHO.com poll. If ever there was a good opportunity to take a team's temperature on a national scale, playing teams of this ilk at a neutral site was it.

Friday's victory against Ohio State closely followed Cornell's blueprint to victory. But Saturday was a different story.
 
Providence struck first on Tyce Thompson's goal at the 6:35 mark of the first period. While Cornell equalized with Barron's first strike about nine minutes later, the game then turned on its head in the second period.
 
A huge hit from junior defenseman Alex Green went unpenalized on the ice, but the play prompted a video review that lasted 10-15 minutes. A major penalty was eventually issued to Green, and Cornell was very effective for the first four minutes of the kill – but it eventually conceded a goal to Parker Ford to give Providence its lead back.
 
"I thought it was a good hit. But in today's game you've got to be careful, because that was kind of a little bit of a turning point in the game," Schafer said. "They have a great team. Their power play, you look at it and it's one of the top (in the country). We made a big mistake on the (zone) entry and they capitalized on it, which is really disappointing."
 
It wouldn't be the last of Cornell's penalty woes. All told, Providence enjoyed each of the game's final five power plays – which made any comeback attempts exponentially more difficult.
 
The situation looked increasingly grim for the Big Red heading through a third period that saw the Friars limit second chances around their net. Cornell turned its hopes to pulling its goaltender in favor of a sixth attacker – a tactic that hasn't produced a Big Red goal since October 2016, a span of 114 games.
 
But it worked on this night.
 
Senior defenseman Yanni Kaldis set up Barron for a one-timer from the top of the right circle. Though the puck was headed more toward Barron's back skate than into an ideal shooting position nearer the front skate, Barron managed to muscle the shot over Providence goalie Michael Lackey's glove.
 
"They're a solid defensive team. We saw that there in (NCAA) regionals last year. We had a tough time getting pucks to the net," Barron said. "We talked a lot about when you have that extra guy, you've just got to find a way and any time you have a lane, you've got to take it. So Yanni made a nice pass across there and I thought I had a little bit of a lane there, so I just kind of fired it on the net and was lucky enough it went in."
 
Cornell then had a quality chance to potentially steal an improbable victory a short time later, but an open shot from junior defenseman Cody Haiskanen in the slot with 10 seconds left in regulation hit the post.
 
"Two hard opponents to play against. It's just great preparation for the second half," Schafer said.

The Big Red's Lineup:

How The Goals Were Scored:

Providence's 1st Goal
1st period, 6:35  •  Thompson 15 (Callahan)  •  Providence 1, Cornell 0
•  With the puck bouncing around in the neutral zone, Callahan played the puck ahead to Thompson. He made a move to get his defender turned at the blue line, then took advantage of the resulting space to drive toward the near post. As the defender closed, Thompson snapped off a quick wrister that handcuffed Galajda before sneaking in.
 
Cornell's 1st Goal
1st period, 15:42  •  Barron 8 (Malone)  •  Cornell 1, Providence 1
•  A textbook Cornell forecheck created the tying goal, with Malone dumping the puck into the corner to Lackey's right. Sophomore forward Michael Regush applied the pressure to the puck-retrieving defenseman. Malone followed the play and sniffed out the reverse attempt to the other Providence defenseman behind the net, cutting off the play to gain possession. Malone then quickly found Barron crashing the front of the net, and Barron slammed it past Lackey..

"I think that's what our program is about," Barron said. "Great forecheck by (Regush) and it was a great pass from Jack Malone. I was just fortunate enough to be the benefactor of a great play by both of them."
 
Providence's 2nd Goal
2nd period, 14:02 (pp)  •  Ford 7 (Dugan)  •  Providence 2, Cornell 1
•  In the final minute of a major-penalty kill, the Friars made a play on the rush to finally break through. Dugan side-stepped a defender and worked down the right side, then found an open Ford coming down the slot for a one-timer over Galajda's right shoulder.

Cornell's 2nd Goal
3rd period, 18:48 (ea)  •  Barron 9 (Kaldis, Donaldson)  •  Cornell 2, Providence 2
•  With Galajda pulled in favor of an extra attacker, the Big Red patiently worked the puck around the perimeter. Donaldson passed to Kaldis at the left point, and he started to move across the blue line toward the middle. At the same time, freshman defenseman Sam Malinski rolled from the far point behind Kaldis. That drew hesitation from the defense, and Kaldis exploited that extra split second with a pass to Barron for a one-timer from the top of the right circle. The blast sailed over Lackey's glove to tie the game.

Up Next:

•  The Big Red returns to ECAC Hockey play with a trip to the league's Capital District teams. Cornell visits Rensselaer at 7 p.m. Friday, then moves west on state Route 7 for a 7 p.m. Saturday clash with Union. A long-awaited return to Lynah Rink happens Jan. 17-18, when Cornell hosts Northern Michigan in a two-game non-league series in Ithaca.