ITHACA, N.Y. — Junior forward Brenden Locke helped set up a pair of goals during the Cornell men's hockey team's three-goal first period, then clinched Saturday's 4-2 victory over Rensselaer with an empty-net goal in front of a sold-out crowd at Lynah Rink. The victory is Cornell's fifth straight, and it clinched a first-round bye through the first round of the ECAC Hockey Championship playoffs.

With the win, Cornell (19-2-4, 14-2-2 ECAC Hockey) — ranked second in the USCHO.com and USA Today/USA Hockey Magazine polls — keeps pace with Clarkson for first place in the league with four games left in the regular season. Regardless of how the last two weekends of league play pan out, the Big Red now knows it will host a best-of-three quarterfinal series against an opponent to be determined March 13-15 at Lynah Rink.

For a fifth straight game, Cornell built a two-goal lead in the first period. Senior forward Noah Bauld swept in a rebound of a shot originally off the stick of sophomore defenseman Joe Leahy, then junior defenseman Alex Green doubled the lead just 18 seconds later to give the Big Red a 2-0 lead inside four minutes.

The Big Red's power play stayed hot with senior defenseman Yanni Kaldis' goal with 2:57 left in the opening frame. It was his third goal on the weekend and fifth of the season, giving Cornell nine goals on the power play during its current five-game winning streak.

Rensselaer (13-15-2, 9-8-1) would eventually chip away at its deficit, getting goals from Ture Linden early in the second period and Todd Burgess early in the third to make the score 3-2. Junior goaltender Matthew Galajda made some of his biggest saves after that to keep Cornell in front. Tristan Ashbrook set up Mike Gornall for a quality chance in front with 10 minutes to play, but Galajda slid to his left to make the save. His last of 18 stops came on Burgess' snapshot from the high slot with 37 seconds left. Locke's empty-net goal came 12 seconds later.

The Big Red's Lineup:

How The Goals Were Scored:

Cornell's 1st Goal
1st period, 3:30  •  Bauld 2 (Leahy, Betts)  •  Cornell 1, RPI 0
•  Bauld dug the puck out from behind the net and set up Leahy for a shot from the left point. The puck was stopped in the slot, but eventually swatted back out toward Leahy again – except now he had space with which to work. He walked into the circle before taking a shot that was kicked away by Savory's left pad, which created a rebound back up the middle. Bauld was first to it and slotted a shot inside the far post.
 
Cornell's 2nd Goal
1st period, 3:48  •  Green 7 (Barron, Locke)  •  Cornell 2, RPI 0
•  Locke possessed the puck behind the Engineers' net, drawing two defenders to him before shuffling the puck off to Barron in the right corner. With space, he rolled up to the half wall before guiding a pass through three defenders to a wide-open Green at the bottom of the left circle. As Savory slid across, Green waited until the goaltender fell forward to the ice before snapping a shot high into the net.
 
Cornell's 3rd Goal
1st period, 17:03 (pp)  •  Kaldis 4 (Locke, Barron)  •  Cornell 3, RPI 0
•  With the Big Red working on the man advantage, Kaldis and Barron exchanged the puck a few times between the center and right points. On the last rotation, the RPI forwards held back in case Kaldis was looking to set up a Barron one-timer – but instead, he wristed a shot past screens of Berard in the high slot and Regush on top of the crease that splashed the net.
 
RPI's 1st Goal
2nd period, 1:24  •  Linden 5 (Burgess, Hallbauer)  •  Cornell 3, RPI 1
•  After the Engineers kept pressure in the offensive for a little while, Burgess dropped a pass to Reilly heading down the wall. He pulled up on the outside hash mark and threaded a pass back to Hallbauer wide open on the far point. He teed up Burgess for a one-timer from the middle that was deflected past Galajda by Linden, posted up on a defender in the low slot.
 
RPI's 2nd Goal
3rd period, 1:40  •  Burgess 8 (Zieky, Klee)  •  Cornell 3, RPI 2
•  The Engineers worked the puck out of their own zone up the left side, with Klee and Zieky sending Burgess away into the neutral zone on the rush. Cornell backchecked well to turn it into a three-on-three as Burgess entered the zone and slid across the middle. As a last-ditch effort, Burgess whipped a shot toward goal from the top of the right circle that split two potential shot-blockers and sailed over Galajda's blocker.
 
Cornell's 4th Goal
3rd period, 19:35.8 (en)  •  Locke 8 (Mullin)  •  Cornell 4, RPI 2
•  Burgess entered the offensive zone for RPI and fired off a shot from near the top of the left circle that Galajda steered with his blocker to the corner. Locke was first to it and flipped the puck up the wall. An RPI defender knifed it down at the blue line, but Locke poked it outside of the zone. Mullin was first to it and kept the play moving forward, and his shot toward the empty net was blocked by a sprawling defender. As Mullin battled for the rebound, Locke swept in behind him and swatted the puck into the net.

Up Next:

•  Cornell makes it final regular-season road trip when it travels to New England for Ivy League and ECAC Hockey games against Yale at 7 p.m. Friday and Brown at 7 p.m. Saturday.