By Brandon Thomas
Cornell Athletic Communications

ITHACA, N.Y. – The Cornell men's hockey team wasted little time testing out college hockey's revamped overtime protocol as senior Brenden Locke scored the game-winner 40 seconds into the extra frame to cap the Big Red's come-from-behind 3-2 victory at Lynah Rink on Friday night.
 
Competing in overtime's 3-on-3 format for the first time since the rule change before the 2020-21 season, the Big Red never relinquished possession in the extra session to build up to Locke's goal. Junior defenseman Sam Malinski provided the deft feed from the top of the left circle, finding Locke crashing toward the far post for the deflection high inside the near post.
 
While it doesn't carry the same weight as a win in regulation time, the result was still a welcome one for Cornell (1-0) after Alaska (1-6) enjoyed most of the run of play for 40 minutes and held a pair of one-goal leads.
 
"Ugly would be a good word to describe it," said Mike Schafer '86, the Jay R. Bloom '77 Head Coach of Men's Hockey at Cornell. "We talked about it when they came in that they're a team that plays really, really hard, which we had heard from a couple teams we watched them play. They won a lot of puck battles."
 
That was particularly evident early on, though the teams remained scoreless until Brayden Nicholetts' goal in the fifth minute of the second period. Riley Murphy blocked a shot from one Cornell defenseman, then Nicholetts won one of those aforementioned puck battles with the other before skating away on an odd-man rush.
 
The strike was ultimately the first of three in a span of just 84 seconds. Freshman forward Ondrej Psenicka countered for the Big Red with his first collegiate goal to tie the game at 1, thanks to a net-front redirection of a shot above the right circle from junior forward Zach Tupker.
 
But a mere 22 sconds later, the Nanooks pulled back ahead by a goal credited to Didrik Henbrant, though the final two touches came off Cornellians – the first off a crease-side skate, the last off a defender's stick and between the legs of senior goaltender Nate McDonald.
 
"They definitely compete hard," Locke said. "I think they probably outcompeted us in the first and the second, and we can't have that happen. But I think we showed in the third the way we want to play."
 
Special teams were prominent early on, but the game became increasingly shaped by even-strength play as time wore on – and as that trend unfolded, the Big Red's resilience came to the forefront.
 
While Cornell would ultimately lay claim to 13 of the contest's final 15 shots on goal, one of those wasn't off a Big Red stick at all – and that unusual offense proved critical to the game's outcome. Just as the Nanooks took their final lead on a goal off the Big Red's defense, the home side answered in kind during the third period. Senior Kyle Betts was credited with the tying goal with 9:28 remaining in the third period when his dogged forecheck forced a panicked pass from an Alaska defenseman that banked off his goaltender's skates and into the net to tie the game at 2.
 
"We're going to face adversity this year, and I thought we faced it tonight," Schafer said."We got down twice in our own building, fought back and got a good break created by Kyle Betts on hustle. … I talked to them in between the second and third, and (said) 'how are we going to respond to this? How are we going to come out in the third and stick together and start playing the kind of hockey that we want to play? We've got to force the issue.' And I thought we did in the third."
 
McDonald became the program's first goaltender to make his varsity debut as a senior in the program's modern era as defined by the completion of construction on Lynah Rink in advance of the 1957-58 season. He made 21 saves to earn the victory, with most of his quality saves coming in the early stages to keep the Big Red within striking distance.
 
The victory was Cornell's 10th straight, dating back to the 2019-20 season, but it also broke the program's 19-game winless streak in overtimes (0-4-15). That skid had dated back to an ECAC Hockey Championship quarterfinal series-clinching 2-1 triumph over Union on March 5, 2016 off the stick of Matt Buckles '17.
 
Psenicka's goal marked the third straight time the Big Red's first strike of the season came from a freshman, following in the footsteps of senior forward Max Andreev (2018-19) and junior forward Jack Malone (2019-20) in their tallies against Michigan State.