By Brandon Thomas
Cornell Athletic Communications

ITHACA, N.Y. — A big factor in the Quinnipiac men's hockey team ascending to #1 in both major national polls last week was its brandishing of the nation's best team defense — and a big factor in its stingy defense was the nation's best penalty kill.

So it seemed apropos that at post-game media availability on Saturday night, after Cornell took down Quinnipiac in overtime, 2-1, the question was posed to associate head coach Ben Syer: How was the Big Red able to solve the Bobcats' vaunted penalty kill?

"Have you seen Benny Berard shoot?" he quipped.

And if the answer was 'no' before, it surely changed after the Big Red's triumph in front of a sold-out-to-limited-capacity crowd. Junior forward Ben Berard scored both of Cornell's goals on the power play — the second coming with just 16 seconds left in overtime — to fuel a pivotal bounce-back victory for a Big Red squad that had little time to lick its wounds from a 5-4 loss to Princeton 24 hours prior.

The victory may have seemed improbable at the day's onset — both because of Quinnipiac's 17-game unbeaten streak into the game and because Cornell's top two scorers, senior forward Max Andreev and junior Matt Stienburg, could not play due to injury — but it was almost as if those limiting factors helped the Big Red hunker down on applying the winning formula. 

"Honestly, it played out how we thought it would," said Syer, who was Cornell's acting head coach while Mike Schafer '86 — the Jay R. Bloom '77 Head Coach of Men's Hockey — continues to recover from illness. "They're a very disciplined team, and they're great on special teams."

Except Cornell (13-4-1, 8-2-1 ECAC Hockey) was even better on special teams on this particular night. The Big Red killed off all four Quinnipiac (18-2-3, 9-1-1) power plays, and Berard's goals proved to be the difference in front of a stellar 33-save effort from freshman goaltender Ian Shane. Cornell also improved to 4-0-1 into overtime periods in its first foray into the nationwide three-on-three format for the extra frame.

While the first, third and overtime periods were played to relatively even returns, Quinnipiac enjoyed the run of play during a second period that saw the visitors outshoot the hosts by a wide 19-3 margin. But it was Cornell who scored the only goal of the frame, with Berard blasting a one-timer from inside the right point that sailed over the glove of Quinnipiac goaltender Yaniv Perets at the 5:51 mark.

The Bobcats equalized with 14:21 to play in the third period with TJ Friedmann's indefensible redirection of Jayden Lee's shot from the right point.

That set the stage for overtime, though a Quinnipiac slashing penalty incurred while breaking up a two-on-one break from junior defenseman Travis Mitchell and senior forward Kyle Betts. That pushed man power to a four-on-three Cornell advantage for upward of 57 seconds.

As it would turn out, the Big Red didn't need that long — though the waning seconds held some weight in the winning goal's evolution.

"We were laughing about it, because I told (junior forward) Ben Tupker to start yelling at me when there was about 15 seconds left," Berard said. "So when I got the puck, I heard him yelling 'attack!' from the bench."

While there was slightly more than 15 seconds left, it proved to be sage encouragement. Berard took a pass at the right point as junior forward Jack Malone circled toward the high slot from the half wall. That kept the defending forward rooted to the middle of the ice, and Berard drove forward into the circle. As another defender closed ground, Berard snapped a shot that beat Perets over the glove again — this time glancing off the near post before splashing the net and sending the Lynah Faithful into a frenzy.

"That's Benny's gift — he's got a great shot," Syer added.

Cornell returns to action next weekend with a pair of ECAC Hockey and Ivy League games against Dartmouth at 7 p.m. Friday and Harvard at 7 p.m. Saturday.