ITHACA, N.Y. — Junior forward Matt Stienburg scored on his own rebound with 1 minute, 28 seconds left in the third period on Friday, helping the Cornell men's hockey team complete a come-from-behind 3-1 victory over Colgate in the first game of a best-of-three ECAC Hockey Championship quarterfinal series at Lynah Rink. 

Cornell (18-8-4), which is seeded fourth in the league tournament and 18th in the nation in the USCHO.com poll, scored all three of its goals in the third period to overcome a Herculean effort from Mitch Benson, who made 40 saves for fifth-seeded Colgate (16-17-4). The Big Red will try to close out the series with a rematch scheduled for 7 p.m. Saturday.

After a pedestrian first period that saw no goals and minimal scoring chances, the Raiders took the lead early in the second period on a power-play goal by Matt Verboon. But from that moment forward, the Big Red took overwhelming control of the game. The only question that remained was whether or not the hosts could break through against Benson, who made 20 saves in the middle frame alone to keep Colgate ahead by a goal entering the third.

A key moment in the game then came 1:54 into the third period when a Raiders forechecker was assessed a five-minute major for hitting from behind. Cornell's power play sputtered through its first two shifts on the lengthy power-play chance, but that was remedied quickly when junior Ben Berard pounced on a rebound created by a shot from senior Max Andreev to convert his 12th goal of the season and tie the score at 1.

Cornell kept the pressure on Colgate the rest of the way, building up to Stienburg's winner. The buildup started with a strong play from senior defenseman Cody Haiskanen at the right point, who won a battle with a Colgate forward to not only keep the puck in the offensive zone, but to also work his way up the half wall. He then picked out Stienburg alone at the top of the crease. While Benson stopped the first shot, Stienburg swatted in the rebound to send the crowd of 3,550 into a frenzy.

Sophomore forward Kyle Penney iced the game with an empty-netter 38 seconds later, and freshman Ian Shane earned the victory with 16 saves.