CAMBRIDGE, Mass. — Sophomore forward Ryan Walsh scored the game-tying goal on the power play with 6:43 left in the third period as the No. 6-ranked Cornell men's hockey team played to a 2-2 tie with No. 20-ranked Harvard before a near-sold-out crowd at Bright-Landry Hockey Center on Saturday evening.

Senior defenseman Michael Suda and sophomore Ben Robertson scored for Cornell in the shootout to give the Big Red the extra point in the ECAC Hockey standings.

Joining Walsh in scoring was senior defenseman Tim Rego, a native of nearby Mansfield, Mass., who had a goal and an assist to record his second multi-point game of the season and his fifth career outing with multiple points. Senior goaltender Ian Shane made a season-high 32 saves between the pipes for the Big Red (3-1-2, 1-1-2 ECAC Hockey).

Ryan Fine and Mason Langenbrunner registered the tallies for the Crimson (2-2-1, 2-2-1 ECAC Hockey), and junior goaltender Aku Koskenvuo made 24 saves in goal for the Crimson.

Harvard opened the scoring with 57 seconds left in the first period as Fine one-timed a pass from Ben MacDonald on the edge of Shane's crease two seconds after the expiration of a Cornell penalty.

Cornell successfully killed a five-minute major penalty to junior forward Dalton Bancroft for direct contact to the head which came with 15 seconds left in the opening period.

Upon returning to 5-on-5 play, Rego tied the game wristing a shot from the mid-slot off a backhand feed from junior forward Nick DeSantis. Shane earned the secondary assist after rimming the puck around the corner to DeSantis at the near half-wall in the defensive zone.

Four-plus minutes later, Harvard regained the lead as Langenbrunner scored his second goal in as many days, benefitting from passes from Michael Callow and Cam Johnson.

During Cornell's fourth power play, Walsh helped snap the Big Red's season-opening 0-for-18 start with the man advantage, tapping a crisp pass by freshman forward Charlie Major from the right faceoff circle at the far post past Koskenvuo.

Cornell out-shot Harvard in the five-minute overtime period, 3-0, and recorded the final eight shots on goal.

Marek Hedjuk took the initial shot attempt in the shootout and Shane got his left pad on the puck to hold Harvard off the board. Suda took the Big Red's first attempt, utilizing a quick backhand-forehand deke to beat Koskenvuo to his low right pad side. Mick Thompson had his backhand attempt go wide of goal and Robertson beat the Crimson goaltender to his blocker side to give Cornell the extra point in the standings. 

GAME NOTES
• Saturday was the 167th meeting between the bitter Ivy League rivals. Cornell's lead in the series over Harvard now stands at 82-71-14 while going unbeaten over its last four matchups with the Crimson (3-0-1). It is the Big Red's longest unbeaten streak against the Crimson since also compiling a 3-0-1 record between Dec. 1, 2018 and Jan. 25, 2020.

• Cornell played a Harvard team that was ranked within the USCHO.com poll for the 29th time on Saturday. The Big Red is now winless over its last six games when facing a ranked Harvard team (0-4-2). Across the 29 meetings, Cornell's record stands at 9-16-4.

• Shane's assist was Cornell's first point by a Big Red goaltender since Matthew Galajda assisted on a second-period power-play goal scored by Morgan Barron in a 6-0 victory over Brown on March 22, 2019, in the semifinals of the 2019 ECAC Hockey Championship.

• The 32-save outing by Shane was his 10th career 30-save performance and his first in regular-season action since stopping 36 shots against St. Lawrence this past Feb. 24, also in a 2-2 shootout win.

• Walsh's 15 faceoff wins were tied for his second-highest total in a game, one shy of matching his career high that was set this past March 16, also against Harvard in the ECAC Hockey quarterfinals. Across his six games played this season, Walsh has won 82 draws, averaging 13.7 faceoff wins per game.

UP NEXT
Cornell will return to Lynah Rink next weekend when it welcomes No. 19-ranked Quinnipiac (5-5-0, 2-2-0 ECAC Hockey) and Princeton (1-2-1, 1-2-1 ECAC Hockey).

Puck drop for both games is scheduled for 7 p.m. Game action will be broadcast on ESPN+ and over the airwaves on WHCU (870 AM, 97.7 FM, cortacatoday.com). Friday's game with Quinnipiac will also be simulcast on TSN+ for Canadian viewers.