SCHENECTADY, N.Y. — A three-goal first period and four unanswered goals allowed Union (19-11-3, 12-7-2 ECAC Hockey) to secure a top-four seed in the ECAC Hockey Championship as it defeated the Cornell men's hockey team (12-10-6, 9-8-4 ECAC Hockey) 4-1 at a sold-out Messa Rink on Friday night.
 
Colby MacArthur was the only Garnet Charger with a multi-point night, recording a goal and an assist. Brandon Buhr, Nick Young, and Ben Muthersbaugh also scored for Union, which benefited from a 20-save performance by Kyle Chauvette between the pipes.
 
Senior defenseman Tim Rego potted the game's lone tally for the Big Red. Senior goaltender Ian Shane made two saves before giving way to junior netminder Remington Keopple, who stopped 11 of 12 shots in relief.
 
Paired with Dartmouth's regulation win at Brown, the Big Red will officially be the No. 6 seed in the conference tournament, which begins next weekend with first-round action.
 
Cornell took the lead just 89 seconds into the contest as Rego one-timed a centering pass by senior forward Sullivan Mack at the right post.
 

 
Union tied the game up at the 6:49 mark of the first period on a power-play goal by MacArthur, who one-timed a feed from John Prokop at the far-side faceoff dot.
 
The Garnet Chargers quickly established a 3-1 lead late in the first period, netting two goals just 25 seconds apart. Buhr redirected a shot from DJ Hart at the right point to give Union the advantage. Young doubled the Garnet Chargers lead with a wrist shot from the point following an offensive zone faceoff win by MacArthur, which prompted Cornell to bring Keopple in off the bench.
 
A friendly bounce off the boards in Cornell's offensive zone led to Ben Miles chipping the puck up the wall to Muthersbaugh, who created a scoring opportunity and fired a shot past Keopple from the right faceoff circle to extend the Garnet Chargers' lead to 4-1 with 7:48 left in the middle frame.
 
The Big Red continued to rely on their impressive penalty kill recently, preventing Union from scoring during a five-minute face-masking penalty with under eight minutes left in the second period. During the man advantage, Cornell allowed only four Union shot attempts (one on goal, two blocks, and one off target). The lone shot on goal posted by the Garnet Chargers came with 20 seconds remaining in the power play.
 
Cornell mustered 10 shots on goal in the third period, but Chauvette stood tall in goal for the Garnet Chargers to help preserve their three-goal victory.
 
GAME NOTES
• Friday was the 84th meeting between Cornell and Union as the Garnet Chargers registered their third consecutive victory over the Big Red, trimming its series lead to 49-25-10. Union's three successive wins over Cornell is its longest win streak over the Big Red since the 2013-14 season, when it won three times — twice in the regular season and in the 2014 ECAC Hockey Championship semifinals.

• With his primary assist on Rego's first-period goal, Mack extended his career-long point streak to five games (2-7—9). Mack's point streak is the Big Red's second streak of at least five games this season, following senior forward Ondrej Psenicka's eight-game point streak from Jan. 17 to Feb. 15.

• Rego's goal and Bancroft's secondary assist gave both players points in each of their last two games.
 
UP NEXT
Cornell will wrap up its regular-season schedule on Saturday, March 1, when it heads to Troy for a matchup against RPI (12-19-3, 7-14-0 ECAC Hockey) at Houston Field House. Puck drop is set for 7 p.m., and game action will be broadcast on ESPN+ and over the airwaves on WHCU (870 AM, 97.7 FM, cortacatoday.com), featuring Jason Weinstein on the call.

The Engineers are coming off a 4-3 overtime loss to Colgate, who also solidified a top-four seed in the ECAC Hockey Championship. Felix Caron had the lone multi-point night for RPI, assisting on the Engineers' first two goals. Noah Giesbrecht made 40 saves in the setback.