Web Update: Men’s hockey falls to Cornell 4-3 in ECAC semifinals

ALBANY, N.Y., March 20 — The men’s hockey team’s run for a second straight ECAC Hockey title ended Friday night with a heartbreaking 4-3 second-overtime loss to Cornell at the Times Union Center.

Halfway into the second overtime, Cornell forward Colin Greening wristed a shot past junior goaltender Zane Kalemba to cap the Big Red’s comeback from a 3-1 deficit.

Kalemba, who was named a finalist for the Hobey Baker Award on Thursday, made 39 saves for third-seeded Princeton (22-11-0 overall, 14-8-0 ECAC Hockey) in the loss. Junior forward Cam MacIntyre led the Tigers’ offense, scoring his first goal of the tournament and adding two assists in his second game back from injury.

The game began with fairly sluggish play from both teams in the scoreless first period. Second-seeded Cornell (21-8-4, 13-6-3) had two of its shots hit the post in the first four minutes of play, but it was unable to convert on any of its 12 shots on goal.

The Tigers struggled even more, recording just seven shots against Cornell goalie Ben Scrivens and taking a pair of penalties: one to give the Big Red a power play, and another to negate one of their own.

But Princeton came out after the first intermission without any of the sluggish play from its opening frame.

Less than two minutes into the second period, MacIntyre carried the puck into the zone and fired on Scrivens, who was unable control the rebound. MacIntyre pushed the puck back on the Cornell goalie, but he was once again turned away. Still, Scrivens couldn’t hold on to the puck, and sophomore forward Sam Sabky knocked the puck into the net to put Princeton on the board.

Minutes later, Cornell answered back. With the puck sitting in the high slot in the Princeton zone, the Big Red took a series of shots on Kalemba. Unable to control any of the rebounds, Kalemba found himself sprawled out with the puck to his left. Cornell forward Tyler Mugford lifted the puck above the Tiger goalie to knot the score at one.

The Tigers regained the lead 14 minutes, three seconds into the period. Junior forward Dan Bartlett carried the puck around the back of the Cornell net and put in an unassisted wraparound goal. Princeton held on to the 2-1 advantage through the end of the second period.

The Tigers added to their lead midway through the third period when MacIntyre carried the puck to the Cornell net and scored on the short side.

Cornell, however, refused to go away quietly. At 17:08 in the third, Cornell forward Evan Barlow carried the puck into the Princeton zone and blew past three Princeton skaters before beating a sprawled out Kalemba. The Big Red pushed the score to 3-2 on the Barlow goal.

With just 25 seconds remaining, Cornell forward Riley Nash collected a rebound in front of the Princeton net and shot the puck past Kalemba for a six-on-five goal, tying the game at three.

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Cornell’s last-minute comeback was eerily reminiscent of the teams’ matchup in February, in which Princeton scored two goals in the final 36 seconds of the game to come away with a 2-1 win.

With the loss, Princeton will face the tournament's fourth-seeded team, St. Lawrence (21-12-4, 11-7-4), in the consolation game Saturday afternoon at 4 p.m. in the Times Union Center.