It would’ve been easy to think that No. 5 North Dakota could’ve walked over No. 14 Cornell, particularly given that the Big Red lost twice a weekend ago at Arizona State.
But Cornell rallied from 3-1 down late for a 4-3 win on Friday then answered an early North Dakota goal on Saturday and simply never looked back, scoring twice in the first frame and continuing on as a the game progressed.
As we get ready for the third period, have a look at how @CornellMHockey took the lead it takes into the final 20. Ondrej Psenicka rings this deflection in off the pipe #YellCornell pic.twitter.com/PeMtMkckRM
— Cornell Video (@CornellVideo) January 9, 2022
The Big Red completed the weekend sweep, 3-1. Cornell climbs the PairWise quickly and now jumps onto the NCAA bubble with the two-win weekend.
Kyler Kovich, who scored the game-winning goal on Friday, evened Saturday’s game at 6:26 of the first. Ondrej Psenicka and Brenden Locke added goals for a 3-1 lead late.
Connecticut 5, No. 18 Boston College 4
Connecticut, knowing it needed a win in Hockey East play on Saturday, found a way scoring three times in the third period, twice to take leads and then the final time, a Kevin O’Neil goal with 32 seconds remaining, which proved to be the game winner in a 5-4 victory over No. 18 Boston College.
The UConn GAME WINNER!!!
O'Neil gives the Huskies their first win at Boston College! #IceBus 5-4 in a thriller pic.twitter.com/WW3vlMHAVS
— UConn Men's Hockey (@UConnMHOC) January 8, 2022
Boston College led much of the game, jumping out early on goals by Casey Carreau and captain Marc McLaughlin. But the Huskies rallied late in the second with goals by Hudson Schandor and Carter Trumbull.
An early third period goal by Artem Shlaine gave the Huskies their first lead but only set up a wild finish.
Colby Ambrosio evened the score at 7:24 before Jachym Kondelik regained the UConn lead with 5:06 left.
Patrick Giles evened the score for the Eagles with 54 seconds left only to have O’Neil finish the crazy ending seconds later.
SCOREBOARD | DCU/USCHO.com POLL | PAIRWISE RANKING
No. 6 Michigan 4, No. 10 Massachusetts 1
In what was the premier matchup of the evening, Michigan broke a 1-1 tie with three third period goals to earn 4-1 victory over UMass.
The Wolverines got two goals and an assist from Brendan Brisson and a goal and an assist from Kent Johnson.
Brisson goes for number 2 bringing the Wolverines up 3-1 pic.twitter.com/bFpnXOKlan
— Michigan Hockey (@umichhockey) January 9, 2022
The game, in which Michigan held a 41-29 shot advantage, was a battle until the late barrage from the Wolverines.
