Junior defenseman Ben Wallace scored off a faceoff with 10:39 gone in the third period to snap a 2-2 tie and send Cornell to a 3-2 victory over St. Lawrence Saturday night.
The Big Red snapped a two-game losing streak and improved to 11-3-0 overall and 6-1-0 in the ECAC. The Saints, who played their first game since December 15, saw a three-game unbeaten streak snapped and are now 4-12-2 overall and 1-5-0 in the ECAC.
The Saints took the lead in a dead-even first period when junior forward Rich Peverley scored his second of the season from in close at 14:37, but Cornell came back to tie with 23 seconds to go when senior defenseman Doug Murray scored his third of the season on a power play.
Cornell outshot the Saints 10-1 in the first eight minutes of the second period and came away with a 2-1 lead when Stephen Baby scored his third of the year on a power play just 1:30 into the period. The Saints came back to tie it at 14:02 as Peverley scored his second of the night, taking a rebound off the end boards and backhanding it past Big Red goalie Todd Marr.
The Big Red got the win when Matt McRae came up with a clean faceoff win in the SLU zone and Wallace gunned the puck past Saint goalie Kevin Ackley and in off the post with 9:21 to go in the game.
Cornell, which played a solid third period defensively, held the Saints to just three shots on goal in the final 20 minutes.
“That was a great college hockey game,” said Saint coach Joe Marsh. “If we can play at that level every time out, I’ll be very happy. It would have been a great one to win, but I think we gained a lot just playing as well as we did. We had some great chances in the first period, but Cornell really clamped down on things in the third period.”
Marr finished with 26 saves for his first career win while Ackley made 32 saves for the Saints.
