Mike Kennedy’s overtime winner with 19.4 seconds remaining helped propel the Cornell Big Red to a 3-2 victory over the Quinnipiac University Bobcats, at the TD Banknorth Sports Center Friday night.
After a Bobcats (17-10-4, 9-6-4 ECAC) scoring chance, Cornell’s Brandon Nash carried the puck into the offensive zone and fed Blake Gallagher for the shot. Kennedy chipped in the loose puck for the game winning goal to propel the Big Red to victory.
“We win the face off and get a great puck on the net,” said Quinnipiac head coach Rand Pecknold. “The puck goes in the corner and I’ve got three 100-point career scorers and nobody pressures the puck.”
Cornell (13-10-3, 11-7-1 ECAC) opened up the scoring with a Raymond Sawada power play goal. Mike Devin ripped a shot from the blue line where Sawada deflected the puck to beat Fisher through traffic in front of the net at 12:31 of the first.
Patrick Kennedy gave the Big Red a two goal Turnover in front of the net Fisher made the initial save on Jared Seminoff, but Patrick Kennedy was sitting on the doorstep and banged home the rebound shot in an open net for the two goal lead.
The Bobcats cut the deficit in half with Mike Atkinson’s 5th goal of the year. Andy Meyer sent a lead pass to David Marshall who came into the zone on a two on with Atkinson. Marshall crossed the blue line, stopped, and sent a pass under the stick of the trailing defenseman to Atkinson, where he chipped in the pass past Ben Scrivens at 6:38.
With 1:51 remaining in regulation, the Bobcats pulled Fisher in favor of the extra attacker. Cornell called time out to set up a game plan to defend the man up for Quinnipiac.
The Bobcats capitalized with a goal with 1:13 remaining in period. Breaking out from behind the net the Bobcats went four wide and dumped the puck into the Big Red zone. Scrivens would control the puck for the defender and tried to clear the zone.
Jean-Marc Beaudoin sent a pass around the boards picked up by Brandon Wong and fed over to Marshall. Marshall picked up the puck and banked it off the outside post and in to tie the score at two apiece.
“I thought we were just ok tonight,” said Pecknold. “The intensity wasn’t where it needed to be. It’s great that we battled back and tied it late but the intensity just wasn’t there, even in overtime.”
Scrivens made 33 saves in the overtime win, while Fisher made 21 in the loss.
“I thought Scrivens was by far the best player on the ice tonight, I thought he was excellent,” said Pecknold.
It was Quinnipiac’s Alumni Weekend and it will continue Sunday when Quinnipiac hosts Colgate in an afternoon matinee, while Cornell heads to Princeton for a Saturday night contest.
