COLGATE BATTLES TO 2-2 OVERTIME TIE AGAINST CORNELL AT LYNAH

Ithaca, N.Y. -- In the first game of a home-and-home series, Colgate University battled to a 2-2 overtime tie against Cornell in ECAC men’s ice hockey action Thursday night.

It was the first overtime game in the all-time series since 1/23/99 in Hamilton which ended in a 1-1 tie.  Colgate is unbeaten in the last five meetings against Cornell (3-0-2).

After a physically challenging first period for both squads which saw Cornell control most of the play in the Colgate zone, the Red Raiders made the most of their three scoring chances capitalizing first at 19:21 of the first period.  Bob Vandersluis put Colgate on the board first with his second marker of the season.   P.J. Yedon had the puck down low on the left boards and sent it to Sean Nolan in front of the net whose shot was saved by Big Red goaltender Matt Underhill, but the rebound bounced to Vandersluis in the slot as he skated in.

Cornell (7-5-4, 5-2-2 ECAC) tied the game just 53 seconds into the second period when freshman forward Ryan Vesce scored the first of his two goals in the period on a power-play with helpers from Sam Paolini and Stephen Baby.  The power-play was setup after Colgate’s Chad MacDonald was whistled for a roughing penalty after hitting a Cornell player on the Big Red’s bench just six seconds into the second period.

Sean Nolan put Colgate (5-12-4, 3-5-1 ECAC) back on top 2-1 at 2:01 of the second with his 16^th goal of the season on the power-play.  Senior defenseman Cory Murphy intercepted an attempted clearing pass by Cornell and found a wide-open Nolan who skated into the zone unchallenged and wristed a shot over Underhill’s glove side shoulder.

Cornell’s Doug Murray made a perfect pass to Vesce who skated behind the Colgate defense beating a sprawled out Jason Lefevre glove side to tie the game 2-2 at 9:21 of the second.

MacDonald had two strong scoring chances with a short-handed opportunity when he took a loose puck at neutral-ice and skated ahead one-on-none but Cornell’s Underhill came up big making a stretched-out pad save at 15:30 of the second. MacDonald also had a tremendous chance just seconds into the overtime with a point-blank shot on net with Underhill on his back, but Underhill was able to get his glove on the puck to make the save.    Underhill finished with 13 saves on the night.

Lefevre made a great pad save on Paolini outside the right crease with just 43 seconds to go in overtime to preserve the tie.  Lefevre finished with 26 saves on the evening.