Cornell survived a furious comeback attempt by Penn to hold on for the win.
ITHACA, N.Y. -- With less than three seconds left in the second quarter, Cornell's Matt Donovan brought an errant Big Red shot back in play, whizzing it past two defenders into the stick of John Hogan, who buried the shot as the buzzer sounded to give the home team a 9-4 edge.
Nearly 40 minutes of game action later, No. 7 Cornell closed the door on Penn's comeback attempt with its first goal since heading to the locker room with that five-goal lead. This time, Dan Lintner played the hero 1:40 into the third overtime to knock off the Quakers 10-9 on Saturday afternoon at Schoellkopf Field.
Lintner finished off a hat trick by coming around goal, taking a feed from Connor Buczek on the run and burying a shot past Penn backup goalkeeper John Lopes, who had stonewalled the Big Red after entering the game at halftime. The win was Cornell's second sudden-victory score in five days at home, sending the Big Red bench onto the field in celebration much the same way Matt Donovan's shot against Colgate did Tuesday against Colgate.
"I told them in the locker room, 'Now we know how to win overtime games. Let's not do it again for a while,'" head coach Matt Kerwick said. "In the end it's a win in the Ivy League and those are always tough."
Lintner finished with three goals, while both Donovan (one goal, three assists) and John Hogan (two goals, two assists) had four-point days. Buczek had two goals and an assist, including the game-winning helper after charging in with the ball from the top of the circle, opening a lane for the cutting Lintner.
Christian Knight had 13 saves, three off his personal best, and stopped both shots he saw in the extra session, including a save on what would turn out to be Penn's final possession. Marshall Peters, who scored a goal and won three ground balls for the Big Red, caused two turnovers, while Jordan Stevens held Penn leading scorer Nick Doktor to a goal and an assist in the loss.
"I thought Penn brought a lot to the table," said Kerwick. "They took a lot of shots and tested Christian, but I thought he was really on top of his game. I thought our defense played really well in forcing them to take outside shots, which was the objective, and Christian was up to the task."
Domenic Massimillian won 14 of 22 faceoffs and scooped up 11 ground balls to help Cornell win the possession battle throughout, even during a second half where the Big Red's final goal was its only one.
Penn notched five unanswered second half goals, four in the third and the game-tying score with 3:14 remaining to send it to overtime. The Big Red then fought off a number of dangerous Penn possessions and the frustration that came after its first nine overtime shots were turned away or went wide before Lintner's final shot. The Big Red launched 27 total shots in the second half and overtimes before the 28th found the back of the net.
