By Brandon Thomas
Cornell Athletic Communications

ITHACA, N.Y. — The fanfare of the Cornell men's hockey team's annual Senior Night game is typically independent of the game at hand – one is ceremonious; the other is unapologetically driven by results. But a rare confluence of that dichotomy occurred on Saturday night, when the Big Red leaned on a particularly senior-laden lineup to deliver a restorative 6-2 victory over Clarkson.
 
Senior forward Kyle Betts and freshman forward Ondrej Psenicka had two goals apiece to help Cornell (15-8-4, 10-6-4) take a big step toward securing a highly-coveted first-round bye through the ECAC Hockey Championships while exorcising some demons against Clarkson (18-8-6, 13-3-4). Junior forwards Matt Stienburg and Ben Berard scored the other goals for the Big Red, which continues to hold a three-point lead over Colgate for fourth place in the league standings with just two games remaining in the regular season.
 
The Big Red entered the game with a 1-4-3 record over its last eight games, including a disappointing effort in a 2-1 overtime loss to St. Lawrence on Friday. That spurred Mike Schafer '86, the Jay R. Bloom '77 Head Coach of Men's Hockey, to make sweeping changes to the lineup – highlighted by the insertion of senior forwards Liam Motley and Zach Bramwell, and the decision to start senior Nate McDonald in goal.
 
It was a more celebrated senior, Betts, that helped Cornell pull away late. After entering the third period with a one-goal lead, Betts' first goal of the night came with 8:04 left to make the score 4-2.
 
It was a particularly big moment because it clotted a stream of events that didn't go in the Big Red's favor — a scenario made more anxious by haunting memories of the last time these teams met on Dec. 4 in Potsdam. Cornell entered the game with a 9-1 record and built a four-goal lead that evaporated in stunning fashion with Clarkson forcing a 4-4 deadlock with an incredible rally featuring three extra-attacker goals in the final 2:53 of the third period. The Golden Knights would go on to win a shootout after a scoreless overtime session, so even salvaging the tie felt hollow.

After going 5-7-3 in the 16 games since that night (with three of those ties followed by more deflating shootout losses), the Big Red entered the rematch needing a victory against a Clarkson side that entered the night as one of the league's hottest teams, unbeaten in its last 11 games.

The subsequent shakeup to the lineup paid dividends and — lo and behold — Cornell built another big early lead against Clarkson. Psenicka staked the Big Red to a 1-0 lead just past the midway point of the first period with a power-play goal, then McDonald established his presence on the Golden Knights' first power play. He got his blocker to Jack Jacome's shot from the right circle, then was equal to another tester from Luke Santerno from the opposite side five seconds later. After the penalty kill ended about 30 seconds later, he steered away speeding Luke Mobley's chance on a semi-breakaway.

Stienburg then doubled the Cornell lead and capped the team's perfect 2-for-2 night on the power play by tapping in a rebound from Psenicka's jammed shot attempt in the low slot at the 12:30 mark. A little more than two minutes later, Berard tipped in junior defenseman Sam Malinski's shot from the right point to give the Big Red a 3-0 lead.

But then "here we go again" ensued.

A couple of Cornell penalties led to a two-man advantage for Clarkson late in the frame. Anthony Romano's blast from the top of the left circle on the five-on-three got the visitors on the board with 1:51 left, and Nick Campoli's steer-in from the top of the crease 51 seconds later on the ensuing five-on-four made the score 3-2.

The Big Red regrouped for the third period and largely kept the Golden Knights at bay. Cornell looked to get some insurance when junior forward Jack Malone forced the puck to the net and freshman forward Sullivan Mack jammed in the rebound with 9:09 to play. It would have been Mack's first collegiate goal — but it was waived off after officials reviewed the play on video and determined Mack drove Clarkson goaltender Ethan Haider into the net to create the goal.

Fortunately for Cornell, that much-needed sense of relief came 65 seconds later. It was again Malone that started the play by putting the puck on net — this time with a sharp-angle shot from the left side labeled for the upper corner on the short side. Haider was able to shrug off the shot with his right shoulder, but the rebound looped into the air before descending in the slot. Betts swatted the short hop past Haider's outstretched glove.

While there was a little breathing room at that point, there was still some cathartic exercise remaining when Clarkson to its sixth and final power play with 3:26 remaining and pulled Haider to create a six-on-four advantage. Cornell didn't yield this time, and it even pulled away with Psenicka's team-leading 12th goal of the season (and the Big Red's first shorthanded tally in its last 59 games) and Betts' second strike of the night hitting the empty net in the final minutes.

As part of his career-high 17 points this season, Betts now has six points over the last three games. McDonald finished the night with 22 saves to improve to 7-1-1 in his collegiate career — all coming this season. 

Beyond the palpable momentum the victory provided, the subsequent three points in the ECAC Hockey standings kept Cornell in fourth place with 33 points and clinched home-ice advantage for the team's first playoff series. That's three points clear of Colgate, which would win any potential tiebreaking scenario with Cornell as the teams enter the final weekend of the regular season with an identical schedule — one game at league-leading Quinnipiac (Cornell on Friday; Colgate at Saturday) and one game at Princeton (Colgate on Friday; Cornell on Saturday).

The other team that could potential catch Cornell is Rensselaer (27 points), which would need to sweep its home games Friday against Dartmouth and Saturday against Harvard and have the Big Red lose both of its games next weekend to create a tie at 33 points. In that scenario, Rensselaer would hold the tiebreaker over Cornell.