BOSTON, Mass. — With 14:48 left in regulation yesterday, junior assistant captain Doug Murray fired a 60-foot wrist shot from the high slot, through classmate Sam Paolini’s screen and by BU netminder Sean Field’s left foot. It was Cornell’s first power play goal of the two-game series against the Terriers (8-2-1, 3-1-1 Hockey East) and Murray’s first goal since Nov. 10 against Union. More importantly, though, it gave the No. 11 Red a tenuous one-goal advantage against No. 5 BU.
The game was far from over, though. Cornell (6-2-0, 3-1-0 ECAC) had also jumped out to a 3-2 lead in Saturday’s opener, but had failed to retain the advantage, losing 5-3.
This time, however, the Red guaranteed the win when senior Krzysztof Wieckowski scored an empty netter with three seconds remaining to cap 4-2 victory.
In what seemed to be a reversal of the night earlier, BU jumped out quickly over the sluggish Red. Starting freshman David LeNeveu in goal for only the third time this season, Cornell couldn’t kick-start its offense for most of the first 20 minutes. BU began where it had left off Saturday evening, keeping most of the action in its offensive zone and creating a consistent scoring threat. At one point, shots on goal fell 9-2 in favor of the Terriers. They outshot Cornell 32-19, overall.
At 11:33 the Red defense and LeNeveu broke.
Two overlapping penalties — a holding call on sophomore Ryan Vesce at 9:09 and a bench minor for too many men on the ice at 11:06 — hurt the Red. A Bryan Miller pass from point, sneaked between John Sabo’s legs and was tipped in by Brian Collins for BU’s second power play goal of the series.
A little less than six minutes later, Miller assisted David Klema on the Terriers’ second goal.
“That second goal, I really should have had,” LeNeveu said.
The game lacked the physicality and the forechecking Cornell usually presents to opponents, and compounded by mistakes, the Red went into the locker room after the first period trailing 2-0.
Fortunately for Cornell, those would be essentially the final mistakes committed in its own zone.
Entering the second period, down two goals, outshot 14-6 and still tasting the bitter defeat of the previous night, Cornell was able to turn the tables on the hosts spearheaded by a two-goal effort from junior center Mark McRae. They were his first points of the year, and knotted the game at 2-2.
Seven minutes into the second, B