ITHACA, N.Y. – The Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute (RPI) men's hockey team gave the No. 11 nationally-ranked Cornell Big Red a run for their money on Friday night, as they fell a final score of 3-1 at Lynah Rink. With the loss, RPI falls to 10-16-1 overall and 5-10-0 in ECAC Hockey, while Cornell improves to 14-7-1 and 11-4-0 in ECAC Hockey play.
 
Cornell was the first on the board, as a shot from the blue line by Jack Malone found the stick of Travis Mitchell in the left wing slot. He then shot then puck under the left arm of Brett Miller, putting the Big Red up 1-0 at the 4:54 mark. Tim Rego had the second helper on the play.
 
RPI evened things up on the power play just minutes later, as some nice passing in the offensive zone led to TJ Walsh finding the back of the net on the tough angle low by the net off a pass from Max Smolinski. That tally tied the game at the 6:19 mark.
 
The Big Red overtook the lead once again at the 10:26 mark of the opening period, as Max Andreev corralled the puck behind the net for Cornell. He sent a pass out front in the slot for Sam Malinski and he sent it into the net to give the Big Red the 2-1 lead.
 
Mitchell scored his second goal of the night to make it 3-1 in favor of Cornell at the 9:58 mark of the second period. Mitchell trailed a rush play for the Big Red, skating over the blue line and receiving a pass from Ben Berard in the slot and found the top left corner of the net to extend the Cornell lead. Gabriel Seger had the second assist on the play.
 
Miller made 22 saves on the evening for RPI, while Ian Shane made 10 saves in net for Cornell.
 
The Engineers return to the ice tomorrow, Saturday, February 4 at 7 p.m. when they head to Hamilton to take on Colgate at The Class of 1965 Arena.