On Friday evening, the Quinnipiac Bobcats took on the Cornell Big Red for an unprecedented fourth time this season, this time in the ECAC semi-finals. Unfortunately for the Bobcats, they fell in overtime 3-2, leaving their NCAA postseason hopes up in the air.

The first period was very much a feeling out process with both teams trading chances and making the safe play.

In what was a penalty filled game, nine total between the two teams, to no one’s surprise the first goal of the matchup came on a power play.

With 50 seconds remaining in the first period, first-year defenseman Elliott Groenewold took an interference penalty, and with just five seconds remaining on the clock, Cornell made them pay.

“I have a lot of frustration right now. I think one of the things I try to do with the media is try to be honest,” said head coach Rand Pecknold. “ I don’t feel I can be honest right now.”

Sophomore forward Jonathan Castagna opened the scoring following a scrum in front of the net, having the puck fall on his stick and he buried it to give the Big Red a 1-0 lead.

The intensity when the second period started was evident as both teams were making big hits, but unfortunately for Cornell, they were undisciplined as they took four penalties in the frame.

The Bobcats were able to take advantage of a hit-from-behind penalty committed by senior defenseman Michael Suda. Sophomore forward Andon Cerbone needed just five seconds of the man advantage to tie things up as similarly to the Castagna opener, he too was the beneficiary of finding a loose puck following a scrum in front.

1-1 would be the score heading into the third period.

That was all the scoring until first-year forward Chris Pelosi was able to find a loose puck in the crease, waited out senior goalie Ian Shane, and roofed it to give Quinnipiac their first lead of the game with just over five minutes remaining.

Then, chaos ensued.

While still trailing 2-1 with under three minutes to go in the game, Cornell pulled Shane, but then took an interference penalty with 1:50 remaining.

Following a defensive zone win, the Big Red needed just six seconds to go down on an odd-man rush and ultimately tie the game as senior forward Kyler Kovich was able to beat sophomore goalie Matej Marinov from a bad angle putting the majority Cornell crowd into a frenzy.

“If we won the draw we knew we had to make a play,” said head coach Mike Schafer. “We couldn’t chip it down the ice. We had to skate with it and we talked about our defense jumping up on plays and it worked out.”

This game would go to overtime where, you guessed it, a penalty took center stage.

First-year defenseman Drew Hockley took an interference penalty where Cornell took full advantage. 

After a tie-up in the corner, a loose puck eventually found junior forward Dalton Bancroft in the slot who slid it over to senior defenseman Tim Rego who buried a one-timer to send the Big Red to the ECAC finals.

“[Bancroft] found me and I was lucky enough to bury the shot,” Rego said. “So you know, it’s a great feeling and seeing those guys go to war for 70 minutes, whatever it was, it was great.”

With the loss, the Bobcats will have to wait until Selection Sunday to find out their fate for the NCAA tournament.