With the line of Marcow, Cullen and right wing Duane Moeser leading the way, Cornell kept Blair busy trying to preserve the lead. He couldn't stop the rally in the second period, when, at the start of a Big Red power play. Moeser won the faceoff, Cullen grabbed the puck and found Geoff Dervin in front to bring his team within one.
Nothing was going right for Harvard, which put only four shots on goal in the middle period. Right wing Shayne Kukolowicz slipped past three Cornell defenders, but dropped his stick before he could take a shot. Later, he hit Cullen with a crunching check at center ice. Kukolowicz fell down; Cullen didn't move. At the 15:30 mark, Tony Visons gave Edmands his toughest test yet with a sharp backhand shot. Half a minute later, Moeser tied the game on a similar shot.
Cornell looked like a winning team at the second intermission, though Blair had stopped Marcov on a late period breakaway to keep it knotted up.
Two minutes hadn't elapsed in the third period before Schafer had stuffed home a rebound to make it 5-4. Harvard responded with its first good pressure since the early going, but 10 minutes later. Marcov lofted a high clearing pass from his blue line that turned into a scoring breakaway for Mark Henderson when it landed in the Crimson zone. Cleary vehemently protested to no avail, claiming Henderson was offside, waiting in the zone for the puck to come down.
Rob Wheeler finally beat Edmands, poking in a rebound with two-and-a-half minutes left, but Cornell created enough pressure at the end to keep Blair from skating off for a sixth attacker. Scoring H. Phil Falcone (Dave Connors, KenCode) 0:21; H. Connors (Falcone, Gary Martin) 3:07; H. Butch Culone (Brad Kwong. Tim Barakett) 6:07; H. Martin (Connors) 7:06; C. Pete Marcov (Gary Cullen, Duanne Mosser) 7:20; C. Cullen (Moeser) 11:42; C. Geoff Dervin (Cullen, Messer) 2:49; C. Moeser (Marcov, Cullen) 15:45; C. Mike Schafer (Mark Major, Mark Canduro) 1:56; C. Mark Henderson (Major) 11:34; H. Rob Wheeler (Bob Starbuck) 17:25. Saves: H. Grant Blair, 11--16--12--39; C. Jim Edmands, 2--4--15--21, and Don Fawcett, 4.