ITHACA, N.Y.--It could have been the biggest season opener in recent history, but the two-time defending ECAC Champions put a quick stop to those grand thoughts.

In a gritty, penalty filled contest, Cornell defeated the Harvard men's hockey team 5-2 in front of a soldout Lynah Rink on Friday.

For the past four years, Harvard has begun its season with only one game on Saturday against a traditionally weak Brown squad. This year the Crimson tried to spice things up by taking on one of the league's most dominate teams in one of the most intimidating rinks.

"I think most of the guys really enjoyed it," said senior Henry Higdon. "There is no better place in the league than up here. They're a great team and we want to play a good team on the first game. I think it's a good change of pace."

For the first 18 minutes, it appeared that Harvard had indeed made a wise choice as it dominated play and struck blood first at the 14:56 mark.

Amidst a jumble of players in front of the net, junior defenseman Ben Storey blasted a shot from the left point. After Cornell goaltender Jason Elliot made the initial save, sophomore Brett Chodorow, with a Cornell defender in tow, managed to flick a backhander into the open net for the early 1-0 lead.

The honeymoon would soon be over as Cornell launched a two-goal attack in the final two minutes of the period. Thus after dominating the majority of the period, the Crimson players skulked to the locker room trailing by one.

"It was hard because the guys were working so hard," said Harvard Coach Ronn Tomassoni. "They know that they played real well and they have nothing to show for it."

The second period unfortunately told the same tale for the Crimson.. This time, however, the results were even more demoralizing.

Penalities plagued the entire game, but midway through the second period, Harvard found itself with two men in the penalty box.

In what can only be described as text book penalty killing, the Crimson effectively held off the Big Red attack and two minutes later found the tables turned with a five-on-three advantage of its own.

Unfortunately Harvard's power play unit had as much luck as Cornell's, and thus both teams fell back to even strength, neither one taking advantage their opportunities.

The killer came just as the period was coming to a close. This time the Big Red waited until there was only 2:07 left in the second stanza to find the back of the net.

"We had one real breakdown [in that period] and it goes in our net," Tomassoni said. "It was a big breakdown and we just didn't recover from that. I think that third goal was the difference in the game."

Indeed that one tally opened the floodgates for two more Cornell goals in the third period.