The Crimson skated well with the Big Red through a crucial first period but came away with nothing to show but two crossbars and a two-goal deficit.

"It was a competitive game," Mazzoleni said. "But the difference in the game was we didn't finish our chances and they did. In the third period, we had four 2-on-1 chances and didn't get a shot off."

Harvard had a golden opportunity to score the equalizer late in the third, when Big Red sophomore forward Stephen Baby drew a boarding penalty, but the Crimson couldn't find the back of the net.

The Crimson powerplay was suffering from the loss of assistant captain Chris Bala, who is second on the team in scoring with nine goals and 18 points. Bala was not cleared to play after suffering a concussion in Friday night's win against Colgate.

The powerplay is normally one of the Crimson's strengths, but without Bala, Harvard went 0-for-5 on the night.

In the first period alone, the Crimson had three powerplay chances but failed to score. Cornell had just one opportunity in the period but made it count, scoring 4:02 into the game on a Baby point shot that was skillfully screened and redirected by junior defenseman Brian McMeekin.

Harvard had its best chance with the man-advantage at the 10 minute mark of the first when sophomore defenseman Aaron Kim rattled one of the crossbar.

Freshman forward Tyler Kolarik, who is always dangerous with the puck, followed up with two more excellent scoring opportunities but couldn't find the twine.