Elusive Cornell sophomore forward Steve Reuter struck on a breakaway off a nice feed from sophomore defenseman Scott Palguta seconds after the Ara miss.

“I think I should have scored,” Ara said. “On a better day, and a little more luck I think I would’ve scored. I don’t think they [Cornell] would have scored on us. We win the game right there.”

Instead, trailing 2-1 with a minute remaining in regulation, the Crimson was forced to battle back.

Quickly setting up a rush into the Cornell end, junior forward Ladd Fritz gained some distance from his defender and sent a pass into the box area, straight at Ara, who finished with a flourish.

“We were lucky to salvage a tie. Tying a team like Cornell, who is at the very bottom of the league, really hurts us,” Steffa said.

Before Ara’s game-tying tally, the two teams had exchanged several scoring chances. Both Cornell and Harvard had breakaway opportunities to go ahead, but the respective goalies were equal to the task. Harvard sophomore Jamie Roth finished with four saves.

Allen had six, but couldn’t deny Ara’s bid for atonement.

“Coach [John Kerr] always tells us it’s not over until the end of the game,” Ara said. “I think he’s done such a good job of keeping us going until the last second of the game. We never give up and everyone believes with him that it’s never over until the end.”

—Contributing writer David Mu can be reached at dimu@fas.harvard.edu.