Men's Hockey | 10/30/2010 9:35:46 PM

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ITHACA, NY – Sophomore Adam Hartley (West Vancouver, British Columbia/Surrey Eagles) scored with 5:46 remaining in the third period to lead the RIT men's hockey team (2-4-1) to a 5-3 win over No. 14 Cornell University (0-2-0) 5-3 in front of a packed house of 4,267 fans at Lynah Rink on Saturday night.

Hartley, who scored two goals on the night,broke a 3-3 tie on a feed from Tyler Brenner (Linwood, Ontario/), as RIT won their second game in consecutive nights.  Last night, freshman Adam Mitchell (Crofton, MD/Baystate Breakers) scored in overtime to lift the Tigers to a 3-2 win over Robert Morris.

Jeff Smith (Spokane, WA/Tri-City Storm) and Andrew Favot (King City, Ontario/) tallied a goal and assist apiece for the Tigers.  Mike Janda (Glen Ellyn, IL/) scored the empty-netter for RIT with 23 seconds left to put the game away.

“I thought it was a gritty, gutty performance tonight,” said RIT head coach Wayne Wilson. “They came out strong and Jan Ropponen (Espoo, Finland/) kept us in the game until we could right the ship and score some goals.”

Ropponen finished with 28 saves, including 11 in the first period to pick up his first career win.

After a sluggish start by RIT, Hartley gave RIT a 1-0 lead at 10:03 of the first. He tallied a power play goal on a nice back-door pass from Andrew Favot (King City, Ontario/) one-timing a shot into the open net. Cameron Burt (Detroit, MI/) had the other assist on the play.

Favot gave RIT a 2-0 lead at 18:17 of the first. Smith drove the puck into the zone. He stick handled around one defender but the second defender checked the puck off his stick. Favot, who was trailing the play, picked up the loose puck and fired a hard wrist shot using Smith as a screen that beat Cornell goaltender Andy Isles to the wide side.

The Big Red came out firing in the second period, scoring two goals in the first 2:33 of the period. Tyler Roeszler scored 55 seconds into the period to pull Cornell to within a goal at 2-1.

Rodger Craig tied the score at 2:33 on an odd-man rush by the Big Red. Greg Miller fed a nice pass to Craig who slid a shot past Ropponen to tie the score at 2-2.

Late in the second, Smith scored off a face off deep in the Cornell zone to give RIT the lead back. Favot gathered the puck off the face off skating around the back of the net. He found Smith who was parked in front of the Big Red net and fired a back-handed shot that caromed off a Cornell defender and skirted past Iles to the far side for his first tally of the season.

Cornell was able to tie the score at 10:48 of the third period setting up a wild finish. Miller scored off assists from John Esposito and Vince Mihalek. It was the second tie of the game for the Big Red.

With 5:46 remaining in the third and RIT on the power play, Brenner gathered the puck along the boards and skated up the ice. He spotted a streaking Hartley and fired a cross-ice pass right on Hartley's tape. Hartley drove around a Cornell defender and flicked a shot through the legs of Isles to give the Tigers the lead for good.

Janda added an empy-net goal from Taylor McReynolds (Sherwood Park, Alberta/) with 23 seconds remaining in regulation to put the game away for RIT who won at Lynah Rink for the first time in the the program's history.

Cornell held the 31-23 advantage in shots. The Tigers were 2-for-5 on the power play and held the Big Red scoreless on five chances.

The Tigers are now 2-2 all-time against Cornell, and have won two straight against the Big Red.  RIT also defeated Cornell, 4-1, on Oct. 27, 2007, before 5,142 fans at Blue Cross Arena.

RIT heads out west next weekend to take on AHA foe Air Force Academy. The Tigers take on the Falcons on Sunday, November 7 at 9:05 p.m. eastern time,