SCHENECTADY, NY – The No. 19 Union College men's hockey team defeated No. 2 Cornell, 4-3, on Saturday night, to end the regular season with a prominent victory at Messa Rink.
 
Union heads into the post season with a first-round bye as the No. 2 seed in the ECAC Hockey playoffs with an overall record of 21-13-2 (16-5-1 ECACH). Cornell finishes the regular season with a record of 23-4-2 (17-3-2 ECACH) and will be the No. 1 seed in the league playoffs.
 
The game served as senior night for the Dutchmen, as J.C. Brassard, Tyler Hynes, Connor Light and Ryan Scarfo played in their final regular-season game at Messa Rink. Brassard led the group with two points in the contest, scoring a power-play goal in the second and assisting on Scarfo's power-play goal in the first period.
 
Union's power play continued to haunt Cornell, as the Dutchmen scored on all three power plays in the contest, marking five goals on six power-play chances against the Big Red this season.
 
Cornell and Union both traded power play goals in the first period, but the Big Red tallied an even strength goal before the end of the frame to take a 2-1 lead into the first intermission, despite Union owning at 16-7 shot advantage.
 
In the second period, Union continued to play strong and battled back to score its second power-play goal of the night. Cole Maier drove to the net from the corner and slipped one past Hayden Stewart to tie the game at 2-2. Maier's goal would be the only tally of the period.
 
Union then took its first lead of the night behind its third-straight power-play goal, this one coming from a blast by Brassard at the point, just three minutes into the period. Unfortunately, Cornell scored just over a minute later to tie the game back up.
 
With nine minutes remaining in the game, Anthony Rinaldi created a turnover in the offensive zone to regain possession. Rinaldi got a shot on net that was redirected by Brett Supinski around Stewart to give Union the 4-3 lead.
 
Cornell pulled Stewart for the final two minutes of the contest, but could not get anything more past Jake Kupsky and the Union defense. Kupsky would end the night with 21 saves and is now 7-0-1 in his last eight starts.
 
Union will return to Messa Rink on March 9-11 to host the three-game quarterfinal series of the ECAC Hockey playoffs. All three games will be played at 7 p.m. (ET).