A goal late in the second period turned the momentum against the Clarkson University Hockey team at Lynah Rink and nationally-ranked Cornell took full advantage to hand the Golden Knights a 5-2 ECAC Hockey loss on Saturday night in Ithaca.

Clarkson, which lost 2-1 at Colgate on Friday, closes out the first semester with a 7-6-2 overall record and a 0-5-2 league mark. The Knights return to action at the Three Rivers Classic in Pittsburgh on December 28-29.

The Knights played one of their better games of the season, outshooting the 14th/15th-ranked Big Red 22-15 (the lowest total for a team against Clarkson this season) on their home ice, but once again had trouble finishing off their scoring opportunities.

Clarkson came out with a strong first-period effort, outshooting the Big Red 9-6, but trailed Cornell 2-1 after the opening 20 minutes.

John Knisley scored first for the home team at 6:14, but four minutes later the Knights tied it.

Sophomore Sam Vigneault finished off a beautiful pass from junior A.J. Fossen, connecting at 10:14 for his fifth goal of the season. Senior linemate Christian Powers also assisted. Cornell, however, took the lead heading into the first intermission with a goal by Christian Hilbrich at 17:33.

Despite controlling much of the second period, where they outshot Cornell 9-4, the Knights found themselves trailing 3-1 after 40 minutes. The Big Red extended their lead to two goals when Anthony Angello scored on a breakaway just before the period ended. The Green and Gold won an offensive zone faceoff back to the point with 10 seconds remaining, but the puck got caught up in the skates of a Clarkson defenseman, and Angello capitalized on the miscue, pushing a shot past senior goaltender Greg Lewis with .4 seconds left in the stanza.

Cornell (8-1-2, 6-1-1) improved its home record to 5-1 at Lynah, adding two more goals in the final frame. Alec McCrea scored at 2:38, followed by Mitch Vanderlaan's tally at 11:37.

The Knights scored their second of the game 21 seconds later with Powers recording his fourth goal of the season. Juniors Troy Josephs and James de Haas assisted.

Lewis finished with 10 saves, while Cornell's Mitch Gillam posted 20 stops.

The Knights were scoreless in four power-play opportunities, while the Big Red went 0-of-3 on the man-advantage.