On Saturday night, the men’s hockey team got a bitter taste of what might have been. Colin Greening was sent off with a game misconduct for hitting from behind near the end of the first period, and the Red struggled for the greater part of a 3-2 loss at home to Quinnipiac, the first-place team in ECAC Hockey.

Quinnipiac (10-1-0, 6-0-0 ECACH) rode its quick skaters and effective forecheck to a three-goal lead, and without Greening, an NHL prospect whose return to the team was uncertain during the offseason, Cornell (5-2-0, 4-2-0) struggled to move the puck for the second period and most of the third before a late flurry of shots yielded two Cornell goals in the last five minutes.

“They lose a potential NHL player,” Quinnipiac head coach Rand Pecknold said of Greening’s ejection. “I would say him and [junior center Riley] Nash are the two best players in the league, so that obviously helped us, no question.

Even in the first 16:53, when the Red had the services of its senior captain, the team could not put together much offense against the No. 13 Bobcats. One night after the team buried Princeton, 5-2, Quinnipiac’s skaters were a little faster, its passes a little crisper, and Cornell could not find a rhythm.

“We didn’t come ready to play,” Riley Nash said. “We can’t do that. I thought we played fairly well for the second and third and we still ended up losing the game. You can play well for half the game and it’s still not enough.”Traffic jam: Quinnipiac’s aggressive forecheck kept the Red out of a rhythm in the team’s 3-2 loss on Saturday night.

Quinnipiac struck first on a goal by rookie Zach Davies, who capitalized on the man-advantage created when Cornell senior defenseman Brendon Nash was whistled for cross-checking just 10 seconds after the Red had killed off a tripping penalty on sophomore defenseman Sean Whitney. The Red spent a total of 21 first-period minutes in the penalty box. Davies ripped a shot from the right circle past Scrivens, who might have been forced out of the crease by a Quinnipiac player. After the goal, Cornell head coach Mike Schafer ’86 requested a video replay to confirm that Scrivens had been interfered with, but the officiating crew did not grant the replay.

“The protocol is if there’s anything questionable, just make sure we get the right call,” Schafer said. “We put a lot of money into purchasing [the video replay system]. … it’s there for a reason.”

The referees did turn to the video replay system for Quinnipiac’s next goal, a buzzer-beater score at the end of the first period by Mike Atkinson. Both teams went to the locker rooms and the officials deliberated for three or four minutes before the rink announcer called the goal to general dismay from the crowd.

“That was a huge lift for us,” Pecknold said.

Cornell rebounded to an extent in the second period, outshooting Quinnipiac by a 12-5 margin, but the Bobcats’ goalie was up to the task, stuffing all of the Red’s chances. Quinnipiac struck again 11:15 into the period when Reese Rolheiser stuffed home a rebound off a shot by Eric Lampe, making the score 3-0.

Cornell mounted a furious rally about halfway through the final period, but it was too little, too late. Sophomore forward Sean Collins got the Red on the board with a goal 15:01 into the period.

“Got a backhand pass from [senior Joe] Scali, got a shot, tried to center it up front, caught a little break, it went off the goalie’s skate and in,” Collins said.

Quinnipiac took a timeout after Collins’ goal, but it didn’t throw off the Red’s newfound rhythm. The margin was closed to 3-2 after freshman John Esposito poked home a rebound off a shot by classmate Nick D’Agostino, who was in good position thanks to a nice pass by Riley Nash.

It really seemed like Cornell might pull some late-game magic out of its sleeve when senior Blake Gallagher drew a tripping call on Quinnipiac’s Jeremy Langlois with 1:56 to play, giving the Red the man-advantage for the rest of the game. Cornell senior goalie Ben Scrivens vacated the net with 1:30 remaining, giving the Red the 6-on-4, but the team couldn’t find the back of the net and Quinnipiac held on for the 3-2 victory.

“They’re a small, quick team,” D’Agostino said. “Seemed like they were all over us today. They forechecked aggressively, they were all over our forwards in the neutral zone. It took us most of the game to figure out how to get it out of our own zone.”