Cornell vs. Harvard at Lynah Rink is always a date to circle on a college hockey fan’s calendar.
Rarely, though, is there an opportunity to circle it twice.
Or three times. Or four.
As men’s hockey awaited its fate and rested up during its bye week, a first-round upset sent the seedings for a loop, and Cornell drew the Harvard card. It will all begin on Friday, as the Red are set to take on the Crimson at Lynah Rink for a best-of-three quarterfinal series.
The winner will earn a spot in the ECAC semifinals played in Lake Placid, NY.
Fish-throwing and in-game antics from the Lynah Faithful aside, the matchup won’t be an easy feat for the Red. Harvard (7-17-6, 6-10-6 ECAC), though it has struggled this season, beat Cornell (17-6-6, 12-6-4 ECAC) on its home ice on Nov. 11. And while both teams have evolved since their first meeting, Cornell’s chip on its shoulder persists entering the quarterfinals.
“It just doesn’t happen very often where you get your rival in the playoffs, but it’ll be exciting. I think the game [is] already sold out,” said head coach Mike Schafer ’86.
Cornell is coming off its long-anticipated bye week, which did wonders for the team in terms of health.
“The energy level is back,” Schafer said. “It’s not just sick-time that guys are out, it’s also the recovery time –– they’re trying to play through [the whole game] and [they’re] not able to catch their breath and not having any energy. … That really hurt them.”
It wasn’t always set in stone for the Red to face the Crimson. Cornell was always slated to face the second-lowest seed, but No. 12 Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute’s inconceivable upset of No. 5 Clarkson pushed Cornell’s prospective opponent, No. 7 St. Lawrence, up to the third-lowest seed, paving the path to Lynah for Harvard.
“We were all watching [the RPI vs. Clarkson game], and it was a funny ‘what if’ –– like, what if we got Harvard?” said freshman defenseman Ben Robertson. “Then we saw that we were gonna get Harvard, and I think everyone was pretty excited with the rivalry that’s there.”
It was almost inconceivable.
“[Harvard] wasn’t really on my radar,” Schafer said. “You prepare for a couple of teams that you think you might play, and it always ends up being a team that you didn’t think you would play.”
Cornell and Harvard haven’t played each other in a postseason series since 2010, but are frequent acquaintances at championship weekend. Just last season, Cornell fell 1-0 in overtime to the then-nationally ranked Crimson in the ECAC semifinals.
This year, the Red bested Harvard on Jan. 26, its first win over the Crimson in over four years. In order to get there again, Cornell will have to play a stifling defensive game to remedy Harvard’s speed.
That defensive game is easy when you have an anchor in the back like junior goaltender Ian Shane, who was tabbed Ivy League Player of the Year unanimously and awarded All-ECAC first team honors.
Shane, leaned on for his consistency and calming presence, sits atop the NCAA in goals against average with just 1.66 per game and ranks 10th-best nationally in save percentage at .921 percent.
In front of Shane stands All-ECAC Rookie Team and third team member, Robertson. Though Robertson’s point production has slowed, the first year earns top-pair minutes for a D-corps that has seen some serious shaking up.
After the Red’s shocking loss to Union on March 1, Schafer made some personnel changes that saw freshman defenseman George Fegaras bide time for freshman defenseman Marian Mosko and sophomore defenseman Jack O’Brien.
Schafer is still undecided in his lineup for the series, particularly regarding the 13th skater.
“Our biggest decision is not so much personnel, but, do we dress a seventh defense or do we dress a 13th forward?” Schafer said. “That’s where we’re going to try to figure things out over the next couple of days here.”
On the other end, Harvard has wreaked havoc with its goaltender position, frequenting between two equally-deserving netminders. Notching a 1-0 shutout against Princeton in the first round, one could expect Aku Koskenvuo, the sophomore, to man the crease on Friday.
“[Koskenvuo] is big. … Who knows who we’ll play, but watch the Finnish goalie and you [see] he’s got really good size,” Schafer said. “You’ve got to put guys [in front] and make him look around you. Create that traffic and hunger for rebounds around the net.”
Harvard has struggled to score this season, but recently, it hasn’t had to. Allowing only two goals in its last three games, Cornell faces a tough task in breaking through the Crimson fortress.
Offensively, All-ECAC first team honoree, senior forward Gabriel Seger will be called upon to cash in. Rounding out Cornell’s ECAC regular season awards is sophomore forward Dalton Bancroft, whose wicked slapshot and 11 goals earned him a spot on the third team.
The Red will bear witness to its prolific freshman class’ first taste of ECAC playoff play –– on one of the biggest stages, no less.
“You can feel the energy and excitement. [We’re] ready for the weekend,” Schafer said.
The stage doesn’t seem too frightening for Robertson.
“It feels exciting for all of us [freshmen]. We’re kind of all going through this together,” Robertson said. “To be able to experience it together and have it be Harvard for our first year –– I think it’s really exciting and I think everyone knows what’s at stake.”
Lynah is certain to be rocking. Tickets to this weekend’s quarterfinals reportedly sold out the day it was announced that Harvard would be the opponent.
Discipline will be the key theme for Friday’s game.
And not just for the players on the ice.
“For our fans, I hope [that] if they’re gonna throw fish [on the ice], throw it in introductions. The stakes are so much higher now –– we can’t have fish being thrown on the ice during regulation time,” Schafer said. “So everybody’s got a job to do –– our players have to do their job and our fans have to do their job. Be disciplined like our team.”
Cornell will take on Harvard in game one of the ECAC quarterfinals on Friday at Lynah Rink. Puck drop is slated for 7 p.m.