It’s been 14 years since men’s hockey hoisted the Whitelaw Cup.
“I’ve been on all different sides of the ECAC championship, and been on the wrong side of it a lot recently,” said head coach Mike Schafer ’86.
The Red has gotten close, appearing in three championship games since then.
There was 2019, when Cornell suffered a disastrous overtime defeat to Clarkson in the championship game.
“We lost Jeff Mallott and [then] Matt Galajda [was] hurt in overtime,” Schafer said, referring to the two costly injuries to his power forward and starting goaltender that culminated in the Golden Knights’ golden goal.
Four years later, Cornell took a Harvard team –– one that had 15 NHL draft picks on its roster –– to a scoreless 60 minutes, ultimately falling in overtime.
“Last year, we went up there, and I thought we were a little tentative,” Schafer said.
In both 2019 and 2023, Cornell had the luxury of a comfortable position in the Pairwise rankings after both of its tournament exits.
This year, the Red does not have that luxury.
Cornell is set to take on Dartmouth in the ECAC semifinals in Lake Placid, NY. The quest for the Red’s 13th ECAC tournament title will commence at 7:30 p.m. on Friday.
At 15th in Pairwise, Cornell’s only path into the NCAA tournament is by winning the ECAC title. According to the Pairwise Probability Matrix via College Hockey News, Cornell has a 28 percent chance of advancing to the national tournament –– 28 percent via an automatic bid (winning the ECAC tournament) and zero percent from an at-large bid.
In other words, Cornell must win to keep its season alive.
“This game is so different from [the] others,” Schafer said. “[We’re] just so zeroed in on this game and worried about trying to win a championship. You just [have to] let the cards fall where they may. We don’t want any regrets.”
Cornell (19-6-6, 12-6-4 ECAC) will waltz into Lake Placid after a sweep of its archrival Harvard, narrowly eking out a win last Friday before dominating on Saturday night.
“It was a great opportunity [to] play Harvard at home [for the] first time in a while in the playoffs,” said junior forward and captain Kyle Penney. “[On] Saturday, I thought we were really good. We never really panicked, even when [Harvard] got that goal to make it a one-goal game, and just took care of business.”
The trip to Lake Placid will be Cornell’s second trip to the Adirondacks this season. On Dec. 29 and 30, Cornell played Massachusetts and Arizona State respetively in the Adirondack Winter Invitational at Herb Brooks Arena, the very home of ECAC championship weekend.
Though the playoffs pose a tough test, familiarity with the rink should bode well for Cornell.
“They know the layout of the rink. … They know what the locker rooms are like [and] they know what the ice surface is like,” Schafer said. “It’s not like they’re walking [in] and going, ‘Oh, this is Herb Brooks, this is the Miracle on Ice [rink]’, right? They’ve been there already. They sat in that locker room.”
The Big Green (13-9-9, 9-6-7 ECAC) will be making its first appearance in the ECAC semifinals since 2016. The team received votes in the latest USA Hockey Magazine poll and is on a nine-game unbeaten streak (7-0-2), including a recent string of six consecutive wins.
Across the ice, one of the strongest assets of Cornell’s play recently has been its stifling defense. Cornell hasn’t surrendered a power-play goal in its last three contests, after succumbing twice to the Union power play in the crushing 3-2 home loss on March 1.
“We’ve been putting in a lot of work — just going back over systems and the details in order to eliminate as many opportunities as possible,” said Penney, a cornerstone of the Red’s PK unit and finalist for the ECAC Gladiator Best Defensive Forward award. “And, obviously, great goaltending goes with that.”
Goaltending will be the story of the semifinal matchup between Cornell and Dartmouth, as both offenses will have to get creative against the conference’s top netminders. The Red fared well against Harvard’s subpar goaltending in the quarterfinals, where the Crimson’s goaltenders averaged a combined .870 save percentage.
Like Cornell, Dartmouth took advantage of its home ice in the quarterfinal round in its sweep of Union. The Big Green’s goaltender, Cooper Black, amassed a .941 save percentage en route to punching its ticket to Lake Placid.
Black, over the last three games, has a .944 save percentage, including two games at .950 or better.
“[It will] probably [be] a low-scoring game. Both goaltenders are really good,” Schafer said.
Black was nominated for the Ken Dryden Goaltender of the Year Award, presented by MAC Goaltending, but ultimately lost to junior goaltender Ian Shane, who won the award on Thursday night.
Shane was also named a finalist for ECAC Hockey Player of the Year.
“[Shane’s] been great for us all year, and this past weekend was no different,” Penney said. “Ever since he got here, he’s stepped up in big games, and I don’t expect anything less from him.”
Dartmouth’s strong play as of late has convinced many of a brewing upset to come. In order to upend these claims, Cornell will need to lean on its experience and build off its strong defeat of Harvard on Saturday.
“We’ll have our hands full,” Schafer said. “So, it’s just a matter of com[ing] ready to play.”
Last year, Cornell traveled a relatively inexperienced squad to Lake Placid — just one player, then-senior forward Max Andreev had played in an ECAC semifinal before. This year, 18 players have previously made the trip north for championship weekend, including 13 who dressed for last year’s clash against Harvard.
Cornell is seeking revenge after its close loss to Harvard in last year’s semifinals.
“Last year, we went up there, and I thought we were a little tentative,” Schafer said. “This ‘one game and done’ is this whole different animal. … They’ll be ready for it.”
When asked if he feels that there’s some unfinished business after last year’s semifinal loss, Penney was adamant: “Definitely.”
Cornell will take on Dartmouth in the ECAC semifinals at Herb Brooks Arena in Lake Placid, NY, on Friday night. Puck drop is slated for 7:30 p.m. Should Cornell advance, it will face the winner of the semifinal matchup between St. Lawrence and Quinnipiac.