“Yale outplayed us last year,” said head coach Mike Schafer ’86. “Yale outplayed us at Yale last year, and for good chunks of time they outplayed us here.”
Men’s hockey might have won both of its contests against Yale last year –– the latter a shootout victory that is etched in its record as a tie –– but it doesn’t take the opponent lightly.
“I know that our guys learned their lesson last year, and now they [have] to come ready to play with that same respect for their opponent,” Schafer said.
Cornell (2-0-0, 0-0-0 ECAC) is set to open conference play this weekend with a series at Lynah Rink, hosting Yale (0-2-0, 0-0-0 ECAC) on Friday before Brown (0-0-0, 0-0-0 ECAC) comes to town on Saturday.
Last season, Yale and Brown finished 51st and 61st, respectively, in the final Pairwise ratings. Yale ventures to Ithaca looking to defeat Cornell for the first time since 2019. Brown, on the other hand, has lost 21 of its last 22 matchups against Cornell.
“Yale and Brown obviously aren’t as good in the rankings, but the rankings don’t really mean anything,” said sophomore forward Ryan Walsh. “For those teams, this is their biggest game. They love coming to Lynah and playing us.”
A hard-fought sweep against North Dakota has taken a hit on the team, as recovery has been prioritized leading up to conference play.
A major consequence of the physicality of last weekend’s series was losing senior forward Ondrej Psenicka in the second of the two games against the Fighting Hawks. Psenicka, who is currently sporting a sling on his right arm, was hit awkwardly against the boards in Saturday’s win.
Psenicka will not play this weekend, a big hit to the top six and to a power play unit that already struggled across opening weekend.
“We have a lot of guys out right now — George [Fegaras], now Ondrej, Luke Devlin, Winter [Wallace]. … It’s slim pickings out there in practice for forwards,” Schafer said. “Some guys like Sean Donaldson [are] going to need to step up this weekend and get in the game. Just like Jack O’Brien did. Jack played left wing for us and did a tremendous job [on Saturday].”
The Cornell power play went scoreless on seven attempts against North Dakota, a disappointing result coming off a 2023-2024 season where the team struggled to consistently score on the man-advantage.
The top unit, composed of Walsh, junior forward Dalton Bancroft, sophomore forward Jonathan Castagna, freshman forward Charlie Major and sophomore defenseman Ben Robertson, will first look to cash in against a Yale team that was 55 percent on the power play against Denver last weekend.
“[The power play] had a great day in practice [on Tuesday]. … When they move things fast and their eyes are up, and they don’t hold onto [the puck], they can get things going. And every power play is like that,” Schafer said.
Conversely, the Red’s penalty kill is just that –– red hot. Against a team performing at over a 90 percent clip to start the season, Cornell was perfect on the PK against North Dakota.
“I’m really happy with our penalty kill. That’s the key to victory,” Schafer said. “We scored enough even-strength goals on the weekend, but our penalty kill did the job of keeping [North Dakota] off the board, even though we gave up some really good chances. Ian was there to help us, and he’s a big part of our penalty kill.”
Senior goaltender Ian Shane was stellar between the pipes last weekend, posting a .924 save percentage, earning ECAC MAC Goaltending Goaltender of the Week honors. Teammate Walsh received praise on the offensive side of the puck, being named ECAC Forward of the Week after a three-point performance on Saturday night.
“It’s great that they’re recognized, but at the same time, that’s a team effort to get the job done so those guys can win awards,” Schafer said.
Offense will be key in cracking Yale’s goaltender, sophomore Jack Stark, perhaps one of the most underrated netminders in the country. As for Brown, ensuring the team doesn’t get too banged up on Friday will be key to finish the weekend on a strong note.
“Their rankings aren’t necessarily very high, but they’re an extremely good team,” Walsh said of Yale. “They’re well coached, their systems are very good, and like I said, they’re very physical, so we definitely need to come out strong in the first and play a full 60 [minutes] to win it.”
Cornell is set to take on Yale on Friday at Lynah Rink before hosting Brown on Saturday night. Puck drop for both games is slated for 7 p.m.