Last year, men’s hockey boarded its plane headed back toward Ithaca with the morale high and two more ranked wins under its belt.
Cornell had swept Arizona State in front of its home crowd, using the series as a turning point for its season after a rocky first half.
The opportunity this year’s Cornell team received was almost poetic — rejuvenated by a win over Massachusetts the night prior, a clash with the No. 20 Sun Devils in Tempe, Arizona touted both massive Pairwise implications and a chance for Cornell to find its footing in its sprint to the finish line.
The result, though, was anything but satisfying. A dejecting 4-0 loss was dealt to Cornell on Saturday, a microcosm of Cornell’s season — late goals, special teams struggles, shaky defense and dried-up offense. The regulation loss was Cornell’s first against an out-of-conference opponent in the regular season since Jan. 14, 2023.
Any chances generated by the Red (6-4-3, 3-3-2 ECAC) were fended off by Sun Devil goaltender Gibson Homer, who was perfect on Saturday, stopping all 34 Cornell shots.
Cornell’s best stretch of play all game came in the first half of the opening period, keeping pace with an Arizona State (10-7-1, 5-3-0 NCHC) team that had scored a touchdown on Robert Morris the night before.
But off a pretty play between a pair of brothers for the Sun Devils, Cornell fell behind for the eighth time in 12 games. Dylan Jackson found his twin brother Ty Jackson rushing hard toward the net, and he corralled it past senior goaltender Ian Shane for his fourth of the season.
From there, the Sun Devils dictated the pace of play, generating a ton of looks in Cornell’s d-zone. After matching Arizona State’s shot total across the first 10 minutes, 6-6, Cornell only mustered two more on net in the latter half of the period.
Cornell ultimately attempted more shots than the Sun Devils in period one, 21-19, but Arizona State’s 11 blocks prevented any real Cornell retaliation.
The Red was able to fend off a Sun Devil power play after sophomore forward Jonathan Castagna was whistled for tripping in the offensive zone, but it couldn’t escape the period unscathed. In a new trend for the Red as of this weekend, Arizona State scored with just 0:27 on the clock off a sharp-angle shot from Ryan Kirwan.
The goal marked Kirwan’s fourth of the weekend and came after a breakdown in the defensive zone by the Red. Kirwan collected the puck on a turnover and banked it in off of Shane, another weak goal by the senior’s standards.
The second period didn’t fare much better for Cornell, as the Sun Devils potted two more goals and limited any real offensive push from the Red.
The first Arizona State tally came off the stick of Lukas Sillinger, converting his first of the year after an onslaught of pressure by the Sun Devils. Shane made a handful of sprawling saves before Sillinger tucked it away, making it a three-goal deficit.
After a relatively clean game through 38 minutes of play, minus the Castagna penalty in the first, three whistles were blown in the final 1:58. First it was senior defenseman Tim Rego for hooking, before an Arizona State skater was sent to the box 23 seconds later.
But Cornell wouldn’t get a chance on the power play, as fellow alternate captain and senior defenseman Hank Kempf was nabbed for holding with 29 seconds left.
The fourth Arizona State goal came with just 10 seconds on the clock, when Sam Court fired a shot into a gaping net as Shane couldn’t get across his crease fast enough. The senior netminder laid there for a moment, as “Hey! Baby” bellowed throughout Mullett Arena for the fourth time.
Needing a lofty comeback in the final frame, Cornell showed some signs of life, outshooting the Sun Devils 17-5 in the third period. That was largely due to head coach Mike Schafer’s ’86 decision to pull Shane with 6:26 left, down four goals. The Red possessed the puck well in its offensive zone but fired mostly from the perimeter, shots that Homer could easily track down and bat aside.
The horn sounded soon after a sophomore forward Ryan Walsh turnover in the offensive zone, signaling Cornell’s first shutout loss of the season.
The Red will fly home to Ithaca and prepare for another out-of-conference series next weekend against Sacred Heart in Fairfield, Connecticut. Puck drop for next weekend’s games is slated for 7 p.m. on Friday and 5 p.m. on Saturday.