The look on senior defenseman Tim Rego’s face in the first five minutes of the game was vastly different from the look he displayed with five minutes left.
Rego buried the game’s first goal 89 seconds into the game, giving his team an early lead in a game with imperative ECAC playoff-seeding implications.
The team didn’t know it yet, but Dartmouth was trailing Brown, another result desperately needed for any shot at a first-round bye.
But a lot can change in 60 minutes.
When Rego headed to the box with 4:35 left after taking an offensive zone penalty, Cornell was down 4-1. Senior goaltender Ian Shane had left the game over two periods ago, junior forward Dalton Bancroft had been ejected and head coach Mike Schafer ’86 wasn’t on the bench.
A colossal collapse resulted in a 4-1 loss for Cornell, officially eliminating it from finishing within the top four of the ECAC. Out-of-town results — Dartmouth’s 4-2 win over Brown and Colgate’s 4-3 overtime win over Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute — ensured that the highest Cornell can finish in the standings is sixth.
The win also gives Union its first regular season series sweep of Cornell since the 2013-2014 season. The Garnet Chargers (19-11-3, 12-7-2 ECAC), which finished sixth in the standings one season ago, will earn a first-round bye for the first time in seven years.
Only 12 shots were taken between the two teams in the first period, but there was no shortage of action. Four pucks found the back of the net in the opening frame, though the Red found itself on the ugly side of it.
Three Union goals on four shots chased Shane straight out of the game, as junior goaltender Remington Keopple came into relief for Shane just 14:33 into the contest.
Cornell (12-10-6, 9-8-4 ECAC) appeared to get the quick start it was looking for, as the Red beat Union goaltender Kyle Chauvette on the very first shot he saw. Senior forward Sullivan Mack came up with the puck on the nearside boards and dished it over to Rego, who tapped it right past Chauvette to give Cornell the lead 89 seconds into the game.
From there, though, it was all Union. The Garnet Chargers’ lethal power play unit — which delivered the game-winning goal in Union’s 4-1 win over Cornell on Feb. 8 — was given an early opportunity to level the score when junior forward Nick DeSantis was nabbed for tripping just a few minutes after Rego’s tally.
In an instant, the game was tied. Cornell’s penalty kill, which had successfully killed off 38 of its last 42 penalties, was solved by the Union man advantage, as Colby MacArthur fired a hard one-timer that Shane had little chance of stopping.
Cornell saw a power play opportunity come and go before the Garnet Chargers took the lead. This time it was Brandon Buhr, a skater the Red is very familiar with — the junior forward had a hat trick at Lynah Rink three weekends ago and gave Union a 2-1 lead on Friday night by deflecting a shot from the point past Shane, who was screened and never saw the shot.
25 seconds later, it was 3-1. A faceoff win by Union set up another one-timer that cleanly beat Shane on his blocker side, just the fourth shot he saw.
As Union huddled together to celebrate its two-goal lead, Shane was skating to the bench. Keopple hopped over the boards, tasked with salvaging Cornell’s last-ditch hopes at a first-round bye.
But the second period only brought more misfortune for the Red. After a relatively even first half of the period, Ben Muthersbaugh collected a stretch pass from Brendan Miles and displayed a strong showing of speed before he roofed a shot over Keopple.
This seemed to spiral out of control 32 seconds later when Bancroft and Union’s Parker Lindauer were sent to the box for matching roughing penalties. However, a lengthy review warranted further penalization of Bancroft, who was ultimately ejected from the game after a face mask call.
Tasked with killing off five minutes of one of the nation’s top power plays, Cornell delivered one of its best showings all game. The Red’s killers kept Union largely to the perimeter and were diligent in clearing pucks, even generating a strong shorthanded chance when Mack went coast-to-coast and was poke-checked by Chauvette just before he could tuck it by the Union netminder.
The 4-1 result after two periods was almost relieving considering the circumstances. Cornell hit the ice in the third period in search of a lofty comeback, although this time without its head coach — head coach Mike Schafer ’86 had reportedly been hit in the head by a puck in the second period, missing the entirety of the third period and forcing associate head coach Casey Jones ’90 to call the shifts.
Despite the change behind the bench, the result remained unchanged. Cornell attempted to chip away at the Union lead, but Chauvette was up to the task. The Union netminder made 19 saves on 20 shots on Friday while Keopple stopped 11 of 12 in relief for Shane.
Jones opted to pull Keopple with 4:35 remaining down three goals, and a shot by sophomore defenseman Ben Robertson hit the crossbar soon thereafter, but a late tripping penalty in the offensive zone by Rego stymied all potential Cornell momentum.
Union couldn’t find the back of the net, but ticked down and ultimately ran out for Cornell as the Garnet Chargers secured their 396th win at Messa Rink in the second-to-last regular season game in the longtime home of Union hockey.
The Union win also prevents Cornell from securing home ice in the ECAC quarterfinals. Next weekend’s first-round game — date and time to be determined — will be the last home game for Cornell in the 2024-2025 season, and the final game at Lynah Rink for Schafer.
First, the Red will have to finish its season off on Saturday against Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute. Puck drop for Cornell’s regular season finale is set for 7 p.m. and all action will be streamed live on ESPN+.
