TOLEDO, Ohio — After 40 minutes, things seemed as good as done.
Men’s hockey mustered just four shots on goal in the second period against top-ranked Michigan State. It surrendered a goal — a turnover by the goaltender — that seemed destined to be the game-winner.
But there aren’t 40 minutes in a hockey game.
Cornell skated out for the final 20 minutes with its back up against the wall — a phrase that has been used quite a lot throughout these last few weeks.
“We knew we were gonna face some adversity at some point,” said senior goaltender Ian Shane. “So whether it's in the first period, third period, we were ready to face it.”
It was looking for a miracle.
But Cornell was also looking for a miracle just six days ago against Quinnipiac in the ECAC tournament semifinal. It got that.
On Thursday, Cornell found another miracle.
No. 16 Cornell, the lowest seed in the Toledo regional, topped No. 1 Michigan State, 4-3, on a goal with just 10 seconds left. The Red trailed 1-0, 2-1 and 3-2 before scoring twice in the third period to beat the Spartans, which were the second-seeded team in the entire tournament behind powerhouse Boston College.
A power play goal clinched Cornell a spot in the regional final — an area at which Cornell had struggled all year. The Red got one opportunity on the power play all night, and senior forward Sullivan Mack made it count.
The Spartans outshot Cornell 37-21. The Red made the most of its chances.
“I kept telling our guys: ‘ignore the shots on the board,” Schafer said. “They shoot a lot of pucks from everywhere.”
Though Mack stole the show with his buzzer-beating game-winner, it was another senior between the pipes that made the win possible — Shane made 34 saves, including a handful of point-blank opportunities down the stretch, to send Cornell to the regional final.
The win makes head coach Mike Schafer ’86 11-4 in NCAA first round games. His team has now won seven games in a row, and will look to make it eight in the regional final — a stage that has seen Schafer win only once.
“We've been waiting for 365 days to get here,” Schafer said. “I think losing, just like anything else, prepares you to be more resilient. It prepares you to be better. And I think that's what these guys did tonight.”
Michigan State, after a hot start, snapped Cornell’s six-game streak of scoring first. The two goals in the first period were also the most allowed by Cornell in the first period since Feb. 28, its last regulation loss coming at the hands of Union.
With under five minutes left in the period, Cornell found a much-needed response. Sophomore forward Ryan Walsh made a nifty play, picking the pocket of a Spartan skater and promptly beating Michigan State goaltender Trey Augustine to knot the score.
It looked like Cornell might escape the first period tied with the top team in the country, but a cross-checking penalty taken by junior forward Dalton Bancroft sent Cornell to the penalty kill with just 49 seconds left in the period. It took just 20 seconds for Michigan State to regain the lead, with Daniel Russell beating a sprawling Shane after some strong passing sequences by the Spartans.
The second period saw each team pot a goal, but it was nothing short of a dominant 20 minutes by the Spartans. Michigan State did not allow Cornell a shot on goal in the period until over halfway through the frame, and kept the Red to just four shots in the period altogether.
Despite the onslaught of Spartan pressure, the Red ultimately tied the game up at 2-2 on just its second shot of the period. A lethal one-timer by freshman forward Charlie Major, after Michigan State had pressed over and over again, had all the opportunity to suck the wind out of the Spartans’ sails.
Then disaster struck. Shane, after the ensuing faceoff, came out of his net to play the puck. After hesitating to make a decision, Shane ultimately turned the puck over and Karsen Dowart grabbed the puck and fired it into the open net. The goal came just 17 seconds after Major’s tying goal.
“You just kind of laugh it off. It's a tough goal, not one you want to let in,” Shane said. “But like I said earlier, you can't really get too far ahead of yourself. Can't worry about it.”
“I wasn't laughing, by the way,” Schafer said. “It was frustrating to give up that third one.”
Cornell skated out for the final frame down a goal and looking to keep its season — and Schafer’s career — alive. Michigan State was 18-0-2 when leading after two periods up to that point.
Things looked promising to start — Cornell sustained pressure in its offensive zone for nearly two minutes, trapping the Spartans defensively and generating a few good chances on Augustine.
Michigan State followed that up with a grade-A chance, nearly making it a two-goal deficit, but Shane made his best save of the night on Dowart — the goal scorer from Shane’s gaffe with the puck — who was all alone in the low slot and was met with an outstretched left pad and glove to keep it a one-score game.
“It obviously gives you a lot of confidence when they put the tying goal in, [but] you don't want to get too ahead of yourself. Michigan State's a dangerous team,” Shane said. “It was really just a matter of settling down and settling into the game and just kind of focusing on whatever I have to do.”
Then, the Red broke through. After an initial shot by sophomore defenseman Ben Robertson, at the doorstep was his fellow classmate Walsh, who beat Augustine for the second time that night to tie the game for Cornell a third time.
“He didn’t waste any time tonight on that rebound goal from Ben [Robertson],” Schafer said. “He didn't over-handle it, he released it quick. He's big on face-offs. He can play against other teams' top lines. So he's been a tremendous player for us all season long.”
The final frame was undoubtedly Cornell’s best of the three — it was the only period that the Red outshot the Spartans in (12-7) and Cornell turned the puck over at a much less frequent rate than it did in the first two periods.
“We definitely needed a wake up call after the second period,” Mack said. “And the coaching staff kind of came in [and] Schafer came in and told us: ‘let's get it going here.’"
With a little under two minutes to go, senior forward Jack O’Leary bolted into the offensive zone in pursuit of the puck. Spartan defenseman Matt Basgall went after O’Leary, moving slower than the speedy 5’7” forward.
That speed ultimately paid off — O’Leary was taken down by Basgall, and with 1:39 left, the referee's hand went up. Cornell would get a power play.
And although Cornell’s power play has consistently ranked towards the bottom of the country, it has taken on a new life as of late — it might not be very consistent. But it has been clutch.
Cornell pushed and pushed. Then, the announcement of the period’s final minute. Cornell kept the puck in its zone. Major got the puck with less than 20 seconds left. He faked, and then sent the puck over to Mack. The two exchanged another set of passes, before Major fed him one last feed that somehow, someway, eked through the stout Spartan defense.
In the blink of an eye, the puck was in the back of the net.
Cornell scored on the power play — just its 16th power play goal all year — to take a 4-3 lead on Michigan State with 10 seconds left. Those 10 seconds would pass and the Red would go on to swarm Shane, upending the top-ranked team in the region and in the country.
“This season has fed me everything that I could not imagine,” Schafer said. “As a coach, you've been in the business for 39 years, and you think you've seen everything.”
The win sends Cornell to Saturday’s regional final against Boston University. Schafer will look to advance to his second Frozen Four in his coaching career, the last being in 2003. Puck drop will be either 4:00 p.m. or 6:30 p.m.
Jane McNally is a senior editor on the 143rd editorial board and was the sports editor on the 142nd editorial board. She is a member of the class of 2026 in the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences. You can follow her on X @JaneMcNally_ and reach her at jmcnally@cornellsun.com.
