This story is a part of The Sun's 2025 NCAA Men's Hockey Tournament Supplement.
Editor’s note: A previous version of this story was published in College Hockey News.
LAKE PLACID, N.Y. — If you had told head coach Mike Schafer ’86 one year ago that he’d win another Whitelaw Cup, his second consecutive trophy, he wouldn’t have believed you.
“I was done last year,” Schafer said, wearing a blue cap with “2025 ECAC Champions” written right on the front. “I was ready to retire. I thought it was awesome that we won a championship. … [After former associate head coach Ben Syer left], I just knew I couldn’t leave at that particular time. And I had another year left in me.”
A year later, Schafer and Cornell are champions again. This time, he got to hoist the championship trophy with longtime friend and associate head coach, Casey Jones ’90.
“I'm very grateful that I get to work with Casey. He's gonna be tremendous,” Schafer said. “He's gonna carry on the tradition at Cornell — these guys are very fortunate to have him as a coach.”
For Jones, Saturday’s championship game meant being faced with the group he left last June. Jones spent 13 years building a culture at Clarkson, and was tasked with the difficult decision of leaving a program he was loyal to, or returning to coach for his alma mater.
He opted for the latter. Seeing the players he’d helped develop — like Clarkson seniors Ryan Richardson and Kaelan Taylor — in tears after succumbing to Cornell in Saturday’s title game, was difficult.
“It was tough,” Jones said. “Got to see most of them in the [handshake] line going out there, got a chance to congratulate them and wish them well. It was hard.”
Jones got a taste of the Whitelaw Cup back in 2010, when he served the same role he does now under Schafer. When he left for Clarkson two seasons later, he was determined to accomplish that same feat, which he did in 2019.
On the other bench in 2019 stood Schafer, reeling at what was a heartbreaking overtime defeat for Cornell, watching his former player and associate coach hoist the Whitelaw Cup while the team’s drought grew to nine years.
On Saturday, when Schafer had the Whitelaw Cup in his clutch on the ice at Herb Brooks Arena, he gestured for Jones to join him in a picture. “We didn’t get to do this last time,” Schafer said, alluding to the disappointment and division the 2019 game has delivered.
Together, they got to lift the trophy over their heads.
“I just have a lot of gratitude, and that's all I've been thinking about,” Schafer said.
For Schafer, it will be the final time he’ll be able to do so. For Jones, he’ll look to accomplish it next year as head coach of Cornell.
“My first year of coaching, he was a freshman. He was a young French kid from Témiscaming, Quebec,” Schafer said. “Just to see him turn into, to me, one of the best coaches in college hockey. It was just nice to share this with him and his family.”
Jones was the student, and soon he’ll be the coach — Jones will succeed Schafer. That is, whenever the Red stops winning.
Saturday’s 3-1 win over Clarkson — the same result it dealt St. Lawrence in last year’s title game — was another signature Cornell win. Whether it be Schafer, Jones, or anyone else behind the bench, Cornell’s marquee defensive prowess allowed the Red to become the first ECAC team to win back-to-back Whitelaw Cups since Union in 2014.
“When I was an assistant coach here, and when I played in the 90s, they played the same way,” said Clarkson head coach J.F. Houle. “They're true to their identity.”
The recent defensive stinginess as of late can be attributed to Schafer — since he suffered a concussion after getting hit in the head with a puck in the Red’s Feb. 28 loss to Union, Schafer has taken a step back and honed in on the defensive group, allowing Jones to take a more central role on the bench. That is the opposite of the usual dynamic between the head coach and assistant.
On Saturday, Jones stood in the middle of the bench, while Schafer remained off the side with the defensemen.
Whatever dynamic has been at play for Cornell behind the bench, has worked as of late. Cornell has won six games in a row and nine of its last 11. That included its title victory, improbable semifinal comeback against Quinnipiac, a sweep of Colgate on the road in the quarterfinals, and an opening-round win over Yale.
“They all collectively work together to kind of help us get to our main goal, which is this [and] a national championship,” said junior forward Nick DeSantis, who had two points and the game-winning goal. “Even when Schafe wasn't at the rink after his concussion, [Jones] stepped up, Corey [Leivermann] stepped up, and [Sean Flanagan] stepped up, and did a great job teaching us and getting us prepared for this.”
DeSantis potted the second of Cornell’s two first-period goals, the first one coming courtesy of senior forward Ondrej Psenicka who finished off a textbook passing play. Clarkson goaltender Ethan Langenegger, the ECAC Goaltender of the Year, gave up two goals on the first three shots he saw.
That would be all the scoring Cornell needed to get past the Golden Knights, before sophomore forward Ryan Walsh sealed the game with an empty-netter. Clarkson halved Cornell’s lead in the third period, but was met with an otherwise impenetrable force in net — senior goaltender Ian Shane.
After claiming ECAC Goaltender of the Year honors last season, Shane’s senior campaign didn’t quite live up to expectations. But largely attributable to that was the team in front of him.
“Ian was top-five in save percentage last year, one of the top goalies in the country. … So when everybody got hurt, Ian wanted to put those numbers up again. He wanted a .930 save percentage,” Schafer said. “Those high expectations he had for himself, they just weren't achievable, right? When you play eight forwards in a game, you're not going to achieve those kinds of statistics.”
Having not allowed more than two goals since Feb. 28, Shane has been a “rock” for Cornell down the stretch, Schafer says.
“I give him a lot of credit. I think it's difficult for a goaltender, a quarterback, a pitcher to overcome that mentally. And he did it, and he's been a rock,” Schafer said.
It’s hard to believe that this was the same Cornell team that lost to St. Lawrence, 2-1, just about two months ago. Or, the Cornell team that fell to Clarkson eight games ago on just 11 shots against. Schafer stared down a daunting path to Lake Placid, much less the NCAA tournament. His career was as good as done.
“[After that game] I was so sick and tired of analytics and everything else, and we got to work,” Schafer said. “Practices were long, they were hard, they were tough, and these guys responded. The players just stiffened up and became even more resilient.”
Cornell was the sixth seed in the ECAC tournament. Now, the Red is heading to the NCAA tournament as arguably the hottest team in college hockey.
For Schafer, that means one more opportunity to get behind the bench, no matter what capacity that may be. At the end of the day, it’s another chance to represent his alma mater.
“I still never forget the day I got the call to come back and coach my alma mater. It was probably one of the highlights of my life,” Schafer said. “I'm just really grateful for the sport of hockey, what it's given to myself, my family here. We always ask the question, ‘what's the thing you're going to miss the most? Being in the locker room, talking to guys, watching them overcome their individual adversity over the last year and a half.’”
Schafer gets to end his career the same way that he started: with back-to-back Whitelaw Cups. He’ll get one more shot at a national title.
“It doesn’t get any better than that as a coach,” Schafer said.
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.
