After a weekend split to conclude its season, men’s hockey grabbed the sixth seed for the ECAC playoffs. The Feb. 28 4-1 loss to Union in Schenectady, New York put the Red out of contention for the highly coveted first-round bye, forcing Cornell to gear up for its first appearance in the opening round since the 2015-2016 season.
The regular season certainly had its ups and down — the Red reached a national ranking as high as No. 6 back in November but has since stumbled to a 13-10-6 record (10-8-4 in ECAC play), far out of contention for an at-large bid to the NCAA Tournament.
The team opens playoff season against Yale at Lynah Rink on Saturday, the final home game of the season. Should the Red beat the Bulldogs, it will advance to the ECAC quarterfinals — on the road.
Nevertheless, Cornell enters the ECAC playoffs as the defending champion.
In this postseason edition of The Sun’s men’s hockey mailbag, I will give my best answers to your questions as the team prepares for a playoff run.
Status of sophomore forward Luke Devlin and junior forward Winter Wallace?
I reported on Feb. 13 that Devlin and Wallace — who were injured before the 2024-2025 season began — would likely be sidelined for the rest of the season:
“They’re really missed. It’s tough to lose both of those big power forwards out of your lineup. We talk about being more physical [now] –– when they’re in our lineup, we don’t have to talk about that. It’s unfortunate. It’s difficult for an athlete to lose a whole season, and that’s what’s happened to them.” –– Head coach Mike Schafer '86
How do the coaches view the current goalie situation?
Junior goaltender Remington Keopple made an impressive appearance between the pipes against Rensselaer Polytechnic Institution last Saturday, posting a 21-save shutout and even notching an assist on freshman forward Charlie Major’s goal.
Since senior goaltender Ian Shane earned his starting spot in January of 2022 — his freshman year — very little has changed for the Red in net. Shane has started all but nine of the last 117 games Cornell has played dating back to Jan. 7, 2022.
Shane has been a mainstay and anchor for Cornell’s defense over the past four years. As a result, Keopple — who came to Cornell in the Fall of 2022 — just hasn’t been able to get much of a chance.
His appearance was impressive. Associate head coach Casey Jones ’90 thought so, too.
“He looked good playing the puck. He looked comfortable. They controlled rebounds bigger than that,” Jones said. “He went in and kind of seized the moment there.”
The goaltending situation is interesting — when Keopple has been able to get into a game, he has played well. Through five appearances this season, he’s posted a .958 save percentage and stopped 68 of 71 shots. Keopple has appeared in 12 games across three seasons, most in relief of Shane in games already out of control.
Still, though, I don’t think the sample size is big enough for the coaching staff to shift away from Shane, who although has not had the most impressive senior campaign, is the reigning ECAC goaltender of the year and has been a massive reason for the Red’s recent late-season success (e.g., the 2023 and 2024 playoff runs).
It’s a difficult situation to be in for the staff. Keopple has shone in his few appearances but, ahead of a do-or-die playoff game, I think it will be Shane.
What is the head-to-head vs. Yale?
Read my preview for this weekend’s game!
At this point of the season with ECAC playoffs looming, what letter grade would you assign Cornell? Better yet, why that grade?
When I got a question like this back in January for my last mailbag, I gave Cornell a B. I think I was a little generous considering the skid Cornell was on at that time, but considering injury and how the Red outshot its opponent nearly every night, I wasn’t willing to assign the team anything lower.
So what has changed? Since my last mailbag, Cornell has gone 8-7-3, fallen outside of the top-20 in the USCHO.com poll, gotten into a brawl after an embarrassing loss to Dartmouth and unveiled an eight-forward, nine-defenseman lineup.
The Red, on the other hand, has scored 25 goals in its last six games, winning four out of those six. The team has returned nearly to full strength (minus Devlin and Wallace), relishing the depth it so desperately lacked throughout the majority of the season.
So, to be incredibly boring, I will give Cornell a B once again.
Besides the blunder against Union last weekend, Cornell has outplayed the majority of its opponents down the stretch. It has allowed fewer than 20 shots in three of its last four games, hunkering down defensively and killing penalties well.
It might seem like a copout to say that puck luck hasn’t been on the Red’s side, but it truly hasn't. The team has hit an incredible number of posts this year and continues to outshoot and out-attempt its opponents. The fact that it even captured two points from Clarkson on Feb. 1, considering it was down a full line of forwards, shows the capability of the team when it channels its championship tendencies.
After all, Cornell returned all but two skaters from last year’s Whitelaw Cup-winning team.
This team can be whomever it wants to be. With a healthy lineup, there is only one thing that could stop Cornell from making a deep run in the playoffs: itself.
“It's been such a weird year,” senior defenseman Hank Kempf told The Sun. “You can make the argument that we've kind of underperformed, but I like where our team's at right now.”
