Last season’s bad blood carried over to the first “Battle of the Bigs” as the ‘Big’ Red squared off against the Big Green for the first time this season. The game had a tantalizing pace and tough defensive play from both sides, with Dartmouth coming out on top, 2-1.
“It was a hard-fought game, two teams that don't give up a lot of time and space, and you had to earn every inch of the ice,” said head coach Casey Jones ’90.
The Big Green (4-0-0, 2-0-0 ECAC) have had a good start to the 2025-2026 season, in part due to sophomore forward Hayden Stavroff’s stellar play. Coming into Saturday’s game, Stavroff had already piled up seven points (five goals, two assists) in three games. The Red’s goal of keeping the hot forward off of the scoresheet was short-lived.
Halfway through the first period, a Cornell hooking penalty sent Dartmouth to its first powerplay. Working it around, Dartmouth’s Hank Cleaves found Stavroff for an open look back door to open the scoring and make it 1-0 Dartmouth.
“I didn't think we had everybody ready to play at the drop of the puck,” Jones said. “It was a mixed bag for us in terms of having a collective group. … Coming off of a rivalry game, I don’t know what the situation was, but that’s obviously what we’ll have to reflect on to make sure we’re more consistent from game to game.”
As the Red (2-2-0, 1-1-0 ECAC) looked to answer back, the team struggled to enter the offensive zone cleanly, mainly due to Dartmouth’s neutral zone defense. With chances hard to come by, late in the first, senior forward Winter Wallace decided to throw a shot on net from the point. The puck rebounded off of Dartmouth’s goaltender Emmett Croteau and then off of junior defenseman Hoyt Stanley and went in, but a crease violation was immediately called on Stanley to negate the goal, sending Cornell to the locker room down one after the first.
Two minutes into the second, three Cornell players were stuck battling for position in front of the net as the Big Green’s defenseman Matt Fusco walked in and snapped a shot into the top right corner of the net. The Red challenged for offsides prior to the goal, but after a lengthy review, the goal stood and Dartmouth jumped ahead to a 2-0 lead.
After the teams traded power play opportunities through the middle frame, freshman forward Reegan Hiscock, fresh from the box, turned on the burners down the left wing and snapped a wrister through Croteau. Hiscock’s first NCAA goal made the score 2-1 Dartmouth and gave the Red life.
In the following minutes, the Red established offensive zone pressure and maintained possession with hard work along the wall. But, once again the Red headed to the penalty kill as Dartmouth drew a slashing penalty with 3:22 left in the second. A blocker save from freshman goaltender Alexis Cournoyer on a Stavroff one-timer helped the Red kill the penalty and head to the third down 2-1 with positives to build on.
However, Cornell’s slow starts to periods continued as thirty seconds into the third, Dartmouth’s Cam MacDonald found Eric Charpentier in the slot for a wrister that snuck through Cournoyer’s five-hole. Luckily for the Red, the net was off its moorings when the puck crossed the goal line and the original call of no goal was upheld.
In perhaps a bout of karma, a minute later, junior forward Ryan Walsh fed junior forward Jake Kraft for a wide open one-timer, but as Dartmouth’s Croteau shifted off of the post, the net was de-lodged from its moorings again and the play was whistled dead. Kraft’s shot flew through where the net would have been.
As frustration boiled over for both teams, whistles brought about scraps and tension built as the Red searched for the equalizer; a Dartmouth holding penalty with 11:38 remaining in the third gave Cornell a chance to find it. A loose puck slid through the crease and a Fegaras point shot was stopped as the Red — like it did on Friday night — went scoreless on the man advantage.
After the power play, a gritty shot block from sophomore defenseman Luke Ashton led to over a minute of offensive zone time for the Red. Hemmed in its zone, Dartmouth’s skaters grew sluggish, but multiple Croteau saves kept the puck out of the Big Green’s net.
With 2:10 remaining and Cournoyer pulled for the extra skater, the Red geared up for one more push. A Dartmouth holding penalty with 34 seconds left put Cornell on a six-on-four man advantage. Two desperate shot attempts flew wide and the clock ticked down to zero as the Red failed to find the tying goal.
“Give Dartmouth credit,” Jones said. “We had some resiliency to stick around tonight and a lot of opportunities to get the game tied, but just didn’t bury one.”
The Red ended the night 0-4 on the power play. If one of those powerplays would have ended with the puck in Dartmouth’s net, the game could have had a different story.
“The two games we have lost this year, we have lost the special teams battle, fair and simple,” Jones said. “We’re not giving up a lot of goals five-on-five. As we grow here in the season the power play will be critical for us.”
The Red will look to improve on the man advantage and get back into the win column in its home opener against Brown on Friday, Nov. 14 at 7 p.m. and against Yale 24 hours later. Both games will be streamed live on ESPN+.
