Scanning the surface at Lynah Rink, there will be a brigade of white helmets as far as the eye can see — that is, until your eyes reach the goaltender’s crease.
The beginning of hockey season means a lot of things, but for the men’s hockey goaltenders, it’s practically Christmas. New shipments of equipment pour in, including the usual pads and blockers and sticks. But a goaltender’s outfit is not complete without perhaps the most special, personalized cherry on top: a mask.
“I feel like when you're on the ice, you're kind of expressing yourself by the mask,” said freshman goaltender Alexis Cournoyer. “If you have a pretty cool mask, you know, [if] you look good, you play good.”
Between the four Cornell goaltenders, no two masks look the same. Each helmet showcases bits and pieces of their personalities, a privilege that belongs only to goaltenders.
Cornell has long utilized Vice Design — a Columbus, Ohio based designer specializing in hockey goaltender masks. Before the season begins, each goaltender is put into contact with the designer, where they are able to send mockup designs or a list of features they want placed on the mask.
For some, like freshman goaltender Erick Roest, it’s an opportunity to practice their art skills. Roest says he enjoys designing his masks on his iPad, sending over his vision to Vice Designs, who then brings it to life.
For others, mask designing is less of a creative outlet.
“I'm horrible at putting it together. I send them pictures, [being] like, ‘draw it up,’” said senior goaltender Remington Keopple. “And every time it comes back, I'm like, ‘Yeah, looks good to me.’”
But the final product, no matter how many sketches or designs it takes, is always worth it.
Alexis Cournoyer
Cournoyer has not been in Ithaca for long, but he pays tribute to Ithaca and Cornell hockey history on his mask. The right side of the helmet features Ithaca Falls, located just off of Cornell’s campus. That blends into the chin of the mask, with Cournoyer’s “30” encircled by two Cornell emblems.
The left side of the mask, Cournoyer says, is his “favorite part.” Standing tall is the iconic McGraw Tower, and leaning over it is legendary goaltender Ken Dryden ’69. Some of the most famous photos taken of Dryden are the ones featuring his signature pose, standing alone in the crease as he often didn’t face boatloads of action on the loaded Montréal Canadiens teams of the 1970s.
For Cournoyer, a French Canadian hailing from Trois-Rivières, Québec, and a fifth-round draft pick of the Canadiens, it was the perfect touch.
Atop the helmet is the signature — and intimidating — Cornell bear. Claiming prime real estate just above the white cage protecting Cournoyer’s face, he hypothesized that the bear is there to “to scare the shooters in front of me.”
“Big Red” text sits just above the bear, before you reach the back of Cournoyer’s helmet — it’s the part that is least visible to the public eye, but carries the most sentimental weight.
Silhouettes of Cournoyer’s family — his dad, mom, mom, himself, his younger sister and stepmother — are sketched standing on the Lynah Rink ice, below two banners signifying Cornell’s two national championships in 1967 and 1970. But hanging largest between the two is a banner with “27” and “Gagne,” memorializing Cournoyer’s longtime friend, Emile Gagne, who died in a car accident two years ago.
“I always had him on the back of my mask,” Cournoyer, who also commemorated Gagne on his customized mask last season. “So he’s always with me on the ice.”
Erick Roest
After designs were swapped back and forth between Vice Designs and Roest, the first-year’s mask features two Cornell logos — one being the official University emblem, and the other the former C Bear Logo — with bear claws scratching through them.
Like Cournoyer, Roest had his number “40” drawn on the chin, with “Cornell” and “Big Red” sandwiching it, and a large Cornell “C” sitting on the top of the helmet. Roest’s mask is not complete without the bricks sketched all throughout, a nod to Roest’s favorite NHL goaltender, Sergei Bobrovsky, who does the same thing with his helmets.
The back of Roest’s helmet is adorned with personal touches — jumping out straight away is a cartoon rooster, a play on Roest’s nickname, “Roester.” That sits below bold, black lettering reading, “unleash the beast.”
“[It’s] just something I pride myself on, just kind of bringing that to the rink every day, kind of a mentality,” Roest says.
Behind Roest’s mantra and his rooster is a sketching of the Lethbridge Viaduct (or High Level Bridge), a railway trestle bridge in Roest’s hometown of Lethbridge, Alberta. The bridge is both the largest railway structure in Canada and the largest railway trestle bridge in the world.
Justin Katz
Though Katz is a sophomore, he opted to reuse the same mask he designed for his freshman year for the 2025-2026 season. Similar to Roest’s, two clawed Cornell emblems frame the white cage, though Katz is the only goaltender to feature his last name on the chin of his mask in lieu of his number.
Around the mask, subtle bear paw prints outline the bold logos, with the C Bear Logo sitting large above the white cage of the helmet. It’s also worth noting that Katz is the only goaltender using a dangler, which is a plastic neck and throat protector that attaches to the base of the helmet.
“My goalie coach Marco [Raimondo], his career got ended because he broke his jaw twice. So I've always worn it, just [to] make sure that doesn't happen to me,” Katz said.
The back of Katz’s helmet includes a handful of personal touches — just above his number "37" and to the right of a Canadian flag (Katz hails from Montréal, Québec) are three paw prints with the name of Katz’s three dogs inside: Rosie, Izzy and Koby.
He also has an emblem for his goaltending coach, Raimondo Goaltending, whom Katz works with in the offseason back in Québec.
“[He is] my mentor. I've been working with him for a long time, so I think putting his logo on there is the least I can do,” Katz said.
Remington Keopple
The eldest goaltender of the four is not picky when it comes to his masks.
“I think it looks cool. Definitely brings the whole setup together,” Keopple said. “Other than that… my helmet’s not gonna make more saves, so I’m not too worried about it.”
Keopple’s mask has a red base, a bit brighter than his counterparts in net. On the left side, a black and white sketch of McGraw Tower stands tall, with subtle paw prints and Cornell “C” crests bordering it. Opposite the clock tower is the large C Bear Logo, while the chin features Keopple’s number and "Big Red" surrounding it.
A white streak with ‘Cornell’ atop the mask leads to the back of Keopple’s helmet, perhaps the part that steals the show. The senior pays homage to his family by including the initials of his mother, father and sister, and includes a Bible verse from Thessalonians 3:10: “thou who is unwilling to work shall not eat,” a phrase Keopple coined from the gym he works out at in his home state of Wisconsin.
But the largest design of them all is a cartoon sketching of Dwight Schrute from “The Office,” particularly the episode where Schrute makes fun of Andy Bernard, a proud Cornell graduate in the show. Keopple had very few urgent requests for his mask, but saluting his favorite show was one of them.
At the end of the day, the helmet doesn’t impact a goaltender’s game directly. As Keopple said, no extra pucks will be stopped because of a good-looking helmet, and Cournoyer’s theory of ‘scared’ forwards is likely moot.
But the mask, and all that the goaltender gets to do with it, is a unique aspect of the position in hockey that is already the most individualistic. It allows the goaltender to revere the things it is closest to, like family or mentors or trainers, or showcase even a touch of their personality, like their favorite TV show.
“For goalies, I think it's the best part of having the goalie fear itself,” Cournoyer said. “It's the mask; You get to add your own personal touch to it. And I think it's pretty cool.”
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.
