Men’s hockey took on Princeton in the ECAC semifinals on Friday, launching its campaign for a third consecutive conference title. Though Cornell began on a high, it relented two goals in the second period and one in the third, a hurdle that it wouldn’t be able to overcome before suffering a 3-2 loss at final time.
The upset removes the Red from ECAC championship contention, but it doesn’t cut its season short. With the NCAA Tournament on the horizon and Cornell’s ticket already punched, The Sun breaks down what went right — and what went wrong — in Cornell’s first neutral-site match of the postseason.
Veteran Leadership Sets the Tone
Playoff games are bound to start at a breakneck pace. Friday’s match was no different – less than 30 seconds after the opening puck drop, freshman defenseman Xavier Veilleux and Princeton’s Tyler Rubin headed to the penalty box to begin two minutes of four-on-four play.
Though the early special teams test ended fruitlessly, the scoreboard got its first addition moments after the clock ran out.
Junior defenseman George Fegaras’ shot — the Red’s first shot on goal of the night — passed through two defenders and screened goaltender Arthur Smith before burying itself in the back of the net. Not three minutes into its first game at Lake Placid, Cornell had jumped ahead and forced Princeton to fight to catch up.
That meaningful opening goal came from a veteran of Lake Placid. Though five of Cornell’s top eight scorers are freshmen, it was one of the two-time returning ECAC champions to make the first move in the Red’s bid at a three-peat. Moving ahead to bigger stadiums and higher stakes, Cornell will need the judgement of its leadership to set the tone for the single-elimination NCAA tournament.
- Alexis Rogers
Special Teams Carries Through
After ending the first period in the lead, Cornell emerged from the locker room forced into a defensive mindset: for the opening minute and a half of the second period, the Red had to finish off a penalty kill. Beginning on the disadvantage set the tone for what would shape up to be a scrambling ten minutes of play.
Princeton earned its first tally of the night a minute after the time ran out on the power play, when a shot from near the blueline by David Jacobs bounced from the post into the goal. Soon after, in the midst of a dominant offensive run, the Tigers rushed from the faceoff dot to the net to flip another past freshman goaltender Alexis Cournoyer.
It took four minutes for Cornell’s one-point lead to turn to a one-point deficit – but from there, the tides turned again.
The Tigers outshot Cornell 10-2 in the first 16 minutes of the second period. By the end of the frame, that stood at 10-8.
The difference-maker? Cornell’s power play.
A boarding call on Seamus Latta gave the best power play unit in the ECAC a chance to take the ice. Cornell’s coolheaded command of possession returned with the extra man — it launched a coordinated attack that followed up two blocked shots on goal before a rebounded shot from junior defenseman Hoyt Stanley landed in the lap of junior forward Ryan Walsh, directly outside the crease.
Walsh’s tip-in managed to even the score for Cornell and injected a much-needed energy into the team. The Red commanded the puck for the remainder of the period, pushing past its mid-game slump.
- Alexis Rogers
Beat At Its Own Game
When Princeton’s Joshua Karnish cemented himself just atop Cournoyer’s crease and ultimately stuffed in Princeton’s game-deciding third goal, it felt familiar.
Because crashing the net, creating chaos in front of the goaltender — those are aspects of Cornell’s game that make it so successful. The fact of the matter was Princeton beat Cornell at its own game.
Led by longtime Cornell associate and assistant coach Ben Syer, Princeton forechecked hard, sent bodies to the net and blocked shots — lots of them, seven in the third period, in fact. Facing an onslaught of its own tactics, coupled with ample speed from the Tiger skaters, Cornell had no answer for Princeton’s late push.
- Jane McNally
