It was hard to hear yourself think at Lynah Rink.
Not when junior forward Ryan Walsh deflected in a puck on the power play, or when sophomore defenseman Michael Fisher lasered a shot through traffic and into the net.
It was when junior defenseman George Fegaras flung the puck down the length of the ice, towards a vacant Harvard net — and hit the post.
“We actually celebrated, didn't know it hit the post,” said head coach Casey Jones ’90. And then we were like, ‘damn.’”
Thankfully, junior forward Jake Kraft came streaking in tow, collecting the rebound and drilling it into the empty net, punching Cornell’s ticket to Lake Placid, New York.
“It got a little hairy there at the end,” Jones said. “But when you're trying to finish someone's season, that’s to be expected, right? They're coming at it, and I thought [Harvard] had a good push.”
Cornell won Sunday’s decisive game three of the ECAC quarterfinals by a 5-2 score, capping off its second consecutive victory after dropping game one on Friday night. The score, though appearing lopsided, told anything but the true story of the game.
The Red held a narrow 3-2 lead for much of the third period, and survived an onslaught of Harvard pressure in the waning moments.
That survival was largely due to the play of freshman goaltender Alexis Cournoyer, who proved why he was named the ECAC Goaltender of the Year — he made 22 saves on the night, but none were more critical than his five stops within the final five minutes of the game.
“[Harvard] had some good pressure, and [Cournoyer] stood on his head,” Walsh said. “He made a bunch of really good saves going down the stretch there.”
“Goalie of the year for a reason,” Jones added.
The tension at Lynah Rink was palpable. Though the attendance read 4,267 — indicative of a sold-out crowd — one of college hockey’s most sacred buildings sounded like it housed five figures of fans.
Kraft allowed everyone — including Jones — to exhale.
“It was pretty surreal,” said Walsh, who was on the ice for Kraft’s goal. “Nothing beats a sold-out crowd at Lynah. Hearing them erupt was pretty good, and it kind of sealed the game.”
Cornell’s latest win is notable on paper — a victory over its archrival, the Red’s 15th on home ice and its ticket to Lake Placid. But when you dig a little deeper, Sunday’s win could go a long way for a Cornell team looking to play deep into March and beyond.
Late-game do-or-die scenarios can’t be replicated in practice — that’s the silver lining of the series’ three-game span.
“It’s been a while since we’ve been in a game like that, where it's really tight at the end,” Jones said. “Hopefully that really bodes well for us going forward, just to learn that and get some video on it, because I thought we mismanaged it a little bit in terms of some decisions and some puck management.”
The neck-and-neck nature of the game came to be after Harvard cut a 3-1 Cornell lead to 3-2 on Will Hughes’ tally 7:18 into the third period, a goal that massively rejuvenated the Crimson.
Before that Harvard (16-16-2) goal, it had been all Cornell (22-9-1) — from midway through the first period on, the Red dominated puck possession, shots, faceoffs and practically every metric you could point to on the boxscore.
That dominance included, of course, goals.
Harvard kickstarted Sunday’s scoring in the first period, but freshman forward Reegan Hiscock retaliated 1:15 later when he flicked a shot over the blocker of Crimson netminder Ben Charette.
“We talked a lot after Friday's game, all of Saturday and going into Sunday, about really not letting things bother us,” Walsh said. “Bad things happen. Just gotta let it roll off our sleeve.”
The second period was a tale of two halves — perhaps a slow start off the hop, but nothing short of dominant as the frame went on. In all, Cornell outshot Harvard by a 14-6 margin, with the shot attempts reading 31-12 in favor of the Red.
A couple of those went in — first, Cornell found a power-play goal after Harvard’s Ben MacDonald was nabbed for cross-checking just before the halfway mark of the period. Freshman defenseman Xavier Veilleux’s shot conveniently ricocheted off of Walsh’s skate and into the net, after a faceoff win by junior forward Jonathan Castagna and a touch by sophomore forward Charlie Major tee’d things up.
“When we did find [our game], I thought we were in a really good spot there in the second period, and it essentially gave us a chance,” Jones said. “I think the biggest thing is that it gets chaotic, and we're just trying to [tell] the guys on the bench that we can't keep chasing the game. We’ve got to make plays. You got to execute a good pass coming up. We just can't keep whacking it.”
Walsh’s score gave Cornell its first lead, and sophomore defenseman Michael Fisher found an apt time for his first goal in a Cornell sweater just under four minutes later. Fisher found a tight seam on Charette’s short side to make it a 3-1 game with 5:56 to go into the middle frame.
From there, it was survival time — Cornell proved why it finished the regular season with 20 wins, why it boasted the ECAC’s top goaltender and why it’s ranked in the top 10 in the nation.
Good teams find a way to win — and the Red might be a pretty good team.
“It's [all about] getting those situations where it's a one-goal game, and I'm hoping that that experience will bode well going forward,” Jones said.
Cournoyer’s brilliance and the team’s 21 blocked shots — including 12 in the third period alone — stymied Harvard and, ultimately, clinched the team a spot at ECAC championship weekend. After Kraft’s hustle to get the empty-netter to make it 4-2, Castagna followed him up with one of his own.
5-2 Cornell, 20 seconds to play, fans on their feet.
The win finished off Cornell’s near perfect slate on home ice — its 15 wins at home ties a program record, last achieved in the 2017-2018 season. After the Red and Crimson shook hands, Cornell — led by its seniors skating at Lynah Rink for the final time — took one last lap around the old barn to salute the Lynah Faithful.
“How good is that crowd for three days?” Jones said. “That doesn't happen anywhere [else].”
Up next? Lake Placid, somewhere Cornell has been in each of the last three seasons, emerging victorious in the latter two. The Red has a date with Princeton in the ECAC semifinals at 7 p.m. Friday in the historic Herb Brooks Arena, looking to be just the second team since the 1970s to three-peat in the ECAC tournament.
“From this way out, baby, it's one-and-done,” Jones said. “So you gotta manage game and play properly.”
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.
