Heading into Friday night, No. 20 Union boasted the third-best offense in the nation, averaging four goals per game.
It would skate off the ice at Lynah Rink with just a ‘1’ on the scoreboard. And beyond that, only nine shots on goal through the final 40 minutes.
“We made them defend,” said head coach Casey Jones ’90. “That’s what you want to do to a good offensive team. You don't want them to have the puck. You want to put pucks in behind them.”
No. 19 men’s hockey played a stout defensive game — textbook Cornell hockey — to earn a 2-1 win over Union on Friday night. Freshman goaltender Alexis Cournoyer stopped 18 of 19 shots to pick up his fifth win, but the night was defined by the play of the defenders in front of him.
Union managed to put only four and five shots on net in the second and third periods, respectively. In all, the Red blocked 13 shots, delivering Union one of its worst offensive results so far this season.
“Usually a team like that, they pepper, they put a lot of shots on net,” Jones said. “So to only give up five shots in the third, it shows that we respected the game, played the right way, and moved pucks. I thought our D got pucks out of the zone for us pretty quick tonight.”
The game had a fast pace from the drop of the puck, and it didn’t take long for Union’s offensive prowess to take shape. The Garnet Chargers drew a penalty just shy of the halfway mark of the opening frame, giving Union — which had been converting at a 25 percent clip on the power play entering Friday’s game — a chance to secure the game’s first goal.
That it would do — Will Felicio loaded up for a strong wrist shot that beat Cournoyer cleanly for the 1-0 lead.
The Red found the response it was looking for when it earned a power play less than five minutes after Felicio’s tally. And it would be a set play off the faceoff — won cleanly by junior forward Jonathan Castagna — that enabled Cornell to even the score.
“You win a faceoff, you want to get a shot off in the first five seconds, right?” Jones said. “You want to [have] an attacking mentality. … It was [a] good execution on their behalf.”
Junior defenseman Hoyt Stanley collected Castagna’s faceoff win and dished it to the right circle for freshman defenseman Xavier Veilleux, who one-timed it low to beat Union goaltender Cameron Korpi through the five-hole.
Neither team would convert at five-on-five in the opening period, and Union headed to the locker room up 10-9 in shots on goal after 20 minutes.
In the second, the Red came out quicker and with more tenacity. While in the first the Garnet Chargers controlled the majority of play, it was the Red applying pressure and gaining momentum in the middle frame.
Looking to spark the offense at five-on-five, Jones paired senior forward Nick DeSantis with junior forward Jake Kraft and Castagna. The line proved to be a spark for the Red providing quickness and led to multiple high-danger chances.
“Sometimes you get into the game [and] you get a feeling as a coach,” Jones said. “[At] this level, we're coaching to win, right? And you get a feeling sometimes, [and] sometimes you're in the right spot, you get to get an opportunity. And [DeSantis] took full advantage.”
After killing off a penalty for diving late in the second, sophomore forward Charlie Major forced a Union giveaway along the wall on the forecheck and fired a wrister past the Union goaltender with just 1:49 left in the period. Major, after missing the past two games, scored his second of the year and gave the Red its first lead of the game.
“It's always nice to get back. You kind of appreciate it more when you're in the stands watching,” Major said. “I think I just kind of closed my eyes and shot it. I got lucky.”
With the slight edge in score, Cornell hunkered down in the third period. The Red’s forecheck was unrelenting and gave Union a difficult time breaking out of its defensive zone.
The Garnet Chargers got an opportunity to tie things up when Veilleux was sent off for holding three minutes into the period. Aided by strong killing from senior defenseman Jack O’Brien, the Union man advantage was ultimately negated by a Garnet Charger penalty with 33 seconds left on the power play.
“I thought we hunted. I thought we traveled in packs. We use that term a lot — [when] we're on the ice, we’re not just one guy,” Jones said. “We were collective in the process, and I thought our last two penalty kills were huge.”
The Red continued to play stingy defense down the stretch. After Union pulled its goaltender with just under two minutes remaining, the Red settled into a sound defensive structure and blocked shots, limiting the shots that reached Cournoyer. As the final buzzer sounded, the Red capped off a one-goal win and limited a Union offense that scored 13 goals last weekend.
“When you have a good offensive team, they're going to generate chances when they get them,” Jones said. “They had a couple of rushes coming up the ice and went tic-tac-toe on them, but didn't convert. I thought our D-corps was good for the most part.”
The Red will look to build on the momentum of Friday night’s win when it faces off against Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute Saturday at 7:00 pm at Lynah Rink. The game will stream live on ESPN+.
“We use the term all the time: hungry dog gets fed,” Jones said. “If you lay back and you're not hungry, you'll lose an edge. We have to come back with the same intensity and the same mindset to close out this homestand.”
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.
