This story has been updated.
For nearly 58 minutes, men’s hockey and Massachusetts played neck and neck.
Cornell had the edge in shot attempts, shots on goal and faceoffs. It took fewer penalties. After an early blunder, it seemed to have settled in.
But those two minutes proved costly.
The two penalties Cornell took came in pivotal moments, and both turned into Massachusetts goals as the No. 13 Minutemen eked past the No. 20 Red, 2-1, in Cornell’s season-opener. The first penalty came just 13 seconds into the game and the second with 1:51 remaining, both being whistled on junior defenseman George Fegaras.
“It’s obviously special teams. If you lose special teams two-nothing, you're not gonna win a lot of hockey games, right?” said head coach Casey Jones ’90. “But the amount of scoring chances we generated and all that — we just got to figure out a way to bury out chances and take advantage of the opportunities.”
Special teams struggles were the story of Friday night’s contest — the Minutemen were perfect on both the penalty kill and power play, while Cornell remained snakebitten on both ends. Across Cornell’s three unsuccessful man advantage attempts, the Red mustered just three shots on goal, despite outshooting the Minutemen 28-16 across the full 60.
“I thought they showed the number of games they played [through] their penalty kill,” Jones said. “It gave us some problems. They were tight, and we're still trying to get our bearings straight with the special teams, and that was a difference in the game.”
It didn’t take long for Massachusetts (6-2-0, 0-1-0 Hockey East) to harness the momentum — Fegaras was nabbed for roughing just over 10 seconds into Cornell’s season.
The lethal Massachusetts power play — ranking top-10 in the country and operating at a 26.9 percent clip — made no mistakes. A point shot by the Minutemen was deflected just over the shoulder of senior goaltender Remington Keopple to give Massachusetts an early 1-0 lead just 1:43 into the game.
After a tight race for the starter’s crease, Keopple ultimately edged out freshman goaltender Alexis Cournoyer for the first start of the season. The senior netminder earned just the sixth start of his career and finished with 14 saves on 16 shots on Friday, good for a .875 save percentage.
After Lukáš Klečka’s early tally, Cornell eventually drew a penalty just shy of the halfway mark of the period. However, Cornell’s top power play unit featuring freshman forward Caton Ryan, junior forward Ryan Walsh, junior forward Jonathan Castagana, sophomore forward Charlie Major and Fegaras — a unit that was active during the Red’s two exhibition games — miscommunicated on zone entries and failed to establish any real opportunities in Massachusetts’ defensive third.
“We missed the net on a lot of our scoring chances, to be honest. … We had some grade-A chances that we just didn't finish on,” Jones said “I'd like us to put the puck on net a little bit more on our opportunities that we had tonight.”
Before the Minutemen could take its lead into the first intermission, Cornell finally found the response it had been in search of for the first 13:40. After strong pressure on the forecheck, sophomore defenseman Michael Fisher ripped a shot on net and it would be freshman forward Gio DiGiulian cleaning up the rebound, securing the first goal of his collegiate career.
In the closing minutes with the game knotted up, Cornell seemed to be back on its toes — after DiGiulian’s goal, the Red outshot the Minutemen 6-1 and concluded the first period with five consecutive shots on goal, all of which Massachusetts goaltender Michael Hrabal handled with ease.
The Red’s pressure kept up in the second period, with the middle frame being much-improved from Cornell’s first 20 minutes. Though the score would remain knotted at 1-1 when all was said and done, the second period saw Cornell inch ahead in the shot count — 17-11 through 40 minutes — and muster many more high-danger scoring opportunities.
“Five-on-five, I was very pleased,” Jones said. “To give up [16] shots on net, on the road against a top team. … You know, I thought we tightened up five-on-five while, while still generating. So I was pleased with that for the most part.”
The only penalty of the middle frame was taken by Massachusetts, when senior forward Nick DeSantis drew a boarding penalty with 7:24 remaining. The second Cornell power play looked much stronger than the first, with junior forward Ryan Walsh earning two prime scoring opportunities from the left faceoff circle, one of which missed a gaping net and the other padded away by Hrabal.
Up until the final 1:51, Cornell had attempted 53 shots to Massachusetts’ 29, and although it was struggling to beat the 6’7” Hrabal between the pipes, the Red’s game looked much-improved from the opening 20 minutes.
Then, a whistle blew. Fegaras — after taking Cornell’s only penalty in the opening seconds that had resulted in Massachusetts lone goal — would head to the box once again, this time for hooking.
“I thought we were disciplined. I thought we played the right way,” Jones said. “I didn't like the first penalty of the game. And the last one, they were due … we got a stick in an area and threw them off-balance. … But we didn't put ourselves in many situations [where] they had to make a decision on a call.”
Massachusetts won the draw, played the puck around the perimeter, and in the blink of an eye, it was 2-1. A shot from the point deflected off the body of Václav Nestrašil, beating Keopple and giving the Minutemen a late 2-1 lead.
Cornell pulled Keopple for the final minute and change, but a strong defensive stand by Massachusetts iced the win for the Minutemen, handing Cornell its first loss of the season.
“That was an unfortunate end," Jones said. "I felt really comfortable with our play. It's a result [that] probably wasn't deserved, but it is what it is, we got to get after it tomorrow."
The Red will look to pick up a series split when it takes on Massachusetts at 6 p.m. Saturday in Amherst, Massachusetts. All action will be streamed live on ESPN+.
Tyler Goldberg contributed reporting.
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.
