There will be no easing back into ECAC play for No. 13 men’s hockey.
After two weekends of out-of-conference matchups, Cornell must dive straight back in — its next four games are against four of the top five teams in the ECAC.
“We're trying to be as consistent as we can in that we're not worried about who we're playing against, and it’s hard not to [think] that your next game is the most important game of the season,” said head coach Casey Jones ’90. “And it just so happens these games, where people are sitting in the standings, there's obviously a little bit more bang for the buck on these games.”
The first tests the Red must withstand are No. 18 Princeton and No. 7 Quinnipiac. Both are offensive powerhouses — averaging close to four goals per game — and are tied atop the ECAC with 22 points (Cornell sits in fourth place with 18 points but have two games in hand on both squads).
“I'm anxious to see Princeton and Quinnipiac this weekend, and hopefully some students are trickling back onto campus, get Lynah rocking here, and kind of set us off on a stretch run in league play,” Jones said.
Cornell will continue its homestand when it takes on Princeton at 7 p.m. Friday before facing off against Quinnipiac at the same time on Saturday night. Both games will stream like on ESPN+, while Saturday’s game will also air regionally on SNY. Live updates from Lynah Rink will be provided by @DailySunSports on X.
Cournoyer Earns National Recognition + Other Weekly Awards
Freshman goaltender Alexis Cournoyer was announced as a member of the watchlist for the Mike Richter Award, awarded annually to the top goaltender in NCAA Division I men’s hockey.
One of 29 goaltenders on the list released Wednesday by the Hockey Commissioners Association, Cournoyer makes the cut alongside 10 other freshmen and three other ECAC netminders. The Trois-Rivières, Québec native’s .927 save percentage and 1.84 goals against average are good for 12th and fifth in the nation, respectively.
It was also announced this week by ECAC Hockey that three Cornell skaters earned weekly awards from the conference: junior forward Jonathan Castagna was named Forward of the Week, junior defenseman Hoyt Stanley was tabbed Defenseman of the Week and freshman forward Caton Ryan earned Rookie of the Week honors for the Red.
NPI Check-In
After sweeping Omaha and Alaska — teams that were both on the outside looking in at the NCAA Tournament — Cornell sits at No. 9 in the national percentage index, the mathematical determinant of the tournament field. If the season ended on Friday, the Red would comfortably be in the NCAA Tournament.
While this weekend looms large for Cornell in regard to the ECAC standings, it poses national implications as well. Both Princeton and Quinnipiac are chasing the Red in the NPI — the Bobcats slot in just behind the Red at No. 10, while the Tigers are not far behind at No. 15.
Scouting the Opponents
Cornell’s opponent for Friday, Princeton, is having the likes of a breakout year. Led by former Cornell associate head coach Ben Syer, the Tigers (11-5-0, 7-3-0 ECAC) have already won their most games since the 2010-2011 season, and it’s only January.
Princeton is led by Kai Daniells, a junior forward who has paced the Tigers’ offense with 13 goals and 25 points. He made national headlines earlier this season when he scored five goals in a Princeton win over St. Lawrence.
“You just want to make them earn everything they get. It's as simple as that. … I'm not a big matchup guy technically, but we do have last change [at home]. We do have the opportunity to make sure that we got guys on the ice that are going to make it really difficult for him,” Jones said. “You just want to make him earn everything, but I've been very impressed on tape with him.”
Cornell (11-4-0, 6-2-0 ECAC) has won 10 of its last 12 games against Princeton, but rarely has the matchup pitted two ranked teams against each other — the last time both the Red and the Tigers were nationally ranked when facing off against one another was Nov. 17, 2018, before the COVID-19 pandemic.
This year is shaping up to be one of the most competitive for the Ivy League in Division I hockey since the pandemic halted the 2019-2020 season.
“I think the Ivy League has consistently been competitive. I just think that Covid set it back a little bit,” Jones said. “We’re far enough removed now from where all the problems that hit us. Hopefully it's just the signs of the future that it's going to be this way, because when your league is strong, it helps recruiting, it helps everything.”
As for the Bobcats (16-4-2, 8-2-0 ECAC), Jones had a couple of words to describe them.
“It’s Quinnipiac,” he said.
Quinnipiac, which won a national championship in 2023, has already amassed 16 wins and is averaging four goals per game. Though the Bobcats experienced roster turnover from last year’s team, it made quick work of improving their squad — Quinnipiac boasts six Canadian Hockey League imports and made waves when it added a former professional player with ECHL experience to its team, the latest stretch of NCAA eligibility rules. Quinnipiac’s leading scorer — freshman Ethan Wyttenbach — is tied for third in the nation with 31 points.
It took overtime for Quinnipiac to beat second-to-last-place Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute last Saturday in an effort head coach Rand Pecknold called “just garbage.” But the Bobcats do not leave much to be desired, having scored nine goals against then-No. 18 Harvard, and boasting out-of-conference wins over then-No. 6 Boston College, then-No. 7 Maine and then-No. 12 Boston University.
“They don't fall off much. They have depth in scoring. You know what you're getting in terms of their skating capabilities and playmaking capabilities and [how they] activate up ice,” Jones said. “The defenseman they got that played pro is good. Goaltending’s good. They don’t have many weaknesses.”
Jones believes that, this weekend, the team that makes the fewest unenforced mistakes will come out on top. He is determined for that team to be his.
“I think all three teams have shown the ability to score. All three teams have good power plays, between us, Quinnipiac and Princeton,” Jones said. “So it's going to be the team that manages the game, manages their emotions the best, plays to their identity the best, [that] is probably going to come out on top.”
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.
