Thirteen players registered points. Five notched multi-point nights. The power play cashed in 50 percent of the time.
There was little complaining for No. 14 men’s hockey after its 7-1 win over the University of Alaska-Fairbanks on Friday night. But still, as it is with any team striving to be the best, Cornell knows there is a lot more work to be done.
“I'm not sure the score is indicative of five-on-five play,” said head coach Casey Jones ’90. “I give our power play credit. [Alaska] took some penalties, and you take advantage of that.”
Junior forward Ryan Walsh, who had a goal of his own, agreed.
“I don't think the score depicts how the game was. Had a couple five-on-three goals there, and kind of got away from them at the end,” Walsh said. “But they're a good team, and we're going to come back tomorrow if we want to finish the sweep.
The Red (10-4-0, 6-2-0 ECAC) used a 3/6 night on the power play and a four-goal third period to pull away from the Nanooks (5-12-1), on the backend of their long road trip. Freshman forward Caton Ryan tallied two goals and two assists to pace Cornell’s rampant power play, which after Friday, ranks fourth in the nation operating at a 29.2 percent clip. Last season, the Red scored just 16 goals on the power play all year — the number is already up to 14 in just 14 games this season.
“Especially for my unit … just kind of having a shooter’s mentality,” Ryan, who was deployed on the second power-play unit, said. “We don't know how much time we're gonna get, you got the big guns out there, so we're kind of just getting ready for a chance, and we want to make the best of it.”
Extending its streak of scoring first to four games, Cornell got on the board just 2:48 into Friday’s context. Freshman forward Aiden Long continued his scorching-hot play when he buried a loose puck that Alaska goaltender Calvin Vachon failed to corral.
The Red might have garnered the first lead of the game, but Alaska clawed back and turned the tide in the latter half of the period. The Nanooks trailed in the shots on goal category, 8-4, until Alaska rattled off five straight pucks on freshman forward Alexis Cournoyer in the final five minutes to give it a 9-8 edge over Cornell.
The Nanooks found themselves a first period equalizer not long after junior forward Ryan Walsh was nabbed for tripping with 6:09 remaining. Michael Citara ultimately fired a wrister that beat Cournoyer blocker side to even things up.
“I'm not sure where our mindset was in terms of the start of the game, but we needed to play better,” Jones said. “We talked between periods that they're coming hard. It’s as advertised.”
Second periods have been Cornell’s kryptonite as of late — the Red were outscored a combined 3-0 in the second periods of last week's series against Nebraska-Omaha — but Friday’s middle frame was nothing short of dominant for the Red, on both sides of the puck. Cornell lit the lamp twice while just three Alaska shots met Cournoyer in the second, including one on a big two-man advantage for the Nanooks late in the period.
Before that, though, Cornell used a strong start to regain its lead when freshman forward Chase Pirtle cleaned up a rebound atop Vachon’s crease 6:52 in. The goal gave Pirtle his second goal and sixth point in just eight collegiate games.
By the halfway point of the period, Cornell had already mustered 10 shots to Alaska’s one.
The ice tilted even further in Cornell’s favor after Alaska was dealt an unsportsmanlike conduct call after a whistle had already blown play dead. Sophomore forward Charlie Major later drew another Nanook penalty, giving Cornell a five-on-three advantage for 52 seconds.
That opportunity would not be wasted — a blistering one-timer off the stick of freshman defenseman Xavier Veilleux beat the Alaska netminder cleanly and propelled the Red to a 3-1 lead with 7:41 to go in the second.
Veilleux’s fourth goal of the season would tie a bow on the Red’s second-period scoring, but not the action. Two Cornell penalties in the final five minutes of the period sent the Nanooks to a 1:20 two-man advantage, and Alaska utilized its timeout to draw up a play.
But assistant coach Chris Brown, who coached for the Nanooks for four seasons, was up to the task.
“[Brown’s] awesome. We kind of have an advantage there with him coaching there for four or five years. He kind of knew exactly what they were going to do, and he basically drew up what they were doing,” Walsh, one of the penalty-killers, said. “Couple good blocks, and [Cournoyer] stood tall, so we were fortunate to kill that one off and build momentum for us.”
Stellar penalty-killing first by Veilleux, Walsh and junior defenseman Hoyt Stanley kept the Nanooks at bay. Cournoyer stopped the only puck that found him on the kill, but four blocked shots by the skaters in front of him sent Lynah Rink into a frenzy as the time ultimately ticked off of the elongated Nanook power play.
“You get juice,” Jones said. “They watch our guys sacrifice out there, blocking some shots and getting active and all that. It does nothing but help you.”
It seemed as if the Red’s momentum from the penalty kill seeped straight into the third period — just 10 seconds of the final frame elapsed before sophomore defenseman Luke Ashton wristed a puck from the blueline that beat Vachon. Ashton's first goal of the season would mark the first of four third-period goals for Cornell, most of which came on the power play.
A pair of Alaska penalties just over seven minutes into the period gave the Red yet another five-on-three, and Walsh made no mistake deflecting Veilleux’s shot masterfully past the netminder to make it 5-1 with 12:49 to play.
Alaska challenged the goal but a quick review kept it on the board, and because it used its timeout earlier in the game, Alaska was dealt a delay-of-game penalty for the unsuccessful review.
That allowed Cornell to eclipse a perfect 3/3 showing on two-man advantages on Friday. Freshman forward Caton Ryan released a blistering one-timer that beat Vachon cleanly to make it 6-1. Ryan’s goal ended Vachon’s night, as he was swapped for Zak Brice, marking Brice’s first collegiate appearance.
Unfortunately for Brice, the first shot he saw would beat him — Ryan capped off a two-goal, four-point night when he intended to dish a pass on a two-on-one rush, but the pass was deflected off a Nanook skater and into the back of the net. From there, holding a 7-1 lead with 8:57 to play, the Red held its own as Alaska’s temperatures boiled.
With the way the Nanooks began to throw the body around as Friday’s game wound down, the Red knows what’s coming its way on Saturday. After all, Alaska dropped a 5-2 game to then-No. 16 Providence last Friday, but stormed back for a 5-1 win the following night.
“It'll be interesting to see, because we had some stuff going to end the game here too, right?” Jones said, referencing some penalties on both sides as Alaska took out its frustration on the Red. “Are we going to be complacent because of the win, or do we understand the importance of tomorrow night, getting set here, going back into league play?”
The Red will close out its non-conference slate against the Nanooks at 7 p.m. Saturday night at Lynah Rink. All action will stream live on ESPN+, and live updates will be provided @DailySunSports on X.
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.
