With 3:27 to play, junior forward Jonathan Castagna was shaking his head.
He was called for embellishment after a visiting skater hooked him and took him down. What was appearing to be a Cornell power play late in a 2-2 game would instead evolve into four-on-four play instead.
But a little over two minutes later, Castagna was celebrating his go-ahead goal.
“I was like, holy crap, this puck is coming to me, I'm on a breakaway,” Castagna said. “Then just put it in the back of the net. I kind of blacked out there.”
No. 14 men’s hockey secured a 5-2 win and a series sweep against the University of Alaska Fairbanks on Saturday night, extending its record at Lynah Rink in 2025-2026 to a perfect 8-0. After Castagna’s breakaway goal made it 3-2 with 1:19 to play, the Red added two empty-net goals to cap off three Cornell tallies in 58 seconds.
“I thought we played a better game tonight [than] last night,” said head coach Casey Jones ’90. “I felt our structure was better. I thought we were connected better.”
Though Friday night’s 7-1 win was a larger margin of victory for the Red (11-4-0, 6-2-0 ECAC), the team was more pleased with its efforts on Saturday. Film revealed to the coaches that, on Friday, Cornell’s expected goals against (xGA) was “as high as it has been all year,” according to Jones.
Freshman goaltender Alexis Cournoyer’s performance under that pressure on Friday impressed the coaches heading into the resumption of ECAC play, but Jones awarded a start to senior goaltender Remington Keopple, who ultimately made 15 saves to earn the win.
“It wasn’t an easy game for [Keopple], because it wasn’t a whole lot of action for him as the game went on, but he made some really key saves for us,” Jones said.
Much of the first period came and went without either team claiming a real edge in possession or play, but things changed when junior forward Ryan Walsh drew an Alaska tripping penalty with 6:46 remaining in the period. And it would be the captain that made it count — Walsh hammered a one-timer cleanly past the Nanook netminder to give Cornell a 1-0 lead with 5:51 to play.
The second period quickly made up for the lack of action in the first — two goals between the two teams in a little over a minute pumped some life into the building. After opting to take its timeout earlier in the period, Alaska made it a 1-1 game just 4:41 into the second.
But the Nanooks (5-13-1) did not have much time to celebrate — after a scrum in front of Alaska goaltender Calvin Vachon, a loose puck popped out to a wide open sophomore forward Charlie Major, who buried a blocker-side wrist shot to restore his team’s lead just 1:06 after Alaska’s tally.
Though Castagna’s line picked up the majority of the points this weekend, Walsh’s line also came up big on Saturday.
“That was a good game for Ryan Walsh’s line tonight, it was a good bounce,” Jones said. “I thought they had possession, it was a nice goal. Charlie [Major], needed to get that goal a little bit. He likes to score. So those guys — they want their points.”
The brief flurry of scoring would be all that arose in the second, but the middle frame came not without its ebbs and flows. Cornell outshot Alaska 6-3 in the period, and despite the Nanooks leaning on its physicality and strength, the Red was not penalized through 40 minutes of play.
Cornell failed to convert on a late power play that bled into the third period, and things began to sway when the Red was whistled for its first penalty just over seven minutes into the third. And although the Nanooks did not convert on the man-advantage, they garnered newfound momentum.
That culminated in the game-tying goal with 8:59 to play, as Alaska won an offensive zone faceoff cleanly, fired a puck on net, and Jhett Larson was able to collect the rebound off of Keopple and send it over the flailing netminder.
Squared up at 2-2, time continued to tick off the clock. Then came the two coinciding penalties — Alaska’s William Fleet for hooking and Castagna for embellishment — that set forth two minutes of four-on-four play.
And after those two minutes came and went with no scoring, Castagna left the box, and vigorously called for the puck.
“It was crazy,” Castagna said. “I was kind of floating, because the puck was stalled, hoping that it would pop out, and it did exactly what I was hoping for.
Freshman forward Caton Ryan’s feed hit Castagna’s tape perfectly, and Castagna emerged one-on-one with the goaltender. He deked to his backhand and roofed it over Vachon, skating straight over to the roaring fans to celebrate the go-ahead goal.
“In the third period, I thought we were kind of protecting the lead instead of having a mindset to continue to push it forward,” Jones said. “I think [Alaska’s tying goal] probably snapped us back in to get a little bit more assertive.”
The Red potted two empty-net goals — courtesy of Walsh and Castagna, just six seconds apart — to ultimately achieve a 5-2 win and a series sweep.
The win — coupled with out-of-town results – catapults Cornell up to No. 9 in the national percentage index ratings. Quinnipiac, who the Red will take on next Saturday, dropped one spot due to its 4-3 win over Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute requiring overtime. Denver, another team ahead of Cornell in the NPI entering Saturday night, also lost in regulation.
“We got to get dialed in here. We've been good about that, and that's it,” Jones said. “We got to start peaking. It's time to take that step. The consistency is there, and we're starting to see our identity kind of consistently for 60 minutes.”
Castagna added: “I think this is probably the most important part of the year right now.”
The stakes for the next two weekends could not be much higher — Cornell will take on No. 20 Princeton and No. 8 Quinnipiac at Lynah Rink next Friday and Saturday, before hosting No. 11 Dartmouth and RV Harvard on Jan. 23-24.
“We're just trying to carry through and stay down to earth and realize [that] we have a really good group, but we need to play our best game every night, because every team is going to challenge us,” Castagna said. “The reality is everyone wants to beat us, especially in our rink. So just kind of staying humble and really just having that underdog mentality every night, no matter how the game’s going.”
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.
