SCHENECTADY, N.Y. — On any other night, sophomore forward Charlie Major’s diving shot block in the waning moments of the third period on Saturday night would have been celebrated fiercely from the Cornell bench.
It might have garnered a few stick taps, but considering Union’s Parker Lindauer picked the puck right back up and fired into the gaping Cornell net to make it 4-1 for the opposing team, any inkling of celebration was short-lived.
No. 9 men’s hockey, which has now slipped to a 0-2-1 record in its last three games after previously winning 11 of 12, was plagued with offensive struggles in its loss to Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute on Friday. That trend continued against Union on Saturday.
“That’s what we’ll have to reflect on,” said head coach Casey Jones ’90 of his middling offense.
It’s hard to understand why Cornell couldn't muster much of anything against Union, which allows 2.7 goals against per game on average. It’s easy, though, to pinpoint the moment where everything started to go wrong.
It was Ben Muthersbaugh’s goal — which gave Union a late first-period lead, but should not have counted, in the Cornell coaching staff’s eyes, considering the Red had a goal (on a seemingly identical play) not counted last Saturday in its 3-2 overtime loss to Colgate.
“It's like a replay [of last weekend],” Jones said. “We called [the challenge] because of the call they had on us last weekend.”
Last weekend, officials told Jones that the Red’s goal was not to be counted due to a Cornell skater interfering with the Colgate goaltender, even though that skater was helped into the crease area by a Raider defender. The goal was not counted.
That came to Jones’ mind when practically the same thing happened on Saturday night — a Union skater interfered with freshman goaltender Alexis Cournoyer, with a Cornell defender right beside him. But the officials in Schenectady had supposedly not seen last weekend’s call, and it went in the opposite direction — the goal stood.
Postgame, Jones had to refrain from saying anything about the officiating that could potentially earn him a suspension from the ECAC.
“I probably shouldn't say anything else,” Jones said. “But I assumed all the referees had seen that replay [with] a contentious play like that, but they hadn't seen it. So I couldn’t be mad at them.”
The failed challenge was particularly deflating due to the start Cornell had — after coming out with a whimper on Friday night, Saturday’s start for the Red was a near opposite. Cornell jumped out to a 12-5 lead in shots on goal in the first 11 minutes.
But queue Muthersbaugh, with just 26 seconds left in the period.
“The kid definitely made contact with his glove on the first goal,” Jones said. “But the explanation [the officials] gave us was the explanation we got last week, and the goal was counted.”
If there was any hope of the intermission break halting Union’s newfound momentum, that hope was quickly soiled when Muthersbaugh struck once again just 1:16 into the second period to make it 2-0.
It was “the same” as Friday night, Jones said.
Cornell attempted 62 shots on Friday night. Just one went in. Cornell attempted 63 shots on Saturday night. Just one went in.
“It’s just one of those things,” Jones said. “The issue, I thought, for a large part of [both] games, was that we were heavily outshooting in shot attempts, but we were missing the net on a ton of our scoring chances.”
On the other hand, Muthersbaugh’s second goal was just one of the 17 shots Union (18-10-2, 8-9-1 ECAC) put on goal in the middle frame, as Cornell (17-7-1, 12-4-1 ECAC) had little answer for the Garnet Chargers’ unrelenting offensive push.
“We definitely couldn't sustain the crispness of our first period,” Jones said. “Especially when [Union] has had some trouble with stopping pucks, I thought [their goaltender] saw everything. I thought we lacked that netfront presence … every shot that we replayed, he didn't have anything in front of him.”
Just eight Cornell shots met Union netminder Cameron Korpi in the middle frame, as it was Cournoyer that handled most of the action — until he was pulled from the game.
Junior defenseman George Fegaras failed to break the puck out of the defensive zone and turned the puck over on the wall, allowing Nate Hanley to waltz into the slot and wrist a shot over Cournoyer’s shoulder to make it 3-0 Union with 8:18 left in the middle stanza.
“100%, I know [Cournoyer] wants that third one back,” Jones said.
The shot was a bit of a floater, as Cournoyer’s elbow flailed and missed the puck before it found the twine. Senior goaltender Remington Keopple was promptly sent off the bench to relieve Cournoyer of his duties.
Escaping the second period having only allowed a pair of goals seemed as close to escaping unscathed as the Red could get.
“We just couldn't get out of the second period,” Jones said, who also noted that tonight was “the best” he had seen Union play this year.
Keopple stopped all 10 shots he saw in the third period, but by then, the damage had been done. Cornell prevented itself from being shut out when Major made it a 3-1 game with 2:39 to play and the goaltender pulled, but Lindauer closed things out soon thereafter with his empty-netter.
Cornell will have to rebound quickly from Saturday — a date with No. 5 Quinnipiac next Friday awaits the Red, a game with implications for both the ECAC standings and the national percentage index. Cornell fell to 10th in the NPI after Saturday’s loss.
“We didn't get rewarded for our first period,” Jones said. “I thought we were really good, physical, got some crispness to us. You know, they get a bounce, and it rattles a bit.”
All action next Friday in Hamden, Connecticut, will begin at 7 p.m. and can be streamed live on ESPN+.
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.
