Junior forward Jonathan Castagna has scored from that spot dozens of times in his career.
Just off the left faceoff circle, coming in with speed. Shot, goal.
A goal came not long after his shot with 1:34 to go in Friday night’s opener to the ECAC quarterfinal series between Cornell and Harvard.
But it was a Harvard empty-netter, fired nearly 200 feet down the sheet and into the vacant goal, stunning Lynah Rink to silence, sans the eruption from the Crimson bench.
Harvard 3, Cornell 1.
Castagna’s wicked wrister in the waning minutes of the game deflected just off the glove of Harvard netminder Ben Charette, and mere seconds later, the Crimson’s lead became insurmountable. No. 9 men’s hockey surrendered the first game in a best-of-three ECAC quarterfinal series to its archrival and will need to win two straight if it wants to defend its back-to-back Whitelaw Cup titles.
Cornell might have downed Crimson twice in the regular season — pretty handily, to boot — but, as head coach Casey Jones ’90 said before puck drop, “rivalry series — they never go as planned.”
Friday certainly did not go as planned for Cornell. The Red was never quite able to recover from a sluggish start and was dealt just its second regulation home loss of the season.
“We looked like we had two weeks off to start the first period,” Jones said. “I thought we were stuck behind a little bit. … [We’ve] got to be a little bit hungrier.”
The Crimson (16-14-2) did not have two weeks off — Harvard played an overtime, do-or-die game just seven days ago. It certainly seemed comfortable with its slim lead over Cornell (20-9-1) late in the game.
“It’s hard to end anybody's season, right?” Jones said. “We're on the line right now, so there's urgency here. There's just a way you have to play.”
Harvard was anchored by its netminder, Charette, who dazzled with 30 saves. He outperformed newly minted ECAC Goaltender of the Year, freshman Alexis Cournoyer, who looked a bit shaky between the pipes to start before finding his game later on.
The same could be said for skaters in front of him — Cornell’s start was not one to be remembered, but the Red seemed to find some rhythm in the second period and onward. But for every shot that made it on net — Cornell fired 31 on Charette — there was another that was blocked by a Harvard shinpad, another that went wide and another that was instead passed away.
“Could have shot, didn't shoot. Could have passed, didn’t pass it,” Jones said. “It was one of those nights where we were fighting it a little bit.”
The Crimson scoring first did not come as a surprise — before Friday, five opponents had drawn first blood at Lynah Rink, most coming within the second half of the season. Playing from behind is not unfamiliar to Cornell.
But leading up to Friday, the Red had won four of those five games.
Harvard’s Michael Callow finished off a well-executed faceoff play 10:21 into the opening period, but got a bit of puck luck when an initial point shot caromed unpredictably off the stanchion behind Cournoyer’s net. Callow was celebrating his goal — a fling to the short side — before Cournoyer could even make it all the way across his crease.
“We looked rusty in the first,” Jones said. “I don't know if it was nerves. I don't know if it was the two weeks [off]. We just tried to fight our way into the game in the first period. We want to play fast, and they were the faster team in the first period by far."
As Cornell tried to find its footing in the second period, a sold-out Lynah Rink grew more anxious. For a young team like Cornell, the nerves of the playoffs — coupled with the intensity of the Cornell-Harvard rivalry — seemed to be making a tangible impact on the Red’s mechanics.
“[Harvard] was content with putting pucks up and making a foot race into the neutral zone,” Jones said. “They made it hard to sustain zones. We have to do a better job [with] zone entries and [getting] possession and getting into o-zone play.”
Cornell’s lone glimmer of light came 8:11 into the second period, when Castagna fed a faceoff win back to sophomore defenseman Luke Ashton, who ripped a one-timer that Charette had no chance of stopping.
“I didn't mind our game [in the second period]. Couple bounces didn’t go our way,” Jones said. “I didn't think we had a shooting mentality tonight. We had some chances to put pucks on net that we thought we couldn't.”
Harvard rarely takes penalties, averaging seven minutes of penalties per game, but Cornell got a stellar chance to gain the lead when a Crimson penalty with under five minutes to go in the second offset an earlier call on Cornell.
Talk about things that didn’t go as planned.
“We had a chance for an offensive opportunity, and our guy fell,” Jones said.
That hapless fall near Cornell’s blue line yielded a two-on-one rush for Harvard, and Ben MacDonald opted to take the shot rather than passing to the trailer. Bingo.
That shorthanded goal, just the second one Cornell has allowed this season, was not deflating, according to Jones.
“Stuff like that happens,” Jones said. “It wasn't deflating. I didn't think that sucked the air out of us at all.”
The Red has typically had little issue coming from behind at Lynah Rink — but trailing after 40 minutes is a different story. Entering Friday night, Cornell boasted a measly 1-5-1 record when heading into the third period down in score.
Make that 1-6-1.
“I just thought we lacked the poise to make the additional play,” Jones said of his squad’s third period.
Cornell’s third period did not necessarily inspire. Yes, Cornell outshot Harvard, 11-7, but there was a lack of poise all around — even hits, something Cornell usually excels at, seemed hard to come by. The Crimson danced from contact and seemed to have solved the Red’s forecheck.
Cornell’s 11 shots on goal in the final frame were stopped by Charette with ease, none better than his barely-there touch on Castagna’s shot in the final minutes, leading up to MacDonald’s heave to end the game.
Charette even earned an assist on the play.
“I don't think you can ‘pick this guy, pick that guy’ right now,” Jones said. “I think we just have to be better as a team collectively. I didn't think we were as connected as we need to be in the way we play. So we just got to be better tomorrow.”
Cornell must win two games in a row to punch its ticket to Lake Placid, New York. It will look to avoid a sweep Saturday night, when Harvard returns for a 7 p.m. puck drop — if Cornell wins, it will play in a winner-takes-all game three on Sunday at 4 p.m.
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.
