LOVELAND, Colo. — Junior forward Ryan Walsh slammed his stick against the glass. It was all he could do.
He had a near breakaway late in the second period. A few more seconds on the clock, and maybe he could have taken his time into the zone, pulled off the deke of his choosing. Maybe, it goes in, and it’s a two-goal deficit after 40 minutes rather than three.
But time wasn’t in his favor. He had to opt for a slapshot barely inside the blueline, which Denver’s red-hot goaltender took care of without question.
The sound of carbon fiber on plexiglass reverberated around the building, filled to the brim with Denver fans. Red and gold as far as the eye could see.
That single act of plain frustration on Walsh’s was a microcosm of Cornell’s 5-0 loss to Denver in the NCAA Tournament regional semifinal. Because there have been games where the Red has played far worse than it did on Friday, which wound up being the end to Cornell’s 2025-2026 season.
Denver just played better.
There is a reason why the Pioneers have now won 11 NCAA Tournament games in the last five seasons.
“That's a deep, talented team,” said head coach Casey Jones ’90. “By far the best team we played this season.”
For Cornell, that season is now over. 22 wins is the final count in Jones’ first season at the helm. The team had tremendous turnover, between the graduation of 10 members of the Class of 2025, an early departure for the NHL and an outbound transfer.
But for everyone, that shouldn’t have mattered. It didn’t matter, quite frankly, for much of the 2025-2026 season.
“If you [told] me at the start of the year [that] we'd be a top 10 program for pretty much most of the season, I would be pretty happy with that,” Walsh said. “I don't think tonight's game was indicative of who we are as a team or how the season was.”
Cornell, though, seemed to have lost its game as February turned to March and hockey games became bigger than just hockey games. The Red, for maybe the first time all year, was starting to show its youth.
And not at an opportune time.
"I thought we might have peaked maybe a month too early,” Jones said. “I'm not sure if we hit a wall a little bit with our youth. I'm not sure. ... But we were trying to find our A-game down the stretch. We were really trying."
On Friday, Denver got ahead from the jump. The Pioneers are an experienced playoff team and, on the contrary, had no issue finding its game down the stretch — after an up-and-down January, the Pioneers went unbeaten for 13 games leading into the NCAA Tournament. Its win on Friday made that 14.
“They play a 200-foot game,” Jones said. “They have a ton of talent, but [Denver head coach David Carle] gets those guys to buy in, to play in the right way, and that's why they're successful.”
Successful was what Denver was in the first period. Firing 14 pucks on net in the opening 20 minutes and having a pair of goals to show for it, freshman goaltender Alexis Cournoyer was the reason why things didn’t get out of hand before the game was half over.
Both first-period goals were deflections, the second one Jones tabbed as having “seeing eyes” in the way it snuck to the back of the net.
Three of the five Denver goals in all came in that manner. Of course, that’s what you’ll get against a team that has 39 goals from its defensemen — shots from the perimeter. And if they don’t sail straight into twine, they get deflected on the way in.
“That is, like, three times as much as most teams,” Jones said on that 39-goal mark. “They get pucks down to the net. They're hard to defend. They make it hard to block shots. But on tape, we knew most of their offense was going to come from there.”
Beyond the first period, though, Cornell found its game. The Red played with speed as the second period wore down, breaking out pucks well and practically tripling its zone entries from the first period to the second.
"We certainly had a chance in the second period to get that game close,” Jones said. “It didn't help that they had a little puck luck with them tonight, to add to the fact that they played really well."
And maybe that’s what made the Pioneers’ lone goal of the second period hurt that much more. Denver’s puck luck wasn’t quite as apparent on Sam Harris’ tally with 4:29 left in the middle frame, but that puck might have carried the most weight out of all of Denver’s shots.
Down 2-0, Cornell was finding its game. 3-0 felt insurmountable.
“They're an extremely talented team,” Walsh said. “They're going four lines all night."
Hence Walsh’s frustration when the Red had nothing to show for itself after 40 minutes, including an unfortunately timed breakaway from the Cornell captain.
“It hurts,” Jones said. “It hurts for those guys. You see Ryan up here, he’s taking it hard.”
Even if Harris’ goal didn’t suck all of the wind out of Cornell’s sails, Clarke Caswell’s deflection that beat Cournoyer 5:06 into the third period was the final inhale Denver needed. That made it 4-0, the Pioneers’ four goals tying Cournoyer’s season high.
The sheer number of goals Cournoyer gave up was not the only anomaly about Friday’s game. When Denver’s Rieger Lorenz tucked home an empty-netter with 3:48 remaining, that marked the most Cornell had allowed all year, despite Jones’ last ditch effort to ascend a mountainous four-goal deficit.
When the final buzzer sounded, it marked the first time Cornell had been shutout this season. And, to boot, it marked just the second time Cornell had lost two games in a row all year.
It was a game that almost did not feel real. In the blink of an eye, it was over.
“It was one of those nights,” Jones said, unable to contain the sarcastic laugh that escaped him. “We put the puck on our own net, [which] led to a goal. I mean, you name it, it was there in that game. But what they do is they keep coming at you, and they put you in those situations and force you to make those mistakes.”
When he sat down for the postgame press conferences, a forlorn Walsh had not yet taken off his jersey or pads — just his skates. He and his alternate captain, junior forward Jonathan Castagna, were the last two players on the ice.
With the NHL presumably knocking on for both of them, whether or not they return for their senior seasons remains to be seen.
“We play an unselfish game,” Jones said. “So you get some high-end players like that to buy in, [and] it gives you a chance to be successful, right? So hopefully they set the foundation.”
It’s hard to think about any of that right now, though. Walsh stared at the scoreboard in pure disbelief as Denver saluted the crowd at Blue FCU Arena, leaned over on his stick, practically unwilling to skate off for the final time this season.
It will be another Frozen Four without Cornell, that streak now stretching to 22 years. Another NCAA Tournament heartbreak, though this time not the result of a heartbreaking overtime score or agonizing one-goal finish.
Just the result of playing a pretty flawless opponent. And what else can you do about that?
“In order to be the best, you’ve got to play against the best,” Walsh said. “And they were the better team tonight.”
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.
