NEW HAVEN, Conn. — For the 25th time in program history, and the third time in the last four years of competition, the Cornell men's hockey team is atop the Ivy League in men's hockey.
 
Junior forward Kyle Penney had a team-high three points, and fellow junior Jack O'Leary and freshman forward Nick DeSantis both had two-point nights, as five different goals scorers found the back of the net for the No. 13-ranked Cornell men's hockey team in its 5-1 win over Yale at Ingalls Rink on Saturday night.
 
Penney had a goal and two assists, while O'Leary and DeSantis each registered a goal and an assist. Freshman forward Winter Wallace and senior forward Ben Berard also found the back of the net for the Big Red.
 
"We knew we had to come and get ready to play tonight," said Mike Schafer '86, the Jay R. Bloom '77 Head Coach of Men's Ice Hockey. "Getting the championship, I think people counted us out – based on the standings and everything else – but the guys kept plugging away. I'm very proud of the them to get it done."
 
Sophomore goaltender Ian Shane made 21 saves in the win for the Big Red (18-9-2, 15-6-1 ECAC), who will be the No. 3 seed in the ECAC Hockey Championship that begins next weekend with first-round action.
 
"Guys like Kyler Kovich, Kyle Penney, and Jack O'Leary; that line carried us and they had three goals as a line tonight," Schafer said. "That's been the story for us all year. We've been getting contributions from everybody. It was awesome to see."
 
Cole Donhauser scored the lone goal for Yale (7-18-4, 6-14-2 ECAC), who also had a 24-save performance by senior netminder Connor Hopkins.

How It Happened

Shane made a crucial save on a Yale breakaway to keep the game scoreless seven minutes into the contest. Connor Sullivan lofted a pass between two Cornell defenders to Quinton Ong, but Shane sprawled out to prevent the Bulldogs from opening the scoring.
 
With five minutes left in the first, sophomore forward Ondrej Psenicka made a pass from the half wall to DeSantis behind the net leading to Wallace crashing the goalmouth and one-timing a shot through Hopkins' five-hole to open the scoring.
 
Penney and O'Leary scored twice in just under a three-minute span to give the Big Red a 3-0 lead early in the second period.
 
The first goal of the middle frame came on a backhanded shot from the top of the slot by Penney that evaded traffic and into the bottom right corner of the goal 2:31 into the stanza. O'Leary increased the Big Red's lead on a back-door feed from Penney where he backhanded a one-timer past Hopkins.
 
Cornell tacked on a pair of insurance markers in the third thanks to DeSantis pouncing on a loose puck following a low-angle shot by defenseman Travis Mitchell that was blocked. Later in the period, a neutral-zone turnover by Yale led to Berard's goal, which further distanced the Big Red from the Bulldogs.

Game Notes

• Saturday was the 161st all-time meeting between the two Ivy League programs. Cornell improved to 91-62-8 all-time over Yale, and is unbeaten in 11 of its last 12 (9-1-2) and 17 of its previous 22 games (14-5-3) against the Bulldogs.

• The pair of five-goal games marks the first time Cornell has scored at least five goals in its southern New England road trip since scoring six goals in both games of the 1995-96 season, which was Mike Schafer '86's first season as the Big Red's head coach.

• Cornell scored at least five goals in all four regular-season meetings against Brown and Yale this season, marking the first time that has happened since 1971-72.

• Penney recorded his second career three-point game on Saturday, with the other coming against Brown on Nov. 19 at Lynah Rink. His two assists match his career high originally set against Clarkson on Feb. 19, 2022.

• With his assist on O'Leary's goal, Kovich has his second career point streak, joined by a two-game streak at North Dakota (Jan. 7 and Jan. 8, 2022).

• O'Leary has his first collegiate goal scoring streak after scoring in both games on the weekend. His multi-point game is the third of his career, and his second in as many games.

• In total, seven Big Red players now have point streaks over their last two games.

• Defensemen Tim Rego and Travis Mitchell each posted plus-4 ratings in the contest.

Looking Ahead

Cornell will return to action on March 10 at Lynah Rink when it will host the first game of the best-of-three quarterfinal round of the ECAC Hockey Championship. Opponent, game time, and ticket information will be released at a later date.