ITHACA, N.Y. — Cornell men's hockey freshman forward
Jonathan Castagna has been named ECAC Hockey's Rookie of the Week, as announced by the conference office on Monday morning.
Castagna, the first Big Red player to garner Rookie of the Week honors this year, propelled the Big Red to its 6-2 victory over Princeton on Friday night at Lynah Rink as he registered a four-point night, highlighted by netting his first collegiate hat trick.
Two of Castagna's three goals came on the same shift within 31 seconds, quickly breaking open what was previously a 1-1 tie with the Tigers. Castagna's latter goal in the 31-second span was featured as the No. 7 play on ESPN's SportsCenter Top 10 plays.
The three goals scored by Castagna on the week were tied with Union's Liam Robertson for the most by an ECAC Hockey player this past week, while his four points were the second-most in ECAC Hockey with Clarkson's Ryan Richardson (1-3—4), Harvard's Joe Miller (2-2—4) and Michael Callow (1-3—4), and Colgate's Alex DiPaolo (2-2—4).
Having played in all of Cornell's 17 games, Castagna has 12 points on the power of five goals and seven assists.
The No. 14-ranked Cornell will head on the road this upcoming weekend for a pair of ECAC Hockey and Ivy League contests, where it will square off against Harvard (3-11-3, 3-6-3 ECAC) on Friday (Jan. 26) before heading north to Dartmouth (5-7-6, 3-4-4 ECAC) the following night. Both games are scheduled for 7 p.m. puck drops and will be broadcast on ESPN+ and over the airwaves on WHCU (870 AM, 97.7 FM, whcuradio.com).
