ITHACA, N.Y. — Dartmouth's Luke Haymes scored two goals, leading three Big Green players in having multi-point nights, as the Big Green (10-7-2, 7-4-1 ECAC Hockey) defeated the Cornell men's hockey team (8-5-5, 5-3-3), 6-1, before a sold-out crowd at Lynah Rink on Saturday night.

Nikita Nikora assisted on two Big Green goals and CJ Foley added a goal and an assist in the victory. Emmett Croteau made 16 saves in goal for Dartmouth, upping his record on the year to 7-1-0.

Sophomore defenseman George Fegaras tallied the lone goal on the night for the Big Red, who had a 24-save performance from senior goaltender Ian Shane.

Dartmouth drew first blood 5:53 into the contest when Haymes scored the first of his two goals on the night, depositing a loose rebound at the right post after sophomore defenseman Hoyt Stanley had blocked a shot from the point by Nikora.

A high-sticking penalty resulted in Dartmouth receiving the night's first power play, but the Big Red's penalty kill proved to be stingy as it held the Big Green without a shot attempt during its two-minute man advantage.

Immediately after the expiration of Cornell's first penalty of the period, Shane made a sprawling cross-crease save to rob Sean Chisholm of doubling the Big Green's lead.



Cornell was assessed a penalty 13 seconds into the second period, granting Dartmouth its third power play of the game. Although the Big Red successfully killed off the penalty, five seconds after it expired, Trym Løkkeberg won an offensive zone faceoff, leading to Dartmouth doubling its lead when defenseman John Fusco's shot from the right point deflected off senior forward Kyle Penney's stick, soaring over Shane's head, hit the crossbar and went into the net.

Nearly five minutes later, Dartmouth's lead was increased to 3-0 as a defensive zone turnover by Cornell led to Haymes netting his second goal of the night, lasering a shot from the left hash of the right faceoff circle, beating Shane to his glove side.

Cornell cut into the Big Green's lead as Fegaras snapped his 25-game goal-scoring drought with a shot from the top of the right faceoff circle that evaded traffic in front of Croteau's crease.



Dartmouth restored its three-goal lead eight-plus minutes into the third when Hank Cleaves scored after executing a toe-drag deke from a pass by Nikora near the goal line.

The Big Green scored two short-handed goals within 20 seconds to solidify its victory. Cornell had pulled Shane to gain an extra attacker, creating a 6-on-4 advantage. A one-timer taken by sophomore defenseman Ben Robertson was blocked by Foley, who scored on a 175-foot shot.

Cooper Flinton netted Dartmouth's second short-handed goal by forcing a turnover at the blue line in Cornell's offensive zone, creating a 2-on-1 scoring chance with Chisholm, beating Shane to his blocker side.

GAME NOTES
• Saturday was the 149th meeting between the Ivy League foes, as Dartmouth trimmed Cornell's lead in the series, 88-52-9, and posted its second consecutive win over the Big Red.

• Dartmouth recorded its first regular season sweep of Cornell since posting 5-2 (Jan. 24, 2015 – Ithaca) and 3-2 victories (Feb. 13, 2015 – Hanover) during the 2013-14 season.

• Shane's 24-save performance increased his career total to 1,999 stops, lifting him past Cornell Athletics and Hockey Hall of Fame goaltender Ken Dryden (1,987) for the 10th-most saves by a Big Red goaltender.

• With his second-period goal, Fegaras has points in three consecutive games for the first time in his collegiate career. During his point streak, the sophomore blueliner has three points (one goal, two assists).

• Psenicka's assist on Fegaras' second-period goal increased his point streak to four games, matching his career-long for the second time, previously having points in four straight games across his freshman and sophomore seasons (March 11, 2022, and Oct. 28, 2022).

• DeSantis upped his point streak to a season-long three games after logging the secondary helper on Fegaras' goal. DeSantis has four points (three goals, one assist) during his point streak.

• Sophomore defenseman Hoyt Stanley blocked a career-high five shots on Saturday night, marking the most blocks by a Big Red player since Hank Kempf blocked five Harvard shots during the quarterfinals of the 2024 ECAC Hockey Championship on March 15, 2024.

• Stanley now has four games with at least four blocked shots this season, tying Reece Willcox (2014-15 & 2015-16), Alec McCrea (2017-18), Yanni Kaldis (2017-18), Matthew Nuttle (2018-19), and Tim Rego (2023-24) for the 10th-most games with four-plus blocked shots by a Cornell player in a season, according to data from College Hockey News' Stats Customizer.

UP NEXT
Cornell will return to action next weekend when it makes its annual trip to the North Country, where it will take on St. Lawrence (7-16-1, 3-8-1 ECAC Hockey) and No. 20-ranked Clarkson (14-8-2, 8-4-0 ECAC Hockey).

Puck drops for both contests are scheduled for 7 p.m. Game action will be broadcast on ESPN+ and over the airwaves on WHCU (870 AM, 97.7 FM, cortacatoday.com).

The Big Red is unbeaten in six of its last seven games against the Route 11 rivals (5-1-1), dating back to Cornell's best-of-three quarterfinal series with Clarkson in the 2023 ECAC Hockey Championship.

Friday's game at Appleton Arena will be a rematch of the championship game of last year's ECAC Hockey Championship in Lake Placid, N.Y., which Cornell won, 3-1, to claim its first Whitelaw Cup since 2010. The Big Red is 6-0-1 in its last seven games against St. Lawrence in Canton, which includes the Big Red's 6-1 win over the Saints at SUNY Canton's Roos House while Appleton Arena was undergoing season-long renovations.

Saturday's trip to Cheel Arena will be associate head coach Casey Jones '90's first time back at Cheel Arena since returning to East Hill after spending 13 years as the Golden Knights' bench boss from 2011 to 2024.

While at Clarkson, Jones amassed a 234-185-56 record and earned the Tim Taylor Award, ECAC Hockey's Coach of the Year, in 2019. Jones guided the Golden Knights to six 20-win seasons, four of which occurred between 2015 and 2020. Finishing within the top 16 in the pairwise rankings each year between 2017-22, Clarkson made a pair of NCAA Tournament appearances (2018 and 2019) and was poised for a third consecutive trip in 2020 before the COVID-19 pandemic halted those aspirations. The Golden Knights made the semifinals of the ECAC Hockey Championship on three occasions under Jones (2018, 2019, 2022), which included winning the 2019 ECAC Hockey Championship.