ITHACA, N.Y. — The No. 18-ranked Cornell men's hockey team came out firing against the Czech University Selects, scoring six goals in the opening period en route to a 7-2 victory Friday night at Lynah Rink. Seven different Big Red players lit the lamp in the Big Red's first of two preseason contests.

Senior forward Nick DeSantis, junior forward Jonathan Castagna, junior defenseman George Fegaras, and sophomore forward Charlie Major each recorded multi-point nights with a goal and assist. Freshmen forwards Chase Pirtle and Gio DiGiulian also scored, while sophomore defenseman Michael Fisher capped Cornell's seven-goal spree.

Cornell's offense was on full display from the start as Pirtle, DiGiulian, and DeSantis combined to score on the Big Red's first three shots on goal within the opening 5:14, and the scoring continued with three more first-period goals from Castagna, Fegaras, and Major. Fisher's goal 1:47 into the second period during a 5-on-3 power play ended the Big Red's string of unanswered goals.

"I like the way we started. We had good energy," said Casey Jones '90, the Jay R. Bloom '77 Head Coach of Cornell Men's Ice Hockey. "I thought we got loose. We got a big lead and things were simple anymore and we obviously know now that once we got a little casual, I didn't think we were very good in our defensive zone."

Senior goaltender Remington Keopple started between the pipes, making six saves through 32:28 before freshman Alexis Cournoyer took over and stopped nine shots. Kristián Novák made nine first-period saves for the Czech University Selects before giving way to Antonín Nowak, who turned aside 25 shots over the final two periods, including a perfect 16-for-16 performance in the third.

Jan Vavřík accounted for both goals scored by the Czechs, scoring just over a minute after Fisher's power-play goal and again at 8:18 of the third, as the visitors concluded their third game of a five-game, six-day North American tour.

"As the game went on, I thought we got a little lax, we started going east and west, not managing pucks and that put us on our heels a little bit," Jones said. "They got a little momentum and I didn't think we buckled down.

"The fact that we're leaving it with a couple of things we really have to work on is key. We had an evaluation of some guys. We have some guys who're competing for jobs that we wanted to see up against each other. We were able to do that and we'll assess that as a coaching staff."

MATCH NOTES
• Friday marked Cornell's 78th official exhibition game in program history, improving the Big Red to 63-9-6 (.846) all-time in exhibitions and scrimmages.

• Cornell is unbeaten in its last 29 preseason contests (27-0-2, .966), including a 13-game win streak since tying with with uOttawa 2-2 on Oct. 15, 2017. During the current win streak, the Big Red has outscored opponents by 54 goals (72-18), averaging a victory margin of 4.15 goals per game.

• Cornell's five-goal victory was its largest margin in an exhibition since defeating Toronto Metropolitan University 6-1 on Oct. 14, 2023. The seven goals were the most since an 8-1 win over Guelph on Oct. 20, 2022.

• The six-goal first period marked the first time Cornell has scored that many in a single period in any setting since recording six first-period goals in a 10-1 win over Union on Feb. 4, 2023.

NEXT UP
Cornell concludes its two-game exhibition slate next Saturday, Oct. 25, when the U.S. NTDP Under-18 Team visits Lynah Rink. Puck drop is scheduled for 7 p.m. on ESPN+.

The Big Red hold a 9-1-1 record against the U.S. NTDP Under-18 Team and have won six consecutive meetings since a 3-2 loss on Oct. 24, 2009 – a game highlighted by a 39-save performance from Ithaca native Andy Iles '14, who would go on to become a Big Red goaltender. Most recently, Cornell topped the U-18s 5-4 in overtime in 2023.