POTSDAM, N.Y. — Three goals in a span of two minutes helped break open a 1-1 tie and lead host Clarkson to a 4-1 victory over the No. 17-ranked Cornell men's hockey team on Friday night at Cheel Arena.
Rémi Gélinas, Owen Van Steensel, and Shawn O'Donnell each scored as part of the third-period outburst by the Golden Knights (6-11-0, 2-5-0 ECAC Hockey) to snap their five-game conference losing streak. Junior transfer Shane Soderwall backstopped Clarkson to the victory, making 32 saves.
Junior forward
Jonathan Castagna tallied the lone goal of the night for the Big Red (6-4-0, 5-2-0 ECAC Hockey), who saw its four-game conference win streak come to an end. Freshman goaltender
Alexis Cournoyer made 25 saves in the setback for Cornell.
Cornell dominated possession in the opening six minutes, generating the game's first 11 shot attempts with four being stopped by Soderwall. Sophomore defenseman
Michael Fisher appeared to have given Cornell a 1-0 lead 4:54 into the game with a shot from the point that deflected off a Clarkson defender, but the Golden Knights challenged for goaltender interference and the goal was waved off.
"I thought we started great and had the disallowed goal," said
Casey Jones '90, the Jay R. Bloom '77 Head Coach of Cornell Men's Ice Hockey. "We didn't handle any adversity tonight, took bad penalties. As the game wore on, they won the 1-on-1 battles. We didn't handle composure and I thought they were the better team as the game wore on."
Clarkson took the lead 6:33 into the game as an aggressive forecheck resulted in a neutral-zone takeaway and Jace Letourneau's shot from the right faceoff circle beat Cournoyer short-side to put the Golden Knights ahead.
Cornell made quick work of a Clarkson interference penalty and tied the game just 100 seconds after Letourneau's tally. Castagna scored on a loose rebound of a shot by freshman defenseman
Xavier Veilleux, bringing the Big Red level with the Golden Knights just 16 seconds into the man advantage.
The game grew a bit testy over the final five-and-a-half minutes, as there were two instances of coincidental minor penalties being called, including four infractions split evenly with 1.2 seconds left in the first period. Clarkson doubled up Cornell in shot attempts in the remaining 14 minutes of the first period, 14-7, and had a 9-5 edge in shots on goal.
After neither side could find the back of the net in the second period, Clarkson unleashed a decisive flurry in the third, scoring three times in a span of 1:53 to jump out to a 4-1 lead. Gélinas gave the Golden Knights the lead again as he pounced on a loose puck following a pass from behind the net at the bottom of the right faceoff circle. Van Steensel beat Cournoyer to his near-side shoulder to double Clarkson's lead before O'Donnell tacked on an insurance marker to give the Golden Knights a three-goal cushion.
"We got rattled a bit and it snowballed pretty quick on us," Jones said. "It was just, bang, bang. It got away from us and it's going to have to be a lesson learned. We haven't looked young a lot this year, we looked young tonight."
Despite outshooting Clarkson 34-29, Cornell couldn't solve Soderwall after Castagna's first-period tally as the Golden Knights' netminder stopped the final 28 shots he faced to preserve the victory. The Big Red went 1-for-3 on the power play while killing off all six of Clarkson's power-play opportunities.
"I thought we had offense 5-on-5, I just didn't think we got around the net enough," Jones said. "We got to take eyes away. I thought he saw everything. I thought he was good tonight, but we made his job pretty easy by allowing him to see every puck."
GAME NOTES
• Clarkson trimmed Cornell's lead in the all-time series to 74-61-20 and is now unbeaten in four of the last five meetings against the Big Red (3-1-1). The Golden Knights also improved to 6-2-6 in their previous 14 home games against Cornell, including their current five-game unbeaten streak at home (3-0-2).
• Cornell's penalty kill went 6-for-6 on the night, the first time the Big Red have killed off at least six power plays without allowing a goal in a game since going 7-for-7 against Colgate in the second game of the best-of-three ECAC Hockey quarterfinals series on March 15, 2025.
• With his assist on Castagna's first-period power-play goal, sophomore forward Charlie Major increased his assist streak to three games, establishing a new career high. Having points in his last four games (2-4—6), Major has the second four-game point streak of his collegiate career, previously done between March 1-15 last season.
• After going 16-of-26 at the faceoff dot, junior forward Ryan Walsh increased his streak with a double-digit faceoff total to eight games, tied for the fourth-longest active streak in Division I hockey.
ACTIVE STREAKS WITH 10+ FACEOFF WINS
Division I Hockey
• 12 games — Gavin Morrisey, Wisconsin (157-of-258 – 60.9 percent)
• 10 games — Owen Michaels, Western Michigan (125-of-206 – 60.7 percent)
• 9 games — Charlie Stramel, Michigan State (122-of-214 – 57.0 percent)
• 8 games — Klavs Veinbergs, Colorado College (117-of-191 – 61.3 percent)
• 8 games — Ryan Walsh, Cornell (99-of-172 – 57.6 percent)
• 6 games — Victor Czerneckianair, Quinnipiac (68-of-101 – 67.3 percent)
• 6 games — Max Scott, Maine (74-of-130 – 56.9 percent)
• 6 games — Jan Vaarwerk, UMass Lowell (72-of-127 – 56.7 percent)
NEXT UP
Cornell concludes the fall semester portion of the schedule on Saturday, Dec. 6, when it travels southwest on Route 11 to face St. Lawrence (2-14-1, 1-6-0 ECAC Hockey).
The Saints are coming off a 4-2 loss to Colgate on Friday. Nicholas Beneteau and Rasmus Svartstrom each scored for St. Lawrence, which suffered its eighth straight loss.
Entering Saturday's contest, Cornell has held the Saints to two or fewer goals in each of the last 19 meetings between the programs, marking the longest streak against an opponent in program history. Along with the impressive defense against St. Lawrence, Cornell is unbeaten in 15 of the contests during the stretch (14-4-1).
LONGEST STREAK OF HOLDING OPPONENT TO TWO GOALS OR LESS
Against Active Division I Programs
• 19 games - St. Lawrence (Dec. 4, 2015 – Present)
• 17 games – Yale (Feb. 10, 2001 – Jan. 26, 2008)
• 16 games – RPI (Feb. 19, 2000 - Nov. 26, 2006)
• 12 games – Vermont (Feb. 12, 1999 - Present)
• 12 games – Brown (March 22, 2019 - Present)
• 11 games – Brown (Nov. 14, 1998 – March 21, 2003)
• 11 games – Colgate (Jan. 18, 2002 – March 17, 2006)
• 11 games – Dartmouth (Feb. 11, 1967 – Jan. 29, 1972)
