ITHACA, N.Y. — A third-period salvo helped spark the No. 6-seeded Cornell men's hockey team (14-10-6) to its 5-1 victory over No. 11-seeded Yale (6-21-3) in opening-round action of the 2025 ECAC Hockey Championship before a near-sold-out crowd of 4,121 at Lynah Rink on Saturday night.

Senior defenseman Tim Rego scored two of the Big Red's five goals, marking his second career multi-goal game (Nov. 13, 2021, vs. RPI). Rego's defensive partner, Ben Robertson, recorded two assists, while senior forward Ondrej Psenicka chipped in a goal and an assist. Sophomore defenseman Hoyt Stanley and junior forward Nick DeSantis also scored. Senior goaltender Ian Shane saved 18 of 19 shots he faced.

William Dineen tallied the lone marker of the night for the Bulldogs, as goaltender Jack Stark made 28 saves between the pipes in the setback.
 
Rego gave the Big Red a 1-0 lead 2:33 into the game by receiving a pass from Robertson and performing a toe-drag deke to create separation from a Yale defender, firing his shot over Stark's glove-side shoulder.
 

 
After holding Yale to two shots on target in the first 28 minutes of play, the Bulldogs generated three shots on goal during their second-period power play, which Cornell successfully killed off. Yale's first shot on goal during the man advantage was its first in over 18 minutes of action (18:09).
 
Yale capitalized on the power play to build momentum for the rest of the period, launching 12 of the last 16 shots on goal. One of those attempts resulted in the Bulldogs' equalizer by Dineen, who backhanded a shot from the right hashmark of the left faceoff circle after receiving a pass from David Chen behind the goal line.
 
Early in the third period, Cornell seemed to have extended its lead when senior forward Sullivan Mack jabbed at a loose puck in the crease during a power-play opportunity. Yale challenged the play for goaltender interference, which was ultimately successful, bringing the score back to 1-1.
 
Cornell capped the man advantage with six shots on goal, as the Big Red took the first 15 shot attempts in the opening four and a half minutes.
 
The Big Red's third-period onslaught began at 9:02, when Psenicka capitalized on a rebound from the mid-slot after sophomore defenseman George Fegaras' shot from the top of the left faceoff circle was blocked by a Bulldogs defender. Yale challenged for goaltender interference for the second time in the period, but this time the call was upheld after video review.
 

 
Just 37 seconds later, Cornell's lead grew to 3-0 after a takeaway by sophomore forward Jonathan Castagna resulted in Stanley taking a shot from the point that deflected off the jersey of a Yale defender in front of the net and lofted over Stark's blocker-side shoulder.
 

 
With less than six minutes remaining, Yale utilized a third challenge during the period, leading to a five-minute major penalty for contact to the head and a game misconduct charged to Mack. Just under two minutes into the power play, the Bulldogs were penalized for interference, resulting in both teams skating 4-on-4.
 
Twelve seconds into the 4-on-4, Cornell extended its lead to 4-0 when Rego got a pass from Psenicka during a 2-on-1 odd-man rush and scored against Stark to his high-glove side for the second time the night.
 

 
After the five-minute penalty expired, Cornell scored an empty-net goal when senior defenseman Michael Suda saucered a pass from the Big Red's defensive zone to DeSantis at the opposite blue line after leaving the penalty box.
 
GAME NOTES
• Saturday marked the 167th meeting between Cornell and Yale as the Big Red increased its lead in the series to 94-63-10.
 
• The Big Red is unbeaten over its last 11 games against the Bulldogs (9-0-2), which includes a plus-29 advantage in goals scored (42-13). During the unbeaten streak, Cornell has held Yale to two goals or less in all but one contest.
 
• It was Cornell's first win over Yale in the ECAC Hockey Championship since a 4-2 victory on March 9, 2002, snapping a two-game losing streak to the Bulldogs in playoff action. The five goals scored by Cornell represented its highest output against Yale in a playoff contest since their initial playoff meeting on March 8, 1985, when Cornell triumphed at Lynah Rink, 9-2, in the opening game of a best-of-three quarterfinal series.
 
• Cornell improved to 15-7-1 (.674) all-time in the opening round of the ECAC Hockey Championship.
 
• With the victory, Mike Schafer '86 (556 career wins) broke his tie with former Michigan Tech head coach John MacInnes (555 wins from 1956-82) for the 18th-most head coaching victories by a Division I head coach in college hockey history.
 
• After scoring four goals in its victory over RPI last Saturday, the Big Red has had four or more goals within a period in consecutive games for the first time since it had a four-goal first period and a five-goal second period against Colgate on March 1, 1991, and was followed up with a four-goal first period the next night, also against Colgate. Prior to that, Cornell had scored four or more goals in successive periods on two occasions, against Colgate (March 9, 1996) and Princeton (Feb. 17, 2007).
 
• With his first-period goal, Rego has points in seven of his last nine games, logging nine points (four goals, five assists) during the span.
 
• Rego became the first Cornell defenseman to have a multi-goal game since Robertson did so against Harvard on March 16, 2024, in last year's quarterfinal round of the ECAC Hockey Championship. Rego also became the fourth defenseman in Cornell program history to score multiple goals in a game against Yale, joining Gordon Lowe (Dec. 13, 1969), Geoff Roeszler (March 7, 1981), and Chris Norton (Jan. 16, 1987).
 
DEFENSEMEN WITH MULTI-GOAL GAMES VS. YALE
Cornell Program History
• 2, Gordon Lowe (Dec. 13, 1969)
• 2, Geoff Roeszler (March 7, 1981)
• 2, Chris Norton (Jan. 16, 1987)
• 2, Tim Rego (March 9, 2025)
 
• Assisting on Rego's first-period goal, Robertson notched his second point streak of the season and his first since having assists against Brown (Nov. 9) and Dartmouth (Nov. 15). He also registered his fifth career multi-assist game and sixth outing with multiple points.
 
• Shane broke his tie with former Big Red goaltender Matthew Galajda for the fourth-most victories by a Cornell netminder in program history, trailing only Ken Dryden (76), David McKee (65), and Ben Scrivens (65).
 
MOST GOALTENDING WINS
Cornell Program History
1. Ken Dryden (1966-69) – 76 wins
T2. David McKee (2003-06) – 65 wins
T2. Ben Scrivens (2006-10) – 65 wins
4. Ian Shane (2021-Present) – 61 wins
5. Matthew Galajda (2017-20) – 60 wins
 
UP NEXT
Cornell will travel to Hamilton, N.Y., next weekend to face No. 3-seeded Colgate in a best-of-three quarterfinal series of the 2025 ECAC Hockey Championship. All games on the weekend will air live on ESPN+ and will be carried over the airwaves on WHCU (870 AM, 97.7 FM, cortacatoday.com).
 
The teams split their regular-season series in early December with Cornell prevailing in overtime, 3-2, on Dec. 6, before suffering a 6-3 defeat the following night.
 
The Big Red is 9-3 all-time in the playoffs against the Raiders. In the most recent meeting in the playoffs at Lynah Rink in 2022, Cornell won the first game of a best-of-three quarterfinal series, 3-1, before Colgate stormed back to win the last two games, 4-2 and 2-1, to clinch its spot in Lake Placid.