ITHACA, N.Y. — Junior forward Jake Kraft scored twice, including the game-winning overtime goal, to register his first collegiate multi-goal game and lead the 12th-ranked Cornell men's hockey team to a 2-1 overtime victory over No. 10 Dartmouth before a sold-out crowd of 4,267 at Lynah Rink on Friday night.

Kraft registered his first goal of the night while Cornell was short-handed in the second period before scoring 34 seconds into overtime to lead the Big Red (13-5-0, 8-3-0 ECAC Hockey) to its 10th home win of the season, while registering its seventh win in its last eight games.

"That's probably about as complete a game as we played, start to finish," said Casey Jones '90, the Jay R. Bloom '77 Head Coach of Cornell Men's Ice Hockey. "I thought we had a good identity, we had a good push, we attacked. Pleased with the effort."

Cam MacDonald opened the scoring for Dartmouth (14-5-1, 8-3-1 ECAC Hockey) at the 8:49 mark of the first period, capitalizing on a defensive-zone turnover that was initiated by Hank Cleaves. Emmett Croteau made 29 saves in the setback for the Big Green.

Cornell homed in on Dartmouth's Hayden Stavroff, who entered the night tied for the nation's lead in goals (20) and points per game (1.58), limiting the sophomore forward scoreless for just the sixth time in 20 games this season. He generated just one shot on goal.

"I think it's just the fact that we played the game the right way," Jones said. "We didn't give [the puck] up in the neutral zone. We tried to get [Ryan] Walsh against them. Those guys were responsible and played against them the right way. We, obviously, had those guys aware of him on the ice. It's a big reason why we got the win."

Cornell's aggressive penalty kill nearly produced a second short-handed goal on the same power play when sophomore forward Charlie Major was denied on a breakaway attempt.

"We almost got two in the same penalty kill," Jones said. "I thought we were prepared. [Chris Brown] had the guys listen to the game plan and they were dialed in. Our special teams were good tonight."

Early into Cornell's third power play of the night, with under four minutes left in the third, junior forward Jonathan Castagna had his one-timer off a goal-line pass by fellow junior forward Ryan Walsh stopped by Croteau on a diving cross-crease save. Twenty seconds later, Croteau robbed Castagna again with a glove save and absorbed Walsh's rebound at the right post.

With under a minute left in regulation, freshman goaltender Alexis Cournoyer made a crucial save on Cleaves, who used a deke to get past a Cornell defender, and had his shot from the right elbow of the goal crease stopped to keep the game tied. Cournoyer finished the night with 15 saves.

"He made an unbelievable save in the last little bit there," Jones said. "[Cleaves] made a pretty good move and [Alexis] made a good blocker save. He was good tonight."

Kraft's overtime winner was initiated on a defensive-zone takeaway by freshman defenseman Xavier Veilleux, who played the puck to Kraft while on his knees. Chipping the puck and skating past Cleaves, Kraft beat Croteau to his high blocker side to punctuate his first collegiate multi-goal game.

"I kind of knew I was going high blocker the whole way," Kraft admitted. "I was just going to rip it and see what happens."

GAME NOTES
• Cornell snapped its three-game losing streak and five-game regular-season winless streak to Dartmouth. It is the Big Red's first win over the Big Green in the regular season since a 3-2 win in Hanover, N.H., on Jan. 27, 2023, and the first at Lynah Rink since a 1-0 triumph on Dec. 3, 2022. The Big Red increased its lead in the all-time series to 89-52-9.

• Friday marked the 11th time in the last 13 meetings between Cornell and Dartmouth that the result was either a one-goal game or a tie.

• Friday was also the first time Cornell played Dartmouth when it was ranked in the top 10 since falling to the seventh-ranked Big Green, 8-4, in the third-place game of the 1980 NCAA Tournament at the Providence Civic Center in Providence, R.I.

• Kraft's second-period short-handed goal was Cornell's fourth of the season, matching last year's total. The last time Cornell had consecutive seasons with at least four short-handed goals was in 2010-11 (4) and 2011-12 (6).

• Cournoyer earned his 10th career victory in his 14th career appearance, becoming the fastest netminder to reach that threshold since Matthew Galajda, who also posted 10 wins in his first 14 outings during the 2017-18 season. He is one of nine Big Red goaltenders to accomplish the feat and joins Corrie D'Alessio '91 (1987-88) and Galajda as the lone netminders to do so since 1980.

MOST WINS THROUGH FIRST 14 CAREER APPEARANCES
Cornell Program History — Since 1957-58
• 13, Ken Dryden (1966-67)
• 11, Brian Cropper (1968-70)
• 11, Dave LeNeveu (2001-02)
• 10, Dave Elenbaas (1970-72)
• 10, Dave Chrastina (1974-75)
• 10, Brian Hayward (1978-79)
• 10, Corrie D'Alessio (1987-88)
• 10, Matthew Galajda (2017-18)
• 10, Alexis Cournoyer (2025-26)

HOBEY BAKER MEMORIAL AWARD VOTING
Cornell fans are encouraged to support junior forwards Ryan Walsh and Jonathan Castagna, both of whom have been nominated for the 2026 Hobey Baker Memorial Award. Fan voting for college hockey's top player runs through midnight on Sunday, March 8.

Fans can vote online at hobeybaker.com/vote or text their vote to 844-623-9688 (text "26089" for Walsh or "26090" for Castagna). Fans may vote for one player per day.

The Hobey Baker Memorial Award winner will be announced on Friday, April 10, in Las Vegas during the NCAA Frozen Four.

UP NEXT
Cornell will conclude its program-record eight-game homestand on Saturday, Jan. 24, when it welcomes bitter ECAC Hockey and Ivy League rival Harvard (11-7-1, 9-4-0 ECAC Hockey) to Lynah Rink. Puck drop is scheduled for 7 p.m., with game action streamed live on ESPN+. Canadian fans can also stream the contest live on TSN+.

The Crimson are coming off a 3-1 victory over Colgate on Friday night. Philip Tresca (two assists) and Mick Thompson (one goal, one assist) each registered multi-point nights for Harvard, which enters Saturday night's game on a four-game win streak. Ben Charette made 28 saves in goal.

Both the 1986 and 1996 ECAC Hockey championship teams will be honored during intermissions on Saturday night.