ITHACA, N.Y. — Junior forward Jonathan Castagna's early third-period goal helped break a 2-2 tie as the 17th-ranked Cornell men's hockey team staved off a late push by Omaha in its 3-2 victory over the Mavericks on Saturday night at Lynah Rink.

The victory for the Big Red improved its overall record to 9-4-0 and kept it undefeated at home to begin the 2025-26 campaign (6-0-0).

Freshmen forwards Reegan Hiscock and Aiden Long picked up their offensive production from Friday night, scoring the first two Cornell goals in the first period. Long tallied a goal and an assist, while fellow freshman Caton Ryan assisted on Cornell's latter two markers.

Senior goaltender Remington Keopple made a career-high 25 saves in the victory.

Omaha freshman forward Jérémy Loranger tallied both goals for the Mavericks (7-13-0), who have lost 11 of their last 14 contests. Freshman goaltender Dawson Cowan made 22 saves in the setback.

Hiscock opened the scoring just 1:39 into the first period, pouncing on a loose puck after freshman forward Gio DiGiulian had his backhanded centering pass deflect off Omaha defenseman Spencer Sova to give Cornell an early 1-0 advantage.

Long extended the lead to 2-0 at 10:49 of the opening frame, lasering a wrist shot from the top of the slot after Ryan backhanded a pass from beneath the goal line. The goal marked Long's third of the weekend as he continues to find his offensive stride coming out of Cornell's near-month-long holiday break.

"It's nice to get that monkey off his back," said Casey Jones '90, the Jay R. Bloom '77 Head Coach of Cornell Men's Ice Hockey, of Long's recent production. "He's been generating a lot of chances in the first half. There was some frustration, but he got home for break and came back ready. He's a good player with his pedigree and what he did in the USHL. The expectation is he'll produce — it's just a matter of time."

Omaha responded less than a minute later when Loranger converted on the power play, beating Keopple to his far-side shoulder with a one-timer from the right faceoff circle, to cut the deficit to 2-1 heading into the first intermission.

Loranger tied the game 2-2 at 11:32 of the second period with an even-strength goal, benefiting from a friendly bounce off a referee and beating Keopple to his five hole to give the Mavericks momentum heading into the final frame.

It was the first time Keopple had surrendered a goal at 5-on-5 in nearly 263 minutes (262:54), dating back to his relief appearance last season at Union (Feb. 28, 2025).

Omaha carried that energy into the third period, outshooting Cornell 12-4 in the frame, while mustering the first eight shot attempts across the opening three minutes of play. But Castagna was able to break the deadlock 4:33 into the period, capitalizing on a rebound of a sharp-angle shot taken by Ryan to restore Cornell's lead.

"Honestly, not much," Castagna said of what he saw on the play. "I just knew I had to get that to the net. In a game like that, nothing's really going in clean. It's going to be a really greasy goal. I was just trying to get it to the net."

Castagna's goal proved critical after Omaha's strong start to the period.

"We were thinking about taking a timeout," Jones said. "They had the momentum a little bit. It's hard to sweep the same team on back-to-back nights and they're a good team. That goal was important — it settled us in."

Cornell then focused on protecting the lead, blocking shots and limiting Omaha's high-danger chances despite the Mavericks' offensive pressure.

"We packed it in pretty well," Castagna said. "They have a lot of good offensive players. When you're getting a lot of offense thrown at you like that, it's really important that you stay calm. I feel like we did pretty well to keep them on the outside."

Keopple, making his first start at Lynah Rink since Dec. 30, 2022, against AIC, made several key saves down the stretch, six of which came during the final five minutes of play.

"I thought the team played really well in front," Keopple said. "It made my job really easy tonight. It's my first start at home since my freshman year, so it was a little nerve-wracking to start. It's great watching guys lay out in front of you. They have your back and I have theirs as well."

Cornell finished the game 0-for-2 on the power play while holding Omaha to 1-for-5. The Big Red was outshot 27-25 in the contest and won 37 of 61 faceoffs (60.7 percent), led by Castagna going 14-for-19 (73.7 percent) in the circle.

POSTGAME COMMENTS FROM CASEY JONES '90, REMINGTON KEOPPLE, AND JONATHAN CASTAGNA


GAME NOTES
• Cornell improved to 4-1-1 all-time against Omaha as it registered its second two-game sweep of the Mavericks after posting victories of 5-3 and 4-3 at the Omaha Civic Auditorium in 2013.

• With the weekend sweep, Cornell has swept an NCHC opponent at Lynah Rink in each of the last three seasons, including No. 11 Minnesota Duluth in 2023-24 and No. 6 North Dakota in 2024-25.

• The Big Red improved to 6-0-0 at home, marking the 13th time in program history and first since 2021-22 that Cornell has started a season 6-0-0 at Lynah Rink. Including wins in its final two home games last season, Cornell's eight-game home winning streak is tied with Princeton for the longest active streak in Division I.

LONGEST ACTIVE HOME STREAKS
Division I Hockey
• 8 games, Cornell
• 8 games, Princeton
• 7 games, Quinnipiac
• 7 games, RIT

• Cornell improved to 7-0-0 this season when scoring the first goal and is now 8-0-0 when scoring at least three goals.

• After his go-ahead goal in the third period, Castagna increased his current point streak to a career-long four games, where he has collected seven of his 13 points on the season (3-4—7).

• With their multi-point nights, Long and Ryan posted multiple points in both games of the weekend series and have points in each of their last three games.

• Freshman defenseman Luke McCrady made his collegiate debut Saturday, joining 10 other freshmen and two transfers in making their Cornell debuts this season.

UP NEXT
Cornell will continue its program-record eight-game homestand next weekend, welcoming Alaska (5-11-1) to Lynah Rink. Both games between the Big Red and Nanooks are scheduled for 7 p.m. and will be streamed live on ESPN+.

Alaska will be visiting Lynah Rink for the second time in program history and the first time since Cornell posted a pair of overtime victories over the Nanooks, 3-2 and 1-0, to begin the 2021-22 campaign.