ITHACA, N.Y. — The Alaska men's hockey team spent the better part of a week preparing at Lynah Rink, practicing daily on the same ice where it would face Cornell on Friday night. The familiarity didn't help.

Cornell (10-4-0) turned home-ice advantage into home-ice dominance, overwhelming the Nanooks (5-12-1) in a 7-1 rout that extended the Big Red's home winning streak to nine games and kept its perfect record at Lynah Rink intact at 8-0-0.

Freshman forward Caton Ryan sparked the offensive explosion with two goals and two assists, while 13 different Big Red players found the scoresheet. Junior defenseman Hoyt Stanley recorded a career-high three assists, freshman defenseman Xavier Veilleux and freshman forward Chase Pirtle each had a goal and an assist and junior forward Jonathan Castagna added two helpers. Sophomore defenseman Luke Ashton also notched his first goal in a Cornell sweater.

Michael Citara scored the lone goal for Alaska on a first-period power play, but Cornell answered with six unanswered tallies over the final 40 minutes, including four in the third period.

Freshman forward Aiden Long opened the scoring 2:48 into the contest, poking home a loose puck past Alaska goaltender Calvin Vachon during a goalmouth scramble. Alaska found the equalizer on the power play with six minutes left when Citara scored just nine seconds into a man advantage, capitalizing on a tripping penalty against junior captain Ryan Walsh.

Using the same jump it had to begin the game, the Big Red registered 10 of the first 11 shots on goal over the opening 14-and-a-half minutes of the middle frame. Pirtle restored the Big Red's lead, pouncing on a loose puck at the left post after Stanley's shot was saved. Following a pair of Alaska penalties, Veilleux converted on a 5-on-3 power play, one-timing a setup pass from sophomore forward Charlie Major for his fourth goal of the season – all on the man advantage.

The Big Red faced its own 5-on-3 penalty kill late in the period after being whistled for two stick infractions 40 seconds apart. Cornell blocked four of Alaska's five shot attempts while down two men before being able to kill off both penalties, earning a rousing ovation from the Lynah Faithful.

Cornell turned that momentum into a third-period rout, which began with Ashton scoring just 10 seconds into the frame following a quick whistle after the opening faceoff. Walsh and Ryan each tallied 5-on-3 power-play goals 68 seconds apart before Ryan capped the scoring with an even-strength marker at 11:03.

POSTGAME COMMENTS FROM CASEY JONES '90, RYAN WALSH AND CATON RYAN


GAME NOTES
• Cornell improved to 4-0-0 all-time against Alaska, which includes a 3-0-0 mark at Lynah Rink. Friday's result marked the first time the Big Red had defeated the Nanooks in regulation on home ice, after posting a pair of overtime victories to begin the 2021-22 season.

• The Big Red improved to 7-0-0 at home, marking the 10th time in program history and first since 2004-05 that Cornell has started a season 7-0-0 at Lynah Rink. Including wins in its final two home games last season, Cornell's nine-game home winning streak is tied with Princeton for the longest active streak in Division I and is the ninth-longest in program history. It is the Big Red's longest home win streak since posting 11 straight victories between Feb. 9, 2020, and Nov. 20, 2021, in the final games of a 21-game home unbeaten streak (19-0-2).

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

LONGEST WIN STREAKS AT HOME
Cornell Program History
• 63 games, Jan. 14, 1967 – Jan. 29, 1972
• 18 games, Feb. 23, 2002 – March 15, 2003
• 16 games, Feb. 12, 1972 – Feb. 17, 1973
• 13 games, Dec. 11, 1965 – Dec. 20, 1966
• 13 games, Jan. 19, 1977 – Dec. 30, 1977
• 11 games, Oct. 29, 2004 – Jan. 29, 2005
• 11 games, Feb. 9, 2020 – Nov. 20, 2021
• 10 games, Feb. 27, 1973 – Feb. 15, 1974
• 9 games, Feb. 22, 2025 - Present

• Cornell registered its 10th win in its 14th game of the season, marking the first time the program has won its 10th game by game number 14 or earlier since 2021-22, when it was 10-3-1 through 14 games. It is the 20th instance in program history that Cornell has reached a double-digit win total at or before the 14th game.

• Cornell improved to 8-0-0 this season when scoring the first goal and is 9-0-0 when scoring at least three goals.

• The Big Red upped its record to 6-0-0 when allowing one goal or less this season. The 26 goals allowed through its first 14 games mark the program's fewest by that threshold since 2019-20, when it gave up just 19 opposing tallies.

• With his two-assist game, Castagna increased his career-long point streak to five games, where he has tallied nine points (three goals, six assists). Also having registered points in eight of his last nine contests, Castagna has totaled 13 of his 15 points on the season (5-8—13) during the span.

• Ryan, Long and Pirtle all extended their point streaks on Friday night. Long and Ryan's point streaks both stand at four games, while Pirtle has points in each of his last three games. Ryan has nine points during his point streak (3-6—9) while Long has six (4-2—6). Pirtle also has five points over his last three games (2-3—5).

• With his first-period tally, Long upped his goal-scoring streak to three games, matching Gio DiGiulian for the longest goal-scoring streak on the season. Cornell last had two freshmen with three-game goal streaks in the same season in 2023-24, when Luke Devlin and Ryan Walsh each had goals in three consecutive games.

• Veilleux upped his season total for power-play goals up to four with his second-period tally. He has the most goals scored on the power play by a Cornell defenseman since Alec McCrae (five) in 2017-18, and is tied with Long Island's Nick Bernardo, Denver's Boston Buckberger, Clarkson's Tate Taylor and Penn State's Jackson Smith for the nation's lead in power-play goals by a defenseman.

MOST POWER-PLAY GOALS BY A DEFENSEMAN
This Season
• 4 goals, Nick Bernardo, Long Island
• 4 goals, Boston Buckberger, Denver
• 4 goals, Jackson Smith, Penn State
• 4 goals, Tate Taylor, Clarkson
• 4 goals, Xavier Veilleux, Cornell
• 3 goals, Ben Dexheimer, Wisconsin
• 3 goals, Chris Hedden, Air Force
• 3 goals, Marc Lajoie, Omaha
• 3 goals, Isaiah Norlin, Colgate
• 3 goals, Eric Pohlkamp, Denver

• The Big Red's three power-play goals marked the first time Cornell scored at least three times with the man advantage since netting six against Union in a 10-1 win on Feb. 4, 2023. Since Nov. 14, the Big Red have converted at a 36.4 percent clip on the power play (12-for-33), tied with North Dakota (also 12-for-33) for third nationally, trailing only Minnesota (9-for-23 – 39.1 percent) and Minnesota Duluth (7-for-19 – 36.8 percent).

TOP POWER PLAY UNITS SINCE NOV. 14
Division I Hockey
• 39.1 percent, Minnesota (9-for-23)
• 36.8 percent, Minnesota Duluth (7-for-19)
• 36.4 percent, Cornell (12-for-33)
• 36.4 percent, North Dakota (12-for-33)
• 32.4 percent, Augustana (12-for-37)
• 30.0 percent, Notre Dame (6-for-20)

• Cornell's three power-play goals all came while the Big Red had 5-on-3 power plays, marking just the fourth time since 2002-03 that Cornell has scored multiple times while playing at 5-on-3. All other instances featured two such goals in wins over Vermont (Feb. 8, 2003) and RPI (March 14, 2009) and in a tie against Colgate (Dec. 7, 2013).

• Cournoyer earned his eighth career victory in his 11th career appearance, becoming the fastest netminder to reach that threshold since Matthew Galajda, who also posted eight wins in his first 11 outings during the 2017-18 season. He is also one of seven Big Red goaltenders to accomplish the feat, joining Ken Dryden '69 (wins in first 11; unbeaten in first 30 — 29-0-1), Dave LeNeveu (nine) and Brian Cropper '71, Dave Elenbaas '73, Dave Chrastina '77 and Galajda (eight wins apiece).

MOST VICTORIES THROUGH FIRST 11 CAREER GAMES
Cornell Program History
• 11 wins, Ken Dryden (1966-67)
• 9 wins, Dave LeNeveu (2001-02)
• 8 wins, Brian Cropper (1968-70)
• 8 wins, Dave Elenbaas (1970-72)
• 8 wins, Dave Chrastina (1974-75)
• 8 wins, Matthew Galajda (2017-18)
• 8 wins, Alexis Cournoyer (2025-26)

• Ashton's goal 10 seconds into the third period was the quickest goal scored by Cornell to begin a period since Dalton Bancroft scored eight seconds into the first period of the Big Red's 2-2 tie with Yale last season on Nov. 8, 2024.

NEXT UP
Cornell will wrap up its weekend series with Alaska on Saturday, Jan. 10. Puck drop is scheduled for 7 p.m. ET and will be streamed live on ESPN+.