The 2023–24 Cornell Big Red Men's ice hockey season was the 107th season of play for the program and 62nd in ECAC Hockey. The Big Red represented Cornell University in the 2023–24 NCAA Division I men's ice hockey season, played their home games at Lynah Rink and were coached by Mike Schafer in his 28th season.
Season Entering the season, Cornell was once again expected to be a defensive powerhouse. Starting goaltender Ian Shane was coming off of a tremendous sophomore season and the structure that Mike Schafer ran usually carried over year to year. The biggest unknown was the offense since the team had lost three of its top four scorers, but Cornell was also bringing in a talented crop of freshman that included five NHL draft picks. The Big Red started well with their first two weeks going to form; the defense was usually stout, allowing less than 20 shots per game, and the unperturbed Shane had no trouble staking Cornell to a 4–0 record. The offense was also performing about as well as could be expected and continued to be led by senior Gabriel Seger. While the offense flowed through the team's 1st-line center, several new players were proving to be quick studies early in the season. Jonathan Castagna, Ben Robertson and Ryan Walsh did their level best to replace the lost offense and the team benefitted greatly from their efforts.
While November had started out well, the Big Red ran into some trouble in the middle of the month. Scoring went down a bit but it was a few bad games from Shane that were the real problem. After tying Dartmouth, Cornell lost to their heated rival Harvard despite allowing just 16 shots in the game. Shane then followed up that performance with probably the worst game of his career and he allowed 3 goals on 9 shots in just over 10 minutes of action. Remington Keopple was inserted for the final two and a half periods but the backup goaltender was not up to the task of holding off defending national champions Quinnipiac. However, Keopple was still in goal for the following game and though he didn't play too poorly, Cornell lost 1–2 in overtime to bring their losing streak up to three.
With their season beginning to spiral out of control, Cornell had a huge opportunity during Thanksgiving when they took on #5 Boston University for their biannual Red Hot Hockey showdown. In front of 15,000 spectators at Madison Square Garden, Shane returned with a triumphant performance, stopping 35 shots (6 from prospective #1 overall pick Macklin Celebrini) and led the Big Red to victory. A split the following week with Colgate showed that the team still had some work to do but Cornell had stopped their slide and remained in contention for the NCAA tournament.
The team kicked off the second half of their season with an appearance at the inaugural Adirondack Winter Invitational. Cornell faced a tough task by having to get through a pair of ranked teams but the Big Red were able to carry a lead into the third period in both games. Unfortunately, their typical defensive game didn't work in either case and both games ended up needing overtime. Cornell was able to get a shootout win in the semifinal over Massachusetts but they ultimately fell to Arizona State in the championship. A couple of weeks later, Cornell got a chance for revenge when they travelled out to Tempe for a series with the Sun Devils. The first game was eerily similar to the previous meeting as Cornell built a 2-goal lead only to see ASU tie the score in the third. This time, however, Cornell came out on top thanks to Ben Robertson's first goal of the season in overtime. The Big Red were demonstrably better in the rematch and were able to control the latter half of the match after getting out to a 3–0 lead at the start of the second.
The sweep began a streak of great hockey from Cornell and the team didn't lose a single game over the next five weeks. Shane was brilliant during the stretch and didn't allow more than 2 goals in any game. The offense, too, recovered its earlier form and allowed Cornell to climb up the conference standings. The only problem for Cornell was that most of the teams they faced were not highly regarded. While a few ECAC teams held a decent position in the PairWise rankings, most of the conference was in the bottom third. This meant that, even though Cornell had gone 10–0–4 after Christmas, the team had only risen up to 11th in the rankings. Disaster then struck as Cornell stumbled in the final two weeks and a pair of losses dropped the Big Red below the cut line for the NCAA tournament.
Due to circumstances beyond their control, only the top 14 teams in the rankings had any chance to make the NCAA tournament. Even though they were eleven games over .500 with wins over several ranked teams, Cornell had little chance to receive an at-large bid. As they finished second in the ECAC, the Big Red received a bye into the quarterfinal round and, after taking a week off, found that Harvard would be their opponent. Cornell seemed unstoppable in the first half of the game and got out to a 4–0 lead. The team then seemed to believe that the match was over and allowed the Crimson to claw their way back with three goals over a 20-minute period. The final six minutes of the match were hotly contested but the Cornell defense had recovered by then and prevented the tying goal from being scored. Apparently having learned their lesson, Cornell put the clamps on Harvard even after getting an early lead and this time their hated foes could only manage a single goal. Seger and Robertson each had a pair in the game (the second two for each being empty-net goals) and the team move onto the semifinals.
Cornell got an unfavorable match in Lake Placid when they were faced with Dartmouth. The Big Red had yet to defeat the Greens that season and they were quickly reminded of that when Dartmouth scored the opening goal. Ondřej Pšenička tied the game early in the second but the Big Green responded with a pair of markers to take a 2-goal lead into the third. Cornell was not used needing 3rd-period comebacks but that got a bit of a leg up when Dartmouth took a boarding call with 5 second left in the second. Starting the final frame on the power play, Dalton Bancroft cut the lead down to 1 and from that point on it was all Cornell. Constant pressure from the offense eventually led to two goals in 50 seconds and gave the Big Red their first lead with 10 minutes to play. Dartmouth tried to regain the momentum but they could not get the puck past Shane. The Green pulled their goaltender in desperation but that only gave Nick DeSantis the opportunity to score twice into an empty net and cap off a 5-goal third period that saved the season.
Compared to the drama of the semifinal, the championship was a bit of a letdown but it was no less important for Cornell to win the game. By then the Big Red had climbed up to 13 in the PairWise, however, they found themselves facing St. Lawrence for the conference title. A loss to the Saints would drop the Big Red back down and knock them out of the national tournament so their only hope of continuing was to win the title. In spite of an inspired performance from the Larries' netminder, Jonathan Castagna scored twice to give Cornella 2–0 lead after two periods. Shane was finally beaten in the third but he only allowed one to get past him and Cornell first ECAC championship in 14 years sent the Big Red back to the NCAA tournament.
Cornell's title enabled the team to jump up to #12 in the rankings and receive a 3-seed for the tournament. They were placed opposite to a resurgent Maine squad that got off to a fast start and opened the scoring less than 6 minutes into the game. The team was then dealt a blow when Ryan Walsh was called for a 5-minute major about a minute later and Cornell seemed poised to suffer an crushing defeat. Shane, however, redoubled his efforts and with the aid of a herculean effort from the penalty killers he was able to stop the Black Bears from increasing their lead. Shortly after Walsh left the box, team captain Kyle Penney tied the game on a straight shot from the high slot. The final two periods were typified by two things: Cornell's suffocating defense and Sullivan Mack. The junior forward had the game of his life and scored in each of the final two periods. Despite a furious effort, Maine was unable to get a second goal past Shane and Cornell marched on to the regional final.
With Denver the only thing standing between the Big Red and the Frozen Four, Cornell got off to a quick start and Nick DeSantis opened the scoring less than 7 minutes into the match. The Pioneers managed to tie the score in the final minutes of the period but play remained decidedly in Cornell's favor. The nation's top offense found it difficult to crack the Big Red defense and few of the Pioneers' shots on goal were at risk of going in. With Cornell content to play their style and wit for an opportunity, Castagna made a costly mistake and was called for a penalty at the end of the second. Cornell tried to hold back the Denver attack but with just 4 seconds left, a show was tipped between Shane's legs and the Big Red found themselves trailing for the first time. The feature of the third period was Denver pulling back into a defensive shell. Though that resulted in the Pioneers only getting 3 shots on goal, they stymied Cornell's comeback attempt and stopped the Big Red from getting many chances. As the third was winding down and Mike Schafer was getting ready to pull Shane for an extra attacker, Walsh took a slashing penalty that threw their plans into chaos. Though Cornell was able to kill off the penalty, when it ended there were only 35 seconds left in the game and the Big Red were unable to make much of a final push. Instead, Denver was able to kill of the last moments of the game and knock Cornell out.
Departures Maxim Andreyev Forward Graduation (signed with Coachella Valley Firebirds) Ben Berard Forward Graduation (signed with Texas Stars) Sebastian Dirven Defenseman Graduation (signed with Wheeling Nailers) Jack Lagerstrom Defenseman Left program (retired) Sam Malinski Defenseman Graduation (signed with Colorado Avalanche) Jack Malone Forward Graduate transfer to Boston College Travis Mitchell Defenseman Graduation (signed with New York Islanders) Peter Muzyka Defenseman Transferred to Long Island Matt Stienburg Forward Graduation (signed with Colorado Eagles) Zach Tupker Forward Graduate transfer to Quinnipiac
Recruiting Jonathan Castagna Forward 18 Toronto, ON; selected 70th overall in 2023 Tyler Catalano Forward 19 St. Louis, MO Luke Devlin Forward 19 Memphis, TN; selected 182nd overall in 2022 George Fegaras Defenseman 19 Richmond Hill, ON; selected 83rd overall in 2022 Jake Kraft Forward 20 Rochester, NY Marián Moško Defenseman 19 Žilina, SVK Ben Robertson Defenseman 19 Potomac Falls, VA Hoyt Stanley Defenseman 18 West Vancouver, BC; selected 108th overall in 2023 Liam Steele Defenseman 19 Cobham, UK Ryan Walsh Forward 20 Rochester, NY; selected 188th overall in 2023
Roster As of July 10, 2023.
Standings
Schedule and results
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!colspan=12 style=";" | Regular Season
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NCAA Tournament
Regional semifinal