Dartmouth’s Luke Haymes scored two goals, leading three Big Green players in having multi-point nights, as the Big Green (10-7-2, 7-4-1 ECAC Hockey) defeated the Cornell men’s hockey team (8-5-5, 5-3-3), 6-1, before a sold-out crowd at Lynah Rink on Saturday night.
Nikita Nikora assisted on two Big Green goals while CJ Foley had a goal and assist in the victory. Emmett Croteau made 16 saves in goal for Dartmouth, upping his record on the year to 7-1-0.
Sophomore defenseman George Fegaras tallied the lone goal on the night for the Big Red, who had a 24-save performance from senior goaltender Ian Shane.
GAME NOTES
• Saturday was the 149th meeting between the Ivy League foes, as Dartmouth trimmed Cornell’s lead in the series, 88-52-9, and posted its second consecutive win over the Big Red.
• Dartmouth recorded its first regular season sweep of Cornell since posting 5-2 (Jan. 24, 2015 – Ithaca) and 3-2 victories (Feb. 13, 2015 – Hanover) during the 2013-14 season.
• Shane’s 24-save performance increased his career total to 1,999 stops, lifting him past Cornell Athletics and Hockey Hall of Fame goaltender Ken Dryden (1,987) for the 10th-most saves by a Big Red goaltender.
• With his second-period goal, Fegaras has points in three consecutive games for the first time in his collegiate career. During his point streak, the sophomore blueliner has three points (one goal, two assists).
• Psenicka’s assist on Fegaras’ second-period goal increased his point streak to four games, matching his career-long for the second time. He previously had points in four straight games across his freshman and sophomore seasons (March 11, 2022, and Oct. 28, 2022).
• DeSantis upped his point streak to a season-long three games after logging the secondary helper on Fegaras’ goal. During his current point streak, DeSantis has four points (three goals, one assist).
UP NEXT
Cornell will return to action next weekend when it makes its annual trip to the North Country where it will take on St. Lawrence (7-16-1, 3-8-1 ECAC Hockey) and No. 20-ranked Clarkson (14-8-2, 8-4-0 ECAC Hockey).
Puck drops for both contests are scheduled for 7 p.m. Game action will be broadcast on ESPN+ and over the airwaves on WHCU (870 AM, 97.7 FM, cortacatoday.com).
The Big Red are unbeaten in six of its last seven games against the Route 11 rivals (5-1-1), dating back to Cornell’s best-of-three quarterfinal series with Clarkson in the 2023 ECAC Hockey Championship.
Friday’s game at Appleton Arena will be a rematch of the championship game of last year’s ECAC Hockey Championship in Lake Placid, N.Y., which Cornell won, 3-1, to claim its first Whitelaw Cup since 2010. The Big Red are 6-0-1 in its last seven games against St. Lawrence in Canton, which includes the Big Red’s 6-1 win over the Saints at SUNY Canton’s Roos House while Appleton Arena was undergoing season-long renovations.
Saturday’s trip to Cheel Arena will be associate head coach Casey Jones ’90‘s first time back at Cheel Arena since returning to East Hill after spending 13 years as the Golden Knights’ bench boss from 2011 to 2024.
While at Clarkson, Jones amassed a 234-185-56 record and earned the Tim Taylor Award, ECAC Hockey’s Coach of the Year, in 2019. Jones guided the Golden Knights to six 20-win seasons, four of which came during a five-year stretch between 2015 and 2020. Finishing within the top 16 in the pairwise rankings each year between 2017-22, Clarkson made a pair of NCAA Tournament appearances (2018 and 2019), and was poised for a third consecutive trip in 2020 before the COVID-19 pandemic halted those aspirations. The Golden Knights made the semifinals of the ECAC Hockey Championship on three occasions under Jones (2018, 2019, 2022), which included winning the 2019 ECAC Hockey Championship.
Kyle leads sports coverage and hosts the Concrete Jungle podcast. Have a lead or question? Send it to kyle@fingerlakes1.com.