Cornell men’s hockey closed out its four-game homestand in impressive fashion on Saturday night, cruising past RPI, 6-1, at Lynah Rink behind a newly assembled line that delivered nine combined points. The trio of juniors Luke Devlin and Ryan Walsh along with sophomore Charlie Major powered the No. 19 Big Red to their sixth win of the season and fifth in ECAC Hockey play.
Cornell jumped ahead early when Jake Kraft scored less than four minutes into the first period, followed shortly by Devlin’s first goal of the night. RPI briefly halted the surge with a late-period tally, but the Big Red regained full control in the second. Devlin struck again just 60 seconds into the frame, and Jonathan Castagna added a power-play marker late in the period to make it 4-1. Cornell’s power play has now produced in four straight games.
Major extended the cushion early in the third before Castagna closed the night with a short-handed goal in the final seconds. Walsh finished with a career-best four assists, while Devlin posted his first multi-goal game at Cornell. Freshman goaltender Alexis Cournoyer stopped 23-of-24 shots to improve to 6-1-0.
The win was Cornell’s seventh straight against RPI and continued a dominant run in the series, giving the Big Red 10 victories in their last 11 meetings. Cornell also pushed its home winning streak over the Engineers to six games.
Up next, Cornell heads to Madison Square Garden on Saturday, November 29, to face No. 18 Boston University in the biennial Red Hot Hockey matchup.
Kyle leads sports coverage and hosts the Concrete Jungle podcast. Have a lead or question? Send it to [email protected].