No. 16 Cornell opens its ECAC Hockey schedule at home this weekend, facing sixth-ranked Quinnipiac on Friday and unbeaten Princeton on Saturday.
Both games begin at 7 p.m. at Lynah Rink, with domestic streaming on ESPN+ and international coverage on IvyLeague.TV, according to Cornell's weekend preview.
The Big Red enters 1-1 after splitting its season-opening series against Sacred Heart. Quinnipiac is 5-2, while Princeton is 2-0 and opens conference play Friday at Colgate before traveling to Ithaca.
Jason Weinstein will handle play-by-play alongside analyst Tony Eisenhut for both Cornell broadcasts.
Faceoffs give Cornell an early strength
Cornell leads Division I with a 64.9% faceoff success rate, winning 100 of 154 draws in its opening series. Quinnipiac is next at 61.6%, setting up a matchup between the country's top two teams in that category.
Senior captain Ryan Walsh has won 46 of 64 faceoffs, a .719 rate that ranks second nationally among players with at least 30 attempts. Quinnipiac's Matthew Lansing leads that group at .723, winning 47 of 65.
Walsh's 23 faceoff wins per game lead Division I. Freshman Brad Gardiner ranks fifth at 13.5 per game and fourth in winning percentage at .711, with 27 wins in 38 attempts.
Walsh won 26 draws in Saturday's series finale, the most by a Division I player in a regulation game since Denver's Cole Guttman won 29 against Minnesota Duluth in February 2022. Walsh also won 20 in the opener, becoming the first Division I player with consecutive 20-win games since St. Cloud State's Tyson Gross in October 2025.
Gardiner won 13 of 17 draws in his debut, Cornell's most faceoff wins by a player in his first collegiate game since at least 2013-14. He added 14 the next night. Walsh enters the weekend with 1,056 career wins, fifth among active Division I players.
Big Red looks to finish games at Lynah
Cornell beat Sacred Heart 5-2 on Oct. 30 before losing the finale 3-2. Saturday's loss ended a 106-game unbeaten run when the Big Red led after two periods, a stretch of 103 wins and three ties dating to March 2019.
Cornell is 18-1 under second-year coach Casey Jones when leading after 40 minutes. The Big Red went 15-3 at Lynah last season, matching the program's single-season home-win record, and has a 94-26-9 home record since 2017-18.
Friday's matchup also tests Cornell's strong record against highly ranked visitors. The Big Red has won its last six home games against opponents ranked in the top six of the USCHO.com poll, a run dating to November 2017 that includes three victories over Quinnipiac.
Cornell is unbeaten in its last four ECAC openers at 3-0-1 and in its last six league openers at Lynah at 5-0-1. Its last home loss to begin conference play came against Princeton in November 2007. Overall, Cornell is 42-18-4 in ECAC openers and 26-5-2 at home.
Sophomore Mathis Rousseau started both games against Sacred Heart in his Cornell debut. The Maine transfer made 36 saves on 41 shots, posting a 2.53 goals-against average and .878 save percentage over 118 minutes, 24 seconds. Cornell entered the season without any returning goaltending minutes from last year.
Freshman defenseman Ryland Randle scored in the opener, extending Cornell's streak of a freshman scoring in the first game of the season to nine seasons. That is the longest such Division I run since Wisconsin's 10-season streak ended in 2008.
Quinnipiac brings scoring depth and a ranked test
The Bobcats arrive after a 5-1 victory over then-No. 5 Providence on Oct. 31. Their earlier results include wins over New Hampshire, Merrimack, Maine and Penn State, along with losses to Maine and Army.
Ethan Wyttenbach leads Quinnipiac with eight assists and 12 points. Jack Stockfish has a team-high six goals and eight points, Antonin Verreault has eight points, and Mason Marcellus has seven.
Christian Kirsch is 4-1 in goal with a 2.17 goals-against average and .924 save percentage. Rorke Applebee is 1-1 with a 3.58 average and .875 save percentage.
Cornell leads the series 29-22-6, including a 15-12-1 edge in Ithaca. The teams split last season's regular-season meetings: Quinnipiac won 4-1 at Lynah, and Cornell answered with a 6-1 road win in February. Cornell also defeated the Bobcats in overtime in the 2025 ECAC semifinals.
The Big Red will face a ranked Quinnipiac team for the 14th consecutive meeting. Against Bobcats teams ranked sixth or better, Cornell is 8-7-2, including five straight wins and a six-game unbeaten streak.
Princeton returns with familiar coaches
Princeton opened with 3-0 and 3-2 wins over Stonehill in Boston. Arthur Smith started both games, posting a .974 save percentage and 1.00 goals-against average. The opening shutout was Princeton's first to begin a season since Oct. 30, 2009.
Kai Greaves leads the Tigers with four points, all assists. Six players have scored Princeton's six goals, with Carson Buydens, Shaan Kingwell and Hans Martin Ulvebne each contributing a goal and an assist.
Cornell leads the rivalry 103-56-8 and is 54-15-3 against the Tigers in Ithaca. Princeton has won the past two meetings, most recently 3-2 in Lake Placid on March 20, and is seeking its first three-game winning streak in the series since 2009-10.
Tigers coach Ben Syer spent 13 seasons on Cornell's staff from 2011-24 and coached the Big Red's current five seniors as freshmen. His assistants include former Cornell assistant Jamie Russell and former Cornell director of hockey operations Shane Talarico.
Walsh nears milestones as Veilleux prepares for Davos
Walsh scored twice and added an assist in Cornell's season-opening win. The Rochester native has 41 goals and 48 assists for 89 career points, leaving him 11 points from 100 and nine goals from 50.
He would be Cornell's first 100-point player since Riley Nash and Colin Greening reached that mark in 2009-10, and its first 50-goal scorer since Greening. Walsh's 89 points rank third among active ECAC players, behind Quinnipiac's Marcellus with 115 and Stockfish with 95.
Jones is 23-12-1 through 36 games at Cornell after going 22-11-1 in his first season. His 22 first-year wins tied the program record, and he became the second Cornell coach to reach the NCAA Tournament in his debut season.
Sophomore defenseman Xavier Veilleux will join Jones at the Spengler Cup in Davos, Switzerland, from Dec. 26-31. Veilleux was the only sophomore among the first 13 players named to the U.S. Collegiate Selects' 25-player roster. Jones was appointed to the coaching staff in July.
The Selects open against Frolunda HC on Dec. 26, with the semifinals and final scheduled for Dec. 30-31. Cornell has had a player on the roster in both years of the team's participation, following Walsh last season.
Cornell was picked third in the ECAC preseason poll with 102 points, behind Quinnipiac's 120 and Dartmouth's 110. The Bobcats received 10 first-place votes; Dartmouth received the other two. Clarkson was fourth, followed by Harvard, Union, Princeton, RPI, Colgate, St. Lawrence, Brown and Yale.
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