Cornell’s Late-Season Wall Won’t Deter Its Prospects Going Forward
by Jane McNally/CHN Reporter (@JaneMcNally_)
LOVELAND, Colo. When the final buzzer sounded, Cornell captain Ryan Walsh stared up at the scoreboard at Blue FCU Arena.
What it read was not something he had anticipated when his squad made the NCAA Tournament:
Denver 5, Cornell 0.
The Big Red hadn’t lost by more than three goals all year, nor had they been shut out. Friday’s game changed both of those things.
“In order to be the best, you’ve got to play against the best,” Walsh said. “And they were the better team tonight.”
And Denver, in Cornell coach Casey Jones’ eyes, is a pretty damn good team.
“By far the best team we played this season,” he said.
Cornell wants to be the best. It has gotten close in recent years, making the NCAA Tournament in each of the last four seasons and amassing three regional semifinal wins over that span. Friday delivered a different result, booting the Big Red from the first round for the first time since 2018.
At times this season, the Big Red looked like one of the best. Cornell eclipsed 22 wins for the second time since the shortened and sacred 2019-20, matching its 2023-2024 totals.
How did that season end?
A loss to Denver in the NCAA Tournament.
“They don’t recruit top down. They recruit, I call it, bottom up,” Jones said. “Where they get great young players, and they keep them and develop them, you know? And that, to me, is still a way to win.”
That philosophy has been proven time and time again. When Denver wins a national title, it usually comes with a flex of its depth. Of course, there are the Eric Pohlkamps and Zeev Buiums and Jack Devines, but not often does a national champion rely on the play of a sole superstar.
For the Big Red, that’s a strategy they want to embody. Playing teams like Denver only further etches that into its doctrine — the Pioneers are a tangible example of what Cornell strives to be under Jones.
“I mean, they’re an extremely talented team,” Walsh said. “Their goalie played well. They have Pohlkamp back there. They’re a really deep team, right? They rolled four lines all night.”
Walsh is all too familiar with the sting of NCAA Tournament defeat, because Cornell has come close to glory before — its result on Friday is a blemish on an otherwise impressive resume of regional semifinal appearances. Only four times have the Big Red lost in the opening NCAA Tournament game since making the Frozen Four in 2003, out of 13 total appearances.
Truth be told, they just can’t quite seem to get over the hump.
“They do a tremendous job of screening the players that fit their mold and who they want to be. That’s where it’s at,” Jones said. “They have three head coaches on that staff that have been head coaches and good coaches at the collegiate level. … And that’s what we want to be emblematic [of].”
A lot of chatter around Cornell this season pertained to the lineup — 14 new players, composed of 12 freshmen and two sophomore transfers. The Big Red’s starting goaltender of four years was gone, as was a bulk of its scoring.
Of course, there was the passing of the torch from Mike Schafer to Jones. But with that comes a whole new staff, too, and with that can arise other challenges.
“I think we have a good staff,” Jones said. “That was my main priority this year, and I left our captains a little bit on an island there with bringing our young guys along. I’m trying to bring our staff along, get us all on the same page.”
For much of the regular season, Cornell seemed to be on the same page. It had a 17-5 record before Feb. 7. The Big Red barely faltered in the NPI and ultimately secured itself a spot in the Tournament via an at-large bid, something it couldn’t do in each of the last two seasons.
But after that, was when things began to slide.
“I thought we might have peaked maybe a month too early,” Jones said. “I’m not sure if we hit a wall a little bit with our youth. I’m not sure. … But we were trying to find our A-game down the stretch. We were really trying.”
After Feb. 7, Cornell stumbled to a 5-6-1 finish. Its opponent on the other side, though similar to the Big Red in a lot of ways, couldn’t have exemplified more of the opposite — the Pioneers’ win on Friday extends their unbeaten streak to 14 games, stretching all the way back to January.
Sometimes, that’s all it takes.
“We had some missteps,” Jones said. “If I look back at it, I’d like some gimmes, and little do-overs and some things I did this year as a coach in my first year. But overall, I’m proud that I thought we got on the same page.”
If nothing else, playing a team like Denver solidifies in Cornell’s mind what it seeks to become. While youth was at times the Achilles heel of the Big Red, those 12 freshmen will become 12 sophomores. The six sophomores will become six juniors. The eight juniors are slated to become seniors, though that becomes a murky question pertaining to skaters like Walsh and Jonathan Castagna, whose phones will likely begin to buzz with NHL general managers on the other line.
But wipe off the dust of another NCAA Tournament loss — though the first of the Jones era — and there’s still that shiny carnelian color gleaming underneath. After all, Cornell expects a four-year commitment from its players — meaning its roster won’t be all ripped up and glued back together as some other programs will be.
Maybe all the credit should go to Cornell for what it does do, instead of what it doesn’t do. It may not have gotten over the hump yet, but it consistently gets right up to it, despite the limitations it has.
“I told our guys in the locker room, it’s hard to explain the commitment level we get from a Cornell hockey player. And the type of student athlete you get at this school, that’s what brought me back,” Jones said. “It’s a family commitment. It’s an individual commitment. In this day and age, we get players that want to play at Cornell because of the atmosphere, because of their fan base, because of the history, because they move guys along. … So it’s another level of player. That’s what I love about it.”