#15 Men’s Hockey Readies for Best-of-Three Series Against Rival Harvard

THE PUCK DROP

• The No. 15-ranked Cornell men’s hockey team returns to action following its opening-round bye as it hosts bitter rival Harvard in a best-of-three quarterfinal series of the 2024 ECAC Men’s Hockey Championship.

• Friday and Saturday’s games are scheduled for 7 p.m. puck drops, while Sunday’s winner-take-all game, if necessary, would start at 4 p.m. All games on the weekend will be broadcast live on ESPN+ and over the airwaves on WHCU (870 AM, 97.7 FM, whcuradio.com).

TAKE A BREAK!

• With its overtime loss to Clarkson on Feb. 23, Cornell officially clinched an opening-round bye in this year’s ECAC Hockey Championship.

• The opening-round bye was Cornell’s 14th time since 2005-06 that it did not play in the opening round of the ECAC Hockey Championship. Since Quinnipiac joined ECAC Hockey before the 2005-06 season, Cornell has reached the quarterfinals in all but one tournament (2015), excluding 2021, which had just three teams participate after Clarkson withdrew before the tournament.

• Cornell’s bye extended the Big Red’s lead in ECAC Hockey for opening-round byes under the conference’s current alignment to 14. Quinnipiac (10) is the only other program with double-digit byes.

CLEAR THE TROPHY CASE!

• Earlier this week, ECAC Hockey released its all-league teams, featuring a pair of All-Rookie selections and two First Team and Third Team All-ECAC Hockey choices.

• Freshman forward Jonathan Castagna and freshman defenseman Ben Robertson were named to ECAC Hockey’s All-Rookie Team on Monday. Castagna and Robertson are the first Big Red tandem to garner ECAC Hockey All-Rookie Team honors in the same year since Mike Devin and Riley Nash in 2008.

• Sophomore forward Dalton Bancroft and Robertson were announced as Third Team All-ECAC Hockey selections on Tuesday. Bancroft and Robertson are the first pair of Cornell teammates to receive third-team distinctions since goaltender Matthew Galajda and defenseman Alex Green in 2020. Robertson is the second Cornell freshman (first skater) to earn a spot on an ECAC Hockey all-league team, as Galajda was a first-team pick in 2018.

• Senior forward Gabriel Seger and junior goaltender Ian Shane were tabbed First Team All-ECAC Hockey selections on Thursday. Shane was one of four unanimous first-team selections, joined by Quinnipiac forward Collin Graf, Dartmouth forward Luke Haymes, and Union defenseman John Prokop. It was the 11th instance that Cornell had multiple players named First…