By Janet Schultz; Photos by Janet Schultz©

The ACHA Niagara University Women’s D2 ice hockey team celebrated members of the military at their game on Sunday. The Veterans Celebration was coordinated by NU’s Lili Drzazgowski.

They opened the afternoon with the NU ROTC Cadets presenting the colors. 

NU President Mahar presented the Command Sergeant Major Fred E. Kirtchen Scholarship to Specialist Laney Provorse of the New York Army National Guard.

Laney serves as a paralegal specialist with the 2nd Squadron, 101st Cavalry Regiment. She enlisted in August 2024 and completed her rraining in August 2025. She continues to serve while persuing her educaiton and career goals at NU. 

She has spoken about the discipline, responsibility, confidence and sense of purpose that miliarty service has brought into her life, the exactly qualities the scholarship embodies.

The Scholarship honors a decorated Army veteran whose commitment to military leadership and Niagara University left a lasting impression. Kirtchen served in Army Special Forces which included two tour sof duty in Vietnam, receiving the Silver Star, Bronze Star for Valor and the Purple Heart. After his passing in 1992 the ROTC alumni from the classes of 1979, 1980 and 1981 set up the scholarship in his honor.

Following the presentation, Laney dropped the ceremonial  puck.

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The NU Women’s D2 team took on the University of Pitt, a team they faced at the Showcase Tournament at Cornerstone Arena earlier this fall. In ACHA rankings U of Pitt is #2 and NU is #3 after this game.

Pitt opened the scoring at 13:41 of the first period. Niagara’s Brooke Kwiecien answered back at 9:09 tying the score for a little more than 3 minutes when Pitt’s Francesca Amico answered back and the first period ends 2-1 in favor of the visitors.

In the second period Niagara’s Jaylan Melcher got one past Goalie Ella Venters and that period ends in a 2-2 tie.

Pitt’s Fletcher Lyttleton got one past NU’s Em Bandkohal at 9:05 of the third. While it looks like this winning goal would be it; NU kept fighting and with faceoff’s in their end with 44 seconds and 30.7 seconds left NU just could get one past the Pitt goalie and the game ends 3-2 in favor of U of Pitt.

NU is now 3-5-1 on the season and face the SUNY Brockport on November 14 and 15 at Cornerstone Arena in Lockport.

In ACHA standings, NU players have made their mark with Lili Drzazgowski sitting in the #8 spot in scoring with 3 goals and 2 assists. At #9 is Jaylan Melcher also with 3 goals and 2 assists; Brooke Kwiecien with 4 goals and Alexandria Franke with 2 goals and 2 assists. Melcher is listed as the #2 on defense in the CHE while Drzazgowski is #7 in offense. 

NU’s goalies are #4 and #5 with Katelyn Mercer and Victoria Zannese, respectively.

(Photo Album to Come)

CLIFTON PARK, N.Y. – Junior Max Nagel was selected as the High Peaks Resort ECAC Hockey Forward of the Week, the conference announced on Monday.

Nagel exploded for a seven-point weekend with a four-point performance in Friday’s win over Princeton and two goals and an assist against No. 6 Quinnipiac.

Five goals and seven points over a two-game stretch are both career bests for the junior. His hat trick was the first for the Raiders Alex DiPaolo on Jan. 18, 2025.

By Warren Kozireski

A lot has changed for Michigan State senior defenseman and Hamburg native
Patrick Geary over his four collegiate seasons. He went from not playing for the
first month or so his freshman year to being named the 81 st captain in Spartans
hockey history and a top-pair blueliner.

He also was drafted by his hometown Buffalo Sabres in the sixth round of the 2024
NHL Draft.
“Huge honor especially (coming) from the guys,” Geary said about the captaincy.
“I’ve had great captains all throughout my three years and hopefully I can bring the
tradition along, help these guys out and bring us to a national championship.”
But as usual, do not look for Geary’s name on the score sheet most nights. He is
the quintessential defensive defenseman who posted a career-best +15 plus/minus
as a junior. And through the first five games of his final college season, he already
is second on the team with seven blocked shots through the first five games giving
him 62 over the last two-plus campaigns.
The 6’1”, 195 left shot has totaled eight goals and 31 points over his first 109
Division I games.
And this year he is playing a mentor role to three freshmen and two sophomores
some nights.
“They’ve been really good and developed each game. They’re only going to get
better; they’re high draft picks and very skilled defensemen and once they get a
couple games they’re going to start taking over games.”
The Spartans have advanced to NCAA playoffs in each of Geary’s three previous
college seasons, losing in the regional finals twice including last season.
Geary played in the Buffalo Jr. Sabres system for four seasons before joining
Waterloo in the USHL for two more
Geary got to come back “home” in October as the Spartans played in RIT’s annual
Brick City Homecoming game at Rochester’s sold-out Blue Cross Arena.

“I love coming back here to western New York; it was fun to get back here and see
my family, and it was nice for sure.”
And he is hoping at the end of this season to return “home” after signing a
professional contract with Buffalo and starting in Rochester.
“I’ve always thought of myself as a four-year guy. I never wanted to leave and
honestly, I don’t want to leave after this year. So, it’s sad that it’s coming to an end
but gonna make it the best one for sure.”

By Warren Kozireski

Greece Athena product and St. John Fisher freshman Cameron Doran had a three-point game and classmate Brett DeVincent made 16 saves to register his third win and second shutout 6-0 over Morrisville Friday night.

After Doran opened the scoring in the first period, sophomore and last season’s leading goal scorer Sam Ciappa netted his first two of the campaign for a 3-0 lead.

Doran made it 4-0 in the second before Lucca Munoz and Bredan Merriman netted third period tallies. Ciappa assisted on the fourth and fifth goals, giving him his first four-point effort as a collegian.

The Cardinals host Buffalo State Sat. afternoon.

ITHACA, N.Y. — Senior forward Jake Kraft scored his first two goals of the season, including the game-winner with 8:54 remaining, as the No. 16 Cornell men’s hockey team (2-2-0, 1-1-0 ECAC Hockey) rallied past Princeton (2-2-0, 0-2-0 ECAC Hockey) for a 3-2 victory Saturday night in front of a crowd of 3,724 at Lynah Rink.

The win, Cornell’s first in league play this season, came in a rematch of last March’s ECAC Hockey semifinal in Lake Placid, which Princeton won 3-2. The Big Red snapped a two-game losing streak against the Tigers and extended its home win streak in the series to five games. Cornell has outscored Princeton 19-7 in that stretch and has won 12 of its last 13 home games against the Tigers.

“We’re back in league play, and every night’s really physical,” Kraft said. “We knew it was going to be a close game. They play tight, we just had to find our chances, and we did.”

Neither team scored in a first period that Cornell controlled early. The Big Red attempted the game’s first 16 shots, a run that lasted more than 10 minutes before Princeton’s Drew Garzone missed wide. Princeton didn’t put a shot on goal until nearly 15 minutes in, two seconds into its second power play, when sophomore goaltender Mathis Rousseau turned aside Kai Greaves from the point. Cornell outshot the Tigers 9-3 in the period.

Princeton took the lead early in the second period when Greaves poked the puck loose at center ice along the boards to initiate a 2-on-1. Shaan Kingwell fed Jake Manfre in the slot for a wrister over Rousseau’s glove.

Cornell answered with two goals in 80 seconds. A Princeton power play ended after 12 seconds when Kingwell was called for tripping, leaving the teams at 4-on-4. With five seconds left in that stretch, junior defenseman Luke Ashton’s shot from the high slot squeaked behind Princeton goaltender Arthur Smith. Fellow junior blueliner Michael Fisher pushed it across the line for his first goal of the season. Sophomore forward Aiden Long added the secondary assist.

“It was a good shot by Ash, and then it’s just kind of a squeaker,” Fisher said. “I didn’t expect it to pop out, but it did.”

Senior captain Ryan Walsh then backhanded the puck around the boards, and a Princeton defender couldn’t handle it cleanly. Kraft stripped the puck away and roofed a backhand shot past Smith for a 2-1 lead.

Kraft doubled the lead midway through the third after his forecheck kept the puck in the offensive zone. Sophomore defenseman Xavier Veilleux moved the puck across to senior defenseman George Fegaras, and Kraft redirected Fegaras’ shot from the right point.

“I saw it go up D to D, tried to get to the net as quick as possible, and it just kind of hit my stick,” Kraft said.

This was Kraft’s third career multi-goal game. His last one came March 14 against Harvard in the second game of the ECAC Hockey quarterfinals.

“He’s a high-energy player,” said Casey Jones ’90, the Jay R. Bloom ’77 Head Coach of Cornell Men’s Ice Hockey. “He’s so effective at opening up time and space [for his linemates]. He’s hard on pucks and wins a lot of battles. The second goal was a really big goal for us.”

Princeton pulled within one with 4:22 remaining. Garzone one-timed a backhanded feed across the crease from Manfre past a sprawling Rousseau, with 20 seconds left on a power play. The goal ended Cornell’s streak of 13 straight successful penalty kills.

The Tigers outshot Cornell 12-3 in the third period and pulled Smith twice late for an extra attacker, but they managed only one shot on goal with the net empty the first time. After the second pull, Veilleux blocked a Manfre shot with 1:14 left, and Rousseau stopped Kingwell two seconds later. The Big Red didn’t allow another shot attempt the rest of the way.

Rousseau finished the night with 17 saves, 11 of them in the third period, and Smith stopped 19 shots for Princeton.

“We wanted to assert ourselves a little bit and play faster, and I thought we did that for a large part of the night,” Jones said. “It’s never easy to win games this time of the year. We’ve got to find ways to win right now while we’re getting all the pieces of the puzzle in place.”

Cornell will head on the road for its next two league games, facing Brown (0-3-0, 0-3-0 ECAC Hockey) on Friday, Nov. 13, and Yale (2-1-0, 2-1-0 ECAC Hockey) on Saturday, Nov. 14. Both games start at 7 p.m. and will stream live on ESPN+.

(Photo courtesy of Cornell)

Friday’s Games

SYRACUSE 4, LINDENWOOD 1

Box Score 

Maryland Heights, Mo. – Syracuse leading scorer Emma Gnade (Fenton, Mo.), playing just minutes north of her hometown, had two goals and an assist to lead the Orange to a 4-1 victory at Lindenwood Friday.

The Lions had the lead at the first intermission thanks to Renee Ng (Hong Kong, China), who scored her second goal of the season midway through the first. Gnade evened the score while shorthanded 3:09 into the second, the first SHG of her career.

Rylee McLeod (Grande Prairie, Alta.) and Stella Costabile (Belmar, N.J.) added even-strength goals for Syracuse before Gnade capped it with an empty-netter. Gnade, who went eight games without a goal after scoring Syracuse’s first of the season, now has three tallies in her last two games and a team-high 14 points on the year (four goals, 10 assists).

The Orange put 40-plus shots on goal for the third game in a row and got 25 saves from Ava Drabyk (Saskatoon, Sask.), who has played every game in goal for the Orange.

RIT 4, ROBERT MORRIS 1

Box Score 

Moon Township, Pa. – RIT, which entered on a six-game losing streak and had allowed a league-high 4.67 goals per game, held Robert Morris scoreless for the first 56-plus minutes of the game en route to a 4-1 road victory Friday night.

Cassie Barnes (Uxbridge, Ont.) and Addie Alvarez (Rochester, N.Y.) provided the first two goals for RIT, with Barnes striking first less than a minute into the first period. Alvarez added to the lead with her third of the year but first goal in 11 games.

Freshman Oceanne Thiffault (Montreal, Que.) kept Robert Morris at bay until Greta Brezenski (Waunakee, Wis.) broke through with just 3:12 remaining. The Colonials pressured for the tying goal but RIT answered with a pair of empty-netters.

Although the Tigers have played the fewest league games in the AHA, they have now won three of five and are fourth in the standings with nine points entering Saturday’s series finale.

Saturday’s Games

LINDENWOOD 2, SYRACUSE 1

Box Score 

Maryland Heights, Mo. – A third-period goal from Renee Ng (Hong Kong, China) – her second in as many days – lifted Lindenwood to a 2-1 win and a split in its series with Syracuse. The Lions have now won two of their last three games, both by 2-1 scores.

Each team scored power-play goals in the first period, with Stella Costabile (Belmar, N.J.) striking first for Syracuse, her second goal of the series. Silje Gundersen (Kristainsand, Norway) answered for Lindenwood in the final minute of the first.

Freshman Ebba Ridderstolpe (Botkyrka, Sweden) earned her third win of the season with 43 saves in goal.

ROBERT MORRIS 3, RIT 2

Box Score 

Moon Township, Pa. – After 48 scoreless minutes to start the game, Robert Morris emerged from a wild final 12 minutes that featured five goals – including four in a 4:02 span – with a 3-2 win and a series split against RIT.

RIT’s Oceanne Thiffault (Montreal, Que.) and RMU’s Maggie Hatch (Cleveland Heights, Ohio) dueled in goal for the first two-plus periods before the Colonials’ Lindsey Smolen (Crystal Lake, Ill.) scored her first of the year to spark the offense.

RIT’s Zoe Ziotas (Markham, Ont.) scored shorthanded and RMU’s Thalia D’Elia (West Chester, Pa.) scored on the power play during the same penalty, giving the Colonials a 2-1 lead. After Linda Rulle (Pale, Latvia) tied the score, Alaina Giampietro (Strongsville, Ohio) scored her seventh of the year – and third game-winning goal – with just 3:51 to play.

ABOUT ATLANTIC HOCKEY AMERICA

Atlantic Hockey America is in its third season in 2026-27 following the merger of the Atlantic Hockey Association and College Hockey America. The conference fields nine Division I men’s teams and seven women’s teams representing 14 institutions. For more information, visit atlantichockeyamerica.com or follow the conference on X (@Atlantic_Hockey), Instagram (@atlantichockeyamerica) and Facebook (Atlantic Hockey America). Watch Atlantic Hockey America home games on FloHockey.

Ryan Scores as Big Red Suffer Second Consecutive Home Loss

ITHACA, N.Y. — Chris Pelosi scored a hat trick as No. 6 Quinnipiac (6-2-0, 1-0-0 ECAC Hockey) earned a 4-1 win over the No. 16 Cornell men’s hockey team (1-2-0, 0-1-0 ECAC Hockey) in the league opener for both teams Friday night at Lynah Rink.

Dylan Edwards also scored for the Bobcats, and Christian Kirsch made 19 saves. Sophomore forward Caton Ryan scored for Cornell, and sophomore goaltender Mathis Rousseau stopped 23 shots.

It was Cornell’s first loss in a league opener since a 3-2 setback at Harvard on Nov. 5, 2021. It was also the Big Red’s first ECAC Hockey opener lost at home since a 3-2 defeat to Princeton on Nov. 2, 2007.

“It’s a good hockey team,” said Casey Jones ’90, the Jay R. Bloom ’77 Head Coach of Cornell Men’s Ice Hockey. “I just thought they were better than us tonight.”

“We started the game a little bit slow,” said senior forward and captain Ryan Walsh. “Got to come out better at the start.”

Quinnipiac scored twice in 74 seconds midway through the first period. Pelosi opened the scoring on a 2-on-1 after a Cornell defender lost his footing. Edwards followed by taking a stretch pass, tipped ahead by Gabriel Frasca at center ice, and backhanding a breakaway past Rousseau for the eventual game-winner.

Jones said the early deficit came from a mental mistake: Cornell let Quinnipiac exit its zone in a way the staff had flagged in its pre-scout.

The Big Red pushed back in the second period. Walsh was stopped on a short-handed breakaway, and Cornell had 11 shot attempts in the final 2 1/2 minutes of the period, including a shot by senior defenseman George Fegaras that hit the post. Only three of the attempts reached Kirsch.

“We just started finally moving pucks,” Jones said. “All of a sudden, hesitation was gone from our game.”

“Honestly, I thought that we played a pretty good overall game,” Walsh said.

“Once we started playing a heavy Cornell hockey style game, I think that we started to take over,” he said. “We need to figure out a way to play 60 minutes of that, and not 50.”

Ryan pulled Cornell within 2-1 early in the third period. Walsh poked the puck free after a Quinnipiac faceoff win and chipped it toward the corner, and Ryan got Kirsch to overcommit before roofing his second goal of the season.

“He showed some poise, which I think we lacked a little bit today,” Walsh said.

Pelosi restored the two-goal lead nearly 3 1/2 minutes later. He started the rush from below the Quinnipiac goal line and finished a cross-slot pass from Ethan Wyttenbach, last season’s Division I leader in points.

Cornell got one more chance to trim the deficit when Elliott Groenewold was assessed a five-minute major for hitting from behind, after a Cornell challenge, with under three minutes left. The Big Red pulled Rousseau for a 6-on-4 advantage, but Pelosi sealed his hat trick with a short-handed empty-net goal with 1:30 to play. It was the first hat trick by a Cornell opponent at Lynah Rink since Union’s Brandon Buhr on Feb. 8, 2025.

Cornell went 0-for-4 on the power play, while the penalty kill stayed perfect on the season by killing both Quinnipiac chances. The Big Red has killed 10 straight opposing power plays, dating to last season’s ECAC Hockey semifinal against Princeton on March 20.

“We have a penalty kill coach, Chris Brown, who’s unbelievable,” Walsh said. “For us, it’s more than just not allowing them to score. It’s building momentum.”

The game matched Division I’s top two faceoff teams, and Quinnipiac narrowly won the faceoff battle, 37-35.

Quinnipiac has won three straight games at Lynah Rink, the last two by 4-1 scores. It’s the Bobcats’ longest road winning streak against Cornell since it won five straight in Ithaca from 2013 to 2016. The Big Red has lost consecutive home games for the first time since February 2025.

Cornell faces Princeton (2-1-0, 0-1-0 ECAC Hockey) on Saturday, Nov. 7, at 7 p.m. at Lynah Rink to conclude a season-opening four-game homestand.

Princeton is coming off a 5-2 loss at Colgate on Friday night, when the Raiders scored three unanswered goals over the second and third periods. Malcolm Green and Shaan Kingwell each scored on the power play for the Tigers.

“We’ll have to move on to Princeton pretty quickly,” Jones said.

Friday

PRINCETON, N.J. – The Raiders opened their first ECAC weekend road trip on Friday against No. 5 Princeton at Hobey Baker Rink. Colgate fell to the Tigers 5-1, suffering its first ECAC loss of the season after starting conference play 2-0. Brooke Davis highlighted the night with 31 saves.

First Period

• Colgate came out of the gates quickly, firing the first two shots of the game.
• 2:18 | The Tigers struck first following an offensive zone faceoff victory to take a 1-0 lead.
• 6:58 | The Raiders would fail to convert on a power play opportunity after a tripping penalty on the Tigers.
• 10:24 | Princeton extended the lead to 2-0 off a goal by Iris Cheng.
• Davis made 19 saves in the period to keep the Raiders’ deficit at two heading into the second.

Second Period

• The Raiders applied early pressure, recording five of the first seven shots on goal in the period.
• 7:27 | Princeton capitalized on the power play after a cross checking penalty on Taylor Senecal to go up 3-0.
• The Raiders outshot the Tigers 12-7 in the period but were unable to capitalize on their scoring opportunities.

Third Period

• 3:09 | The Tigers scored on a breakaway to put Princeton up 4-0.
• 4:08 | Colgate went on the power play and fired 4 shots but could not score.
• 16:10 | Chloe Goofers put the Raiders on the board with a shot over the Princeton goaltender’s glove, assisted by Emma Pais and Sidney Ullmann.
• 18:03 | Princeton netted their fifth with an empty net goal.

Notes

• The Raiders outshot the Tigers in both the second and third periods.
• Madeline Palumbo led the Raiders with eight shots on goal.
• Ullmann recorded her first point as a Raider with an assist on the Colgate goal.
• Goofers scored her team-leading seventh goal of the season.

Saturday

PRINCETON, N.J. – The Raiders opened their first ECAC weekend road trip on Friday (November 6) against No. 5 Princeton at Hobey Baker Rink. Colgate fell to the Tigers 5-1, suffering its first ECAC loss of the season after starting conference play 2-0. Brooke Davis highlighted the night with 31 saves.

First Period

• Colgate came out of the gates quickly, firing the first two shots of the game.
• 2:18 | The Tigers struck first following an offensive zone faceoff victory to take a 1-0 lead.
• 6:58 | The Raiders would fail to convert on a power play opportunity after a tripping penalty on the Tigers.
• 10:24 | Princeton extended the lead to 2-0 off a goal by Iris Cheng.
• Davis made 19 saves in the period to keep the Raiders’ deficit at two heading into the second.

Second Period

• The Raiders applied early pressure, recording five of the first seven shots on goal in the period.
• 7:27 | Princeton capitalized on the power play after a cross checking penalty on Taylor Senecal to go up 3-0.
• The Raiders outshot the Tigers 12-7 in the period but were unable to capitalize on their scoring opportunities.

Third Period

• 3:09 | The Tigers scored on a breakaway to put Princeton up 4-0.
• 4:08 | Colgate went on the power play and fired 4 shots but could not score.
• 16:10 | Chloe Goofers put the Raiders on the board with a shot over the Princeton goaltender’s glove, assisted by Emma Pais and Sidney Ullmann.
• 18:03 | Princeton netted their fifth with an empty net goal.

Notes

• The Raiders outshot the Tigers in both the second and third periods.
• Madeline Palumbo led the Raiders with eight shots on goal.
• Ullmann recorded her first point as a Raider with an assist on the Colgate goal.
• Goofers scored her team-leading seventh goal of the season.

HAMDEN, Conn. – The Raiders ended their first ECAC road trip of the year by taking on No. 6 Quinnipiac on Saturday (November 7) at M&T Bank Arena. Quinnipiac jumped ahead early, scoring within the first minute of the game and did not look back. Colgate scored first in both the second and third periods, but the Bobcats countered in each and won 5-2. Palumbo led the Raiders with two points on the day.

First Period

• 0:29 | The Bobcats got off to a quick start under a minute in, sending the puck past Farah Walker with their first shot on goal.
• 1:29 | Emma Pais and Madeline Palumbo created a 2-1 opportunity, but Palumbo was denied by the Quinnipiac netminder.
• 12:37 | The Bobcats extended their lead to two with a goal shortly after an offensive zone faceoff victory.
• 16:02 | Addison Tremel committed a holding penalty, but the Raiders were able to kill off the two minute Quinnipiac power play.
• 18:53 | Quinnipiac would score once again, taking a 3-0 lead into the second period.
• The Bobcats outshot Colgate narrowly, with 15 shots on goal to the Raiders’ 13.

Second Period

• 9:15 | First year Addison Tremel cut the lead to 3-1 for the Bobcats with a goal and assists from Chloe Goofers and Palumbo.
• 11:04 | The Bobcats would go on the power play after a cross-checking call on Colgate, but the Raiders would kill it off.
• 14:09 | Goofers committed a hooking penalty, but the Raiders would deny Quinnipiac on the power play for the second time in the period.
• 17:54 | Quinnipiac extended their lead back to three with Aynsley D’Ottavio’s second goal of the day.

Third Period

• 2:04 | Colgate scored the first goal of the period once again off a shot by Palumbo.
• 8:51 | Quinnipiac sent one past Walker to make the score 5-2.
• Walker stopped three consecutive shots by Quinnipiac to keep the Raiders in the game in the middle of the third period.

Notes

• Tremel recorded her second career goal and third career point with Colgate’s second period goal.
• Walker made 30 saves on the day.
• Tremel and Palumbo both fired 5 shots on goal, leading the Raiders in the category.
• Taylor Senecal blocked 4 shots from the Bobcats.

Next
Colgate (8-4, 2-2 ECAC) returns home on Friday, November 13 for Alumnae Weekend for a pair of ECAC matchups at the Class of 1965 Arena. The Raiders will face Dartmouth on Friday at 6 p.m. before taking on Harvard on Saturday at 3 p.m.

Cornell men’s hockey captain and senior forward Ryan Walsh has been named to the U.S. Collegiate Selects roster for the 2026 Spengler Cup, it was announced Thursday afternoon (Nov. 5).

Walsh, who played for the Selects in their Spengler Cup debut last December, and Wisconsin junior defenseman Logan Hensler were the two players added Thursday, bringing the roster to 16. Walsh and Minnesota Duluth forward Zam Plante are the only two players from last year’s team named to the roster so far.

Walsh joins sophomore defenseman Xavier Veilleux, who was named to the roster Oct. 22, and Casey Jones ’90, the Jay R. Bloom ’77 Head Coach of Cornell Men’s Ice Hockey, who will serve as an assistant coach alongside Minnesota Duluth’s Scott Sandelin under New Hampshire head coach Mike Souza.

“It was an easy answer for me,” Walsh said of the invitation to return. “I talked with my family, but I knew in my heart that I would love to go back. I’m really fortunate and honored to have the opportunity to go back again.”

“I’m really excited for Ryan. He represented Cornell Hockey the right way in Davos last year, so it doesn’t surprise me at all that they wanted him back,” Jones said. “The Spengler Cup is a big stage against professional teams, and having three of us there representing Cornell is great for our program and for our league. Ryan knows what that experience is about, and he’ll help Xavier and the newcomers get comfortable quickly.”

Walsh is the fifth ECAC Hockey student-athlete on this year’s team, joining Veilleux, Union defenseman Tyler Dunbar, Quinnipiac defenseman Elliott Groenewold and Dartmouth forward Hayden Stavroff. Last year’s team had two players from the conference: Walsh and Quinnipiac forward Chris Pelosi. The rest of the 25-man roster, which will include student-athletes from all six NCAA Division I conferences, will be announced in the coming weeks.

“I think this is amazing for Cornell especially, but also the ECAC,” Walsh said. “It shows that we can compete at any level and that we’re just as good as any other team. The more the Spengler Cup and the U.S. Collegiate Selects become a yearly thing, I think we’re going to have a lot of guys from Cornell, the Ivy League and the ECAC going.”

Walsh made last year’s trip without knowing anyone on the roster. This time, he’ll have familiar faces in Jones and Veilleux, and he said that “is going to be a lot of fun.”

“At the end of the day, it’s hockey in a different place with a bunch of guys you’ve never really met, but their staff does an amazing job getting guys to know each other,” Walsh said. “By the time we play our first game, we feel pretty much like a normal team. I’m really excited to share those experiences with them.”

A native of Rochester, N.Y., Walsh is in his second season as Cornell’s captain. He has 2-1—3 in two games this season, with both goals and an assist coming in the Big Red’s 5-2 win over Sacred Heart on Oct. 30. He leads all Division I skaters with 23.0 faceoff wins per game and ranks second nationally with a .711 faceoff percentage (minimum 30 faceoffs taken). As a junior, he posted 10-23—33 in 33 games after leading the Big Red with 17 goals as a sophomore (17-14—31 in 36 games). While donning a Big Red sweater, Walsh has 41-48—89 in 106 games.

In their debut, the Selects won Group Cattini, which earned them a bye into the semifinals. They then reached the championship game, where they fell to host HC Davos, 6-3. Walsh scored a game-tying goal and added an assist in the title game, his only two points of the tournament.

This year’s field puts the SCL Tigers, Adler Mannheim and Ilves Tampere in Group Torriani. HC Davos, Frölunda HC and the U.S. Collegiate Selects make up Group Cattini.

Group play runs daily from Dec. 26 to Dec. 28. The two group winners advance directly to the semifinals. The other four teams meet in the pre-semifinals on Dec. 29, and the two winners claim the last two semifinal spots. The championship game is Thursday, Dec. 31, at 12:10 p.m. local time (6:10 a.m. ET).

The Selects open against Frölunda HC on Saturday, Dec. 26, at 8:15 p.m. local time (2:15 p.m. ET). They then face HC Davos at 8:15 p.m. (2:15 p.m. ET), on Sunday, Dec. 27, if they lose to Frölunda, or on Monday, Dec. 28, if they win.

Last year, U.S. viewers could watch the games on the Spengler Cup’s YouTube channel, and TSN carried them in Canada. Viewing details for this year’s tournament will be announced at a later date.