The 1969–70 Cornell Big Red men's ice hockey team represented Cornell University in college ice hockey. In its 7th year under head coach Ned Harkness the team compiled a 29–0–0 record and reached the NCAA tournament for the fourth consecutive year. The Big Red defeated Clarkson 6–4 in the championship game at the Jack Shea Arena in Lake Placid, New York, to become the first and only (as of 2024) undefeated and untied national champion in college men's ice hockey history.
Season
Early season After losing the last players from their first championship team, including the best player in program history, Ken Dryden, Cornell was expected to still field a strong team but perhaps not be as good as last year's NCAA runner-up team. After only appearing in spot duty the year before, junior Brian Cropper got his opportunity to start in goal for the Big Red and was eased into the role with Cornell's dominating performance in their opener over . Senior captain Dick Bertrand led the way with a hat-trick while the team scored 4 power play goals in the 8–2 rout. A few days later Cornell welcomed to the Lynah Rink and while the Big Red were the better team the two fought through a sloppy and contentious affair. The home team built a 3–0 lead in the first but just before the period ended the Gryphons got their first marker and went into the locker room with some confidence. The teams then played the next 34 minutes without a goal scored but when John Hughes notched Cornell's fourth goal with just over 6 minutes to play the game was effectively over.
A few days later Cornell opened its ECAC Hockey schedule against Rensselaer, the only eastern team that had beaten the Big Red during the last season. The upper classmen got a measure of revenge with an 8–2 drubbing of the Engineers in the penalty-filled game. Rensselaer managed their two goals on the power play to Cornell's 3, but it was at even strength where Cornell showed its strength. Cropper was particularly good in net while Dan Lodboa and Kevin Pettit each scored twice.
Cornell hit the road for the first time in their next game against Brown, who gave the Big Red their first big test of the season. Cornell scored the first two goals of the contest before the Bears came roaring back to take a 4–3 lead in the third period. During the game both Steve Giuliani and Ron Simpson were injured, leaving Cornell down two defensemen and giving Brown its chance to pounce on the remaining tired blueline. Despite the hard checking in the game Brown was only penalized once but it came when the team was up in the third and on the ensuing power play Brian McCutcheon was able to tie the game. The match went into overtime, but not before Cropper was required to stop an excellent scoring chance with just 6 seconds remaining in regulation. The overtime session lasted only 34 seconds and was ended by Lodboa after intercepting a pass and firing a slap shot past Brown netminder Don McGinnis. After the game Giuliani was diagnosed with a sprained back and was expected to be out for several weeks while Simpson had to have a knee operation to repair torn ligaments missed a significant portion of the season.
The team's next game was in Boston in front of a half-capacity crowd against Boston University. Still reeling from losing two defenders, Cornell was uncharacteristically sluggish in the opening frame and allowed BU to gain a 1–0 advantage after 20 minutes. The score could have been much worse were it not for Brian Cropper stopping three Terrier breakaways in the period. Giuliani fought through the pain of his bad back but remained a weak spot on Cornell's defense throughout the game. In the second period Cornell began showing their true colors and rallied with back-to-back unassisted goals to take their first lead. BU tied the game shortly thereafter but just past the half-way point of the second Cornell regained their lead with a Bob Aitchison tally followed by a second goal from the junior to give the Big Red a 2-goal advantage. The third period saw a withering attack from the Terries and they were able to get their third of the night past Cropper in the eighth minute but after cutting the lead to 1 BU couldn't get the equalizer. After taking bad penalty near the end of the frame Cornell's power play came through and the team regained the 2-goal edge that remained for the rest of the match.
Cornell returned home to face Yale that weekend. The relatively weak Bulldog team was unable to muster much of a challenge to the Big Red and the home team skated to an 8–1 victory. Four days later the Big Red were in Canton to take on for the final game before the holiday tournaments. The Larries were barely able to conjure a threat to Cornell, getting only 14 shots on net in the Cropper's first shutout win of the season. Lodboa continued his torrid pace with two more goals and the team went into the break with a 7–0 record.
Holiday season In the rematch with RPI Cornell wasn't about to let the Engineers off the mat. Cornell scored twice before the three minute mark and added another two before the first period was over. In the third the team notch three more power play goals and added two more tallied in the third to earn their largest win of the season to that point. Cropper earned his second consecutive shutout while Hughes and McCutcheon each scored twice in the contest. The following night Cornell's shutout streak ended at 14:31 of the first period but the Big Red remained dominant in their 7–2 victory with Bertrand's hat-trick leading Cornell to its fifth consecutive ECAC winter tournament championship.
After the first of the year the team played their second holiday tournament, this time headlining the Syracuse Invitational. Cornell opened against BU and this time the Big Red defense was much more stingy, keeping the Terriers off of the score sheet until the later half of the third period. Boston University provided an equally challenging effort but Cornell was able to score once in each of the first two periods and then responded to BU's power play goal with two markers in less than two minutes to win the game 4–1. In the championship match against Colgate the Big Red weren't as overpowering as they typically were but two power play goals in 10 seconds during the middle frame allowed Cornell to hold onto its lead despite a relatively poor performance from Brian Cropper. The superlative effort from Lodboa in both tournaments earned him both MVPs, the only defenseman to capture two such in-season awards.
Close calls and blowouts The first-place Big Red picked up their defensive effort after the tournament by limiting Harvard to a single goal on 26 shots in their next game. After their 12th win of the season, Cornell took two weeks off before their next game and the offense was predictably rusty. The Big Red opened their road game against with a short handed goal but the Varsity blues tied the game before the period was out. Neither team was able to score in the second, despite a 19-shot barrage by Cornell, but Dick Bertrand was finally able to find the back of the net 75 seconds into the third. Cropper kept the door closed the rest of the way and the Big Red were able to escape with a win in their worst offensive effort of the season.
Four days later Cornell was back in Ithaca and their offense returned in force against Princeton. Lodboa got his 4th 2-goal game of the season, giving him 12 on the year to lead the team (tied with Brian McCutcheon) while the defense as a whole only allowed 12 shots from the Tigers. One found its way past Cropper but by then the Big Red had already built a 4-goal lead. Princeton netminder Tilghman did a fantastic job stopping 53 of 60 shots, including 26 saves in the second period alone. three days later the team was in New Haven for its second game against Yale and while the score wasn't as heavily tilted in Cornell's favor the outcome was the same. Hughes contributed on each of the team's four goals, recording his first hat-trick of the season and taking back the team lead in goals (14). Despite their unblemished record there was still a sense from other programs that Cornell could be beaten and those teams would have their chance to prove just that in the final stretch of the season.
First up after the six-week intercession was over was Colgate and the game turned into a special teams battle with 6 of seven goals scored on the power play, but it was Cornell's man-advantage that ruled the day. A few days later the squad played host to Brown and handily dispatched the Bears 5–1. Steve Giuliani scored his first goal of the season to cap off the match, earning a bit of revenge against the team that injured him earlier in the year. Dan Lodboa's 14th goal tied him with Hughes and McCutcheon for the team lead.
A week later 2nd-place Boston College arrived in Ithaca and with five Big Red players suffering from the flu (including Cropper and Hughes) it appeared that Cornell may have been ripe for the taking. When BC scored less than a minute into the game many in the record home crowd were stunned but the Big Red responded to tie the game soon thereafter. The Eagles took their second lead of the game in the eighth minute of the second period and this time held the lead for three and a half minutes before the boys from Ithaca knotted the score again. The two teams combined for three goals in less than two minutes at the end of the second with Cornell coming out ahead to take a 4–3 lead into the third. From there on Cropper kept the visitors scoreless while Pettit finished off his hat-trick to lead Cornell to a close 5–3 win.
For their next game Cornell got a bit of a reprieve, playing the bottom-feeding Penn Quakers, and posted a new season-high in goals. The Big Red weren't too sharp in the game but the disparity in talent was on display through the game with 10 different Big Red players scoring goals en route to an 11–1 win. The game was in hand to such a degree that backup netminder Bob Rule was put in net for the final 10:10 of the third period and didn't have to make a save. Craig Brush, Doug Stewart and Ron Simpson all scored their first goals of the season.
League championships The demolition of Penn apparently gave the big Red a false sense of security because in their next game at Dartmouth the Big Green were the only ones to score in the first. When Cornell did finally tie the game Dartmouth responded with their second just 50 seconds later. The Big Green held the lead well into the third and, just when it was looking like Cornell's win streak would end at 19, senior Garth Ryan tied the game with under 10 minutes to play. The Cornell assault continued and yielded a third goal just under three minutes later from Pettit. Cropper held the fort and allowed the Big Red to escape back to New York with a 3–2 win.