The 2024–25 Cornell Big Red Men's ice hockey season was the 108th season of play for the program and 63rd in ECAC Hockey. The Big Red represented Cornell University in the 2024–25 NCAA Division I men's ice hockey season, played their home games at Lynah Rink and were coached by Mike Schafer in his 29th season.

Season During the offseason, head coach Mike Schafer announced that this would be his final season behind the bench. At the same time, Casey Jones (Cornell '90) was announced as Schafer's successor and he joined the staff as the associate head coach. Partly due to it being Schafer's final season, virtually the entire team returned from the previous year, providing Cornell with a wealth of chemistry and experience. The only losses the team suffered were the graduation of Gabriel Seger and the club's third-string goaltender. The entire defensive corps that had produced the nation's lowest goals against in 2024 and had the team within 1 goal of upsetting the eventual national champions was back and in a prime position to deliver once more. Replacing Seger, who was also the team's top scorer by quite a margin, would not be easy, however, the team hoped that the continued development of the remaining forwards, as well as the addition of two new faces, would make up for the difference.

Injuries Cornell's season started with a bang as the Big Red swept #6 North Dakota and looked well matched against the Hawks despite their opponents having begun their season a month earlier. Cornell was able to accomplish this feat despite already being beset by injuries. George Fegaras was out and would miss the first three weeks of the campaign while Luke Devlin and Winter Wallace both had suffered season-ending injuries before even playing a game. Already missing three depth players, the injury bug took another bite out of the team when Ondřej Pšenička was felled in the second match against UND and would miss the next two weeks. After getting a decent result in the second weekend of the year, Cornell lost another two players when Sullivan Mack remained behind for their trip east, then lost Nick Wolfenberg during their game against Harvard. Even when the team managed to get players back into the lineup, the injuries kept coming and Kyle Penney was lost for nearly two months during their match with Princeton on November 23.

The constant reshuffling of the lineup led to several subpar performances by the Big Red. What was supposed to be a picturesque ride into the sunset for Schafer was quickly turning into a sloppy disaster. While the team was unable to find inconsistency simply because it couldn't ice the same group of players on consecutive nights, Ian Shane, the team's All-American goaltender, was batting through the worst stretch of his collegiate career. The senior, who had posted superb numbers in his first three years, was suddenly allowing soft goals at the worst moments. The Big Red struggled to cope with their injuries and limped into the winter break with a modest record.

Suspensions With four weeks to recuperate, the team was hoping to field a relatively healthy squad in early January. They were able to get most of their players back the inconsistency remained. After a good result over Massachusetts, the offense sputtered against Arizona State and that trend continued for the rest of the regular season. It did not help that more players kept getting injured with Charlie Major, Sean Donaldson and Jonathan Castagna all missing chunks of time in the second half of the year. The increased playing time put a strain on the players who were not injured and both they and the team suffered as a result. During a particularly poor performance against Dartmouth, frustrations boiled over and several players got into a fight at the end of the game. Several people, including coach Schafer, were suspended and that led directly to a defeat at the hands of bottom-feeding St. Lawrence, perhaps Cornell's lowest point of the season.

The year went so poorly for Cornell that not only did they finish in the middle of the conference standings, far below where the preseason poll had them, but the team was completely out of the running for an at-large bid. The team was ranked 23rd in the PairWise rankings and, though that wasn't too far away from the bubble, the team had no path to reach the tournament without capturing the conference championship.

Conference tournament Cornell began its postseason run in the First Round for the first time in a decade. For their final home game of the year, the Big Red took on Yale with a mostly in-tact lineup. With most of the players back up to game shape, the team looked far superior to their opponents and earned passage to the quarterfinal round. This was their second consecutive win and, unfortunately to that point, Cornell had only previously twice won consecutive game all season. With recent history going against them, the Big Red met their geographic rival Colgate and were finally able to string together a series of good games. Not only was the offense able to put up a decent number of goals but whatever problems that Shane had been facing appeared to be over. The netminder allowed just 1 goal in the two games and the team advanced to the semifinals in Lake Placid.

As the lowest-remaining seed, Cornell was set against regular season champion Quinnipiac. Castagna opened the scoring just before the end of the first period but Cornell was unable to build on that lead. Instead, the team proceeded to take four penalties in the second period and allow the Bobcats to even the count. Quinnipiac then took a lead with just over 5 minutes remaining in the third and put the team at DEFCON 1. With their season hanging in the balance, Cornell tried desperately to tie the game but, instead, Castagna got a bit over-exuberant and ended up taking the fifth minor of the match with just 1:50 left on the clock. On the ensuing faceoff, Cornell was able to gain control of the puck and somehow managed to get a 2-on-1 break. Mack was able to move the puck around the Bobcat defender and find Kyler Kovich in front of the net for a tap-in goal to tie the game. The stunned Bobcats were unable to convert on the power play and the game headed into overtime. In the later staged of the first overtime, Cornell was handed a golden opportunity when a Bobcat was sent to the box for slashing. About a minute into their advantage, a Dalton Bancroft pass found Tim Rego in the high slot and he one-timed the puck into the goal to continue the Big Red's season.

In the championship game, Cornell faced off against another team fighting to extend their year in Clarkson. The Big Red jumped on the Knights early, scoring two goals in the just over 7 minutes. The 2-goal edge allowed Cornell to bring its best weapon to bear, the defense. For the remainder of the match, Cornell held Clarkson at bay and kept the Golden Knights from getting too many chances on goal. Shane did allow one tally during the second period but that was the only blemish on the night. Ryan Walsh capped off the night with an empty-net goal and Cornell earned its way back to the NCAA tournament.

NCAA tournament While Cornell's automatic bid gave the team entry into the national tournament, their ranking placed them second from the bottom. Cornell was forced to start their title chase against one of the championship favorites, Michigan State. Early on, the Big Red looked like they were completely outmatched as the Spartans outshot them 30–9 through the first two period. However, Cornell's experience helped to prevent the team from panicking and the Big Red were able to answer every goal that MSU scored. Michigan State's fast-paced attack appeared to lose steam in the third period and Cornell began to sure to the fore. With the Big Red applying pressure, Michigan State took its first penalty of the game with just 99 seconds left in regulation. With a very patient process, Cornell was able to move the puck around the outside and force MSU to open up their defense. After a few passes through the four-man box, they were able to get the Spartan goaltender out of position and Sullivan Mack rifled the puck into the goal. The score gave Cornell its first lead of the match with just 10 seconds to play. Michigan State was unable to mount a comeback attempt in the remaining time and the Big Red advanced to the Regional Finals after their upset victory.

The second round saw the team take on one of its oldest rivals in Boston University. Rather than sit back as they had in the Michigan State game, Cornell came out flying and weren't content to wait for their opportunities. Walsh opened the scoring with his team-leading 17th of the season but the Terriers swiftly evened the count. Both goaltenders were kept busy as the two teams nearly matched one another shot for shot throughout the entire game. Despite the high volume of chances, the score remained unchanged until the third when BU took the lead. Shane was forced to stand tall in goal and prevent the Terriers from increasing their lead while the Cornell offense tried to find the tying goal. With less than 6 minutes to play, Mack and Rego were able to force the puck through the BU defense until they found Jack O'Leary. The forward skated into the high slot and fired a hard shot back against the grain that rang off the pipe and into the cage. With the score tied, the two sides didn't relent with each probing for the winning goal. Cornell had its chances both at the end of the third and in overtime to end the game but they could not find the winning tally. Instead, the team's season was ended when a seeing-eye shot from the point found its way through a veritable forest of legs and ended the game.

While there was disappointment and a little anger at how the season ended, Cornell was able to overcome a slew of injures and give Mike Schafer a proper send-off, battling to the very end of his 30th season behind the bench.

Departures Ryan McInchak Goaltender Graduation (retired) Gabriel Seger Forward Graduation (signed with Grand Rapids Griffins)

Recruiting Justin Katz Goaltender 19 Mount Royal, QC Charlie Major Forward 20 Skaneateles, NY Parker Murray Forward 21 Manhattan Beach, CA Nicholas Wolfenberg Defenseman 20 Calgary, AB

Roster As of August 2, 2024.

Standings

Schedule and results

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!colspan=12 style=";" | Regular Season

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NCAA tournament

Regional semifinal

Game summary

Regional final