USA Hockey does the double in Milan
History in Italy for USA Hockey.
For the first time ever, both the men’s and women’s teams won gold at the same Winter Olympics. It was only fitting that both triumphs came against their big rivals north of the border, and both contests played out quite similarly.
The women’s final was up first on Thursday. It was a real win-win situation for Cornell hockey fans. A victory for Team Canada meant that Brianne Jenner ‘15 and Kristin O’Neill ‘20 would come away with gold medals, while a win for Team USA would see Rory Guilday ‘25 come away with the prized possession.
One of the aforementioned Big Red alums opened the scoring as O’Neill gave Canada the lead just 54 seconds into the second period. It wasn’t surprising to see her light the lamp, but it was a shock to see the United States concede. It was only the second time the American’s goal was breached during the Olympics, with the only other instance occurring in their opening 5-1 win over Czechia. Guilday played on the blue line, helping the Americans post such stellar defensive performances.
With time winding down, it seemed like the U.S.’s dominant Olympic run would come to a disappointing end. But up stepped the usual suspect Hilary Knight to equalize with 2:04 to go, re-taking the mantle as the all-time leading scorer in Olympic history.
They carried that momentum into overtime where Megan Keller netted the best goal of the tournament by far, pulling off a brilliant deke on her defender and slotting it away to seal a thrilling late comeback and deliver the U.S. its third gold medal and Guilday her first career medal.
Then on Sunday morning, it was over to the men’s team to try and take care of business. A similarly sensational goal by Matt Boldy broke the deadlock early on for the U.S. with their first shot, flicking the puck between two defensemen and racing back onto it to score.
After the Canadians wasted 1:33 of a two-man advantage in the first period, they found the equalizer late in the second period through Cale Makar. The U.S. would have a golden power play opportunity of their own in the third period for four minutes, but they too couldn’t make the most of it, and overtime would come into play once again. That’s when Jack Hughes emerged as Captain America as his golden goal 1:41 into the three-on-three extra period secured the men’s first Olympic title since 1980. Speaking of that fateful Olympics in Lake Placid, this year’s triumph happened on the 46th anniversary of the “Miracle on Ice.” How fitting.
The biggest difference between 2026 and 1980 was that NHL players were allowed to compete for the first time since 2014. After watching such a tense, thrilling and high-quality tournament, the league should consider making that change a permanent one.
A mixed bag for Cornell men’s hockey
After an underwhelming weekend in the Capital Region with a 1-1 tie against RPI and a 4-1 loss to Union, Cornell men’s hockey head coach Casey Jones wanted to see a big response heading into another road trip at #5 Quinnipiac and Princeton. The Big Red delivered in one of those two games, but boy was it some response against the Bobcats.
In what can only be described as their best performance of the season, Cornell dismantled Quinnipiac 6-1, avenging their 4-1 defeat back in January at Lynah Rink. Aiden Long continued his phenomenal freshman season with a four-point outing, while Jonathan Castagna got back to form, also tallying four points after being held pointless the last three games. Making their stunning performance even more impressive? That was the first home loss for the Bobcats this season.
After such a dominating outing, the Big Red couldn’t translate that momentum to New Jersey, as they fell to Princeton 4-2. Cornell did get off to a solid start up 2-1, but the Tigers hit back with three unanswered goals. It was Cornell’s first defeat to the Tigers since 2022, and it’s only fitting that a former Cornell coach put an end to that winless run for Princeton. Of course, I’m referring to Tigers head coach Ben Syer, who was the Big Red’s assistant coach from 2011 to 2024.
Two more games remain in the regular season, and luckily for the Lynah faithful they’ll be back home for both: Friday vs. St. Lawrence and Saturday vs. Clarkson. The Big Red will either finish in second or third place in the ECAC, currently two points behind Dartmouth for the two-spot.
Union Springs basketball quadruples at IACs
It’s not terribly uncommon to see both boys and girls basketball teams from the same school win IAC championships in the same year. In fact, it’s happened twice already this decade (Newfield in 2020 and Moravia in 2024). But it’s almost unheard of to have both junior varsity teams also win IAC titles, as well. That was the case for Union Springs this past week.
First up on Wednesday, the girls JV team defeated Spencer-Van Etten 42-23 on the road, while the boys JV team ventured to Newfield and came away with a similarly dominant victory, prevailing 71-47.
Then it was over to the varsity teams on Friday at Tompkins Cortland Community College for the IAC Small School championships, and both teams had to take down Candor in order to clinch the league title.
The girls game got things going, and the Wolves took care of business with a 69-47 victory. It was a wire-to-wire win that secured their first IAC since 2023, which you might recall was a very special season where they steamrolled their way to their first-ever Section IV title and made it all the way to the state semifinals. The ‘Big Three’ of Kailey Kalet, Danielle Waldron and Payton Gilbert three years ago seems to have been replicated this year with Kailey’s younger sister Maddy also as the point guard and the two bigs in Jennie Daum and Allie Parker. Kalet and Daum each scored 24 points to lead the Wolves to victory.
The boys game was the most highly-anticipated of all of this year’s IAC championships. Not only were they both state-ranked, their regular season meeting back in December went to triple overtime, where the Coyotes won it 96-91. But it was a surprisingly one-sided start as Union Springs jumped out to a 24-9 first quarter lead as led by as many as 19 points in the second quarter. But Candor started to hit their shots, slowly but surely got back in it and only trailed by two points in the fourth quarter. But the Wolves staved off the Coyotes thanks to some clutch buckets from Andrew Case and Cooper DeChick, helping Union Springs win it 71-60 for their first IAC title since 2008. DeChick finished with a game-high 27 points, including 22 in the second half.
It was also a special night for Union Springs’ Rocco Testa. The senior surpassed 1,000 career points, becoming the seventh local player to reach that milestone this season.
Other things that caught my eye
- We’re only a few weeks into the college men’s lacrosse regular season, but one thing’s for certain: the Ivy League will be one heck of a dogfight. Cornell will obviously be one of the favorites, and they got out to a 2-0 start following a 13-9 win over #17 Denver on Saturday in which they scored six unanswered goals in the fourth quarter. But the other results over the weekend produced plenty of shockers. Harvard toppled top-ranked Syracuse 13-12. Ivy League favorites Princeton also pulled off a stunner, beating #2 Maryland 13-12. And Yale also secured a ranked opponent victory, defeating #15 Boston University 16-11. Once conference play rolls around next month, Ancient 8 lacrosse is sure to be box office viewing.
- While Union Springs basketball did the double in the IAC Small School championships, the night prior at TC3 featured two different winners for the Large School finals. Watkins Glen girls basketball eased past Lansing 54-25 to secure back-to-back titles. The Lake Hawks’ dominant defense held the Bobcats to their lowest tally of the year. On the offensive end, Olivia King led Watkins Glen with a 16-point, 16-rebound double-double. The boys game featured Trumansburg and Elmira-Notre Dame. The Blue Raiders lost to the Crusaders twice during the regular season, but the third time was indeed the charm as they came out on top 59-45 for their first IAC title since 2003. Arlo Peake paced the Blue Raiders with 22 points, 20 of which came in the second half.
- The postseason rolled on for winter college sports over the weekend with multiple conference championships in the pool. Both Ithaca College swimming and diving teams were crowned Liberty League champions. The women captured their ninth straight conference crown, while the men made history with their first-ever Liberty League title. Meanwhile, SUNY Cortland took part in the SUNYAC Swimming and Diving Championships. The women successfully defended their title, while the men finished runner-up.
