This year's ECAC Hockey schedule wastes no time getting down to business, as a rematch of last year's championship final between Cornell and Yale highlights the first weekend of league play. Friday's nationally televised game at Ingalls Rink gives the Big Red a chance to avenge both a regular season-ending loss to the Bulldogs at the same venue, and then a postseason-ending loss to Yale in Atlantic City, N.J. Cornell will then slide east for a Saturday contest against Brown, a team that swept the Big Red in the season series last year.

GAME #2: Cornell at #9 Yale
DATE: Friday, Nov. 4, 2011
TIME: 7:30 p.m.
SITE: New Haven, Conn. — Ingalls Rink
2011 RECORDS: Cornell 0-1, Yale 1-0-1
SERIES RECORD: Cornell leads, 77-56-5
LAST MEETING: Yale won, 6-0, on March 19 in the ECAC Hockey Championship final at Atlantic City, N.J.
TV: CBS College Sports
RADIO: WHCU 870 AM (Jason Weinstein)
LIVE STATS: TBD
 
GAME #3: Cornell at Brown
DATE: Saturday, Nov. 5, 2011
TIME: 7 p.m.
SITE: Providence, R.I. — Meehan Auditorium
2011 RECORDS: Cornell 0-1, Brown 1-1
SERIES RECORD: Cornell leads, 68-41-5
LAST MEETING: Brown won in overtime, 3-2, on Feb. 25 in Providence, R.I.
RADIO: WHCU 870 AM (Jason Weinstein)
LIVE STATS: TBD

Cornell game notes (PDF)
Yale game notes (PDF)

This year's ECAC Hockey schedule wastes no time getting down to business, as a rematch of last year's championship final between Cornell and Yale highlights the first weekend of league play. Friday's nationally televised game at Ingalls Rink gives the Big Red a chance to avenge both a regular season-ending loss to the Bulldogs at the same venue, and then a postseason-ending loss to Yale in Atlantic City, N.J. Cornell will then slide east for a Saturday contest against Brown, a team that swept the Big Red in the season series last year.

ABOUT THE BIG RED
Cornell enters the league slate with a streak of three consecutive appearances in the ECAC Hockey championship game. The Big Red finished last season with a 16-15-3 mark after experiencing some growing pains in the early going. Only seven of the squad's 21 games after New Year's Day resulted in losses. Forward Greg Miller was the leading scorer as a sophomore, highlighting a deep pool of talented returning players. Six of the seven defensemen on the roster at the end of the 2010-11 campaign also return, including senior captain Keir Ross and a pair of minute-eating juniors in Braden Birch and alternate captain Nick D'Agostino. Ithaca native Andy Iles, who was named to the ECAC Hockey All-Rookie Team, will have the opportunity to grab the starting job in goal after his platoon mate graduated and signed on with a professional team during the offseason. Cornell was the penultimate Div. I team to start its season (Harvard is the last), having dropped a 5-4 decision to Mercyhurst on Saturday, Oct. 29.

ABOUT YALE
The Bulldogs started off the season with a 2-2 tie with Princeton and 2-1 victory over host Dartmouth in Ivy League Shootout games last weekend that don't count in the ECAC Hockey standings. Those results bumped Yale up two spots to ninth in the latest USCHO.com poll, including a single first-place vote. The Bulldogs won their second league title in the last three years in 2011, advancing to the NCAA tournament for the third consecutive season. While Yale graduated a host of key contributors like forwards Broc Little, Chris Cahill and Denny Kearney, defenseman Jimmy Martin and starting goalie Ryan Rondeau, two All-ECAC Hockey first-team picks return in forwards Andrew Miller and Brian O'Neill. Yale was selected by both the coaches and the media as favorites in the ECAC Hockey preseason polls.

THE SERIES WITH YALE
The Big Red holds a 77-56-5 advantage in the all-time series, but the Bulldogs have won eight in a row stemming back to the 2007-08 season. The latest meeting was Yale's 6-0 victory last year's ECAC Hockey Championship final, which was preceded by a 4-1 win over Cornell in the teams' regular-season finale on Feb. 26 and a 4-2 victory on Nov. 19, 2010 at Lynah Rink. The last time the Big Red beat the Bulldogs was Nov. 9, 2007. The series between the teams dates back to the 1902-03 campaign.

ABOUT BROWN
After an improbably long run into the playoffs in 2010-11, the Bears started off last season with an impressive first half that included a win at Lynah Rink, a pair of ties against Hockey East perennial powers New Hampshire and Boston University, then stunning victories over BU and Yale (when the previously 15-1 Bulldogs were ranked No. 1). But Brown petered out about the win against Yale, going 4-9-1 down the stretch — including a pair of shutout losses to Quinnipiac in a first-round playoff series. Senior captain Jack Maclellan was selected to the league's preseason first team. Defenseman Dennis Robertson was an All-Rookie Team selection after leading the Bears' blueliners in scoring, then was selected by the Toronto Maple Leafs in June's NHL Entry Draft. Senior Michael Clemente returns in goal after starting the majority of Brown's games in each of the last three seasons. Brown graduate Brendan Whittet returns for his third season behind the bench.

THE SERIES WITH BROWN
The Big Red holds a commanding lead in the all-time series, 68-41-5, but the Bears walked away with a pair of 3-2 victories last season. Cornell had won the teams' previous seven meetings before that. The Big Red swept three games from Brown the season before, including a 3-0 victory in the ECAC Hockey semifinals.

RYAN OFF AND RUNNING
Freshman defenseman Joakim Ryan got his season off to a flying start with two goals and an assist in the opening 5-4 loss to Mercyhurst. For his efforts, Ryan was awarded as the ECAC Hockey Rookie of the Week. It was actually the second straight year that a freshman potted two goals in his debut for the Big Red — Dustin Mowrey did it on Oct. 29, 2010 against New Hampshire. But it was the first time a Big Red freshman has scored three points in the opener since Byron Bitz also had two goals and an assist against Western Michigan on Oct. 31, 2003.

NEW SUPPORT STAFF
Mike Schafer returns for his 17th season as the Cornell head coach, but he has two new assistants this year — three, if you include volunteer assistant coach Kris Mayotte. While the new assistant coaches will be new faces in their position behind the bench, their faces will still be familiar. Ben Syer joins the Big Red after eight seasons as an assistant coach for ECAC Hockey opponent Quinnipiac, and Topher Scott returns to East Hill just 3½ years since he last competed for the Big Red as a senior co-captain who eclipsed 100 career points.

CLASS-Y KEIR
Captain Keir Ross is one of 20 national candidates for the Lowe's Senior CLASS Award. To be eligible for the award, a student-athlete must be classified as an NCAA Division I senior and have notable achievements in four areas of excellence — community, classroom, character and competition. Ross posted a plus-12 rating last season, good for second on the team, and was penalized the least of any defenseman despite frequently being matched up against some of the opposition's best forward combinations. Outside of the rink, Ross is a two-time selection to the ECAC Hockey Academic All-League team and was the Big Red's Hockey Scholar Athlete last season. He was also named to the College of Human Ecology Dean's List in 2010, carrying a 3.57 grade point average in Human Biology, Health and Society.


CLIMBING THE CHARTS
Cornell head coach Mike Schafer is quickly moving up the ranks of the coaching fraternity in his win totals. Now in his 17th season, Schafer has 313 career victories, ranking him third in ECAC Hockey, but with the shortest tenure of the two ahead of him in the rankings. Schafer trails only Quinnipiac's Rand Pecknold by four, with St. Lawrence's Joe Marsh well ahead with 468 career wins. Schafer is tops among Ivy League coaches, with Dartmouth's Bob Gaudet recently reaching his milestone 300th career win.

PROFESSIONAL KNACK
All seven players who graduated after playing with the Big Red last season have played professionally this season. The group includes forwards Joe Devin (AHL's San Antonio Rampage), Tyler Roeszler (Sweden's Vita Hästen), Patrick Kennedy (ECHL's Trenton Titans) Jordan Kary (CHL's Texas Brahmas), Dan Nicholls (CHL's Rio Grande Valley Killer Bees), defenseman Mike Devin (ECHL's Elmira Jackals) and goalie Mike Garman (ECHL's Colorado Eagles).

THE OFFENSIVE DEFENSE
The Big Red scored four short-handed goals last season after going without a goal on the penalty kill since Dec. 28, 2008. Senior forward Sean Collins had two of those short-handed goals, becoming the first Cornell player with multiple shorties since both Cam Abbott and Mark McCutcheon had a pair of them in the 2005-06 season.

HOWDY PARTNER
Mike Garman and Andy Iles started 17 games apiece last season, marking the first time two goalies have received for than 10 starts apiece in the same season since 2001-02 (Matt Underhill, David LeNeveu). Garman graduated last spring, leading Iles to battle with junior Omar Kanji and freshman Vincenzo Marozzi for playing time.

COLLECTING HARDWARE
Andy Iles became the first Cornell hockey player to earn a medal for the United States at the IIHF World Junior Championships when he was part of Team USA that claimed bronze at this year's tournament in Buffalo, N.Y. Iles is just the second Cornell player to be a member of the United States team, joining Jean-Marc Pelletier in 1998. The last Cornell player to earn a medal for any nation at the IIHF World Junior Championships was Sasha Pokulok, who claimed gold with Canada in 2006. The bronze medal won by Iles is the first bronze of the seven medals claimed by Cornellians at the world's most prestigious junior hockey tournament. Iles had an outstanding evaluation camp with the team this summer, setting himself up to compete again in the 2012 event in Edmonton, Alberta.

FEEL THE DRAFT?
Cornell has six players on the roster who have been selected in the NHL Entry Draft, including picks
in the fourth and fifth rounds last June. Freshmen Brian Ferlin (Boston Bruins) and Joel Lowry (Los Angeles Kings) were selected in a span of 20 picks, giving the 2011-12 Big Red the program's highest number of draft picks on a single team since 2006-07. Other players whose NHL rights are already owned are senior Sean Collins (Columbus Blue Jackets), juniors Braden Birch (Chicago Blackhawks) and Nick D'Agostino (Pittsburgh Penguins) and sophomore Kirill Gotovets (Tampa Bay Lightning).

INTERNATIONAL EXPOSURE
Andy Iles isn't the only Cornell player to experience international competition recently. Freshmen forward Brian Ferlin and defenseman Joakim Ryan were also at the Junior Evaluation Camp from Aug. 6-13 in Lake Placid, N.Y. Ferlin had a goal and three assists in five games with the United States and Ryan trolled the blue line for Sweden.

INTERNATIONAL EXPOSURE, PART II
Sophomore Kirill Gotovets got a taste of the big time in May when he was selected to represent his native Belarus in the 2010 IIHF World Championships – not an age group World Championships (though he did play for Belarus at the U20 World Championship as well) – playing against some of the best players the world has to offer. He played in three of Belarus' eight games at the World Championships, recording two shots and two minutes in penalties, helping his nation to a 10th-place finish. Gotovets has been in the United States for the last two years while attending school at Shattuck-St. Mary's in Minnesota.

AMERICAN INFLUENCE
Seven of this season's nine freshmen were born in the United States, giving the Big Red a more American feel than its seen in quite a while. Cornell has 12 players who were born in the United States, which is the most on a Mike Schafer-coached team at Cornell. The previous high was 10, which came in 1997-98.

SOUTHERN FLAIR
None of the other 57 schools in Division I men's hockey have as many players that call states bordering the Gulf of Mexico home as Cornell. The Big Red has four players that fit into that category — Florida native Brian Ferlin and the three Texans, Locke Jillson, Keir Ross and Armand de Swardt. Northern Michigan is the only other team in the country that has three players born in Texas.

CLOSER TO HOME
Hometown fans of the Big Red got a rare treat last season when goalie Andy Iles became the first Ithaca native to play for the team since Mark McCutcheon in 2006-07. But when freshman Kevin Cole makes his collegiate debut, it will be the first time in at least 50 years — and perhaps the first time in program history — that two Ithaca natives have played for the Big Red in the same season. Cole was born in Ithaca and raised in nearby Lansing before heading off to junior programs in Syracuse and Cornwall, Ontario. His father, Dave, lettered for the Big Red in the 1981-82 season.

FIRST 1,000 DOWN ...
The Big Red's 2-1 win over Quinnipiac in game one of the ECAC Hockey quarterfinals last season marked the 1,000th victory all-time for the Cornell men's hockey program. Cornell became the 17th program to reach that milestone.

BLANK YOU VERY MUCH
It came down to the wire last season, but the Big Red was able to keep alive its streak of recording at least one shutout in a season. With a 3-0 victory over Dartmouth in the ECAC Hockey Championship semifinals — which turned out to be the team's penultimate game — Cornell has at least one blanking of an opponent during each of the last 16 seasons. The last time Cornell went a full schedule without posting a shutout came during the 1994-95 season under former coach Brian McCutcheon, as Cornell finished that year 11-15-4. The following year marked the first season for current head coach Mike Schafer, and his clubs have never gone a full year without recording a shutout.

ANOTHER MILESTONE AWAITS
After celebrating Mike Schafer's 300th victory as a head coach and then the program's 1,000th all-time win later last season, Cornell is primed to eclipse another notable plateau in 2011-12. The Big Red has a record of 497-182-52 at Lynah Rink, meaning the team can claim its 500th all-time victory at the storied venue as early as Nov. 22 against Niagara.

THE ROAD LESS TRAVELLED
The Big Red will make its first trip to the Broadmoor World Arena in Colorado Springs, Colo. since Dec. 28-29, 1980, when victories over Air Force and Colorado College gave Cornell the Broadmoor Classic championship. The program's only other tip to the venue was for the NCAA semifinal (4-3 win over Michigan Tech) and championship (4-3 loss to Denver) in March 1969. The loss to Denver was the Big Red's last loss for more than 20 months. In between losses: Cornell's 29-0 season and NCAA title in 1970.

PRACTICE-GAME PROWESS
Just because exhibition games don't count in the standings doesn't mean the Big Red takes a soft approach to them. Cornell has posted a 15-1-2 record in exhibitions since 2000, and even that one loss came at the hands of a future Big Red player. Andy Iles made 39 saves for the U.S. Under-18 team in a 3-2 victory over the Big Red at Lynah on Oct. 24, 2009. The average margin of victory for Cornell's 13 wins is a whopping 5.15 goals.

A FAMILIAR START
Cornell scored its first goal of the season at exactly the same time as it did in 2010-11. Sean Collins got the Big Red started this season with a tally from a sharp angle at the 5:38 mark of the first period — which was the same time on the scoresheet when Nick D'Agostino scored against visiting New Hampshire on Oct. 29, 2010. Forward John Esposito assisted on both goals.

SEEKING A FRIDAY FIRST
Andy Iles' next appearance will be his 20th in a collegiate game, but he still doesn't have a win on a Friday night. Iles played primarily on Saturdays as a freshman, posting a 0-1-1 record in two Friday starts and one relief appearance.

UP NEXT
Cornell jumps right back onto the bus for another two games at Ivy League schools, first on Friday, Nov. 11 at Harvard, then on Saturday, Nov. 12 at Dartmouth. The Big Red then comes home for three straight games at Lynah Rink in a five-day stretch against Princeton, #19 Quinnipiac and Niagara before a showdown with #12 Boston University on Saturday, Nov. 26 at Madison Square Garden in New York.