The drama surrounding the culmination of the ECAC Hockey regular season this weekend extends to Ithaca, where Cornell can lock up at least a share of the Cleary Cup for the league's regular season champion with two victories this weekend against visiting Union and Rensselaer. The second-place Big Red will face the team it's chasing on Friday when Union visits Lynah Rink, then it will honor seniors Sean Collins, Locke Jillson, Keir Ross and Sean Whitney following the regular-season finale on Saturday against Rensselaer. Cornell, which has clinched at least a first- or second-place finish in the league, has moved up three spots to ninth in the USA Today/USA Hockey Magazine poll and 11th in the USCHO.com poll following a 1-1 tie at Clarkson and a thrilling 4-3 win in overtime at St. Lawrence last weekend. Both of this weekend's games will broadcast by Jason Weinstein on WHCU 870 AM. Live streaming video is also available worldwide through the Cornell Redcast subscription service. 
 
GAME #28: #8/8 UNION at #9/11 CORNELL
DATE: Friday, Feb. 24, 2012
TIME: 7 p.m.
SITE: Lynah Rink — Ithaca, N.Y.
2011-12 RECORDS: Union 19-6-7, 13-3-4 ECAC Hockey; Cornell 14-6-7, 11-3-6 ECAC Hockey
SERIES RECORD: Cornell leads, 29-14-7
LAST MEETING: Tied, 4-4, on Feb. 4 in Schenectady, N.Y.
RADIO: WHCU 870 AM (Jason Weinstein)
VIDEO: www.cornellbigred.com/showcase
LIVE STATS: http://livestats.internetconsult.com/cornell/mhockey
 
GAME #29: RENSSELAER at #9/11 CORNELL
DATE: Saturday, Feb. 25, 2012
TIME: 7 p.m.
SITE: Lynah Rink — Ithaca, N.Y.
2011-12 RECORDS: Rensselaer 8-21-3, 5-12-3 ECAC Hockey; Cornell 14-6-7, 11-3-6 ECAC Hockey
SERIES RECORD: Cornell leads, 59-31-7
LAST MEETING: Tied, 2-2, on Feb. 3 in Troy, N.Y.
RADIO: WHCU 870 AM (Jason Weinstein)
VIDEO: www.cornellbigred.com/showcase
LIVE STATS: http://livestats.internetconsult.com/cornell/mhockey
 
Cornell game notes (PDF)
Union game notes (PDF)
Rensselaer game notes (PDF)
 
ABOUT THE BIG RED
Cornell never trailed at any point last weekend in a tie at Clarkson and overtime win at St. Lawrence. The three points allowed the Big Red to sew up either the first or second seed in the ECAC Hockey Championship playoffs and the accompanying first-round bye next weekend. Cornell is now unbeaten in its last six games (3-0-3) and the team has still lost just twice since Dec. 30  (7-2-6). ... The Big Red has surrendered 61 goals, which is second fewest in the nation. ... The team's leading scorer last season, junior forward Greg Miller (13-12—25) has taken the lead in this year's race with seven goals over his his last seven games. Miller has already blown away his goals total from his first two seasons combined on East Hill, when he scored six times. Miller also leads the team with a plus-19 rating. ... Senior forward Sean Collins (12-9—21) trails Miller by one for the team lead in goals after scoring the overtime winner against St. Lawrence. Collins has 16 points over his last 15 games to set a new career-high in scoring. ... The team's seven ties have set a program record for most deadlocks in a season, breaking the old mark of six set in 2003-04.
 
ABOUT UNION
The Dutchmen are 10-1-2 over their last 13 games, with nine of those games were at home in Messa Rink. The team's seven-game unbeaten streak is tied for second-longest in the country. The stamp on Union has been its ability to bury teams — its plus-1.75 scoring margin is highest in the nation. The Dutchmen's 1.75 goals-against average is best in the nation, and the team has surrendered more than three goals in a game just twice all season. One of those occasions was a 4-4 tie with Cornell earlier this month. Meanwhile, over the same stretch, the Dutchmen have also scored at least three goals in all but two of those games. ... Sophomore Troy Grosenick (15-4-3, 1.52 goals-against average, .942 save percentage) had an 18-save shutout in a  3-0 win over Princeton on Friday, but he reportedly left Saturday's game against Quinnipiac with a reaggrevation of an injury that kept him out of the first game against Cornell. Freshman Colin Stevens (4-2-4, 2.25, .913) played the game against the Big Red, stopping 19 of 23 shots. ... Playmaking senior center Kelly Zajac (8-31—39) leads the team in scoring. Also the leader in team scoring last season, Zajac leads the league with 20 assists in ECAC Hockey games. He plays on a line with junior right wing Wayne Simpson (16-12—28; 7 PPGs), who is second on the team in goals behind Junior center Jeremy Welsh (20-11—31; 9 PPGs). Welsh's line is Union's most potent, with sophomore Daniel Carr (13-15—28; 8 PPGs) and sophomore Josh Jooris (4-13—17) on the wings. ... Union's power play is ranked fifth in the nation (24.8 percent), having connected on two of its three chances against Cornell three weeks ago.
 
THE SERIES WITH UNION
Friday's game will be the 51th all-time meeting between the Big Red and Dutchmen, with Cornell holding a 29-14-7 lead in the series. Union swept the two-game series between the teams last season, breaking a seven-game winless skid against Cornell which included an ECAC Hockey Championship quarterfinal series in 2008 at Messa Rink. The Big Red then scored three second-period goals en route to a 4-4 tie against host Union on Feb. 4. Mike Schafer is 20-10-6 against Union in his tenure as the Big Red's head coach, while Friday's game will be the second against CU for Rick Bennett as the Dutchmen's head coach.
 
ABOUT RENSSELAER
The Engineers enjoyed a January surge after a slow start, but Rensselaer has since going 1-4-2 in its last seven games. While the team's offensive struggles have been well chronicled (1.75 goals per game is third-fewest in the country), the Engineers have surrendered 3.57 goals per game over that seven-game stretch — including a 6-2 loss to Princeton in the team's home finale last Saturday. Coupled with a 3-1 loss to visiting Quinnipiac the night before, Rensselaer has fallen back into a tie for last place in ECAC Hockey with Brown and will be on the road for any playoff run it makes. ...  Sophomore forward Brock Higgs (2-16—18) leads the team in scoring, though junior C.J. Lee (6-7—13), and freshmen Ryan Haggerty (6-6—12; 5 PPGs) and freshman Zach Schroeder (6-3—9) are all tied for the team lead in goals. Junior defenseman Nick Bailen (5-12—17; 4 PPGs), who was named to the All-ECAC Hockey preseason team, is one point off the team scoring lead. ... Junior Bryce Merriam (7-16-2, 2.46, .909) is typically the Engineers' goalie of choice, though he was pulled after surrendering three goals on nine shots Saturday vs. Princeton. Merriam is 0-1-1 with a 2.22 goals-against average and .898 save percentage in three career appearances against the Big Red.
 
THE SERIES WITH RENSSELAER
Saturday's game will be the 98th all-time meeting between the Big Red and Engineers, with Cornell holding a 59-31-7 lead in the series — including a 10-1-3 mark in the last 14 meetings. That one loss came in an ECAC Hockey Championship quarterfinal series in 2009. The Engineers' last regular-season victory over the Big Red came on Feb. 24, 2006, at Houston Field House. Mike Schafer is 27-11-5 against Rensselaer in his tenure as the Big Red's head coach, while Engineers head coach Seth Appert is 10-1-3 against the Big Red.
 
FAST STARTERS
The Big Red is 9-1-2 on Friday nights this season and 8-2-2 in games on the front end of back-to-backs. Cornell has scored the first goal in all but two games in both scenarios. Some of the team's biggest victories have come at the start of the weekend, including at then-No. 9 Yale on Nov. 4 and at then-No. 6 Colorado College on Jan. 6.
 
ONE CHAMPIONSHIP DOWN ...
With its win over three-time defending champion Yale on Feb. 11, Cornell clinched the outright Ivy League title for the first time since the 2004-05 season. The Big Red went 7-1-2 against its Ivy brethren this season, scoring an average of 3.9 goals per game. It's Cornell's 19th Ivy League title and marks the first time a school has claimed both the men's and women's title outright in the same season since 1995-96 — also a Cornell feat.
 
A.I. — THE NEW ANSWER
With three consecutive shutouts in November, sophomore goalie Andy Iles recorded the second-longest shutout streak in program history, spanning 213 minutes, 35 seconds over a five-game span. The only Cornell shutout streak that went longer was posted by Toronto Maple Leafs goalie Ben Scrivens, who held the opposition scoreless for 267:11 during the 2010 playoffs. But Iles wasn't done there — he posted back-to-back shutouts against St. Lawrence and Clarkson on Dec. 2 and Dec. 3, respectively, spurring another lengthy shutout streak of 152:36 that ranks ninth all-time in Big Red history. Iles is tied for third in the nation with five shutouts. His goals-against average of 2.14 is 13th in the NCAA, though he's 10th among goalies who lead their team in minutes played. Iles and Minnesota senior Kent Patterson are the only goalies in the nation to see all of their teams' time in net.
 
DANGEROUS D'AGOSTINO
Junior defenseman Nick D'Agostino is six points behind classmate and former junior teammate Greg Miller for the team lead in scoring with eight goals and 11 assists for 19 points entering the weekend. His average of 0.73 points per game is 22nd in the nation among blueliners; his five game-winning goals is tied for fourth in the NCAA; and his six power-play goals is second in the nation among true defensemen. If D'Agostino wins the team's scoring race this season, it would mark the first time a Big Red defensemen has done so since Dan Lodboa racked up 61 points as a senior during the program's monumental 1969-70 season in which it went 29-0 and won the NCAA championship.
 
MORE FROM MOWREY
The Big Red's forward corps took a hit in a Jan. 13 game at Quinnipiac when junior forward John Esposito — who was playing on the team's most productive even-strength and power-play line with junior Greg Miller and freshman Brian Ferlin — suffered an injury. But sophomore forward Dustin Mowrey stepped into Esposito's spot on the line and posted 11 points in the last 10 games to push his total to 13 points over the Big Red's last 12 games.
 
RYAN OFF AND RUNNING
Joakim Ryan has already set a program record for goals in a season for freshman defensemen with six through 22 games. The record goes back to 1975-76, which was the first season in which freshmen were allowed to compete at the varsity level. Ryan got his season off to a flying start with two goals and an assist in the opening 5-4 loss to Mercyhurst on Oct. 29. 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 — forward Dustin Mowrey did it on Oct. 29, 2010 against New Hampshire.
 
NOW THAT'S DEFENSE
Junior defenseman Braden Birch, a Chicago Blackhawks draft pick, went two months without being on the ice for an even-strength goal against. The streak of 668 minutes, 49 seconds covered all 12 games in which Birch has appeared, ending with Clarkson's final goal Dec. 30 at the Florida College Hockey Classic. Not surprisingly, Birch has a sterling rating of plus-11, despite frequently playing against the opposition's top forwards. The pairing of Birch and senior Sean Whitney had not surrendered a five-on-five goal this season until Saturday, Jan. 28. But in the same game, Birch also scored his first goal of the season.
 
FABULOUS FRESHMEN
Freshman forward Brian Ferlin, a native of Jacksonville, Fla., is 13th the nation in rookie points per game (0.81) and is tops in the ECAC Hockey rookie scoring race after posting 17 points in the Big Red's first 19 conference games. Teams around the league have taken notice, tabbing the Boston Bruins draft pick as the Rookie of the Week on consecutive weeks of Nov. 7 and Nov. 14. Teammate Joakim Ryan earned the honor on Oct. 31, meaning the Big Red had ECAC Hockey's top newcomer for the first three weeks of its season. Forward Joel Lowry is tied for second in the league in freshman scoring with 15 points, two off Ferlin's pace.
 
THE OFFENSIVE DEFENSE
The Big Red has scored five shorthanded goals this season — which ranks second in ECAC Hockey and matches last season's total after going without a goal on the penalty kill since Dec. 28, 2008. Senior forward Sean Collins has two of this season's shorthanded goals after potting two last season to become the first Cornell player with multiple shorties since both Cam Abbott and Mark McCutcheon had a pair of them in the 2005-06 season. Senior forward Locke Jillson, junior forward Vince Mihalek, freshman forward Joel Lowry and freshman defenseman Joakim Ryan have the Big Red's other shorthanded goals this season.
 
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).
 
COLLECTING HARDWARE
Goalie 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 the 2011 tournament in Buffalo, N.Y. Iles is just the second Cornell player to be a member of the U.S. 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 tournament. Iles was named the U.S. emergency goalie for this year's World Junior tournament, but never saw action.
 
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. Ferlin was then invited to the U.S. World Junior Pre-Tournament Camp in mid-December, but did not make the final cut.
 
INTERNATIONAL EXPOSURE, PART II
Sophomore Kirill Gotovets got a taste of the big time 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 in the world. He played in three of Belarus' games at the World Championships. Gotovets came to the U.S. two years before coming to Cornell, attending prestigious Shattuck-St. Mary's in Minnesota.
 
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 made his collegiate debut Dec. 30 against Clarkson, it became 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, and his mother, Karen (Shull), also played for the Cornell women's hockey team. This is the ninth consecutive season that the son of a former Big Red player has also suited up for Cornell.
 
CLASS-Y KEIR
Senior captain Keir Ross was named one of 10 national finalists for the Lowe's Senior CLASS Award on Feb. 1. 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. He joins Brown's Jack Maclellan as the lone ECAC Hockey representatives among the finalists.
 
BLANK YOU VERY MUCH
Sophomore goalie Andy Iles made 15 saves for his first collegiate shutout on Nov. 18 in a 4-0 victory over Princeton. With that result, the Big Red extended its streak of seasons with at least one shutout to 17. 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 head coach Mike Schafer, and his clubs have never gone a full year without recording a shutout.
 
BIG STAGE PERFORMERS
Seniors Sean Whitney and Locke Jillson have shown a knack for producing in front of the biggest crowds they've seen in their college careers. Both scored goals against Boston in front of a sold-out crowd of 18,200 at Madison Square Garden in 2009, then the duo teamed up to score the Big Red's lone goal against BU on the same stage on Nov. 26. Whitney had the initial shot on Jillson's goal, which came on a sharp-angle shot off a rebound. Jillson then potted his second goal of the season to open the scoring in a 3-1 victory Jan. 6 at then-No. 6 Colorado College.
 
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 327 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 St. Lawrence's Joe Marsh (480) and is closing the gap on Quinnipiac's Rand Pecknold (328). Schafer is tops among Ivy League coaches, with Dartmouth's Bob Gaudet recently reaching his 310th career victory.
 
NEW SUPPORT STAFF
Mike Schafer returns for his 17th season as the Cornell head coach, but he has three new assistants this year. While the new assistant coaches will be new faces in their positions 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. Volunteer assistant coach Kris Mayotte is also familiar with ECAC Hockey, having tended goal for Union from 2002-06.
 
PROSE ABOUT PROS
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 and ECHL's Cincinnati Cyclones), Tyler Roeszler (Sweden's Vita Hästen), Patrick Kennedy (ECHL's Idaho Steelheads and Trenton Titans), Jordan Kary (CHL's Texas Brahmas), Dan Nicholls (CHL's Rio Grande Valley Killer Bees and Texas Brahmas, and SHL's Fayetteville FireAntz), defenseman Mike Devin (ECHL's Elmira Jackals) and goalie Mike Garman (ECHL's Colorado Eagles and CHL's Tulsa Oilers). Two players who left Cornell after the 2010 season have also made their NHL debuts this season — goalie Ben Scrivens with the Toronto Maple Leafs and forward Riley Nash with the Carolina Hurricanes.
 
MILESTONE MANIA
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. The Big Red then surpassed another milestone this season by recording the 500th victory all-time at storied Lynah Rink with a 1-0 shutout of Niagara on Nov. 22.
 
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 from Texas.
 
AMERICAN INFLUENCE
Seven of this season's nine freshmen were born in the United States, giving the Big Red a more American feel than it's 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.
 
UP NEXT
The Big Red is idle next weekend while eight of the league's 12 teams duke it out in best-of-three series in the first round of the ECAC Hockey Championship playoffs. Cornell will host a best-of-three quarterfinal series against the lowest or second-lowest remaining seed March 9-11 at Lynah Rink. Entering this weekend, that list of potential opponents actually still includes all of the league's teams, with one exception — Union — which the Big Red can't cross paths with until the championship. If Cornell wins its quarterfinal series, it will then advance to Boardwalk Hall in Atlantic City, N.J. for the championship weekend, featuring semifinals on Friday, March 16 and the consolation and title-game tilts on Saturday, March 17.