ABOUT COLGATE
The Raiders enter the week coming off a split of their two games last weekend, defeating Quinnipiac, 1-0, on Friday night before falling in overtime at Princeton on Saturday afternoon, 2-1. Sophomore Francois Brisebois leads the Colgate offense with four goals and two assists for six points, while classmate Brian Day has a team-best five goals. In all, six different players have accounted for the 15 goals scored by the Raiders through the first six games of the season. In goal, junior Charles Long has appeared to claim the starting goaltender position following the graduation of longtime starter Mark Dekanich. Long has a 1.59 goals-against average and a .935 save percentage with one shutout in five starts this season. The Colgate special teams have been solid, scoring seven power-play goals in 33 chances, good for 21.2 percent, eighth best in the nation. The Colgate penalty killing has been just as solid, successfully ending 33 of 34 short-handed chances for 97.1 percent, second only to Cornell's perfect 11-for-11.

THE SERIES WITH COLGATE
Cornell and Colgate met three times last year, and on each occasion, the Big Red came away with the victory. Cornell took the opener, 2-1, on Feb. 1, 2008, in overtime at Lynah Rink, then skated to a 3-1 victory the following night at Starr Rink in Hamilton. The two sides then met again in the consolation game of the ECAC Hockey tournament, with the Big Red claiming a 4-1 victory on March 22, 2008, at the Times Union Center in Albany, N.Y. All-time, the Big Red holds a 69-54-9 lead in the all-time series which dates back to the 1920-21 season. Since Mike Schafer became the head coach of the Cornell hockey program, the Big Red holds a 19-10-4 edge over the Raiders.

ONE GOAL + TWO GAMES = THREE POINTS
The rarest of statistical oddities occurred for the Big Red last weekend as it opened the season with a win over Princeton and a tie at Quinnipiac. Despite scoring just one goal, the Big Red miraculously came away with three valuable points in the league standings. The last time the Big Red went on the road and scored just one goal in two games was at Michigan State on Nov. 12-14, 2004, tying the Spartans, 1-1, on Nov. 12, and falling, 2-0, two days later. The last one-goal road performance for the Big Red in league play came at Princeton and Yale on Feb. 9-10, 2001, as Cornell fell, 4-1, at Princeton and 1-0 at Yale the following night.

ALL YOU NEED IS ONE
Cornell's 1-0 victory at Princeton on Friday not only was the Big Red's first win of the season, it also marked the first time since the 2004-05 season that Cornell went on the road and came away with a 1-0 victory. That year, the Big Red downed Colgate, 1-0, on Feb. 4, 2005, at Starr Rink, behind a goal by Mike Iggulden at the 18:27 mark of the third period.

NO SOUP FOR YOU
When Ben Scrivens turned away all 43 shots he faced on Friday at Princeton, it marked the first time since the 1990-91 season that the Big Red opened the season with a shutout. On Nov. 9, 1990, goaltender Jim Crozier turned away 20 shots on his way to a 5-0 shutout victory. In all, Cornell has only posted seven season-opening shutouts in the modern era (1957-present), with four of those coming prior to 1970.

PITCHING SHUTOUTS
Even more impressive than Ben Scrivens posting a shutout in the season opener was the fact that never before in Cornell history had a Big Red goaltender posted back-to-back shutouts to open the season. In the six previous times the Big Red opened the year with a shutout, Cornell went 4-2 in the next contest, twice allowing one goal, twice allowing three goals and allowing four and eight goals once each.

WE'RE GOING STREAKING THROUGH THE QUAD!
With the back-to-back shutouts, Ben Scrivens stretched his personal best shutout streak to 165:45, dating back to last season's ECAC Hockey consolation game. That streak, prior to Thursday's game at Colgate, is the fourth-longest such streak in Cornell history and is just under two minutes shorter than the best streak recorded by Ken Dryden in 1967-68 of 167:37.

YOU BETTER RECOGNIZE
The ECAC Hockey office took notice of Ben Scrivens' play last weekend, as the junior from Spruce Grove, Alberta, was named the ECAC Hockey Goaltender of the Week on Nov. 10. Scrivens earned the honor for the second time in his career, with the first coming after his 45-save shutout tie against Massachusetts on Nov. 30, 2007.

THE NATION'S BEST
Not only did Ben Scrivens earn ECAC Hockey Goaltender of the Week honors, but he was also named the Inside College Hockey National Player of the Week on 11/11 after shutting out Princeton and Quinnipiac. He becomes just the second Cornell player to ever earn the honor, joining Michael Kennedy, who was named to the list on Jan. 8, 2008, after scoring six points in a weekend sweep over Niagara at Lynah Rink.

LATE STARTS
Not only was Cornell's season opener last Friday the latest for the Big Red since head coach Mike Schafer's second year in 1996-97, when Cornell opened on Nov. 8, it also made the Big Red the last team in Division I college hockey to play its first regular-season game. The late start parallels that of the Cornell football team, which was scheduled to be the last team in Division I to begin play this season with its game at Bucknell on Sept. 20.

ONE AND DONE
Should history serve as a guide, Tyler Mugford may be done scoring goals for the season. A senior, Mugford now has four career goals to his credit, having scored exactly one goal in each of his first three seasons.

THE CURSE OF JOE NIEUWENDYK
When Joe Nieuwendyk scored on a penalty shot against Rensselaer's Steve Duncan in the third period of a 6-1 Cornell victory on Feb. 27, 1987, little did he know that nearly 22 years later, he still had scored the most recent penalty shot in Cornell history. Since then, eight players have attempted a shot, with each one being turned away. The newest addition to the penalty shot parade was Evan Barlow, who was stopped in the second period on Nov. 8 by Quinnipiac goaltender Nick Pisellini. Since the start of 2006-07 season, Cornell has had four penalty shot attempts, with Mitch Carefoot, Tony Romano, Blake Gallagher and Barlow each coming up short. A total of 673 games have passed since Nieuwendyk converted his penalty shot.

ON THE OTHER END OF THE SPECTRUM
Evan Barlow's penalty shot carried with it extra irony, given that in last year's second league game against Quinnipiac at Lynah Rink, it was Barlow who tripped up the Bobcats' Mike Atkinson, giving Atkinson a penalty shot in the second period. The Bobcats converted on their attempt against Ben Scrivens to tie the score at three, but Cornell would respond with a pair of third-period goals to take a 5-3 victory.

DOUBLE SQUADOOSH
For the second time in as many seasons, Cornell posted a scoreless tie in a regular season game. The amazing thing about that feat is that the only other scoreless tie in Cornell hockey history came nearly 85 years ago, as the Big Red battled to a 0-0 tie with Clarkson on Jan. 20, 1923.

NOW PLAYING AT YOUR LOCAL HOCKEY RINK
Four players made their Cornell debut on the weekend, with Locke Jillson, Sean Collins and Keir Ross appearing in both games, while senior transfer Derek Punches played in the tie against Quinnipiac.

THE CENTURY CLUB
With his appearance in both of the Big Red's games this season, senior co-captain Michael Kennedy has now appeared in 100 games in a Cornell uniform. In his three-plus seasons, Kennedy has scored 18 goals and tallied 22 assists for 40 points. He joins Derek Punches, who played in 104 games at Wayne State before making his Cornell debut on Saturday at Quinnipiac, as the two players on the roster to have appeared in at least 100 college hockey games. The pair will likely be joined by another trio, as Evan Barlow, Tyler Mugford and Jared Seminoff each need fewer than 10 games this season to reach the 100 career games mark.

ROAD WORK
Cornell's three-game road trip to open the season is such a rare occurrence, not even Cornell head coach Mike Schafer was alive the last time the Big Red opened the year with three games away from Lynah Rink. The 1959-60 team that finished 2-19 under head coach Paul Patten opened its season with four straight road games, followed by a pair of neutral site games and another three road contests before finally playing its first game at home on Jan. 16 against Yale. All of this occurred nearly three years before the 46-year-old Schafer was born.

ECAC HOCKEY AND SEASON OPENERS
Last Friday's contest against Princeton was not only as the season opener, but also the first league game of the season. The last time the Big Red jumped directly into league play without any nonconference contests came in 1999-2000, when the Big Red opened with a 5-4 overtime loss at Rensselaer. Under the direction of Mike Schafer, Cornell has opened its season with a conference game just twice, with the first time coming in his second season behind the bench, a 5-4 victory at Brown.

MORE ON THE SEASON OPENER
While Cornell opening its year against a league foe is an uncommon occurence under Mike Schafer, the Big Red has had success in its first games of the year under the 14th-year mentor. In the 14 seasons under Schafer's direction, the Big Red is 9-4-1 in season openers.

...AND OPENING ON THE ROAD
The Big Red opened the 2008-09 season on the road for the second straight season and fifth time under the direction of head coach Mike Schafer. Last season, Cornell opened at Rochester Institute of Technology at the Blue Cross Arena in Rochester and fell by a 4-1 margin. The last time Cornell opened back-to-back seasons on the road came in Schafer's first two years, opening at Michigan State in 1995-96 and at Brown in 1996-97.

STARTING OFF ON THE RIGHT FOOT
With Cornell's win at Princeton on Nov. 7, the Big Red avoided starting the season with a loss for the second year in a row, another uncommon occurrence for the Big Red under Mike Schafer. In the modern era of Cornell hockey, from the opening of Lynah Rink in 1957 to the present day, the Big Red has only once dropped back-to-back season openers, that coming in the 1999-2000 and 2000-01 seasons, falling to Rensselaer by a 5-4 score on Nov. 5, 1999, and dropping a 5-3 contest to Sacred Heart on Nov. 4, 2000.

EXHIBIT A
Riley Nash, Tyler Roeszler and Tyler Mugford each scored a goal as Cornell opened the 2008-09 season with a 3-3 exhibition tie against the U.S. Under-18 National Team on Oct. 18 at Lynah Rink. Playing with just one day of practice under their belts, the Big Red showed off their power play and penalty killing abilities, as Cornell scored one goal with the man advantage and one short-handed, in addition to Roeszler's strike at even strength. Ben Scrivens worked the first half of the game, picking up 10 saves on 11 shots, while Mike Garman worked the second half of the contest, stopping three of the five shots he faced over that span.

NORTH OF THE BORDER
The Big Red also faced off against Western Ontario in an exhibition contest on Oct. 24, downing the Mustangs, 4-3, on a last-second goal by Brendon Nash. The penalty-filled contest saw a combined 63 minutes worth of penalties, with the two teams each receiving plenty of power play opportunities. Nash and Michael Kennedy both scored a pair of goals in the game, with Nash's second goal coming with 6.3 seconds remaining in regulation after the Mustangs had tied the score with just under 30 seconds remaining. Ben Scrivens worked the entire contest, making 17 saves for the exhibition victory.

PLENTY OF FIREPOWER
Cornell returns three of its top five scorers from last season, including its top two in junior Colin Greening and sophomore Riley Nash. Greening tallied a team-best 14 goals last season, while Nash tied with Topher Scott '08 for team-high honors in assists with 20. In all, Cornell's returning players accounted for 74 percent of the total goal-scoring output and 76 percent of the assists in 2007-08.

ROCK SOLID DEFENSE
While the amount of offensive production returning to the Cornell lineup this season in impressive, the defensive corps also returns six starters from last year. Junior Brendon Nash led the blue-liners in scoring last season, tallying 16 points on two goals and 14 assists, despite missing 12 games while recovering from off-season surgery.

WICKED SMART KIDS
Eight players from last season's team were named to the ECAC Hockey All-Academic team for their achievements in the classroom last year. Five of those players return this season, as seniors Troy Davenport and Dan DiLeo, juniors Colin Greening and Justin Krueger and sophomore Patrick Kennedy each were named to the team. Additionally, graduated seniors Chris Fontas, Doug Krantz and Topher Scott were also selected as All-Academic Team members.

THOSE MASKED MEN
Cornell has the benefit of having four capable collegiate goaltenders on the roster in 2008-09, two of whom have been the team's top goaltender at one point or another. Senior Troy Davenport was the starter in 2006-07, appearing in 24 games and posting a 2.41 goals-against average and a .899 save percentage. Last season, current junior Ben Scrivens grabbed the top job, appearing in 35 contests and posting a 2.02 goals-against average and a .930 save percentage. Joining the two are senior Dan DiLeo, who saw his first collegiate action in the ECAC Hockey consolation game win over Colgate last season, and freshman Mike Garman, who backstopped the Nanaimo Clippers to the British Columbia Hockey League regular season title last year.

TRANSFER TICKET
For the fourth straight season, the Cornell men's hockey roster includes a player who began his career at another school, as Derek Punches joins the Big Red after playing his first three seasons at Wayne State. Punches served as an assistant captain last year for the Warriors and finished second on the team with 10 goals and was fifth overall with 19 points. Punches was a two-time College Hockey America All-Academic Team selection while at Wayne State. For the past three seasons, the transfer role was filled by Chris Fontas, who played sat out one year and played in 2006-07 and 2007-08 after tranferring from Massachusetts-Lowell.

FOR AND AGAINST
Derek Punches holds the distinction of being the most recent player to have played both for and against the Big Red. Punches played two games at Cornell as a sophomore at Wayne State, helping the Warriors to a split at Lynah Rink on Nov. 25-26, 2006. In the two games against the Big Red, Punches recorded a pair of shots and had an even plus-minus rating. The last time Cornell had players who played for the Big Red after playing against them came in 1978-79 when Doug Berk, Geoff Roeszler, Steve Shandley, Tim Strawman and Tom Whitehead each transfered to Cornell after beginning their careers at Penn. Much like Punches' situation with Wayne State, Penn dropped its program following the 1977-78 season.

I FEEL A DRAFT
For the second straight season, Cornell has four players on the roster who have been selected in the NHL Entry Draft. Juniors Colin Greening and Justin Krueger, sophomore Riley Nash and freshman Sean Collins have each been selected by NHL clubs.

CUSHING CONNECTION
While the New England prep schools typically send their top prospects on to collegiate careers at Boston area schools, freshman Sean Whitney has become the fourth product of Cushing Academy to play for the Big Red. He joins Chris Fontas, who played for Cornell from 2006-07 through 2007-08, and Ryan Moynihan, who played on East Hill from 1996-2000, as Cushing alumni to suit up in the Red and White. That trio all follow after Anthony Steere, who played for Cornell in 1962-63.

WHAT'S IN A NUMBER?
Freshman Sean Whitney will be wearing jersey number 19 this season, a number that has several interesting connections for the Scituate, Mass., native. His older brother, Ryan, plays for the Pittsburgh Penguins of the National Hockey League, and he sports the same number 19 on his uniform. Additionally, the last Cushing Academy alumnus to play hockey at Cornell, Chris Fontas, closed out his career by wearing number 19. Like Fontas, Whitney is an alumnus of Cushing Academy.

CLIMBING THE CHARTS
Cornell head coach Mike Schafer is quickly moving up the ranks of the coaching fraternity in his win totals. In his 14th season, Schafer has 255 career victories, ranking him fifth in ECAC Hockey, but with the shortest tenure of the four ahead of him in the rankings. Schafer could potentially move into second among ECAC Hockey peers, as he trails Dartmouth's Bob Gaudet by just three, Colgate's Don Vaughan by just six, and Quinnipiac's Rand Pecknold by just 10. St. Lawrence's Joe Marsh, the dean of coaches in ECAC Hockey, has 419 career wins to his credit in his 24th season.

REMEMBERING NED HARKNESS
Legendary coach Ned Harkness, who guided the Big Red to its two national championships in 1967 and 1970, passed away on Sept. 19, his 89th birthday. Harkness led Cornell to the only undefeated, untied NCAA championship season in 1970, going 29-0-0. His legendary career also included stops at Rensselaer, where he guided the Engineers to the 1954 NCAA championship, and Union, along with the Detroit Red Wings of the National Hockey League. This season, the Cornell men's hockey and men's lacrosse teams will both be wearing a sticker bearing the initials "NH" on their helmets in memory of Ned Harkness.

ONE LONG SEASON
The 2007-08 season for the Big Red has found its own space in the record books, as the 19-14-3 campaign tied the 2002-03 season for the most games in a single season with 36. That season marked the last time that the Big Red advanced to the NCAA Frozen Four, where it fell to New Hampshire in the national semifinals.

HATS OFF
Colin Greening recorded the Big Red's first hat trick in 101 games when he tallied three goals on Feb. 29 against Dartmouth. The junior co-captain became the first player since Matt Moulson recorded the feat against Union on Feb. 19, 2005.

THE BACKUP OF THE BACKUP'S BACKUP
For the first time under head coach Mike Schafer, and the first time since the 1990-91 season, four netminders will be battling for time in between the pipes for the Big Red. Seniors Troy Davenport and Dan DiLeo, junior Ben Scrivens and freshman Mike Garman make the first quartet of goaltenders for Cornell since the foursome of Parris Duffus, Corrie D'Alessio, Jim Crozier and Steve Coultes graced the roster in Brian McCutcheon's fourth season behind the bench. That season, D'Alessio and Crozier were both seniors, with Coultes a sophomore and Duffus a freshman. Cornell has also had four goaltenders on the roster in 1986-87, 1983-84, 1982-83, 1976-77 and 1958-59.

BACK BEHIND THE BENCH
Casey Jones returns to his alma mater as an associate head coach for 2008-09 after spending the last 13 years in the same role with Ohio State. Jones, a Big Red captain 1989-90 under head coach Brian McCutcheon, fills the spot on the coaching staff that was created when assistant coach Brent Brekke departed for Miami (Ohio).

BROTHERLY LOVE
The 2008-09 edition of the Big Red continues a theme started a year ago, as the three sets of brothers on the Cornell roster all return intact for a second season. Michael and Patrick Kennedy, Brendon and Riley Nash, and twins Joe and Mike Devin will again make life difficult on visiting radio and TV announcers.

CLIPPER SHIP
Cornell typically has had success recruiting players from the British Columbia Hockey League in general and from the Nanaimo Clippers in particular, and the 2008-09 season is no exception. Six members of this year's team played their junior hockey for the BCHL powerhouse club, with incoming freshman goaltender Mike Garman adding to the long line of Nanaimo alumni who have gone on to play for the Big Red. Of those six players, three - Colin Greening, Tyler Mugford and Jared Seminoff - will serve as either a co-captain or an alternate captain this season for the Big Red.

A QUARTER CENTURY OF EXCELLENCE
Cornell coach Mike Schafer picked up his 250th career coaching victory with the Big Red's 3-2 win in game one of the ECAC Hockey quarterfinal series against Dartmouth. Schafer's .631 winning percentage is also good for eighth among active Division I head coaches.

IN THE AIR TONIGHT
All of Cornell's games this season can be heard in the Ithaca area on WHCU 870 AM. Jason Weinstein returns for his fifth season of calling Big Red hockey action.

ON THE TUBE
Eight of Cornell's regular season games are scheduled to be on television this season, beginning last Friday's season opener at Princeton. Even better for Big Red fans, seven of those contests will be road games, making it easier to track the team while it's away from Lynah Rink. Two of those games - the Nov. 27 game at North Dakota and the Jan. 16 game at Union - will also be simulcast across the U.S. on the NHL Network, with another two available on national TV, including the Nov. 7 game at Princeton, to be shown on ESPNU, and the Feb. 14 game at Harvard, seen on CBS College Sports. Last season, Cornell had eight games total on television, and the Big Red went 4-4 in those contests.

REDCAST
Live streaming video of most of Cornell's home hockey games is available through Cornell REDCast. In addition to streaming video of home games, fans can also get live audio of all of Cornell's road games. REDCast is a subscription-based joint venture of Cornell athletics and Internet Consulting Services (ICS). Numerous subscription options, including yearly, monthly, sport-by-sport and pay-per-view passes, provide viewing and listening flexibility without the worry of automatic renewal. REDCasts are available on all computer operating systems.

UP NEXT
Cornell welcomes rival Harvard to Lynah Rink for a 7 p.m. contest on Friday, Nov. 21, before playing host to the Big Green of Dartmouth the following evening.