Game 36 • Cornell vs. Bemidji State
NCAA Midwest Regional Final
Faceoff: Sunday, March 29, at 8:00 p.m.
Site: Van Andel Arena (10,834) • Grand Rapids, Mich.
2008-09 Records: Cornell (22-9-4, 13-6-3 ECAC Hockey) • Bemidji State (19-15-1, 12-5-1 College Hockey America)
Series Record: First Meeting
Television: ESPNU • Ben Holden (play-by-play), Sean Ritchlin (color)
Radio: WHCU 870 AM • Jason Weinstein (play-by-play)
Live Stats: www.CornellBigRed.com
Live Video: none
Live Audio: www.CornellBigRed.com
Tickets: Available through Ticketmaster.com

Regional Championship Notes in PDF Format

GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. -- All the eyes of the collegiate hockey world will be on Van Andel Arena on Sunday night as the Cornell men's hockey team takes on Bemidji State in the Midwest Regional Final for the final berth in the NCAA Frozen Four. The Big Red and Beavers will face off at 8 p.m. in a game televised nationally on ESPNU. The game will also be available on the radio on WHCU 870 AM and through the Cornell Redcast subscription service.

SEMIFINAL RERUN
Cornell advanced to Sunday night's NCAA Midwest Regional Championship game after knocking off second-seeded Northeastern on Saturday evening in Grand Rapids, Mich., by a 3-2 score. Cornell trailed, 2-0, midway through the second period, but battled back, with Blake Gallagher cutting the deficit to one late in the second period. Colin Greening's tip-in goal with just under four minutes to play knotted the score at two, and Evan Barlow's game-winner with 17.4 seconds left put the Big Red on top for the first and final time. Ben Scrivens made 19 saves in the win for the Big Red, which went 1-for-4 on the power play on the night.

COME HERE OFTEN?
In each of Cornell's last seven appearances in the NCAA tournament, the Big Red has won its regional semifinal game and advanced to the regional final. Dating back to Cornell's second NCAA berth under head coach Mike Schafer in 1997, which was also played at Van Andel Arena in Grand Rapids, Mich., the Big Red has won its first game in each of the last seven appearances. Only once during that span, however, has the Big Red won the ensuing contest, that coming in 2003 when it defeated Boston College in Providence, R.I., and advanced to the Frozen Four in Buffalo, N.Y.

BIG RED VS. THE BEAVERS
Sunday's game will be the first time that Cornell and Bemidji State will have met in men's hockey. With Sunday's contest, the number of teams that Cornell has never faced will fall to five out of the 58 current Division I hockey teams. The remaining teams that Cornell has never faced are Alaska-Anchorage and Nebraska-Omaha of the Central Collegiate Hockey Association and Bentley, Canisius and Holy Cross of Atlantic Hockey.

CORNELL VS. COLLEGE HOCKEY AMERICA
A league that will soon be folding, the Big Red has had a great deal of success against the remaining members of College Hockey America. While never having faced Bemidji State until tonight, Cornell is 10-2 all-time against Alabama-Huntsville, Niagara and Robert Morris. Cornell is unbeated all-time against Alabama-Huntsville (2-0) and Robert Morris (1-0) and holds a 7-2 lead in the all-time series against Niagara.

COMMON FOES
While Cornell and Bemidji State have never met, they have played a great deal of common opponents this season, as the two programs have five common foes on the ledger already. Cornell holds a 6-2 mark in games played against the common opponents, while Bemidji State is 6-6 against those same five opponents.

2009 Common Opponents - Cornell & Bemidji State

	Bemidji State			Cornell
Opponent	W	L	T	W	L	T
Dartmouth	0	1	0	1	1	0
Massachusetts	1	0	0	1	0	0
Niagara	4	2	0	2	0	0
North Dakota	0	2	0	1	1	0
St. Cloud State	1	1	0	1	0	0

DEJA VU ALL OVER AGAIN
Spotting a team a two-goal lead has become a bit of a habit for the Big Red, both in NCAA tournament play and in recent weeks. In each of Cornell's two previous NCAA tournament appearances, the Big Red fell behind, 2-0, first to Ohio State in 2005 and then 2-0 to Colorado College in 2006, before rallying for the 3-2 victory. More recently, Cornell staked Brown to a 2-0 lead in the regular-season finale on Feb. 28 in Provicence, R.I., before grabbing a 3-2 overtime victory, and then fell behind, 3-1, to Princeton in the semifinals of the ECAC Hockey tournament before tying it with 24 seconds left in regulation and winning it in double overtime, 4-3. The Big Red surrendered the first two goals to Northeastern on Friday night before rallying for the 3-2 victory.

LAST MAN STANDING
While ECAC Hockey tied its all-time high by getting three teams into this year's NCAA tournament field, Cornell is the lone team remaining in this year's competition. Both Yale and Princeton fell in the regional semifinals of the East and West Regions, respectively. Being the final flag-bearer for the league is nothing new for Cornell, as since 2001, ECAC Hockey teams are 6-11 in NCAA regional tournament play, with five of those wins belonging to the Big Red.

BARLOW WINS IT
Senior Evan Barlow scored the game-winning goal on Saturday night, something that shouldn't come as a surprise, given his position among the national leaders. Barlow now has six game-winning goals this season, tying him for fourth in the nation with three other players.

HEY, I KNOW YOU...
While the majority of the Cornell players have never faced Bemidji State, senior Derek Punches has faced the Beavers 17 times prior to tonight's contest. Punches, who was a member of the Wayne State program up until it folded last spring, has appeared in 17 games against the Beavers, posting seven points on four goals and three assists. He has a trio of multi-point games against Bemidji State, collecting a goal and an assist on Jan. 13, 2006, as a freshman, then duplicating that feat on Nov. 17, 2007 in his junior season. He then added a goal and an assist on Feb. 29, 2008, and tallied a goal the following night.

FRIENDS, THEN FOES
Punches will be lining up against a former teammate when the Big Red faces the Beavers. Bemidji State sophomore defenseman Ryan Adams was another member of the Wayne State program that was discontinued after last season.

ANOTHER LONG SEASON
With tonight's game, the 36th of the 2008-09 campaign, the Big Red will tie a school record for the most games played in a season. Cornell first played in 36 games in 2002-03 when it advanced to the national semifinals, then tied that mark last season when it needed to win the ECAC Hockey first round series against Dartmouth to advance in the league tournament. Should Cornell win tonight's game and advance to the Frozen Four, it would make the 2008-09 season the longest in program history.

A CORNELL REUNION
It appears as though the pieces are starting to fall into place for a Cornell reunion of sorts at the Frozen Four, should the Big Red knock off Bemidji State tonight. The two teams already in the final foursome, Vermont and Miami (Ohio), both have a Cornell tie to them. For Vermont, junior forward Justin Milo played his freshman season at Cornell in 2006-07 before transferring to the Catamount program, while Miami assistant coach Brent Brekke held the same post at Cornell for 10 seasons before leaving for Oxford, Ohio, last summer.

NOTABLES...
Tonight's game will mark the fourth time this season that the Big Red will play on a Sunday. Cornell holds a 2-0-1 mark on Sundays this season, having beaten Massachusetts and Rensselaer and earning a 2-2 tie against Colgate in the Florida College Classic... Cornell is making its third appearance on ESPNU this season, and is 2-0 on the network. Cornell opened the year with a 1-0 victory at Princeton on Nov. 7, then defeated Northeastern, 3-2, on ESPNU last night. Ironically, both of those games started at 4 p.m.... Cornell's overall record in televised games this season is a sparkling 8-3...

UP NEXT
Tonight's winner will round out the field in the 2009 Frozen Four, which will include Vermont, Miami (Ohio) and the winner of today's New Hampshire/Boston University matchup. The two national semifinals will be held on April 9 at the Verizon Center in Washington, D.C.