Game 7: Cornell vs. Yale
Face Off: Friday, November 19 • 7:30 p.m.
Site: Lynah Rink • Ithaca, N.Y.
2010-11 Records:
    Cornell - 2-4-0, 2-2-0 ECAC Hockey
    Yale - 5-1-0, 2-0-0 ECAC Hockey
Series Record: Cornell leads, 77-54-5
Last Meeting: Yale won, 2-1 (ot), on Feb. 13, 2010, in Ithaca, N.Y.
Media Information
TV: CBS College Sports
    (Eric Frede, pbp; Dave Starman, color; Shireen Saski, rinkside)
Radio: WHCU 870 AM (Jason Weinstein)
Live Audio: www.cornellbigred.com/showcase
Live Stats: sidearmstats.com/cornell/mhockey

Game 8: Cornell vs. Brown
Face Off: Saturday, November 20 • 7 p.m. EDT
Site: Lynah Rink • Ithaca, N.Y.
2010-11 Records:
    Cornell - 2-4-0, 2-2-0 ECAC Hockey
    Brown - 1-2-1, 0-1-1 ECAC Hockey
Series Record: Cornell leads, 68-39-5
Last Meeting: Cornell won, 3-0, on March 18, 2010, in Albany, N.Y.
Media Information
Radio: WHCU 870 AM (Jason Weinstein)
Live Video: www.cornellbigred.com/showcase
Live Stats: sidearmstats.com/cornell/mhockey

Game Notes in PDF Format

ITHACA, N.Y. -- The Cornell men's hockey team continues its four-game homestand this weekend with a pair of ECAC Hockey and Ivy League contests against Yale and Brown. The Big Red will try to get to the .500 mark for the first time this season with a pair of wins against the Bulldogs and the Bears, while the next victory this season for the Big Red will be the 300th career win in the history of Cornell head coach Mike Schafer. Friday night's game will be televised live on CBS College Sports with Eric Frede and Dave Starman calling the action, while both games can be heard locally on WHCU 870 AM with Jason Weinstein on the call.

ABOUT THE BIG RED
Cornell split its two games last weekend, scoring a 4-1 victory against Quinnipiac on Friday night before dropping a heartbreaking 2-1 overtime decision to Princeton on Saturday. Cornell moved to 2-2 in ECAC Hockey play with the second straight weekend split. On Friday night against the Bobcats, four different players scored a goal and 11 skaters got in the act with one point apiece. Cornell's defensive corps led the way, scoring three goals and adding a pair of assists on the night, with Nick D'Agostino, Braden Birch and Sean Whitney each scoring a goal. Locke Jillson had the lone goal among the forwards. Mike Garman picked up his first career victory with the win over the Bobcats. On Saturday, Mike Devin scored with 8.2 seconds left in regulation to send the game to overtime, but Princeton collected the game-winner 2:35 into the extra session as Andy Iles took the loss in goal. For the season, freshman Dustin Mowrey leads the Big Red offense with five points on three goals and two assists, with another five players right behind with four points apiece. Andy Iles and Mike Garman have split time in goal, with both goaltenders posting a 1-2 record. Iles has a 2.15 goals-against average and a .932 save percentage, while Garman has a .886 save percentage and a 3.28 goals-against average. Cornell's special teams have taken a while to get on track, converting just 3-of-28 power play chances (10.7 percent, 50th in the nation) while killing off 29-of-34 opponents' power plays (85.3 percent, 18th nationally).

ABOUT YALE
Yale enters the weekend ranked fifth nationally in the USA Today/USA Hockey poll, slipping one spot after splitting a pair of games in Colorado last weekend. The Bulldogs, taking a weekend off from ECAC Hockey action, defeated Colorado College, 5-1, on Saturday, before dropping a 4-3 contest at Air Force on Sunday night, a game that Yale led, 3-0, early in the third period. The Bulldogs feature a high-flying offense, scoring 32 goals in the first six games, to lead the nation in scoring offense. Much like last season, however, the Bulldogs have struggled to find consistency with their goaltending corps, allowing 2.67 goals per game. Offensively, the three-headed attack of Denny Kearney, Broc Little and Brian O'Neill leads the team in scoring, with Kearney and Little tied for the team lead with 12 points each and O'Neill right behind with 11 points. Yale has gotten most of its offensive production from its forwards, with Mike Matczak leading the defensemen with four points but ranking eighth on the team in scoring. Yale has converted 21.9 percent of its power-play chances (7-of-32, third nationally) while ranking 45th in the country in penalty-killing percentage, successfully ending 32-of-41 opponents' power plays (78.0 percent).

THE SERIES WITH YALE
Cornell and Yale have met 136 times in men's hockey, with Friday's 137th meeting moving the Cornell-Yale series into a tie with the Cornell-Colgate series for the most games against a single opponent. The Big Red leads the series with the Bulldogs, a series that dates back to the 1902-03 season, with a 77-54-5 mark in the series. Last season, the Bulldogs took both meetings, scoring a 4-2 win on Nov. 13, 2009, in New Haven, Conn., before claiming a 2-1 overtime victory against the Big Red on Feb. 13, 2010, at Lynah Rink. Yale has won each of the last five contests against the Big Red, though Cornell head coach Mike Schafer is 17-12-4 against the Bulldogs.

ABOUT BROWN
The Bears are one of the nation's most improved teams from this point last season, advancing to the semifinals of the ECAC Hockey tournament last year as a testament to how far Brown has progressed under second-year head coach Brendan Whittet. The Bears, who were off last weekend, enter this weekend's trip to Colgate and Cornell with a 1-2-1 overall and league record. Jack Maclellan leads the team in scoring with six points on two goals and four assists, while freshman Dennis Robertson leads the team with three goals. In goal, Mike Clemente and Marco DeFilippo have split time through the first four games, with Clemente posting a 4.80 goals-against average and a .861 save percentage. DeFilippo, meanwhile, has a 2.52 goals-against average and a .921 save percentage. The Bears rank second in the nation in power-play percentage, having scored on 7-of-21 extra-man opportunities (33.3 percent), though Brown has struggled with killing off penalties, ranking 50th in the country (16-of-21, 76.2 percent).

THE SERIES WITH BROWN
Cornell and Brown have met 112 times since the first-ever matchup in 1958-59, with Cornell holding a 67-39-5 lead in the all-time series. Last season, Cornell swept the season series, scoring a 6-0 win on Nov. 14, 2009, in Providence, R.I., before claiming a 5-3 win on Feb. 12, 2010, at Lynah Rink. The Big Red then capped the season trifecta with a 3-0 win over the Bears in the ECAC Hockey semifinals on March 18, 2010, at Lynah Rink. Cornell has won five straight matchups against Brown, and Cornell head coach Mike Schafer carries a 26-3-3 record against Brown during his coaching tenure.

ONE MORE TO THE MILESTONE
Cornell head coach Mike Schafer needs one more victory to reach the 300 mark for his career, a milestone that only 45 other coaches in Division I have ever reached. Schafer ranks third in ECAC Hockey in coaching victories among current bench bosses, trailing Quinnipiac coach Rand Pecknold by just four wins.

ANOTHER MILESTONE NEARS
The Big Red's 4-1 win against Quinnipiac last Friday marked the 988th all-time victory in the history of the Cornell program. Cornell ranks 17th all-time in wins by current NCAA Division I programs, trailing Dartmouth by 15. Cornell needs 12 more wins to become the 17th program to record 1000 all-time victories. The Big Red also ranks fifth in ECAC Hockey in victories, trailing Clarkson (1,306), Harvard (1,293), Yale (1,121) and Dartmouth (1,003).

YET ANOTHER MILESTONE
Cornell needs another 11 victories at Lynah Rink to post the 500th win at the storied venue. If Cornell wins every home game the rest of the year, it would win its 500th victory in the regular-season home finale on Feb. 19 against Dartmouth.

RISK/REWARD
Cornell has had some success playing with the extra attacker this season when trailing late in games. While the Big Red has allowed three empty-net goals – one in each of the first three games of the year – Cornell has also scored twice with the extra attacker.

ANOTHER LONG AWAITED DEBUT
A pair of sophomores this season have made their collegiate debuts after being scratched for every game last season. Vince Mihalek made his debut on Oct. 30 against RIT, collecting an assist in that contest. Meanwhile, defenseman Jarred Seymour made his first career appearance on Nov. 13 against Princeton after Nick D'Agostino and Mathieu Brisson were sidelined. Every skater on the Cornell roster has appeared in at least one game in his career.

INTO THE LEAD
Senior defenseman Mike Devin's goal and two assists this season have moved him into a tie with Michael Kennedy for the team lead in career scoring. Devin has 10 goals and 31 assists in 104 games, while Kennedy has 15 goals and 26 assists in 101 contests.

OUT IN FRONT
Cornell is 2-0 this season when scoring the game's first goal, but has lost all four of the games that it has given up the opening tally of the contest. Cornell has also won both games that it has led after one period.

WORKED WELL LAST TIME
Cornell opened the 2010-11 season with three straight defeats, something that hasn't happened since the 1979-80 season. While Cornell finished that season with a 16-15 record, the Big Red peaked at the right time, winning the ECAC championship and advancing to the Frozen Four for the first time since 1973.

BALANCED ATTACK
When Cornell got its first win of the season on Nov. 6 at Clarkson, it came by way of a balanced offensive attack. A total of 13 different skaters collected at least one point on the night, with four players – Jordan Kary, Kirill Gotovets, Locke Jillson and Dan Nicholls – collecting a pair of points.

A CHANGE WILL DO YOU GOOD
Jordan Kary and Keir Ross benefitted from a pair of scoring changes after the Clarkson game on Nov. 6. Kary was credited with the game's second goal, originally awarded to Braden Birch, giving him the first two goals, including the game-winner. Ross, meanwhile, was given the second assist on the Big Red's sixth goal, giving him his first point of the year.

THAT WAS QUICK
Jordan Kary has needed just four games this season to record a career season high for points, with those two points even coming in one game. Entering the season, Kary had just two career points, collecting an assist as a freshman and a goal as a junior. He equaled that output on Nov. 6 against Clarkson, scoring a pair of goals against the Golden Knights.

SHORT-HANDED
John Esposito's goal against New Hampshire marked the first short-handed goal for a Cornell player in a span of 59 games since Riley Nash scored short-handed against St. Cloud State on Dec. 27, 2008, in Estero, Fla.

YOUTH MOVEMENT
Of the seven players to share the team lead in scoring entering the weekend, six of those are underclassmen, with the seventh being a player known more for his physical play than his offensive prowess, senior Dan Nicholls. Of the other six players, three are sophomores, two are juniors and one is a freshman.

THE FIRST ONE'S OUT OF THE WAY
Freshman Andy Iles picked up his first win of his career on Nov. 6 at Clarkson, picking up 35 saves in the victory. Iles is now 1-2 on the year and has seen action in four of the Big Red's six games this season. Mike Garman, meanwhile, scored his first victory of his career when he stopped 23 of the 24 shots he faced on Nov. 12 against Quinnipiac at Lynah Rink.

NOT BLANKED OFTEN
Cornell's shutout loss at St. Lawrence on Nov. 5 marked the first time that the Big Red had been shut out since falling to Yale in the 2009 ECAC Hockey championship game in Albany, N.Y., by a 5-0 margin. Cornell went both NCAA tournament games that season, all of last season and the first two games of 2010-11 without being blanked, a span of 38 games.

WELCOME TO THE CLUB
All six members of the freshman class made their collegiate debut during the season's opening weekend on Oct. 29-30 against New Hampshire and RIT. Dustin Mowrey, Rodger Craig, Kirill Gotovets and Andy Iles saw time in both games, while Mathieu Brisson and Armand de Swardt both played in one game apiece, with Brisson appearing in the RIT game and de Swardt playing against New Hampshire.

THAT DOESN'T HAPPEN HERE
When New Hampshire scored seven times against the Big Red in the season opener on Oct. 29, it marked the first time that an opponent scored seven goals at Lynah Rink since Providence did so on Jan. 5, 1999, in a 7-3 Friar victory. It's been even longer since Cornell gave up seven in a season opener - in fact, it's never happened since Lynah Rink has been open. The last time the Big Red gave up seven goals in a season opener came in the 1947-48 season when Cornell lost, 9-0, to Army.

ALLOWING A DOZEN
Traditionally one of the nation's top defensive teams, Cornell allowed 12 goals in the first weekend of the season on Oct. 29-30 against New Hampshire and RIT. The Big Red hadn't given up 12 goals in a weekend since Feb. 6-7, 1999, at Yale and Princeton. That weekend, Cornell dropped the opener, 11-0, at Ingalls Rink in New Haven, Conn., before rebounding the following night with a 4-1 victory at Princeton. The last time Cornell gave up at least 12 goals in back-to-back losses came in Brian McCutcheon's final games as head coach, losing at Clarkson on March 6-7, 1995, by 6-2 and 7-2 scores.

0-2 OPENERS
The last time Cornell began a season 0-2 was the 2007-08 season, when the Big Red dropped contests to RIT and Princeton to begin the year. The Big Red rebounded in the third game to record a 5-3 win against Quinnipiac to avoid going 0-3 to begin the season. Cornell concluded that season with a 19-14-3 record and a third-place finish in the ECAC Hockey tournament. The Big Red last began a season 0-3 in 1979-80, falling twice to Notre Dame and at Brown before picking up a victory in game number four at Yale. In spite of the start, Cornell wound up winning the ECAC Hockey championship that season and finished fourth at the NCAA tournament.

THE ELDER STATESMAN
Quick, what Cornell player has appeared in the most games over the course of his career with the Big Red? If you guessed senior defenseman Mike Devin, you guessed correctly. Devin appeared in his 100th career game on Oct. 30 against RIT leads the team with 104 games played. Patrick Kennedy has also hit triple digits in games played, having appeared in 101 contests entering this weekend.

THREE RIVERS RECAP
Cornell answered a lot of questions about its offensive abilities with a five-goal first period in its exhibiton opener against Quebec at Trois-Rivieres on Oct. 21. Joe Devin and Tyler Roeszler both had a pair of goals in the first period, with Roezler tallying three points in all on the evening. Freshman Armand de Swardt had a goal and an assist, while Braden Birch and Greg Miller both had a pair of helpers. Mike Garman got the start in goal, posting 23 saves for the victory.

USA! USA! USA!
Cornell's offensive outburst continued in the second exhibition of the season, defeating the U.S. U18 National Team, 6-0, on Oct. 23. Joe Devin had a pair of goals and a pair of assists for a four-point night to lead the way for the Big Red. Junior Sean Collins had a goal and two assists, while John Esposito and Keir Ross both had a pair of assists. Kirill Gotovets had a goal and an assist, with Rodger Craig and Tyler Roeszler both adding a goal. Andy Iles posted 30 saves in his unofficial Cornell debut to record the shutout.

A SOUTHWEST FLAVOR
Cornell's roster in 2010-11 features a trio of players from the state of Texas, in juniors Locke Jillson and Keir Ross and freshman Armand de Swardt, with all three calling the Dallas area home. Cornell has now had four players from the Lone Star State, as the trio joins David McKee in hailing from Texas.

INTERNATIONAL EXPOSURE
Freshman 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) – but 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.

BROTHERLY LOVE
A pair of Cornell players have older brothers who are currently on rosters of NHL clubs, with four players having older brothers playing professional hockey at some level. Junior Sean Whitney's older brother, Ryan, plays for the Anaheim Ducks, while sophomore Chris Moulson's brother, Matt, plays with the New York Islanders. Another player, sophomore John Esposito, has an older brother, Angelo, who plays for the Chicago Wolves of the American Hockey League (Atlanta affiliate), with senior Patrick Kennedy's older brother, Michael, playing in the ECHL for the Florida Everblades.

IS THERE A DRAFT IN HERE?
Cornell has four players on the roster for 2010-11 who have been selected by NHL clubs. Junior Sean Collins (Columbus), sophomores Braden Birch (Chicago) and Nick D'Agostino (Pittsburgh) and freshman Kirill Gotovets (Tampa Bay) are each the property of NHL clubs after having been drafted prior to beginning their careers at Cornell.

AMERICAN INFLUENCE
The Big Red roster in 2010-11 has nine players who call the United States home, up from seven last season and tied for second-most on a Mike Schafer-coached Big Red team. Cornell had 10 Americans on the roster in 1997-98, Schafer's third season, and had nine in 1999-2000, 2006-07 and 2008-09.

HOMETOWN HERO
With programs in major cities like in Boston and Minneapolis, it's commonplace for a hometown player to suit up for the local college team, but that's not something as common in a city like Ithaca. So when freshman goaltender Andy Iles made his official collegiate debut on Oct. 29 against New Hampshire, he became the first Ithaca native to play for Cornell since Mike Tallman, who suited up for 37 games in three seasons from 1986-87 to 1988-89.

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 16th season, Schafer has 299 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 457 career wins.

UP NEXT
The Big Red will play a special non-conference contest against Colgate at the Prudential Center in Newark, N.J., the home to the New Jersey Devils of the National Hockey League. The Big Red and Raiders will meet on Sat., Nov. 27, at 7:30 p.m. Tickets are available now through the Cornell Athletic Ticket Office.