Game 11: Cornell vs. Alabama-Huntsville
Face Off: Friday, December 3 • 7:00 p.m.
Site: Lynah Rink • Ithaca, N.Y.

Game 12: Cornell vs. Alabama-Huntsville
Face Off: Saturday, December 4 • 7:00 p.m.
Site: Lynah Rink • Ithaca, N.Y.

2010-11 Records:
    Cornell - 3-6-0, 2-4-0 ECAC Hockey
    Alabama-Huntsville - 2-7-1
Series Record: Cornell leads, 2-0-0
Last Meeting: Cornell won, 5-2, on 11/3/01, in Ithaca, N.Y.

Media Information
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 will try to gain a little momentum heading into the end of the fall semester when the Big Red plays host to Alabama-Huntsville in a pair of nonconference contests this weekend at Lynah Rink. Cornell is coming off a 4-3 come-from-behind victory against Colgate on Nov. 27 at the Prudential Center in Newark, N.J., in a non-league tilt, a victory that gave Cornell head coach Mike Schafer the 300th victory of his tenure behind the bench. Both games can be seen with live video through the Cornell Redcast subscription service, with live stats also available. Jason Weinstein also provides the radio broadcast to listeners in the Ithaca area on WHCU 870 AM.

ABOUT THE BIG RED
Down 3-1 after two periods, the Big Red stormed back for a 4-3 victory against Colgate in its last time out on Nov. 27, snapping a three-game losing skid and giving head coach Mike Schafer his 300th career victory in the process. Nick D'Agostino led the way with a goal and an assist, while Greg Miller and Joe Devin both added a pair of helpers on the night. Sean Collins, Tyler Roeszler and John Esposito each added a goal, with Andy Iles making 16 saves in goal for the victory, his second of the season. For the year, D'Agostino is leading the Big Red in scoring with seven points on three goals and four assists in eight games, while Greg Miller is right behind with a goal and five helpers. Five different players are tied for third with five points apiece. Iles has seen a majority of time in goal, having recorded a .908 save percentage and a 2.49 goals-against average. Mike Garman, who has also gotten four starts this season, has a .889 save percentage and a 3.23 goals-against average. The Big Red has worked its power play and penalty killing percentages up, currently ranking 35th in the nation in power-play success rate at 16.3 percent (7-of-43). When killing off penalties, Cornell has an 86.7 percent success rate (39-of-45), good for 14th nationally.

ABOUT ALABAMA-HUNTSVILLE
In its first season as the only Division I program without a conference home, the Chargers have played a bit of a barnstorming schedule to date, having played just four home games in their first 14 contests of the season heading into this weekend's series with Cornell. Alabama-Huntsville has a 2-11-1 mark entering the weekend behind first-year head coach Chris Luongo, and is coming off a third-place finish at the Rensselaer Holiday Tournament last weekend in Troy, N.Y., falling to Bowling Green before beating Connecticut, 6-2, in the consolation game. Keenan Desmet leads the Chargers offensively with four goals and seven assists for 11 points, while Matt Baxter has 10 points on three goals and seven assists. A trio of freshmen have shared the goaltending duties this season for the Chargers, with Clarke Saunders getting the majority of minutes and posting a .881 save percentage and a 4.02 goals-against average with a pair of wins. C.J. Groh has gotten five starts and played just over a third of the time this season, recording a .890 save percentage and a 3.99 goals-against average. John Griggs has seen limited time in between the pipes, posting a .882 save percentage and a .384 goals-against average. The Chargers have struggled in killing penalties this season, ranking 51st nationally with a 76.6 percent success rate (59-of-77), but has found a high point in its power-play unit, which has converted on 16-of-72 chances this season (22.2 percent, 13th nationally).

THE SERIES WITH ALABAMA-HUNTSVILLE
This weekend's meetings will mark the third and fourth games ever played between Cornell and Alabama-Huntsville, with the Big Red claiming victory in both of the first two contests. Alabama-Huntsville will be making its second trip ever to Lynah Rink, with the Chargers having played a pair of games in 2001-02. That season, Cornell claimed a 6-1 victory on Nov. 2 before scoring a 5-2 win the following night in the Big Red's season opening series. Cornell has never played at Alabama-Huntsville.

300: NOT JUST A MOVIE
Cornell's victory over Colgate on Nov. 27 at the Prudential Center in Newark, N.J., gave head coach Mike Schafer the 300th victory of his coaching career. Schafer becomes the 46th coach in NCAA Division I history with 300 career wins, and is just the 14th active coach to reach that mark. He ranks third in ECAC Hockey in career victories among active coaches, trailing Joe Marsh of St. Lawrence (457) and Rand Pecknold of Quinnipiac (308), with Dartmouth's Bob Gaudet (286) and Colgate's Don Vaughan (286) both closing in on 300 victories themselves.

ANOTHER MILESTONE NEARS
The Big Red's 4-3 win against Colgate at the Prudential Center on Nov. 27 marked the 989th 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 17. Cornell needs 11 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 (1,308), Harvard (1,293), Yale (1,124) and Dartmouth (1,006).

OUT IN FRONT
Cornell is 2-1 this season when scoring the game's first goal, but has lost five of the six games that it has given up the opening tally of the contest. Cornell has also gone 2-1 this seasonwhen leading after one period.

A BALANCED ATTACK
While Cornell's offense has accounted for 26 goals through nine games, the Big Red has benefitted from a wide balance in scoring among the 70 points recorded on the year. In fact, only two players – Nick D'Agostino and Greg Miller – have a pair of multi-point games this season. Six other players – Locke Jillson, Dustin Mowrey, Jordan Kary, Joe Devin, Kirill Gotovets and Dan Nicholls – have picked up one multi-point contest this season.

OFFENSE FROM DEFENSE
Senior defenseman Mike Devin enters the weekend with the team lead in career scoring, having tallied 43 points in her career midway through his senior season. Fellow seniors Joe Devin and Patrick Kennedy are both one point behind in career points.

CAREER YEARS
With the Big Red just about a third of the way through the 2010-11 season, five different players have either tied or broken their single-season highs for points already this season. Senior Dan Nicholls has equaled his career high of four points, set as a freshman, while junior Jordan Kary has doubled his career point output, tallying four points this season after entering the year with just two career points. Sophomores Greg Miller and Braden Birch both surpassed their totals from last season already in 2010-11. Miller has six points this year after finishing his freshman campaign with five, while Birch has four points on the season after tallying two a year ago. Another sophomore, Vince Mihalek has one point on the season after not seeing any game action a year ago.

TAKE YOUR PICK
Entering the season, head coach Mike Schafer felt very confident in his goaltending options with junior Mike Garman and freshman Andy Iles, and with both netminders having played three league games, the numbers back up the quality Schafer has in both players. With the duo having split the six ECAC Hockey contests to this point, their numbers are nearly identical; both players have allowed six goals, with Iles holding a slight edge in number of saves. Iles has a 2.00 goals-against average and a .935 save percentage, while Garman has a 2.02 goals-against average and a .929 save percentage. Iles and Garman rank fourth and fifth, respectively, in save percentage, while ranking sixth and seventh, respectively, in goals-against average in league games.

PUT IT IN NEUTRAL
When Cornell and Colgate met at the Prudential Center in Newark, N.J., on Nov. 27, it marked the 22nd time that the two programs have played at a neutral site among the 138 contests played between the two schools. In those 22 games, the two teams are split evenly, with Cornell holding a 10-10-2 record in those games. Prior to the game at the home of the New Jersey Devils in November, the last neutral site game between the two programs came on March 22, 2008, in the consolation game of the ECAC Hockey tournament, a game won by Cornell, 4-2.

YET ANOTHER MILESTONE
Cornell needs another 11 victories at Lynah Rink to post the 500th win at the storied venue. Cornell is guaranteed nine more home games this season, needing to win all nine and to host a weekend playoff series and win that series in order to reach the 500th victory this season.

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 four empty-net goals – one in each of the first three games of the year and one against Yale on Nov. 19 – Cornell has also scored three times with the extra attacker. The Big Red also scored a delayed penalty goal on Nov. 20 against Brown

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, and every player but sophomores Chris Moulson and Omar Kanji have played this season.

NOT THE RIGHT KIND OF STREAK
Cornell has posted a pair of three-game losing skids this season, something that hasn't happened since the 2006-07 season. That year, Cornell dropped three straight from Dec. 30 through Jan. 12, before closing out the season with four straight defeats.

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.

SHORT-HANDED
John Esposito's goal against New Hampshire on Oct. 29 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.

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.

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.

UP NEXT
After a break for exams and the upcoming holiday season, the Big Red returns to action with the annual Florida College Classic in Estero, Fla. The Big Red opens that tournament against St. Cloud State on Dec. 29 before facing either Maine or Miami in the second day of action. Cornell is next at home on Jan. 14-15 when it takes on Rensselaer and Union.