After the Big Red thrived on a four-game road swing through the New England Ivy League schools to start the ECAC Hockey season, the schedule boasts a three-game home stand before the highly anticipated Red Hot Hockey game against Boston University at Madison Square Garden. Princeton and Quinnipiac, which had its season ended with a league quarterfinal series loss at Lynah Rink last year, will visit this weekend with the interesting twist of assistant coaches that have inside knowledge of their opponents. The Tigers have longtime Big Red assistant coach Scott Garrow on staff under the same title, and Cornell's first-year assistant coach Ben Syer spent 12 seasons with the Bobcats. Both of this weekend's games, along with Tuesday's games against Niagara, can be heard in the Ithaca area on WHCU 870 AM and worldwide through the Cornell Redcast subscription service with Jason Weinstein providing the call.
 
GAME #6: Princeton at #18 Cornell
DATE: Friday, Nov. 18, 2011
TIME: 7 p.m.
SITE: Lynah Rink — Ithaca, N.Y.
2011 RECORDS: Cornell 3-2, 3-1 ECAC Hockey; Princeton 2-4-1, 2-3
SERIES RECORD: Cornell leads, 80-48-7
LAST MEETING: Cornell won, 2-1, on Jan. 7 at Princeton, N.J.
RADIO: WHCU 870 AM (Jason Weinstein)
WEBCAST: www.cornellbigred.com/showcase/#liveevents
LIVE STATS: http://livestats.internetconsult.com/cornell/mhockey/
 
GAME #7: Quinnipiac at #18 Cornell
DATE: Saturday, Nov. 19, 2011
TIME: 7 p.m.
SITE: Lynah Rink — Ithaca, N.Y.
2011 RECORDS: Cornell 3-2, 3-1 ECAC Hockey; Quinnipiac 7-4-2, 1-2-2
SERIES RECORD: Cornell leads, 12-5-2
LAST MEETING: Cornell won, 3-2 in overtime, on March 13 in Game 3 of an ECAC Hockey Championship quarterfinal at Lynah Rink.
RADIO: WHCU 870 AM (Jason Weinstein)
WEBCAST: www.cornellbigred.com/showcase/#liveevents
LIVE STATS: http://livestats.internetconsult.com/cornell/mhockey/

Cornell game notes (PDF)
Princeton game notes (PDF)
Quinnipiac game notes (PDF)
 
ABOUT THE BIG RED
Cornell has been offensive in the early going this season, but in a good way. The Big Red has scored 21 goals over its first five games to start out with a 3-2 record, climbing into the polls to the nation's No. 18 spot in the USCHO.com poll. The 4.2 goals per game total ranks third in the country, trailing only top-5 teams Colorado College and Minnesota. Cornell had an impressive road sweep last weekend, defeating Harvard, 4-2, before travelling up to then-ranked Dartmouth for a 3-2 triumph. Junior defenseman Nick D'Agostino had four goals over the weekend, including his first three collegiate power-play tallies. He is tied for the team lead in points with eight alongside freshman Brian Ferlin. D'Agostino's 1.60 points per game leads the country among defensemen, and Ferlin's identical total leads the country among rookies. Cornell also has the nation's best power play, connecting at a 29.4 percent clip in the early going.
 
ABOUT PRINCETON
The Tigers are coming off a 3-0 home shutout of Clarkson with sophomore goalie Sean Bonar making 26 saves. Under first-year head coach Bob Prier, a longtime assistant at St. Lawrence, Princeton is off to a 2-4-1 start (2-3 in ECAC Hockey). Like the Big Red, the Tigers' leader in goals and points is a defenseman — junior Michael Sdao, an Ottawa Senators draft pick. He has four goals and an assist to tie for the point lead with senior defenseman Derrick Pallis and sophomore center Andrew Calof, though Pallis and Calof have no goals. Calof led the team in scoring as a freshman with nine goals and 24 assists. The Tigers have been particularly good on the power play, converting 26.9 percent of the time — good for fourth in the nation. Prior to Saturday's win over Clarkson, the Tigers had surrendered at least three goals in five straight.
 
THE SERIES WITH PRINCETON
The Big Red holds a commanding 80-48-7 lead all-time, though the teams split the series last season. The visitors won both contests by identical 2-1 scores, including a wacky overtime affair at Lynah in which the start of the game was delayed when Princeton's bus broke down en route from Colgate, the scoreboard went dead during stretches of the game, and the Big Red forced overtime with Mike Devin's extra-attacker goal with nine seconds remaining in regulation. The rematch between the squads two months later had a similarly frenetic finish, when Princeton tied the game at 1 with less than two minutes left in the third, then Cornell's Nick D'Agostino scored the winner 31 seconds later.
 
ABOUT QUINNIPIAC
The Bobcats won seven of their first eight, but have slowed down in ECAC Hockey play after opening the league slate with a 5-2 win at Princeton on Nov. 1. Quinnipiac is 0-2-2 in its last four games, including a 1-1 tie with Clarkson and 1-0 loss to St. Lawrence at home last weekend. The team's last three games have all gone into overtime. Junior Jeremy Langlois leads the team with 10 goals and 16 points, with six of his goals coming on the power play. Twin sophomore forwards Connor Jones (3-11—14) and Kellen Jones (5-7—12) rank second and third, respectively, in scoring, followed by freshman Tampa Bay Lightning draft pick Matthew Peca (3-9—12). Senior Dan Clarke and junior Eric Hartzell have split time in goal, but Hartzell has started the last three games and played well in an ECAC Hockey Championship quarterfinal series against the Big Red in March at Lynah Rink.
 
THE SERIES WITH QUINNIPIAC
Cornell holds a 12-5-2 lead in the all-time series against the Bobcats, who joined the Division I rank in 1998. Rand Pecknold has been the squad's head coach ever since. While the Big Red has a decided edge in the all-time series, some of Quinnipiac's biggest wins have come at Lynah Rink — including a 1-0 shutout of the Big Red in Game 2 of last season's quarterfinal series, and a pair of wins to eliminate the favored Big Red in a quarterfinal series in 2006-07.
 
STREAKING
Junior forward Greg Miller has points in all of the Big Red's five games to date, racking up a pair of goals and five assists for seven points. Linemate Brian Ferlin has eight points over the last four games, tying junior defenseman Nick D'Agostino for the team lead in scoring. D'Agostino's eight points have come in the form of four two-point games. The Big Red has also scored in the first period of all five of its games, and held a lead in all five contests.
 
AWARDS ABOUND
Through three weeks of its season, the Big Red has already claimed four weekly honors from ECAC Hockey — including two from freshman forward Brian Ferlin. Nick D'Agostino was named Player of the Week on Tuesday, Nov. 15 after scored four goals over the previous weekend's two games — including his first three collegiate power-play goals. He scored twice on the man advantage just 56 seconds apart in Friday's 4-2 victory over the Crimson, then followed up by netting the squad's final two goals the next night at Dartmouth. One of the team's alternate captains, D'Agostino is now tied for the team lead with eight points, and leads the nation in points per game for defensemen (1.60). Ferlin repeated as Rookie of the Week after a three-point weekend. The Boston Bruins' fourth-round draft pick in June assisted on a pair of goals against Harvard, then scored the first goal vs. Dartmouth. Like D'Agostino, Ferlin has eight points on the season and also leads the nation in points per game for freshmen (1.60). He was the league's reigning Rookie of the Week after posting five points the previous weekend at Yale and Brown.
 
RYAN OFF AND RUNNING
Freshman defenseman Joakim 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 — Dustin Mowrey did it on Oct. 29, 2010 against New Hampshire. But it was the first time a Big Red freshman has scored three points in the opener since Byron Bitz also had two goals and an assist against Western Michigan on Oct. 31, 2003. Ryan is currently the only freshman defenseman in the country who averages a point per game.
 
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 position 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.
 
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 316 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 and St. Lawrence's Joe Marsh well ahead with 470 career wins. Schafer is tops among Ivy League coaches, with Dartmouth's Bob Gaudet recently reaching his 302th career win.
 
CLASS-Y KEIR
Captain Keir Ross is one of 20 national candidates for the Lowe's Senior CLASS Award. 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.
 
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 Trenton Titans) Jordan Kary (CHL's Texas Brahmas), Dan Nicholls (CHL's Rio Grande Valley Killer Bees), defenseman Mike Devin (ECHL's Elmira Jackals) and goalie Mike Garman (ECHL's Colorado Eagles).
 
THE OFFENSIVE DEFENSE
The Big Red scored four short-handed goals last season after going without a goal on the penalty kill since Dec. 28, 2008. Senior forward Sean Collins had two of those short-handed goals, becoming the first Cornell player with multiple shorties since both Cam Abbott and Mark McCutcheon had a pair of them in the 2005-06 season. The trend has continued early this season, with Joakim Ryan scored a short-handed goal in the team's third game of the season at Brown.
 
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
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 this year's tournament in Buffalo, N.Y. Iles is just the second Cornell player to be a member of the United States 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 world's most prestigious junior hockey tournament. Iles had an outstanding evaluation camp with the team this summer, setting himself up to compete again in the 2012 event in Edmonton, Alberta.
 
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.
 
INTERNATIONAL EXPOSURE, PART II
Sophomore 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) – 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.
 
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 born in 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 its 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.
 
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 makes his collegiate debut, it will be 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.
 
FIRST 1,000 DOWN ...
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.
 
BLANK YOU VERY MUCH
It came down to the wire last season, but the Big Red was able to keep alive its streak of recording at least one shutout in a season. With a 3-0 victory over Dartmouth in the ECAC Hockey Championship semifinals — which turned out to be the team's penultimate game — Cornell has at least one blanking of an opponent during each of the last 16 seasons. 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.
 
ANOTHER MILESTONE AWAITS
After celebrating Mike Schafer's 300th victory as a head coach and then the program's 1,000th all-time win later last season, Cornell is primed to eclipse another notable plateau in 2011-12. The Big Red has a record of 497-182-52 at Lynah Rink, meaning the team can claim its 500th all-time victory at the storied venue as early as Nov. 22 against Niagara.
 
UP NEXT
Cornell takes a two-game hiatus from ECAC Hockey play during the week of American Thanksgiving, hosting Atlantic Hockey's Niagara on Tuesday, Nov. 22 before a showdown with Hockey East's Boston University on Saturday, Nov. 26 at Madison Square Garden in New York. The Big Red then returns home for league games against St. Lawrence and Clarkson before the four-week intersession break.