The Big Red's tour of the New England Ivy League schools continues this weekend with visits to Harvard on Friday night, followed by a date with nationally ranked Dartmouth on Saturday. Cornell earned a split in its opening two games of the ECAC Hockey season last weekend, also on the road in the Northeast against Yale and Brown. Both of this weekend's games 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 of the action.
 
GAME #4: Cornell at Harvard
DATE: Friday, Nov. 11, 2011
TIME: 7 p.m.
SITE: Cambridge, Mass. — Bright Center
2011 RECORDS: Cornell 1-2, 1-1 ECAC Hockey; Harvard 0-1-1, 0-1-1
SERIES RECORD: Cornell leads, 70-59-7
LAST MEETING: Harvard won, 4-3, on Feb. 18 at Lynah Rink.
RADIO: WHCU 870 AM (Jason Weinstein)
LIVE STATS: http://gocrimson.com/livestats
 
GAME #5: Cornell at #17 Dartmouth
DATE: Saturday, Nov. 12, 2011
TIME: 7 p.m.
SITE: Hanover, N.H. — Thompson Arena
2011 RECORDS: Cornell 1-2, 1-1 ECAC Hockey; Dartmouth 3-1, 2-0
SERIES RECORD: Cornell leads, 74-43-3
LAST MEETING: Cornell won, 3-0, on March 16 in an ECAC Hockey Championship semifinal at Atlantic City, N.J.
RADIO: WHCU 870 AM (Jason Weinstein)
LIVE STATS: www.dartmouthsports.com

Cornell game notes (PDF)

ABOUT THE BIG RED
Cornell has scored 14 goals in its first three games, half of which have come from a talented freshman class that has been of the squad's strengths in the early going. Rookie blueliner Joakim Ryan leads the team with three goals, followed by classmates Brian Ferlin and Joel Lowry, and juniors Greg Miller and John Esposito. The Big Red is 1-2 after an impressive 6-2 victory at then-No. 9 Yale on national television on Friday night before slipping up late in a 5-4 the next day at Brown.
 
ABOUT HARVARD
The Crimson kicked off its season at home with a 4-3 loss to Princeton on Friday, then a 2-2 tie with Quinnipiac on Saturday. Senior Alex Killorn has two of the team's five goals, with juniors Conor Morrison, Luke Greiner and David Valek accounting for the others. Junior Alex Fallstrom has three assists to tie for the Crimson's scoring lead with Killorn. Freshman Steve Michalek and sophomore Raphael Girard have made one start apiece in goal as Harvard tries to figure out how to replace graduated incumbents Kyle Richter and Ryan Carroll. Harvard has eight NHL draft picks on its roster.
 
THE SERIES WITH HARVARD
One of the best rivalries in all of college hockey, Cornell holds a 70-58-7 lead in the all-time series with the Crimson. The teams split their two meetings last season, with the victories going to the visitors. Cornell head coach Mike Schafer holds a 30-12-2 mark against his program's biggest rival.
 
ABOUT DARTMOUTH
The Big Green opened its ECAC Hockey slate with a sweep of visiting Quinnipiac, 5-4, and Princeton, 5-3. Dartmouth got off to a slow start in both contests, surrendering the first two goals against the Bobcats before storming back, then falling behind the Tigers on the first shift the following night. Junior winger Dustin Walsh spearheaded the Big Green's offense with two goals and three assists over the weekend, leading to ECAC Hockey Player of the Week honors. Senior James Mello, a second-team all-league pick last season, anchors the team in goal with a 3-1 record, 2.51 goals-against average and .920 save percentage.
 
THE SERIES WITH DARTMOUTH
Cornell holds a 73-43-3 lead in the all-time series against Dartmouth, a series that dates back to a Dartmouth win on Feb. 2, 1909, in Hanover, N.H. Cornell has won seven of the last 11 contests against the Big Green, including a 3-0 victory in the ECAC Hockey Championship semifinals on March 16 at Atlantic City, N.J. Cornell is 1-5-1 in its last seven trips to Dartmouth's Thompson Arena. Head coach Mike Schafer is 17-16-3 against the Big Green during his tenure behind the Cornell bench.
 
FERLIN'S FURIOUS WEEKEND
After his performance last weekend in his first collegiate road trip, freshman Brian Ferlin finds himself leading the country in points per game among rookies. Ferlin had a pair of primary assists on goals by John Esposito and Greg Miller before capping the scoring with an empty-netter in the Big Red's 6-2 win over then-No. 9 Yale on Friday, then added a goal and an assist a night later at Brown. The five-point weekend made Ferlin a clear choice for the ECAC Hockey Rookie of the Week -- the second straight week the Big Red earned the honor, with Joakim Ryan taking home the honor the week before.
 
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. 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.
 
NEW SUPPORT STAFF
Mike Schafer returns for his 17th season as the Cornell head coach, but he has two new assistants this year — three, if you include volunteer assistant coach Kris Mayotte. 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.
 
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.
 
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 314 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 468 career wins. Schafer is tops among Ivy League coaches, with Dartmouth's Bob Gaudet recently reaching his 302th career win.
 
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), 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.
 
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.
 
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).
 
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.
 
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.
 
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.
 
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.
 
A FAMILIAR START
Cornell scored its first goal of the season at exactly the same time as it did in 2010-11. Sean Collins got the Big Red started this season with a tally from a sharp angle at the 5:38 mark of the first period — which was the same time on the scoresheet when Nick D'Agostino scored against visiting New Hampshire on Oct. 29, 2010. Forward John Esposito assisted on both goals.
 
UP NEXT
Cornell finally returns home, playing its fifth consecutive Ivy League contest when Princeton visits Lynah Rink on Friday, Nov. 18 in a game that features the return of former Big Red assistant coach Scott Garrow, who now holds the same title for the Tigers. The theme of coaches taking on their former teams continues on Saturday, Nov. 19 when No. 19 Quinnipiac visits. First-year Big Red assistant coach Ben Syer spent 12 seasons with the Bobcats, who had their 2010-11 season ended with a three-game playoff series loss at Lynah Rink. Cornell then hosts Niagara before a showdown with No. 16 Boston University on Saturday, Nov. 26 at Madison Square Garden in New York.