Coming off a stellar finale to the non-league portion of its schedule, Cornell hits the road for contests at Quinnipiac and Princeton. The Big Red is ranked a season-high ninth in the USCHO.com poll after a performance last weekend at Colorado College that garnered national attention with a victory and tie against a Tigers team that was ranked sixth at the time. The results give Cornell an 8-2-2 record in its last 12 games heading into the second half of its schedule. All games remaining in the regular season come within ECAC Hockey, where the Big Red currently sits atop the tables with a 6-1-1 mark and 13 points. This weekend's matchups will be mark the second time Cornell has played both Quinnipiac and Princeton this season. The Big Red defeated both teams 4-0 in their November visits to Lynah Rink behind shutouts from sophomore goalie Andy Iles. Both games will broadcast by Jason Weinstein on WHCU 870 AM and can be accessed worldwide through the Cornell Redcast subscription service. Additionally, Saturday's game at Princeton will also be televised regionally by Verizon FiOS 1.
 
GAME #16: #9/9 CORNELL at QUINNIPIAC
DATE: Friday, Jan. 13, 2012
TIME: 7 p.m.
SITE: TD Bank Sports Center — Hamden, Conn.
2011 RECORDS: Cornell 9-4-2, 6-1-1 ECAC Hockey; Quinnipiac 12-7-5, 4-4-4 ECAC Hockey
SERIES RECORD: Cornell leads, 13-5-2
LAST MEETING: Cornell won, 4-0, on Nov. 19, 2011 in Ithaca, N.Y.
RADIO: WHCU 870 AM (Jason Weinstein)
LIVE STATS: http://livestats.prestosports.com/quinnipiac
VIDEO (fee): www.quinnipiacbobcats.tv
 
GAME #17: #9/9 CORNELL at PRINCETON
DATE: Saturday, Jan. 14, 2012
TIME: 7 p.m.
SITE: Hobey Baker Rink — Princeton, N.J.
2011 RECORDS: Cornell 9-4-2, 6-1-1 ECAC Hockey; Princeton 5-10-4, 4-8-1 ECAC Hockey
SERIES RECORD: Cornell leads, 81-48-7
LAST MEETING: Cornell won, 4-0, on Nov. 18, 2011 in Ithaca, N.Y.
RADIO: WHCU 870 AM (Jason Weinstein)
TV: Verizon FiOS 1
LIVE STATS: www.goprincetontigers.com/liveStats/liveStats.dbml
VIDEO (fee): www.goprincetontigers.com/

Cornell games notes (PDF)
 
ABOUT THE BIG RED
Cornell is 2-1-1 so far in its stretch of six straight games away from Lynah Rink, most recently posting an impressive win and tie against Colorado College at the Tigers' home rink in Colorado Springs. First-period goals by senior Locke Jillson and freshman John McCarron stood up in front of 39 saves from sophomore goalie Andy Iles in Friday night's 3-1 victory, then freshman Joel Lowry, senior Sean Collins and junior Greg Miller scored three consecutive goals for the Big Red on Saturday to erase an early two-goal deficit and ultimately lead to a 3-3 tie in Saturday's rematch. ... The Big Red is currently ranked second in the country in team defense, surrendering 2.00 goals per game. Sophomore Andy Iles is the first goalie in program history to record five shutouts in a six-game span, also notching two shutout streaks of 213 minutes, 35 seconds and 152 minutes, 36 seconds that rank second and ninth, respectively, in program history. ... The team's leading scorer last season, junior forward Greg Miller (6-10—16), has scored goals in four consecutive games to take over the team lead in points. Junior defenseman Nick D'Agostino (8-7—15) and freshman forward Brian Ferlin (6-9—15) are just one point off Miller's pace. ... Cornell is 6-0 in Friday night games.
 
ABOUT QUINNIPIAC
The Bobcats are 5-1-3 since a six-game winless skid in November that concluded with a 4-0 loss to the Big Red at Lynah Rink. Quinnipiac returned to league play last weekend with a 2-1 victory at Yale that knocked the Bulldogs out of the 20-team USCHO.com poll, then rallied from two goals down to salvage a 2-2 tie Saturday at Brown. ... Quinnipiac is 8-1-2 at TD Bank Sports Center, scoring nearly four goals per game at the five-year-old facility. ... Sophomore center Connor Jones (5-16—21) has used a four-game assist streak to surpass junior center Jeremy Langlois (12-8 —20; 6 ppg) for the team's scoring lead. Jones pivots a line that features his twin brother, Kellen (5-10—15), on the right wing. Neither of the Joneses have scored in four games since missing multiple contests with injuries. ... Langlois, who led the team with 18 goals last season, centers a line with  senior Scott Zurevinski (4-11—15) and freshman Tampa Bay Lightning draft pick Matthew Peca (5-11—16) on the wings. ... Junior Eric Hartzell has started two-thirds of the Bobcats' games in goal, but has been the starter of choice for each of the last five. He owns a 6-4-5 record with a 2.00 goals-against average and .916 save percentage, while his numbers within league play are better (3-2-4, 1.61, .936). ... The Bobcats have outscored their opponents 30-12 in the first period this season, but they haven't won any games in which they've surrendered the first goal or trailed at the end of any period. 
 
THE SERIES WITH QUINNIPIAC
Cornell holds a 13-5-2 lead in the all-time series against the Bobcats, who joined the Division I ranks in 1998 with Rand Pecknold at the helm. The Big Red won the teams' first meeting of the season, 4-0, on Nov. 19 at Lynah Rink, giving Cornell victories in the its last four regular-season meetings between the squads. The Big Red also won a best-of-three ECAC Hockey quarterfinal series against the Bobcats last March. ... Cornell is 3-0-1 all-time at TD Bank Sports Center. ... The Bobcats haven't scored in its last 33 power-play chances against the Big Red, dating back to Nov. 21, 2009.
 
ABOUT PRINCETON
The Tigers have posted an even 3-3-3 record since a 2-7-1 start, thanks in large part to consistent offense. Princeton has scored at least two goals in 16 of its 19 games, including an average of three goals per game over the last nine contests. ... The Tigers surrendered a pair of one-goal leads before junior defenseman Michael Sdao scored in overtime for a 3-2 victory Friday at Brown, but then suffered a 6-2 loss the following night at Yale. ... Sophomore right wing Jack Berger (7-7—14) and Sdao (6-8—14) share the team lead in points. Sdao, an Ottawa Senators draft pick, has nine points over his last six games. Berger plays on a line centered by classmate Andrew Calof (6-7—13), who led ECAC Hockey in freshman scorer last season, with senior Marc Hagel (5-2—7) on the opposite wing. ... Sophomore Sean Bonar has started 13 of the Tigers' 19 games with a 4-6-3 record, 2.94 goals-against average and .899 save percentage, but junior Mike Condon (1-4-1, 3.09, .915) has started four of the last five. ... The Tigers have surrendered an average of 41.6 shots on goal over their last five games. ... Princeton's power play has six goals in its last 16 chances (37.5 percent).
 
THE SERIES WITH PRINCETON
The Big Red holds a commanding 81-48-7 lead all-time, including a 4-0 victory in the teams' first meeting of the season on Nov. 18 at Lynah Rink. Cornell's last visit to Hobey Baker Rink ended in frenetic fashion, 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 on Jan. 7, 2011. The teams have alternated victories in New Jersey over the last six years.
 
A.I. — THE NEW ANSWER
With three consecutive shutouts in November, sophomore goalie Andy Iles recorded the second-longest shutout streak in program history, spanning 213 minutes, 35 seconds over a five-game span. The only Cornell shutout streak that went longer was posted by Toronto Maple Leafs goalie Ben Scrivens, who held the opposition scoreless for 267:11 during the 2010 playoffs. But Iles wasn't done there — he posted back-to-back shutouts against St. Lawrence and Clarkson on Dec. 2 and Dec. 3, respectively, spurring another lengthy shutout streak of 152:36 that ranks ninth all-time in Big Red history. Iles is tied for second in the nation with five shutouts. While his goals-against average of 1.91 is fifth in the NCAA, it's third among goalies who have played the majority of his teams' minutes. Iles also picked up his first collegiate point with an assist Dec. 30 against Clarkson, which was the Big Red's first goalie assist since Ben Scrivens garnered one March 9, 2008 — a span of 120 games.
 
DANGEROUS D'AGOSTINO
Junior defenseman Nick D'Agostino is tied for second on the team in scoring with eight goals and seven assists for 15 points entering the weekend. His average of a point per game is tied for fifth in the nation among blueliners; his five game-winning goals is tied for the NCAA lead; and his six power-play goals is tops nationally among defensemen. D'Agostino earned ECAC Hockey Player of the Week honors Nov. 14 after a gaudy four-goal weekend in victories at Harvard and Dartmouth. The Pittsburgh Penguins draft pick scored three power-play goals over the weekend, including a pair of goals on the man advantage just 56 seconds apart against the Crimson. He then scored the only goal in a 1-0 victory over Niagara on Nov. 22, then accomplished the same feat in a 1-0 win against St. Lawrence on Dec. 2. D'Agostino then was Cornell's lone representative on the Florida College Hockey Classic's all-tournament team last weekend after he posted a goal and an assist in the Big Red's opener against Massachusetts.
 
STELLAR 'D'
Junior defenseman Braden Birch went two months without being on the ice for an even-strength goal against. The streak of 668 minutes, 49 seconds covered all 12 games in which Birch has appeared, ending with Clarkson's final goal Dec. 30 at the Florida College Hockey Classic. The pairing of Birch and senior Sean Whitney still has not surrendered a five-on-five goal this season.
 
FERLIN'S FURIOUS START
Freshman forward Brian Ferlin, a native of Jacksonville, Fla., is tied for third the nation in rookie points per game (1.00) and is also tied for third in the ECAC Hockey scoring race after posting 11 points in the Big Red's first eight conference games. Teams around the league have taken notice, tabbing the Boston Bruins draft pick as the Rookie of the Week on consecutive weeks of Nov. 7 and Nov. 14. Teammate Joakim Ryan earned the honor on Oct. 31, meaning the Big Red had ECAC Hockey's top newcomer for the first three weeks of its season.
 
BIG STAGE PERFORMERS
Seniors Sean Whitney and Locke Jillson have shown a knack for producing in front of the biggest crowds they've seen in their college careers. Both scored goals against Boston in front of a sold-out crowd of 18,200 at Madison Square Garden in 2009, then the duo teamed up to score the Big Red's lone goal against BU on the same stage on Nov. 26. Whitney had the initial shot on Jillson's goal, which came on a sharp-angle shot off a rebound. Jillson then potted his second goal of the season to open the scoring in a 3-1 victory Jan. 6 at then-No. 6 Colorado College.
 
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.
 
CLASS-Y KEIR
Senior 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.
 
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).
 
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 positions 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 — a span which included a trip to Colorado College's World Arena.
 
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 322 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 St. Lawrence's Joe Marsh (475) and is closing the gap on Quinnipiac's Rand Pecknold (324). Schafer is tops among Ivy League coaches, with Dartmouth's Bob Gaudet recently reaching his 306th career win.
 
AMERICAN INFLUENCE
Seven of this season's nine freshmen were born in the United States, giving the Big Red a more American feel than it's 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.
 
BLANK YOU VERY MUCH
Sophomore goalie Andy Iles made 15 saves for his first collegiate shutout on Nov. 18 in a 4-0 victory over Princeton. With that result, the Big Red extended its streak of seasons with at least one shutout to 17. 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.
 
COLLECTING HARDWARE
Goalie 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 the 2011 tournament in Buffalo, N.Y. Iles is just the second Cornell player to be a member of the U.S. 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 tournament. Iles was been named the U.S. emergency goalie for this year's World Junior tournament, but was never summoned to join the team.
 
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. Ferlin was then invited to the U.S. World Junior Pre-Tournament Camp in mid-December, but did not make the final cut. Sophomore defenseman Kirill Gotovets also played for his native Belarus in the 2010 IIHF World Championships.
 
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 made his collegiate debut Dec. 30 against Clarkson, it became 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, and his mother, Karen (Shull), also played for the Cornell women's hockey team. This is the ninth consecutive season that the son of a former Big Red player has also suited up for Cornell.
 
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 Idaho Steelheads and Trenton Titans), Jordan Kary (CHL's Texas Brahmas), Dan Nicholls (CHL's Rio Grande Valley Killer Bees and Texas Brahmas, and SHL's Fayetteville FireAntz), defenseman Mike Devin (ECHL's Elmira Jackals) and goalie Mike Garman (ECHL's Colorado Eagles and CHL's Tulsa Oilers). Two players who left Cornell after the 2010 season have also made their NHL debuts this season — goalie Ben Scrivens with the Toronto Maple Leafs and forward Riley Nash with the Carolina Hurricanes.
 
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 from Texas.
 
MILESTONE MANIA
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. The Big Red then surpassed another milestone this season by recording the 500th victory all-time at storied Lynah Rink with a 1-0 shutout of Niagara on Nov. 22.
 
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 scoring a short-handed goal in the team's third game of the season at Brown and Vince Mihalek adding another shorty on Nov. 19 vs. Quinnipiac.
 
UP NEXT
The Big Red returns to Ithaca for its first home games in seven weeks when it welcomes Ivy League rivals Dartmouth and Harvard to Lynah Rink on Friday, Jan. 20 and Saturday, Jan. 21, respectively. The game against Dartmouth will be televised regionally on Time Warner Cable.