ITHACA, N.Y. — One of the most highly anticipated matchups of the men's hockey season descends on Lynah Rink this weekend when the defending Ivy League champion Big Red host rivals Harvard and Dartmouth. Friday's game against the Crimson will also feature a national television audience, with NBC Sports Network broadcasting the game with renowned Mike Emrick and Pierre McGuire handling play-by-play and color analyst duties, respectively. Not to be overlooked, Saturday's game against undefeated Dartmouth will also be televised regionally by Time Warner Sports Network, with Jason Benetti and Dan Fridgen providing the call. Jason Weinstein will handle the play-by-play for both games on WHCU-AM (870) in the Ithaca area, and his call can be accessed worldwide through Cornell's Redcast subscription service.
 
GAME 7: #17 HARVARD at #10/10 CORNELL
DATES: Friday, Nov. 16, 2012
TIME: 7:30 p.m.
SITE: Lynah Rink — Ithaca, N.Y.
2012-13 RECORDS: Harvard 3-2-0, 2-2-0 ECAC Hockey; Cornell 3-2-1, 1-2-1 ECAC Hockey
SERIES RECORD: Cornell leads, 71-60-8
LAST MEETING: Harvard won, 6-1, on March 16, 2012 in Atlantic City, N.J.
TV: NBC Sports Network (Mike Emrick, Pierre McGuire)
RADIO: WHCU 870 AM (Jason Weinstein)
LIVE STATS: http://sidearmstats.com/cornell/mhockey/scoreboard.aspx
 
GAME 8: #12/12 DARTMOUTH at #10/10 CORNELL
DATES: Saturday, Nov. 17, 2012
TIME: 7 p.m.
SITE: Lynah Rink — Ithaca, N.Y.
2012-13 RECORDS: Dartmouth 5-0-1, 4-0-0 ECAC Hockey; Cornell 3-2-1, 1-2-1 ECAC Hockey
SERIES RECORD: Cornell leads, 78-43-3
LAST MEETING: Cornell won, 3-1, on March 10, 2012 in Ithaca, N.Y.
TV: Time Warner Cable Sports (Jason Benetti, Dan Fridgen)
RADIO: WHCU 870 AM (Jason Weinstein)
LIVE STATS: http://sidearmstats.com/cornell/mhockey/scoreboard.aspx
LIVE VIDEO: www.cornellbigred.com/showcase
 
Cornell game notes (PDF)
Harvard game notes (PDF)
Dartmouth game notes (PDF)
 
ABOUT THE BIG RED
Cornell is coming off a disappointing road trip, which included at 5-3 loss at Princeton and a 4-1 setback at Quinnipiac, marking the first time the Big Red has allowed at least four goals in consecutive games since Oct. 29-30, 2010. The Big Red rallied for three goals in a span of less than five minutes to take a third-period lead against the Tigers, but then surrendered three of their own to suffer its first loss of the season. A better start to Saturday's game went for naught when Quinnipiac scored a pair of second-period goals to take control. ... Senior forward Greg Miller, who has led the team in points each of the last two seasons, scored an untraditional goal in each game — one banked off the goalie from behind the goal line, the other directed in off his right skate. ... Miller is tied for the team lead in goals with classmate John Esposito and sophomore forward Joel Lowry. Sophomore defenseman Joakim Ryan leads the team in points, all on six assists. ... Junior Andy Iles has now started 42 consecutive games in goal with seven career shutouts.
 
ABOUT HARVARD
The 17th-ranked Crimson will hit the road for the first time after posting a 3-2 mark through its first five games. Harvard started the year with victories over Bentley and Brown before consecutive losses to Yale and Union. The Crimson then rebounded with a 4-0 blanking of Rensselaer on Satruday. ... Freshman forward Jimmy Vesey, one of the eight NHL draft picks on the team, leads the way in scoring (5 goals-2 assists–7 points). Senior Alex Fallstrom (1-3–4) and sophomore Tommy O'Regan (0-4–4) follow, and senior Marshall Everson (2-1–3) and freshman Kyle Criscuolo (2-1–3) are the only other players with multiple goals. ... Junior goalie Raphael Girard is 3-2 with a 2.49 goals-against average, .926 save percentage and a pair of shutouts, returning to the starting role after laying claim to it late last season. ... The Crimson power play has converted just twice in 20 opportunities after leading the nation in that category last year with a conversion rate of 27.3 percent.
 
ABOUT DARTMOUTH
The 5-0-1 Big Green enter this weekend as the last remaining unbeaten team in Division I, rocketing up to 12th in the national rankings after last weekend's sweep of Rensselaer and Union. ... Sophomore forward Tyler Sikura (4-7–11) leads the team in scoring and ranks third in the nation in points per game, while junior Eric Robinson (7-2–9) leads the nation in goals per game. Three of his goals have been on the power play. ... Junior Cab Morris (3-0-1, 1.22, .946) has taken over the primary starting goaltending duties, currently ranking second in the country in GAA and fourth in save pct. ... The Big Green's penalty kill is second in the country with a 95.8 percent success rate and has actually produced more goals (two) than it has yielded (one). Both of those shorthanded goals were scored by Sikura. ... Senior forward Dustin Walsh (Montreal) is the team's lone NHL draft pick.
 
THE SERIES WITH HARVARD
One of the best rivalries in all of college hockey, Cornell holds a 71-60-8 lead in the all-time series with the Crimson, including a 34-21-6 edge in games played a famed Lynah Rink. The teams split last season's series, 1-1-1, after the Big Red won its third straight game at Harvard's Bright Center on Nov. 11, 2011 by a score of 4-2. The Crimson rallied for a 2-2 tie in last year's meeting at Lynah on Jan. 21, then Harvard secured a 6-1 victory in the ECAC Hockey semifinals on March 16 in Atlantic City, N.J. Cornell head coach Mike Schafer holds a 31-13-3 mark against his program's biggest rival.
 
THE SERIES WITH DARTMOUTH
Cornell holds a 78-43-3 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 12 of the last 16 contests against the Big Green, including a two-game sweep of an ECAC Hockey quarterfinal series March 9-10 at Lynah. The Big Red's double-overtime victory in Game 1 of that series is the longest game in men's hockey history at Lynah Rink (97 minutes, 40 seconds). Cornell also won both regular-season meetings between the two teams, including a 4-3 victory on Jan. 20 at Lynah Rink on Cole Bardreau's power-play goal in overtime. Head coach Mike Schafer is 21-16-3 against the Big Green during his tenure behind the Cornell bench.
 
NOT JUST A DEFENSEMAN
Sophomore blueliner Joakim Ryan enters the weekend leading the Big Red in scoring with six points through six games. All of his points have come on assists, and he's been on the ice for nine of the team's 14 goals to date. The production is nothing new to Ryan, who set a program record for goals by a freshman defenseman last season with seven en route to being selected by the San Jose Sharks in June's NHL Entry Draft. This is the second straight season a defenseman has led the team in scoring through six games – senior Nick D'Agostino was tied for the team lead with nine points at this point last year.
 
POLLS PROSE
After ascending to fourth in both the USCHO.com and USA Today/USA Hockey Magazine on Nov. 5, the Big Red tumbled to 10th this week after suffering its first two losses of the season. It's the lowest Cornell has been in the polls since its postseason run into the NCAA Midwest Region finals in March.
 
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 18th season, Schafer has 335 career victories, ranking him second in ECAC Hockey. Schafer trails only Quinnipiac's Rand Pecknold by two games. Schafer is tops among Ivy League coaches, with Dartmouth's Bob Gaudet up to 319 career victories in his 23 seasons at the helm.
 
ILES FILES
Andy Iles is the only goalie in Division I this season who was used exclusively by his team last season, having now made 42 consecutive starts in the Cornell net. By playing all of the Big Red's games in 2011-12, Iles became the first goalie at Cornell to accomplish that feat since Darren Eliot in 1982-83, and the first Cornell sophomore to do so since Laing Kennedy in 1960-61 — when the season was just 19 games long. Iles was named the ECAC Hockey Goaltender of the Week after the two season-opening victories against Colorado College, then he followed that up with 44 saves against Colgate on Nov. 2. Iles was an All-Ivy League First Team and All-ECAC Hockey Second Team selection last season.
 
FOR THE RECORD
With three consecutive shutouts last November, 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. His success has stretched into the postseason, as evidenced by a career-high 46 saves in a March 9 double-overtime victory against Dartmouth. Iles was third in the nation with six shutouts and 10th in goal-against average (2.12). He also set a record for longest streak in ECAC Hockey play of 286:54 from November to January.
 
FIVE-ON-THREE PROWESS
There are few situations in hockey more dire than when your team is facing a two-man disadvantage, but the Big Red has been impregnable in those scenarios so far this season. Cornell is a perfect 4-for-4 on the two-man disadvantage through the opening six games, spanning a total of 3 minutes, 47 seconds. Conversely, the Big Red offense has scored in one of its three five-on-three advantages this season — John Esposito's season-opening goal on Oct. 26 against Colorado College.
 
AFTER FURTHER REVIEW ...
Junior forward Armand de Swardt was awarded his second career collegiate goal on Oct. 27 through a post-game scoring change. Video review revealed de Swardt deflected a shot by Brian Ferlin past Colorado College goalie Josh Thorimbert for a power-play goal to kick off the scoring in a 3-2 victory. De Swardt scored again Nov. 9 at Princeton to give him two goals this season after scoring just once in his first two seasons on East Hill.
 
WHO NEEDS EVEN-STRENGTH GOALS?
All three of senior forward John Esposito's goals have come on the power play, making him tied for third in the country in that department. All five of the Big Red's goals in its two victories Oct. 26-27 over Colorado College came on the man advantage, including one strike on a five-on-three. It was the first time since 2000 that Cornell opened the season without scoring a five-on-five goal. The last time the team scored as many as five power-play goals in its first two games actually wasn't that long ago — 2009, when it racked up six against Niagara and Dartmouth.
 
TGIF
Cornell suffered a rare Friday loss Nov. 9 at Princeton after posting a 16-2-2 record in its previous 20 Friday games since the latter stages of the 2010-11 season. The Big Red rallied from a two-goal deficit to take a third-period lead against the Tigers, but Princeton stormed back with three unanswered goals for the victory.
 
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 the 2011 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.
 
FEEL THE DRAFT?
Cornell has eight players on the roster who have been selected in the NHL Entry Draft, including three picks from last June. Freshman defenseman Reece Willcox was selected in the fifth round by the Philadelphia Flyers, then sophomore forward John McCarron was snagged in the sixth round by the Edmonton Oilers. The San Jose Sharks then selected sophomore defenseman Joakim Ryan in the seventh round, giving the Big Red its most NHL draft picks entering a season since it had eight in the 2006-07 campaign. Other NHL draft picks on this year's team include sophomore forwards Brian Ferlin (Boston Bruins) and Joel Lowry (Los Angeles Kings), senior defensemen Braden Birch (Chicago Blackhawks) and Nick D'Agostino (Pittsburgh Penguins), and junior defenseman Kirill Gotovets (Tampa Bay Lightning).
 
MAKING THE CUT
Sophomore forward Cole Bardreau competed for the U.S. throughout the USA Hockey National Junior Evaluation Camp over the summer in Lake Placid, N.Y. Bardreau,  who was a member of the U.S. team that captured the gold medal at the IIHF Under-18 World Championship in April 2011, was one of the 34 players that survived a mid-camp cut during evaluation for a possible spot on the national team for the IIHF World Junior Championships in December and January. Sophomore defenseman Joakim Ryan was also among the 45 players who started the camp with the U.S. before the roster was trimmed.
 
INTERNATIONAL EXPOSURE
Junior Kirill Gotovets got a taste of the big time 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.
 
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.
 
GLOBAL INFLUENCE
The Big Red has 11 players on the roster born in the United States, the second-highest total for a Mike Schafer-coached team at Cornell (trailing only the 12 it had last season). The Big Red also now has players native to seven different countries on its squad. Aside from the bulk of its roster hailing from the United States and Canada, Cornell also has a player from Belarus (Kirill Gotovets), Denmark (Christian Hilbrich), Finland (Teemu Tiitinen), Singapore (Dustin Mowrey) and South Africa (Armand de Swardt).
 
CLOSER TO HOME
Hometown fans of the Big Red got a rare treat when goalie Andy Iles became the first Ithaca native to play for the team since Mike Tallman in 1988-89. Sophomore forward Kevin Cole then made his collegiate debut last season, marking 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. Yet another Ithaca area connection came on board this season when the Big Red added junior defenseman Craig Esposito, who is also from Lansing and serves as one of the tri-captains on Cornell's men's golf team. Freshman forward John Knisley, who calls Pittsford, N.Y. home, also joins the Big Red this season to give Cornell five players that call Upstate New York home for the first time since 1963-64.
 
A GOOD TRACK RECORD
Cornell has won at least one game in the home portion of the Harvard-Dartmouth series since those schools were paired together as ECAC Hockey travel partners for the 2005-06 season.
 
BLANK YOU VERY MUCH
With its season-opening 2-0 victory over Colorado College, Cornell has recorded at least one shutout in each of the last 18 seasons. The last time the Big Red 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 current head coach Mike Schafer, and his clubs have never gone a full year without recording a shutout.
 
LET'S GET IT STARTED
Cornell has won 10 of its last 12 league openers, including a 3-1 victory Nov. 2 at Colgate. The Big Red recently improved its all-time record in season debuts to 56-32-6. By also winning Saturday's rematch with Colorado College, Cornell won its first two non-league games for the first time since 2006.
 
WASTING NO TIME
Junior forward Dustin Mowrey scored just 41 seconds into Friday's game at Colgate, marking the earliest goal Cornell has scored in a game since Nick D'Agostino opened the scoring just 31 seconds into the Big Red's games against Harvard on Feb. 18, 2011.
 
THE OFFENSIVE DEFENSE
The Big Red scored six shorthanded goals last season, its highest total since the 2005-06 season. Sophomore defenseman Joakim Ryan had two of those goals on the penalty kill, with the second coming in an NCAA tournament victory over Michigan. Other returning players who scored shorthanded goals last season include sophomore forward Joel Lowry and senior forward Vince Mihalek.
 
HAPPY TO SEE YOU
Senior defenseman Nick D'Agostino scored eight goals last season, and four of them came in the same weekend against Harvard and Dartmouth. D'Agostino potted a pair of power-play goals just 64 seconds apart in the Big Red's 4-2 victory on Nov. 11, 2011, then scored twice the following night at Dartmouth in a 3-2 win.
 
UP NEXT
The games only get more meaningful for the Big Red with the program's fourth trip to Madison Square Garden in the last six years on tap. Cornell will travel to New York on Saturday, Nov. 24 to take on Michigan in a rematch of an NCAA Midwest Region first-round clash last season that ended with Rodger Craig's overtime goal and a 3-2 Cornell victory.