ITHACA, N.Y. — Coming off an exhilarating 5-1 victory over Michigan at Madison Square Garden, the Big Red returns home to close out the first portion of its schedule with a pair of ECAC Hockey games against Clarkson and St. Lawrence at Lynah Rink. Cornell is a perfect 3-0 in non-league play to date, but will need a strong performance this weekend against the Golden Knights and Saints to improve on its current eighth-place standing in ECAC Hockey play. Jason Weinstein will handle the play-by-play for both games on WHCU-AM (870) in the Ithaca area. His call, along with a live webcast of the games, can be accessed worldwide through Cornell's Redcast subscription service.
 
GAME 10: #12/12 CORNELL vs. CLARKSON
DATE: Friday, Nov. 30, 2012
TIME: 7 p.m.
SITE: Lynah Rink — Ithaca, N.Y.
2012-13 RECORDS: Cornell 4-3-2, 1-3-2 ECAC Hockey; Clarkson 2-5-5, 2-1-1 ECAC Hockey
SERIES RECORD: Cornell leads, 57-49-14
LAST MEETING: Tied, 1-1, on Feb. 17, 2012 in Potsdam, N.Y.
RADIO: WHCU 870 AM (Jason Weinstein)
LIVE STATS: http://sidearmstats.com/cornell/mhockey/scoreboard.aspx
 
GAME 11: #12/12 CORNELL vs. ST. LAWRENCE
DATE: Saturday, Dec. 1, 2012
TIME: 7 p.m.
SITE: Lynah Rink — Ithaca, N.Y.
2012-13 RECORDS: Cornell 4-3-2, 1-3-2 ECAC Hockey; St. Lawrence 6-4-2, 0-2-2 ECAC Hockey
SERIES RECORD: Cornell leads, 55-41-7
LAST MEETING: Cornell won, 4-3, in overtime on Feb. 18, 2012 in Canton, N.Y.
RADIO: WHCU 870 AM (Jason Weinstein)
LIVE STATS: http://sidearmstats.com/cornell/mhockey/scoreboard.aspx
 
Cornell game notes (PDF)
Clarkson game notes (PDF)
St. Lawrence game notes (PDF)
 
ABOUT THE BIG RED
Cornell snapped a five-game winless skid on a grand stage last Saturday in a thorough 5-1 victory over Michigan in front of a sold-out crowd at Madison Square Garden in The Frozen Apple. Sophomore forward Joel Lowry scored on the power play, then senior forward Greg Miller notched the Big Red's first three-point performance of the season. Miller set up freshman forward Teemu Tiitinen for his first collegiate goal, then potted a pair of his own tallies around senior tri-captain Erik Axell's first goal of the season. Junior goalie Andy Iles made his 45th consecutive start, making 26 saves. ... Miller has taken over the team scoring lead with five goals and three assists for eight points through nine games. He is trying to become the first member of the Big Red to lead the team in scoring three times since Matt Moulson (2003-04 – 2005-06). ... Lowry (4g-3a–7p) and senior forward John Esposito (3g-1a–4p) are tied for the team lead in power-play goals, with three apiece. ... Having surrendered just one goal in each of the last two games, Iles has lowered his goals-against average to 1.97 alongside a 4-3-2 record and .928 save percentage.
 
ABOUT CLARKSON
The Golden Knights have been fit to be tied  over the last five weeks, with five deadlocks over that span (2-1-5) since a season-opening four game losing streak. Clarkson got its first win in dramatic fashion, taking a 1-0 decision at Yale behind a 22-save shutout from freshman Greg Lewis and a goal from Jarrett Burton with 2:09 left in the third period. Clarkson's other victory was a lopsided 7-2 affair against Princeton, followed by a 3-3 tie last Friday at RIT. ...  Junior forward Allan McPherson leads the Knights in scoring with  three goals and 10 assists for 13 points through 12 games.  Juniors Ben Sexton (4g-6a–10p), a Boston Bruins draft pick and Jarrett Burton (6g-3a–9p) round out the top three in scoring, and — like McPherson — are typically used as centers. ... Lewis has a 2-4-4 record, 2.85 goals-against average and .897 save percentage, laying claim to the starting job in goal.
 
ABOUT ST. LAWRENCE
The Saints opened eyes around the nation with a strong start in non-conference play, including wins at Western Michigan, Northeastern and two-game sweep at Maine. But St. Lawrence has been a little slower out of the blocks in ECAC Hockey play, with losses to Yale and Quinnipiac, and ties with Brown and Princeton. The Saints' last game was a 4-0 loss at Boston University, marking the first time this season they've been held to fewer than two goals. ... Senior center Kyle Flanagan is tied for the national lead in scoring with nine goals and 12 assists for 21 points through 12 games. Not far behind is junior Greg Carey (9g-10a–19p), who typically plays on the opposite wing as reigning All-ECAC Hockey Rookie Team member Chris Martin (4g-5a–9p). ... Senior George Hughes (1g-10a–11p) is tied for fifth in the nation for points per game among defensemen. ... Junior Matt Weninger is 6-4-2 with a 2.47 goals-against average and .922 save percentage in his third season as the primary starter.
 
THE SERIES WITH CLARKSON
Friday's game will be the 121st all-time meeting between the Big Red and Golden Knights. Cornell is unbeaten in its last eight games (5-0-3) against Clarkson, taking a 57-49-14 lead in the all-time series. Two of last season's three meetings ended in ties, but the Big Red scored a 5-3 victory over the Golden Knights in the consolation game of the Florida College Hockey Classic. Cornell goalie Andy Iles has a 2-0-2 record,  2.21 goals-against average and .935 save percentage in four career starts against Clarkson. Cornell head coach Mike Schafer holds a 30-14-7 record against the Golden Knights.
 
THE SERIES WITH ST. LAWRENCE
Cornell leads the all-time series against St. Lawrence, 55-41-7, including a three-game winning streak. All three of those wins have come by one goal, including a pair of overtime victories. Sean Collins scored the winner 36 seconds into the extra frame last season on Feb. 18 at Appleton Arena, with Nick D'Agostino's power-play goal proving to be the only offense in a 1-0 victory on Dec. 2, 2011 at Lynah Rink. Greg Miller scored the overtime winner on Feb. 5, 2011 and helped set up a winning goal with 1:37 remaining in the third period on Jan. 29, 2010. Cornell head coach Mike Schafer is 19-15-5 all-time against the Saints.
 
FAMILIAR FACES
Both of this weekend's opponents will have familiar faces behind their respective benches. Casey Jones is in his second season as Clarkson's head coach after a three-year stint as the associate head coach of the Big Red. He is also a 1990 graduate of the program, becoming one of the 47 players to score at least 100 points with Cornell on  30 goals and 82 assists for 112 points. Another former Big Red coach returns to Ithaca on Saturday when St. Lawrence assistant coach Kris Mayotte makes his first visit as an opponent since spending last season as a volunteer assistant coach with Cornell. Mayotte is also a former All-ECAC Hockey Second Team goalie during his playing days with Union.
 
ILES FILES
Junior Andy Iles was named the ECAC Hockey Goaltender of the Week on Tuesday after stopping 26 shots in the Big Red's 5-1 victory over Michigan in The Frozen Apple. The only shot to elude Iles was one he never saw, soaring from 50 feet through traffic. It's the second time this year Iles has earned the honor. The first time was on Oct. 30 after the Big Red's two season-opening victories against Colorado College — including a season-opening shutout. Iles was an All-Ivy League First Team and All-ECAC Hockey Second Team selection last season after earning all-league rookie team honors as a freshman.
 
REST OPTIONAL
Andy Iles is the only goalie in Division I this season who was used exclusively by his team last season, having now made 44 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.
 
POLLS PROSE
After ascending to fourth in both the USCHO.com and USA Today/USA Hockey Magazine on Nov. 5, the Big Red fell to  as low as 13th on Nov. 19 — the lowest Cornell has been in the polls since its postseason run into the NCAA Midwest Region finals in March. With the win over Michigan in the Frozen Apple last Saturday, the Big Red gained a spot in both major polls to sit at No. 12 coming into the games against Clarkson and St. Lawrence.
 
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 336 career victories, ranking him second in ECAC Hockey. Schafer trails only Quinnipiac's Rand Pecknold by four 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.
 
POWER STRUGGLE
Special teams have been noteworthy of late for the Big Red, which has killed off 13 consecutive power-play opportunities by its opposition date. Conversely, Cornell snapped a stretch of 16 consecutive unsuccessful power-play chances last weekend with Joel Lowry's goal on the man advantage against Michigan.
 
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 eight 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.
 
CLASS-Y GUY
Tri-captain Nick D'Agostino is one of 20 national candidates for the Senior CLASS Award, which is presented annually to an NCAA Division I senior that has notable achievements in four areas of excellence — community, classroom, character and competition. D'Agostino has emerged as one of the nation's top point-producing defensemen, leading the Big Red with six power-play goals en route to All-Ivy League Second Team and All-ECAC Hockey Second Team selections last season. He posted career-highs in goals (8) and points (20) last season, producing a whopping five game-winning goals. Outside of the rink, he has been involved in a service trip with the Portal De Belen Foundation to Don Juan, Dominican Republic, Feed My Starving Children, the United Way Day of Care and the Ithaca Youth Hockey Association. He is also a three-time member of the School of Industrial and Labor Relations' Dean's List in 2011 and 2012.
 
COME ONE, COME ALL
The Big Red is used to playing in front of sold-out crowds at Lynah Rink, but Cornell hockey has been a commodity this season no matter the location. All of the Big Red's games away from home have been sold out so far this season — Colgate, Princeton, Quinnipiac and the 18,200 seats at Madison Square Garden for The Frozen Apple against Michigan. Cornell has played in front of eight consecutive capacity crowds heading into this weekend.
 
WHO NEEDS EVEN-STRENGTH GOALS?
All three of senior forward John Esposito's goals have come on the power play, making him tied for ninth 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.
 
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.
 
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.
 
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.
 
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.
 
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).
 
UP NEXT
The Big Red will be idle for nearly four weeks while tending to final exams and enjoying the holiday season before resurfacing for the annual Florida College Hockey Classic in Estero, Fla. Cornell opens with a game against Ferris State on Friday, Dec. 28 in a rematch of the NCAA Midwest Regional final from March before taking on either Minn.-Duluth or Maine on Dec. 29. The Big Red then closes out non-league play Jan. 4-5 with two games at WCHA contender Denver.