For the fifth consecutive season, the Big Red is headed to the ECAC Hockey Championship semifinals, which are being staged for the second time at Boardwalk Hall in Atlantic City, N.J. Cornell is seeded second, which earns it a semifinal matchup on Friday against third-seeded Harvard. The other semifinal pits top-seeded Union against fourth-seeded Colgate, with the two winners due to square off Saturday night for the conference title and the accompanying automatic bid to the NCAA tournament. The semifinal losers will meet in the consolation game prior to the championship tilt. Each of this weekend's games involving Cornell will broadcast by Jason Weinstein on WHCU 870 AM. Live streaming video will be exclusively available through America ONE. 
 
ECAC HOCKEY CHAMPIONSHIPS
SITE: Boardwalk Hall — Atlantic City, N.J.
SEMIFINAL #1: 1-Union vs. 4-Colgate • Friday, March 16, 2012 • 4:30 p.m.
SEMIFINAL #2: 2-Cornell vs. 3-Harvard • Friday, March 16, 2012 • 7:30 p.m.
CONSOLATION: Semifinal losers • Saturday, March 17, 2012 • 4:30 p.m.
CHAMPIONSHIP: Semifinal winners • Saturday, March 17, 2012 • 7:30 p.m.
2011-12 RECORDS: Cornell 17-7-7, 12-4-6 ECAC Hockey; Union 22-7-7, 14-4-4; Harvard 12-9-11, 8-5-9; Colgate 19-15-3, 11-10-1.
SERIES RECORD vs. HARVARD: Cornell leads, 71-58-8
LAST MEETING: Tied, 2-2, on Jan. 21 in Ithaca, N.Y.
RADIO (Cornell games only): WHCU 870 AM (Jason Weinstein)
VIDEO: www.b2tv.com
LIVE STATS: TBA
 
ABOUT THE BIG RED
Cornell is coming off a quarterfinal series sweep of Dartmouth, in which it won the first game in double overtime, 4-3, before eliminating the Big Green with a 3-1 victory the following night. Friday's game was the longest in Lynah Rink history at the time, lasting 97 minutes, 20 seconds before senior defenseman Sean Whitney sent a soaring, long-range slap shot over the shoulder of Dartmouth goalie Jody O'Neill to give the Big Red a 1-0 series lead. Cornell used three goals by Dustin Mowrey, Locke Jillson and Whitney in the opening nine minutes of the second game to take a commanding lead before holding off Dartmouth to punch its ticket to Atlantic City. ... Cornell has lost just once in its last eight games (6-1-1) and has surrendered 69 goals, which is second fewest in the nation. ... The team's leading scorer last season, junior forward Greg Miller (14-15—29) has taken the lead. He's blown away his goals total from his first two seasons combined on East Hill, when he scored six times. Miller also leads the team with a plus-22 rating. ... Senior forward Sean Collins (12-10—22) is second on the team in scoring, having posted 17 of points over his last 19 games to set a new career-high in scoring. ... The Big Red has six players with more than 20 points for the first time since 2004-05 — which is one of the program's 12 league championship teams. ... The team's seven ties have set a program record for most deadlocks in a season.
 
ABOUT HARVARD
With an NCAA-record 11 ties during the regular season, the Crimson carried the trend of needing extra time in games into the playoffs last weekend. Third-seeded Harvard lost the first game of its quarterfinal series against sixth-seeded Yale in overtime, 2-1, before staving off elimination in dramatic fashion the next night with defenseman Dan Ford's winning goal in double overtime. Harvard then routed Yale in Sunday's decisive Game 3, 8-2, behind a hat trick from David Valek (9-4—13) and four-point efforts from linemates Alex Killorn (20-22—42; 9 PPGs) and Marshall Everson (11-19—30; 7 PPGs). The Crimson killed 17 of 18 Yale power plays in the series. ... Harvard is now 8-3-3 in its last 14 games since its visit to Lynah Rink on Jan. 21. ... Sophomore Raphael Girard (5-2-3, 2.25 goals-against average, .932 save percentage) has started the last five games in goal since relieving freshman Steve Michalek (7-7-8, 3.19, .894) in a 7-1 loss to Yale on Feb. 18. Michalek spent much of the season as the starter, earning a spot on the All-Ivy League second team. In his only appearance against Cornell, Girard was pulled after surrendering three first-period goals on 18 shots in the Big Red's 4-2 victory on Nov. 11, 2011 at Cambridge, Mass. ... Junior defenseman Danny Biega (10-24—34) leads ECAC Hockey in power-play points with 14, and he ranks second in the country in points per game for blueliners (1.06). The Carolina Hurricanes draft pick is also one of three finalists for ECAC Hockey's Best Defensive Defenseman Award. ... Harvard's power play leads the country with a success rate of 28.2 percent. ... The Crimson has been outscored 41-22 in first periods this season. It also has the rare distinction of having a better record when allowed the first goal (8-6-8) than when it scores first (4-3-3).
 
THE SERIES WITH HARVARD
One of the best rivalries in all of college hockey, Cornell holds a 71-58-8 lead in the all-time series with the Crimson. The Big Red won its third straight game at Harvard's Bright Center on Nov. 11, 4-2, after the teams split their two meetings last season. The Crimson then rallied for a 2-2 tie on Jan. 21 at Lynah Rink. Twenty-two of the teams' meetings have come in the postseason, with the Big Red holding a 14-7-1 advantage (the tie came in 1997, when the league used a best-of-two format for the quarterfinals, with a mini-game breaking 1-1 series ties). Cornell swept Harvard in a quarterfinal series in 2010 at Lynah Rink. Harvard won the teams' last neutral-site meeting on March 21, 2008 in an ECAC Hockey semifinal at Albany, N.Y. Cornell head coach Mike Schafer holds a 31-12-3 mark against Harvard.
 
FAST STARTERS
The Big Red is 11-1-2 on Friday nights this season and 10-2-2 in games on the front end of back-to-backs. Cornell has scored the first goal in all but four games in both scenarios. Some of the team's biggest victories have come at the start of the weekend, including at then-No. 9 Yale on Nov. 4, at then-No. 6 Colorado College on Jan. 6, against No. 7 Union on Feb. 24, and a double-overtime win over Dartmouth in the ECAC Hockey quarterfinals on March 9.
 
PLAYOFF PERFORMER
More than half of senior defenseman Sean Whitney's collegiate goals have come in the playoffs, including two last weekend in an ECAC Hockey Championship quarterfinal series against Dartmouth. The first couldn't have been much more dramatic, a long-range bomb clanking off the net's crossbar with 2:20 left in a second overtime. Whitney scored on a similar shot on a power-play in the first period the next night to cap the Big Red's scoring in a 3-1 victory. His other career postseason goals came in a 2011 semifinal against Dartmouth and a 2010 final against Union — both Cornell victories.
 
ONE CHAMPIONSHIP DOWN ...
With its win over three-time defending champion Yale on Feb. 11, Cornell clinched the outright Ivy League title for the first time since the 2004-05 season. The Big Red went 7-1-2 against its Ivy brethren this season, scoring an average of 3.9 goals per game. It's Cornell's 19th Ivy League title and marks the first time a school has claimed both the men's and women's title outright in the same season since 1995-96 — also a Cornell feat. The Big Red will be attempting to win its 13th ECAC Hockey title this weekend.
 
IVY HONOR ROLL
Freshman forward Brian Ferlin was named the Ivy League Rookie of the Year, and sophomore goalie Andy Iles was to the All-Ivy first team when the league announced its postseason awards on March 1. Ferlin is Cornell's first Ivy League Rookie of the Year since Riley Nash in 2008, also becoming the seventh Big Red player to earn the accolade since it was first bestowed in 1980. Iles gives Cornell the league's first-team goalie for the sixth time in the last 12 years after winning honorable mention a season ago. The Big Red also placed three players on the second team — Ferlin, junior forward Greg Miller and junior defenseman Nick D'Agostino. It's the second consecutive season D'Agostino has been on the All-Ivy second team.
 
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. 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 is tied for third in the nation with five shutouts and 10th in goal-against average. He also set a record for longest streak in ECAC Hockey play of 286:54 from November to January.
 
THE LONE RANGER
Andy Iles is one of just two goalies in Division I this season to be used exclusively by his team (Minnesota senior Kent Patterson is the other). If the trend continues, he would be 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.
 
MORE FROM MOWREY
The Big Red's forward corps took a hit in a Jan. 13 game at Quinnipiac when junior forward John Esposito — who was playing on the team's most productive even-strength and power-play line with junior Greg Miller and freshman Brian Ferlin — suffered an injury. But sophomore forward Dustin Mowrey stepped into Esposito's spot on the line and posted 14 points in the last 14 games. Mowrey stayed on the line even when Esposito returned to the lineup in the ECAC Hockey Championship quarterfinals, notching two goals and an assist in the two-game set.
 
RYAN OFF AND RUNNING
Joakim Ryan has already set a program record for goals in a season for freshman defensemen with six through 22 games. The record goes back to 1975-76, which was the first season in which freshmen were allowed to compete at the varsity level. 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 — forward Dustin Mowrey did it on Oct. 29, 2010 against New Hampshire.
 
NOW THAT'S DEFENSE
Junior defenseman Braden Birch, a Chicago Blackhawks draft pick, 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. Not surprisingly, Birch has a sterling rating of plus-11, despite frequently playing against the opposition's top forwards. The pairing of Birch and senior Sean Whitney had not surrendered a five-on-five goal this season until Saturday, Jan. 28. In turn, Birch was named one of three finalists for ECAC Hockey's Best Defensive Defenseman Award, having been on the ice for just three goals against in five-on-five situations in league play.
 
FABULOUS FRESHMEN
Freshman forward Brian Ferlin, a native of Jacksonville, Fla., is 15th the nation in rookie points per game (0.81) and finished tied for second in the ECAC Hockey rookie scoring race after posting 17 points in the Big Red's first 19 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. Forward Joel Lowry also had 17 points in league play.
 
THE OFFENSIVE DEFENSE
The Big Red has scored five shorthanded goals this season — which ranks second in ECAC Hockey and matches last season's total after going without a goal on the penalty kill since Dec. 28, 2008. Senior forward Sean Collins has two of this season's shorthanded goals after potting two last season to become the first Cornell player with multiple shorties since both Cam Abbott and Mark McCutcheon had a pair of them in the 2005-06 season. Senior forward Locke Jillson, junior forward Vince Mihalek, freshman forward Joel Lowry and freshman defenseman Joakim Ryan have the Big Red's other shorthanded goals this season.
 
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
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 named the U.S. emergency goalie for this year's World Junior tournament, but never saw action.
 
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. Iles was the team's emergency goalie this year, but was never summoned to join the team.
 
INTERNATIONAL EXPOSURE, PART II
Sophomore 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 in the world. He played in three of Belarus' games at the World Championships. Gotovets came to the U.S. two years before coming to Cornell, attending prestigious Shattuck-St. Mary's in Minnesota.
 
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.
 
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 328 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 (481) and is closing the gap on Quinnipiac's Rand Pecknold (331). Schafer is tops among Ivy League coaches, with Dartmouth's Bob Gaudet recently reaching his 314th career victory.
 
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. Now it's closing in on another milestone for victories in ECAC Hockey Championship play. The Big Red has 97 league-leading playoff victories heading into this weekend.
 
CLASS-Y KEIR
Senior captain Keir Ross was named one of 10 national finalists for the Lowe's Senior CLASS Award on Feb. 1. 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. He joins Brown's Jack Maclellan as the lone ECAC Hockey representatives among the finalists.
 
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.
 
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.
 
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 Kris Mayotte is also familiar with ECAC Hockey, having tended goal for Union from 2002-06.
 
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.
 
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.
 
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.
 
UP NEXT
Depending on the results of this weekend, the Big Red could be headed to the NCAA tournament for the third time in the last four years. If Cornell qualifies, it would compete in regional play March 23-25 in Bridgeport, Conn.; Worcester, Mass.; Green Bay, Wis. or St. Paul, Minn.