ITHACA, N.Y. — The #19 Cornell Men's Hockey team will wrap up a stretch of four consecutive road games this weekend when it travels to the North Country to take on a pair of upstart teams. Cornell will play Clarkson at 7 p.m. Friday, then face a matchup with St. Lawrence at 7 p.m. Saturday. The new Ivy League Digital Network subscription service will have audio of both games, featuring play-by-play from Jason Weinstein. His call can also be heard in the Ithaca area on WHCU-AM (870).
#19 CORNELL at #11/11 CLARKSON
TIME: 7 p.m.
DATE: Friday, November 15
PLACE: Cheel Arena
· Potsdam, N.Y.
RECORDS: Cornell 3-2-1, 1-2-1 ECAC Hockey
· Clarkson 9-2-1, 3-1 ECAC Hockey
RADIO: WHCU-AM (870)
AUDIO: www.ivyleaguedigitalnetwork.com/cornell/schedule?date=2013-11-17
VIDEO: www.americaonesports.com
LIVE STATS: http://livestats.prestosports.com/clarkson
#19 CORNELL at #17 ST. LAWRENCE
TIME: 7 p.m.
DATE: Saturday, November 16
PLACE: Appleton Arena
· Canton, N.Y.
RECORDS: Cornell 3-2-1, 1-2-1 ECAC Hockey
· St. Lawrence 6-2-2, 2-0-2 ECAC Hockey
RADIO: WHCU-AM (870)
AUDIO: www.ivyleaguedigitalnetwork.com/cornell/schedule?date=2013-11-17
VIDEO: www.americaonesports.com
LIVE STATS: http://livestats.prestosports.com/stlawu
Cornell game notes (PDF)
Clarkson game notes (PDF)
St. Lawrence game notes (PDF)
ABOUT THE BIG RED
Making its first league road trip of the season, Cornell rallied for a dramatic 3-3 tie last Friday at nationally ranked Rensselaer. The Big Red scored two extra-attacker goals in the final 1 minute, 35 seconds of the third period, with
Dustin Mowrey's power-play strike with 30 seconds remaining securing the one point. Defenseman
Joakim Ryan scored the Big Red's first two goals and also drew a key penalty while scoring the second. The Big Red pulled goalie
Andy Iles on the ensuing power play to create a six-on-four advantage, eventually leading to Mowrey's strike. Cornell was then shut out by Union, 3-0, the next night. ... McCarron (1 goals, 8 assists – 9 points) leads the team in scoring and is tied for second in the nation in assists per game (1.33). ... Ryan (3-3–6) and forwards
Joel Lowry (3-3–6) and Mowrey (3-1–4) are tied for the team lead in goals.
Brian Ferlin (2-4–6) is tied for second on the team in scoring with Ryan and Lowry. ... Senior goaltender
Andy Iles (3-2-1, 2.81 goals-against average, .904 save percentage) has made 76 consecutive starts. ... The Big Red's power play ranks sixth in the country with a 28.1 percent conversion rate.
ABOUT CLARKSON
Selected to finish dead last in both the coaches and media preseason ECAC Hockey polls, the Golden Knights are proving their detractors wrong with the program's best start since 1991-92. Clarkson is coming off its first ECAC Hockey road weekend sweep in nearly three years, thanks to a pair of victories at Dartmouth and Harvard last weekend. ... Clarkson is led by third-year head coach Casey Jones, a Cornell graduate (1990) who also served as an associate head coach for the Big Red from 2008-11. ... Senior forward Ben Sexton (2-9–11) leads the team in scoring, followed by classmate and leading goal-scorer Allan McPherson (5-4–9). Three of McPherson's strikes have come on the power play. ... Both sophomore Greg Lewis (6-1, 1.86, .929) and freshman Steve Perry (3-1-1, 1.94, .925) are seeing significant time in goal. ... Clarkson is 6-0-1 in one-goal games.
ABOUT ST. LAWRENCE
The Saints swept Harvard and Dartmouth last weekend, including a wild 8-5 affair Saturday against the Big Green. ... Senior forward Greg Carey (6-13–19) leads the team in scoring. He was the nation's leading goal-scorer last year with 28, but he isn't the leading goal-scorer on the team this year – his younger brother, freshman Matt Carey, is (8-5–13). They have been playing on a line with junior Chris Martin (1-4–5). ... The Saints' power play ranks seventh in the nation with a 27.9 percent conversion rate. ... St. Lawrence's five-game unbeaten streak coming into the weekend is tied for second-longest in the country. ... Senior Matt Weninger (5-2-2, 3.01, .894) is in his fourth season as St. Lawrence's starting goaltender. ... The Saints are 3-0-1 when surrendering the first goal of the game.
THE SERIES WITH CLARKSON
Friday's game will be the 123rd all-time meeting between the Big Red and Golden Knights. Cornell's nine-game unbeaten streak against Clarkson came to an end with a 6-3 loss Feb. 2 at Cheel Arena, but the Big Red still owns a 58-50-14 lead in the all-time series. A five-minute major assessed to Cornell late in the first period led to three power-play goals for Clarkson, which never trailed afterward.
Joakim Ryan and
Brian Ferlin had goals for Cornell, with
Dustin Mowrey assisting on both. Cornell head coach
Mike Schafer holds a 31-15-7 record against the Golden Knights.
THE SERIES WITH ST. LAWRENCE
Cornell leads the all-time series against St. Lawrence, 56-42-7, though it had a four-game winning streak halted with a 4-2 setback Feb. 1 at Appleton Arena. With the score tied at 2 in the final six minutes of the third period, the Big Red was assessed a five-minute major penalty for boarding, and Greg Carey scored the winning goal on the ensuing power play before Kyle Essery's empty-netter iced it. Each of the last five games in the series have been decided by one or two goals. Cornell head coach
Mike Schafer is 20-16-5 all-time against the Saints. Cornell and St. Lawrence first met during the 1926-27 season, when the Big Red's home games were played on Beebe Lake.
IRON MAN
Andy Iles has started 76 consecutive games in goal for the Big Red, spanning all of the last two seasons and the final game of his freshman campaign. His 76 consecutive starts rank tied for eighth in NCAA Division I history, leaving him 28 games a familiar leader. Cornell's Ben Scrivens holds the current record of 104 consecutive starts from 2006-10. Iles was one of just two goalies to be used exclusively by his team in 2011-12, with Minnesota's Kent Patterson being the other. By starting and finishing all of the Big Red's games that season, 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.
THE PUCK STOPS HERE
With 65 saves in two games at Nebraska Omaha, senior goaltender
Andy Iles moved up to third on the program's all-time list in saves. Just six games into his final season on East Hill, Iles has now accumulated 2,372 saves over his collegiate career. He trails only Ben Scrivens (2,873) and Jason Elliott (2,462) on the all-time list. He also ranks tied for first in tie, and third in consecutive starts and consecutive appearances (see chart downpage).
POLLS PROSE
With a tie at Rensselaer and a loss at Union last weekend, the Big Red slid down four spots to 19th in the USCHO.com poll and out of the USA Hockey/USA Today poll this week. Even though Cornell was out of both the USA Today/USA Hockey Magazine and USCHO.com polls to start this season, it still appeared in the USA Today/USA Hockey Magazine poll a league-high 14 weeks during the 2012-13 regular season. Cornell held an 8-8-1 mark in games against teams in the Top 20 at the time of the games.
THE 35th TO 350
Already the winningest coach in program history,
Mike Schafer hit 350 victories for his career — all of which have come from behind the Big Red's bench — with a 4-2 win over Princeton on Nov. 1. He became the 35th coach all-time to rack up 350 victories across all NCAA divisions, with four of them passing the milestone last season (Ferris State's Bob Daniels, Connecticut's Bruce Marshall, Notre Dame's Jeff Jackson and Quinnipiac's Rand Pecknold). Schafer is also just the third coach to pass 350 victories with Ivy League tenure, joining Ned Harkness (Cornell, Union and Rensselaer) and Tim Taylor (Yale).
POWERFUL STUFF
Cornell enters this weekend ranked sixth in the country on the power play, thanks in large part to seven goals on the man advantage in two games Oct. 25-26 at Nebraska Omaha. All four of the Big Red's goals in the final games came on the power play. It marked the first time the Big Red has scored four power-play goals in a game since Nov. 6, 2009 against Dartmouth (a 5-1 victory). The Big Red was also very successful on the man advantage in its opening two-game series last season, when all five of its goals came on the power play in a sweep of visiting Colorado College.
FEEL THE DRAFT?
Cornell has seven players on the roster who have been selected in the NHL Entry Draft, including one pick from last June. Freshman forward
Matt Buckles became the first Cornellian to be selected by the Florida Panthers, when the NHL's southern-most team nabbed the Toronto native in the fourth round with the 98th overall selection. Other NHL draft picks on the team include defensemen
Reece Willcox (Philadelphia Flyers),
Joakim Ryan (San Jose Sharks) and
Kirill Gotovets (Tampa Bay Lightning; has since been traded to the Chicago Blackhawks) and forwards
John McCarron (Edmonton Oilers),
Brian Ferlin (Boston Bruins) and
Joel Lowry (Los Angeles Kings).
FIVE-ON-THREE PROWESS
There are few situations in hockey more dire than when a team is facing a two-man disadvantage, but the Big Red has made a habit of rising to the occasion in those scenarios. Cornell is a perfect 12-for-12 killing off a two-man disadvantage over last season and the beginning of this season, spanning a total of 11 minutes, 39 seconds. The last time Cornell surrendered a five-on-three goal was against Yale on Feb. 11, 2012.
NOW THAT'S A STREAK
It has been 1,521 games since the Big Red has been shutout in back-to-back contests — a streak that could come to an end Friday if Rensselaer holds Cornell scoreless. The streak dates back December 1963 with games vs. Clarkson and St. Lawrence.
FOR THE RECORD
With three consecutive shutouts in November 2011,
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 Los Angeles Kings 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 a other 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 2011 to January 2012.
BLANK YOU VERY MUCH
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.
GOLDEN AGAIN
Junior forward
Cole Bardreau won a gold medal while serving as an assistant captain for the United States at the 2013 International Ice Hockey Federation World Junior Championship in Ufa, Russia. He then scored a goal and added an assist in his first game back with the Big Red last weekend against Union. It wasn't the first time Bardreau's earned gold with the U.S. either — he also wore an "A" while capturing gold at the IIHF Under-18 World Championship in April 2011. Sophomore defenseman
Joakim Ryan was also among the 45 players who started in camp for the United States before the roster was trimmed in advance of the World Junior championships.
NOT JUST A DEFENSEMAN
Just six games into the season, junior blueliner
Joakim Ryan has already equaled his goal total from all of last year with three. Two of his strikes came in a 3-3 tie last Friday at Rensselaer. He led the team with 20 assists last season and was tied for third in points with 23. He was also on the ice for 41 of the team's 83 goals, which ranked second on the team to only leading scorer
Greg Miller (43). The production was nothing new to Ryan, who set a program record for goals by a freshman defenseman in 2011-12 with seven. He then started off this season with three points in his first two games, including a power-play goal in the Oct. 25 opener at Nebraska Omaha.
GLOBAL INFLUENCE
The Big Red has 13 players on the roster born in the United States. Cornell 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. Forward
Kevin Cole then made his collegiate debut in 2011, 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. Yet another Ithaca area connection came on board last season when the Big Red added 6-foot-4 defenseman
Craig Esposito, who is also from Lansing and also competes on Cornell's men's golf team.
COLLECTING HARDWARE
While forward
Cole Bardreau became the first Cornell player to earn gold with the U.S. at the IIHF World Junior Championships, goalie
Andy Iles was the first to earn a medal with Team USA. Iles claimed bronze at the 2011 tournament in Buffalo, N.Y., with the only player before him to compete with the United States being goaltender Jean-Marc Pelletier in 1998.
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.
LET'S GET IT STARTED
Cornell has an all-time record of 57-34-6 in season openers, claim its third straight win in a season debut with a 5-3 victory Friday at Nebraska Omaha. Last season, Cornell secured a 2-0 victory against visiting Colorado College behind a 19-save shutout from
Andy Iles. Both of the Big Red's goals were scored on the power play by
John Esposito, who has since graduated and now plays professionally in Austria. Under current head coach
Mike Schafer, the Big Red is 12-6-1 in season openers.
UP NEXT
The Big Red returns to Cornell for a three-game home stand, including ECAC Hockey games against Brown (Nov. 22) and defending national champion Yale (Nov. 23). After a rare midweek game against 2013 NCAA tournament qualifier Niagara (Nov. 26), the Big Red will head to famed Madison Square Garden in New York on Nov. 30 for the fourth installment of the Red Hot Hockey series against Boston University. Cornell then closes out the fall semester portion of its schedule back at home against Colgate on Dec. 7.
