#14/14 CORNELL vs. BOSTON UNIVERSITY
TIME: 8 p.m.
DATE: Saturday, November 30
PLACE: Madison Square Garden · New York, N.Y.
RECORDS: Cornell 7-3-1, 4-3-1 ECAC Hockey · Boston U. 6-6-1, 2-3 Hockey East
RADIO: WHCU-AM (870)
AUDIO: Ivy League Digital Network
VIDEO: Ivy League Digital Network
LIVE STATS: CornellBigRed.com

Cornell game notes (PDF)
Boston U. game notes (PDF)

WHAT'S ON TAP
The Big Red carries a four-game winning streak into the fourth edition of Red Hot Hockey, the biennial event pitting Cornell against Boston University at famed Madison Square Garden in New York. The new Ivy League Digital Network subscription service will have both live video and audio of the game, featuring play-by-play from Jason Weinstein and color commentary from Tony Eisenhut. Their call can also be heard in the Ithaca area on WHCU-AM (870).

ABOUT THE BIG RED
Cornell is coming off a wild 4-2 victory over Niagara in which freshman goalie Mitch Gillam not only earned the victory with 24 saves in his first collegiate start, but he also became just the eighth goalie in NCAA Division I history to score a goal. Freshman Patrick McCarron scored the Big Red's second four-on-four goal of the night to give the home side a one-goal lead heading into the third period, then Gillam iced the game with a 180-foot shot into the Purple Eagles' empty net with 8.6 seconds remaining in the third period. ... Senior goalie Andy Iles is the reigning ECAC Hockey Goaltender of the Week after making 55 saves on 57 shots in the Big Red's home sweep of Brown and defending national champion Yale last weekend. Freshman Eric Freschi scored twice and joined Matt Buckles and Reece Willcox in scoring their first collegiate goals in a 5-1 victory over the Bears on Friday. Junior Brian Ferlin then scored a power-play goal and assisted on junior Joel Lowry's winner early in the second period in Saturday's 2-1 victory over Yale. ... Entering Friday's games, the Big Red is tied with Connecticut for the most effective power play in the nation with a 29.6 percent conversion rate. Cornell has scored at least one power-play goal over its last five games. ... Junior John McCarron (3 goals, 10 assists – 13 points) is part of a three-way tie for the team lead in scoring with classmates Brian Ferlin (7-6–13) and Lowry (6-7–13). Ferlin has five goals in his last five games and Lowry has seven points over the same five-game span. ... Junior Joakim Ryan (3-9–12) has a team-best five-game scoring streak and is tied for the national lead in points per game for defensemen (1.09). ... With his streak of 80 consecutive starts snapped earlier this week, senior goaltender Andy Iles (6-3-1, 2.39 goals-against average, .915 save percentage) is in line to return to the crease against the Terriers.

ABOUT BOSTON UNIVERSITY
The Terriers enter the weekend at the .500 mark on the heels of home wins against Connecticut and North Dakota, plus a tie against North Dakota to close out last weekend's series at Agganis Arena. The three-game unbeaten streak followed the program's worst loss in 18 years, a 7-0 drubbing at the hands of Maine on Nov. 15. ... David Quinn is in his first season as the head coach of his alma mater, taking the reins from the legendary Jack Parker. ... The Terriers have the rare distinction of having two defensemen tied for the team lead in scoring senior Garrett Noonan (3-8–11) and Ahti Oksanen (2-9–11). Senior forward Danny O'Regan (5-4–9) leads the team in goals. ... Sophomore goalie Matt O'Connor (5-2-1, 2.80, .926) was the Hockey East Defensive Player of the Week following a 55-save performance last Saturday against North Dakota.

THE SERIES WITH BOSTON UNIVERSITY
Two long-time rivals, Cornell and Boston University have met 43 times, with the Big Red holding a 23-18-2 lead in the all-time series. The two programs have combined to win seven NCAA championships, with the Big Red defeating the Terriers for the title in 1967, Cornell's first national championship. Moving to recent times, Boston University has won two of the first three versions of Red Hot Hockey, with the 2009 meeting ending in a 3-3 tie. The last time the teams met in 2011 at Madison Square Garden, the Terriers' Ross Gaudet scored on a deflection in overtime to secure a 2-1 victory for BU. The Terriers also won the first incarnation of Red Hot Hockey at Madison Square Garden in 2007, 6-3, snapping a three-game Cornell winning streak in the series. Under Cornell head coach Mike Schafer, the Big Red is 3-4-1 against the Terriers.

CORNELL AT MADISON SQUARE GARDEN
Aside from the first three games of Red Hot Hockey, Cornell once again played at "The World's Most Famous Arena" last season in the inaugural Frozen Apple. Playing host to perennial NCAA contender Michigan, the Big Red got two goals and an assist from leading scorer Greg Miller and handily defeated the Wolverines, 5-1, in front of yet another sold-out crowd at The Garden.

POWERFUL STUFF
As of Wednesday, Cornell had the nation's best power play with a 29.6 percent conversion rate, 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 second game 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 has stayed hot on the man advantage of late, scoring seven goals on the power play over the last five games.

NOT JUST A DEFENSEMAN
Junior blueliner Joakim Ryan enters the weekend tied for the national lead in points per game for defensemen (1.09). Just six games into the season, junior blueliner Joakim Ryan had already equaled his goal total from all of last year with three. Two of his strikes came in a 3-3 tie Nov. 8 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 for the San Jose Sharks draft pick, 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.

POLLS PROSE
With its winning streak including a 2-1 decision over No. 9/9 Yale, the Big Red moved up four spots to 14th in the USCHO.com poll this week and re-entered the USA Today/USA Hockey Magazine poll at 14th. The Big Red appeared in the latter poll a league-high 14 weeks during the 2012-13 regular season. Cornell's current ranking in both polls is the highest its been this season.

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).

THE PUCK STOPS HERE
With 30 saves in Saturday's victory over Yale, senior goaltender Andy Iles moved up to second on the program's all-time list in saves. Just 10 games into his final season on East Hill, Iles has now accumulated 2,472 saves over his collegiate career. He passed Jason Elliott (2,462) for second on the all-time list, and now trails only current Los Angeles Kings starting goalie Ben Scrivens (2,873) (see chart downpage). For his 55-save effort over two games against Brown and Yale last weekend, Iles was named the ECAC Hockey Goaltender of the Week.

NOW THAT'S A STREAK
It has been 1,526 games since the Big Red has been shutout in back-to-back contests — a streak that stayed alive with the Big Red's two goals Nov. 15 at Clarkson. The streak dates back December 1963 with games vs. Clarkson and St. Lawrence.

IRON MAN
Andy Iles started 80 consecutive games in goal for the Big Red, spanning all of the last two seasons and the final game of his freshman campaign, before the streak came to an end Tuesday with Mitch Gillam getting the nod against Niagara. Iles' 80 consecutive starts are tied for fifth in NCAA Division I history, leaving him 24 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.

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 14-for-14 killing off a two-man disadvantage over last season and the beginning of this season, spanning a total of 12 minutes, 4 seconds. The last time Cornell surrendered a five-on-three goal was against Yale on Feb. 11, 2012.

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).

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.

CLASS-Y GUY
Andy Iles 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. Iles is continuing the program's tradition of highly decorated goaltenders, having been named the ECAC Hockey Rookie of the Year (2011) and an All-Ivy League First Team selection (2012). Outside of the rink, he has been involved in a service trip with the Portal De Belen Foundation to Don Juan, Dominican Republic, and is the organizer and planner of the Cornell Hockey Teddy Bear Toss, which donates proceeds to Cancer Resource Center of the Finger Lakes and the Franziska Racker Centers. He is also a five-time member of the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences' Dean's List and carries a 3.78 cumulative grade point average.

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. The Big Red has yet to surrender fewer than two goals in a game this season.

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.

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).

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.

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.

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 closes out the fall semester portion of its schedule on Dec. 7, when it plays host to regional rival Colgate at Lynah Rink. The team will then take a three-week hiatus for final exams and the holidays before its annual trek to the Florida College Hockey Classic, where it opens play Dec. 28 against New Hampshire in Estero, Fla.