ITHACA, N.Y. – The 15th-ranked men's hockey team will close out the fall semester portion of its schedule with a return to league play, taking on ECAC Hockey rival Colgate at 7 p.m. Saturday at Lynah Rink.
 
COLGATE at #15/15 CORNELL
TIME: 7 p.m.
DATE: Saturday, December 7
PLACE: Lynah Rink · Ithaca, N.Y.
RECORDS: Cornell 7-4-1, 4-3-1 ECAC Hockey · Colgate 7-7-1, 5-3 ECAC Hockey
VIDEO: Ivy League Digital Network
AUDIO: Ivy League Digital Network
RADIO: WHCU-AM (870)
LIVE STATS: CornellBigRed.com
 
Cornell game notes (PDF)
Colgate game notes (coming soon)
 
ABOUT THE BIG RED
Cornell is coming off a 3-2 loss to Boston University on Saturday at Madison Square Garden, ending a four-game Big Red winning streak. Cornell dominated the game territorially, holding a 39-11 advantage in shots on goal and earning seven of the game's nine power plays. But it was the Terriers who proved opportunistic, building a three-goal lead before holding off a late Cornell rally. Christian Hilbrich and Cole Bardreau scored third-period goals for the Big Red. ... Last week's other game was 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. ... As of games completed Dec. 1, the Big Red had the fifth-most effective power play in the nation with a 26.2 percent conversion rate. Cornell had scored at least one power-play goal over in five straight games before going 0-for-7 against Boston University. ... Junior John McCarron (3 goals, 11 assists – 14 points) is part of a three-way tie for the team lead in scoring with classmates Brian Ferlin (7-7–14) and Lowry (6-8–14). Ferlin has five goals over his last six games and Lowry has eight points over the same six-game span. ... Junior Joakim Ryan (3-9–12) just had a five-game scoring streak halted and is tied for fourth in the nation in points per game for defensemen (1.00). ... Senior goaltender Andy Iles (6-4-1, 2.45 goals-against average, .908 save percentage) had his streak of 80 consecutive starts snapped last week.
 
ABOUT COLGATE
The Raiders were idle last week following a split with Yale and Brown in their last action. Sophomore Kyle Baun and freshman Derek Freeman scored second-period goals in a 5-2 loss to Yale on Nov. 22, then Baun factored in all three of the Raiders' goals the following night in a 3-1 victory over Brown. That win gives Colgate 10 points in the league, which is tied for second place with Union. While the team's 7-7-1 overall record may not stand out, Colgate lost two games to No. 2/2 St. Cloud State and split with No. 6/7 Ferris State. ... The Raiders' top five scorers are all sophomores. Baun (7-8–15) is tied for the team lead in scoring with Mike Borkowski (4-11–15) and is tied for the goal-scoring lead with Tylor Spink (7-4–11) and Darcy Murphy (7-3–10). Baun and Spink have combined for seven of the team's 10 power-play goals. ... After freshman Charlie Finn (4-3, 3.68, .878) appeared to be the Raiders' favored goalie in early league games, he's been splitting starts with senior Eric Mihalik (3-3-1, 2.46, .915, 1 SO) more recently. Mihalik is 2-3-3 against the Big Red in his career. ... Colgate is 5-0 when tied after the first period. Five of its losses have been by three goals or more.
 
THE SERIES WITH COLGATE
Saturday's game will mark the 146th all-time meeting between the two Central New York rivals dating back to 1921. The Big Red holds a 76-56-13 lead in the series after a victory and tie last season, which marked the first time the schools opened up their league schedules against each other. Andy Iles made 44 saves in the Big Red's 3-1 victory Nov. 2, 2012 at Starr Rink in Hamilton, N.Y., then the teams played to a 2-2 draw the following night at Lynah Rink. Cornell head coach Mike Schafer holds a 26-12-8 lead over the Raiders during his tenure behind the bench.
 
POWERFUL STUFF
Even with an 0-for-7 performance against Boston University, Cornell still has the fifth-best power play  in the nation with a 26.2 percent conversion rate. The Big Red scored seven power-play goals in a span of five consecutive games from Nov. 15 to Nov. 26 and also scored 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 against the Mavericks 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).
 
NOT JUST A DEFENSEMAN
As of Sunday, junior blueliner Joakim Ryan is tied for fourth in the nation in points per game for defensemen (1.00). Just six games into the season, 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
In the wake of a non-league victory against Niagara and a non-league loss to Boston University, both unranked, the Big Red dropped one spot this week to 15th in both the USCHO.com poll and USA Today/USA Hockey Magazine poll on Monday. It's the second time this season Cornell has been ranked 15th in both polls, with its highest standing coming at 14th. More importantly, the Big Red is currently 12th in the Ratings Percentage Index, which is used to help determine which teams qualify for the NCAA tournament. The Big Red appeared in the USA Today/USA Hockey Magazine poll a league-high 14 weeks during the 2012-13 regular 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 a Nov. 23 victory over Yale, senior  goaltender Andy Iles moved up to second on the program's all-time list in saves. Just 11 games into his final season on East Hill, Iles has now accumulated 2,480 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 from Nov. 22-23, Iles was named the ECAC Hockey Goaltender of the Week.
 
NOW THAT'S A STREAK
It has been 1,527 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 Nov. 26 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.
 
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).
 
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.
 
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 heads into its annual midseason hiatus for final exams and the holiday, returning to action in three weeks at the Florida College Hockey Classic in Estero, Fla. Cornell opens against perennial Hockey East contender New Hampshire at 7:30 p.m. Saturday, Dec. 28, then will take on either Princeton or Maine on Sunday, Dec. 29 in the championship or consolation game. The Big Red then returns home for an exhibition game against the Russian Red Stars on Friday, Jan. 3, then wraps up non-league play with a home contest against Hockey East's Massachusetts on Friday, Jan. 10.