Game Notes (PDF)

WHAT'S ON TAP
The Big Red returns to Lynah Rink for the first time in nearly a month when it takes on a unique opponent in the season's second exhibition game. Cornell will take on the Red Stars, a touring all-star team comprised of players from a junior league in Russia and neighboring countries. It will be the first meeting between the teams. Jason Weinstein will handle the play-by-play, which can be heard in the Ithaca area on WHCU-AM (870) or worldwide via the new Ivy League Digital Network subscription service.

ABOUT THE BIG RED
Cornell enters tonight's game after winning the program's fourth Florida College Hockey Classic championship last weekend in Estero, Fla. Rodger Craig scored the winning goal in the ninth round of a shootout after the Big Red played to a 1-1 tie with Maine in Sunday's championship game. Patrick McCarron scored Cornell's other goal in the shootout, and Christian Hilbrich scored the squad's only goal in regulation time to erase a third-period deficit. Andy Iles made 32 saves in the game, plus eight more stops on nine shootout attempts en route to tournament most valuable player honors. Iles made 44 saves a night earlier in a 4-2 victory over New Hampshire. Joakim Ryan and John McCarron each had a goal and an assist, and Florida native Brian Ferlin scored the winning goal. Ferlin, Dustin Mowrey and Kirill Gotovets were all named to the all-tournament team. ... The Big Red is 5-1-2 over its last eight games and is now 4-1-1 in non-league games. ... The Big Red has the second-most effective power play in the nation with a 26.0 percent conversion rate. Cornell has 10 goals on the power play over the last nine games. ... Junior John McCarron (4 goals, 13 assists – 17 points) is tied for the team lead in scoring with classmate and linemate Joel Lowry (6-11–17). Junior forward Brian Ferlin (8-8–16) has six goals over his last nine games to take the team lead in that category, and Lowry now has 11 points over the same nine-game span. ... Junior Joakim Ryan (5-11–16) is second in the nation in points per game for defensemen (1.07), trailing only Bentley's Steve Weinstein. He was an All-ECAC Hockey Preseason Team selection by the league's coaches. ... Iles (7-4-3, 2.25 goals-against average, .919 save percentage) had his streak of 80 consecutive starts snapped with Mitch Gillam's start on Nov. 26, but he has started all three games since.

ABOUT RUSSIAN RED STARS
The Red Stars are an all-star team of 25 players, ages 17 to 21, from the 64-team junior-level hockey league called the Molodezhnaya Hokkeynaya Liga (MHL). The league is the younger brother and feeder system of the Kontinental Hockey League, which is the primary professional hockey league in Russia and regarded by many to be the second-best league in the world. The MHL, with more than 2,000 players, is in its fifth year of existence and is the first junior hockey league that unites Russia, Kazakhstan, Belarus, Latvia, Lithuania, the Czech Republic, Moldova, Hungary and Slovakia. ... This is the fourth North American trip for the Red Stars, but their first visit to Lynah Rink. The game against Cornell will be the fifth and final contest on the tour for the Red Stars, which began with a 5-4 victory Dec. 26 against an all-star team from the Eastern Junior Hockey League. ... The Red Stars then lost Friday at Yale, 6-3, and surrendered five goals in the first period en route to a 9-3 loss Sunday at Harvard. The team dropped a 3-2 decision Tuesday at Colgate, then had a Thursday game at Merrimack canceled due to inclement weather. ... Forward Alexei Shamin has two goals and an assist through two games, and forward Alexander Kuvaev has two goals.

POWERFUL STUFF
Cornell power play still ranks second in the nation with a 26.0 percent conversion rate. The Big Red has 11 power-play goals over its last nine games 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).

EXHIBITIONS IN NAME ONLY
Cornell is now 17-1-3 in exhibitions since 2000, including a 7-2 victory over York University in its only preseason exhibition this season. Forwards Cole Bardreau and Madison Dias had two goals and one assist apiece, and the Big Red was 4-for-9 on the power play in the game. Tonight's game is more of a rarity, serving as Cornell's first midseason exhibition since a 4-0 victory over the U.S. National Team Development Program on Dec. 8, 2002.

NOT JUST A DEFENSEMAN
As of Monday, junior blueliner Joakim Ryan is second in the nation in points per game for defensemen (1.07). 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
Following its championship at the Florida College Hockey Classic, the Big Red held steady at 15th in the new USCHO.poll this week. Cornell is ranked 13th in the most recent USA Today/USA Hockey Magazine poll, which was last updated on Dec. 16. The No. 13 ranking is the highest Cornell has held in either poll this season. More importantly, the Big Red is also currently 13th in the Ratings Percentage Index, which is used to help determine which teams qualify for the NCAA tournament.

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 season 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 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 13 games into his final season on East Hill, Iles has now accumulated an even 2,576 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 on opposite page). 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 1,530 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.

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.

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.

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).

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).

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.

UP NEXT
The Big Red will wrap up non-league play with a home contest against Hockey East's Massachusetts on Friday, Jan. 10 before returning to the ECAC Hockey slate Jan. 17-18 with a road trip to Ivy League rivals Harvard and Dartmouth. Cornell's next league home games are Jan. 24-25 against St. Lawrence and Clarkson.