NEW YORK – The men's hockey team will play at "The World's Most Famous Arena" for the sixth time in the last eight years at 8 p.m. Saturday, when it plays host to Penn State in the second Frozen Apple at famed Madison Square Garden in New York. The game will be streamed live on subscription-based Big Red Digital with Jason Weinstein handling play-by play and Tony Eisenhut providing color commentary. Their call is also available for free on Big Red Digital, and it can also be heard in the Ithaca area on WHCU-AM (870).
 
THE FROZEN APPLE
Cornell vs. Penn State
TIME: 8 p.m.
DATE: Saturday, November 29, 2014
PLACE: Madison Square Garden · New York, N.Y.
RECORDS: Cornell 3-4-1, 3-3 ECAC Hockey, 2-1 Ivy League · Penn State 7-3-2, 1-1 Big Ten
LIVE VIDEO: www.ivyleaguedigitalnetwork.com/cornell/schedule?date=2014-11-30
AUDIO: www.ivyleaguedigitalnetwork.com/cornell/schedule?date=2014-11-30
RADIO: WHCU-AM (870)
LIVE STATS: www.sidearmstats.com/cornell/mhockey
 
Cornell game notes (PDF)
Penn State game notes (PDF)
 
ABOUT THE BIG RED
After a slow start to the season, Cornell rebounded with a home sweep last weekend against Yale and Brown. Junior forward Christian Hilbrich (2-1–3) scored goals in both games, including the winner in Friday's 3-2 affair  against the Bulldogs with 7:02 remaining in the third period. The Big Red then blitzed the Bears with three goals in the first 15 minutes of Saturday's game before cruising to a 4-0 victory. Freshmen Ryan Bliss (1-2–3), a defenseman, and Dwyer Tschantz (1-0–1), a forward, each netted their first collegiate goals over the weekend. ... Sophomore goaltender Mitch Gillam (2-3-1, 1.72, .943) ranks ninth in the country in goals-against average and seventh in save percentage. He made 32 saves to earn the victory against Yale. Gillam also has a goal and an assist in his eight career games. ... The Big Red is tied for third nationally in team defense (1.62 goals against per game) despite leaning heavily on three defensemen and two goalies with a combined three games of college hockey experience heading into the season. ... Senior forward Joel Lowry (2-3–5) leads the team in scoring. The Los Angeles Kings draft pick has all of those points over his current four-game scoring. ... Sophomore forward Matt Buckles (3-1–4) leads the squad with three goals, all on the power play. He leads the nation in power-play goals per game (0.50). ... Sophomores forwards Jake Weidner (0-4–4) and Jeff Kubiak (0-4–4) are tied for the team lead in assists. All four of Weidner's of assists have been primary assists. ... Mike Schafer is in his 20th season as the Jay R. Bloom '77 Head Coach of Men's Hockey. Associate head coach Ben Syer and assistant coach Topher Scott return for their fourth seasons with the Big Red, and Lyle Gregory is the volunteer assistant coach.
 
CORNELL AT MADISON SQUARE GARDEN
The Big Red will be at the current incarnation of "The World's Most Famous Arena" for the sixth time in the last eight years, with this year's game against Penn State serving as the second Frozen Apple game. Cornell won the inaugural event in 2012, handily defeating Michigan, 5-1. In the Red Hot Hockey series, the Big Red has dropped three games and tied one game against Boston University in 2007, 2009, 2011 and 2013.
 
SITTING ATOP THE IVY
Cornell won the Ivy League championship outright in 2014. It's the second time in the last three years the Big Red claimed the Ivy crown, the 17th time it's done so outright and the 21st time overall in program history. Cornell came up just short of even more history when a 1-0 loss to Dartmouth on Feb. 28 proved to be the squad's only loss against the Ancient Eight last season. Just three times in program history has the Big Red completed the Ivy League schedule undefeated. The last time Cornell was unbeaten in Ivy games was 1996, when it was 9-0-1 in Mike Schafer's first season as the Big Red's head coach. The other two occasions were in 1969 and 1970. The Big Red's victories against Yale and Brown last weekend leave the team 2-1 in Ivy League play this season.
 
ABOUT PENN STATE
The Nittany Lions have enjoyed a strong start to their second season in the Big Ten Conference, including a 3-2 victory last Friday at Michigan in the teams' league opener. The Wolverines bounced back to hand the Nittany Lions an 8-1 loss the following night. It's the first time in 12 games this season Penn State was held to fewer than two goals, and just the second time it had fewer than three goals. ... Senior forward Taylor Holstrom (4-13–17) leads the team in scoring and is tied for the national lead in assists. Holstrom centers a line with the team's next highest scorers on the wings, junior Casey Bailey (9-6–15) and sophomore David Goodwin (4-5–9). ... There are five transfers from Division I programs on the roster, including senior defenseman Patrick Koudys (0-2–2). The Washington Capitals draft pick who owns a team-best plus-7 rating defected from Rensselaer. ... Junior Matthew Skoff (5-2-2, 2.32, .919) was dubbed the team's starting goaltender at the beginning of the season, but he was pulled in a Nov. 14 loss at UMass-Lowell and hasn't seen the ice since. Sophomore Eamon McAdam (2-1, 3.41, .906) has started the last three games for the Nittany Lions.
 
THE SERIES WITH PENN STATE
The Nittany Lions recently made the jump from the club level to NCAA Division I, but Penn State had a pre-NCAA varsity era team that played for five seasons in the 1940s. During the 1943-44 campaign, Cornell played Penn State to the tune of an 8-1 victory in Ithaca, marking the only other time the programs have met.
 
NOW THAT'S A STREAK
It has been 1,555 games since the Big Red has been shutout in back-to-back contests. The last time Cornell was blanked in consecutive games was way back in December 1963, when Clarkson and St. Lawrence held the Big Red off the score sheet.
 
BLANK YOU VERY MUCH
Cornell has recorded at least one shutout in each of the last 20 seasons – a streak that has been continued this year with a 4-0 blanking of Brown last Saturday. Freshman Hayden Stewart made 26 saves for his first career shutout and subsequent ECAC Hockey Rookie of the Week honors. In the process, he became the first Cornell freshman to keep a clean sheet since Ben Scrivens '10 manned the crease in a 6-0 rout of Union on Dec. 2, 2006. Like Scrivens, an All-American his senior season, Stewart's first shutout came in his ECAC Hockey debut. 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. The following year marked the first season for current head coach Mike Schafer.
 
POWERFUL STUFF
As of Nov. 16, the Big Red power play was converting at a clip of just 5.3 percent, mired in an 0-for-17 slump and scoring just four goals in its last 80 opportunities dating back to Dec. 28, 2013. But since then, Cornell is 7-for-18 on the power play and scored at least two power-play goals in three consecutive games within the same season for the first time since Oct. 30 to Nov. 7, 2009 (against Niagara, Dartmouth and Harvard). Sophomore forward Matt Buckles has three power-play goals in just six games, giving him the highest PPG/game ratio in the nation (0.50).
 
WIN, NOT LOSE, ON DRAWS
Sophomore forwards Jeff Kubiak and Jake Weidner have emerged as terrific faceoff men this season, ranking in the top five among ECAC Hockey centers as of Monday. Kubiak ranks fourth by winning 62.0 percent of his draws, powered by a stellar 10-1 performance last Saturday against Brown. Weidner ranks fifth with a 60.8 percent success rate upon his returni to center after playing exclusively on the wing as a freshman.
 
TRENDING
The Big Red has welcomed two newcomers from the U.S. National Team Development Program this season in defenseman Ryan Bliss and forward Jared Fiegl. This marks the fifth consecutive season that at least one player from the U.S. Under-18s has joined the Big Red. The others were Clint Lewis (in 2013), Gavin Stoick (in 2012), Cole Bardreau (in 2011) and Andy Iles (in 2010).
 
NOT JUST A DEFENSEMAN
Senior blueliner Joakim Ryan ranked 11th in the nation in points per game for defensemen (0.75) last season. He was tied for second on the team in scoring with 24 points, and his eight goals ranked third on the team. Over the last two years, he has been on the ice for 88 of the team's 160 goals (55 percent). 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. Ryan was named to both the media's and coaches' Preseason All-ECAC Hockey Teams, but he has missed seven of the first eight games this season due to injury.
 
FEEL THE DRAFT?
Cornell has seven players on the roster who have been selected in the NHL Entry Draft, including two picks from last June. Freshman forward Jared Fiegl was selected in the seventh round by the Arizona Coyotes, with the only other Big Red player selected by the organization being David LeNeveu in 2002. Freshman forward Dwyer Tschantz was then selected 11 picks later by the St. Louis Blues — the first time the organization has selected a Cornell product in 15 years. Other NHL draft picks on the team include defensemen Reece Willcox (Philadelphia Flyers) and Joakim Ryan (San Jose Sharks), forwards John McCarron (Edmonton Oilers), Joel Lowry (Los Angeles Kings) and Matt Buckles (Florida Panthers).
 
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 16-for-16 killing off a two-man disadvantage over the last three seasons, spanning a total of 14 minutes, 44 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, 2013. He became the 35th coach all-time to rack up 350 victories across all NCAA divisions. 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).
 
GLOBAL INFLUENCE
The Big Red has 17 players on the roster born in the  United States. Cornell also now has players native to four 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 Denmark (Christian Hilbrich) and Finland (Teemu Tiitinen). Even within the United States, the Big Red has some untraditional hockey areas covered. Joel Lowry has lived in Florida, Tiitinen has lived in Georgia, John Knisley is native to South Carolina, Cole Bardreau and Ryan Bliss were both born in North Carolina, and Dwyer Tschantz is the first-ever NHL draft pick born in Delaware.
 
GOLDEN AGAIN
Senior 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. 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. Freshman forward Jared Fiegl also won gold in the same event last April.
 
POLLS PROSE
The Big Red was ranked 14th in both the USA Today/USA Hockey Magazine and USCHO.com polls in the preseason, but Cornell's slow start saw it drop out of both the USCHO.com poll and the USA Today/USA Hockey Magazine poll. The last time Cornell was unranked in either poll was the preseason of the 2013-14 campaign.
 
EXHIBITIONS IN NAME ONLY
Cornell is 20-1-3 in exhibitions since 2000, including a pair of victories last weekend by identical 3-2 scores against the U.S. National Team Development Program's Under-18 Team and Carleton. Freshman forward Jared Fiegl and junior forward Teemu Tiitinen had a goal and an assist apiece against the NTDP, with senior forward Joel Lowry scoring the winner. Senior defensemen Jacob MacDonald and Joakim Ryan then scored power-play goals to erase deficits against Carleton before Fiegl netted the winner on a rebound of a shot from freshman defenseman Ryan Bliss. Sophomore Mitch Gillam made 26 saves for the victory against the NTDP, then freshman Hayden Stewart had 24 stops the next day to earn the win against Carleton.
 
LET'S GET IT STARTED
Cornell has an all-time record of 57-34-7 in season openers, staying unbeaten in its season debut for a fourth consecutive season after a 1-1 tie with Omaha last Friday. The Big Red won its three preview season debuts, including last year's 5-3 win at Omaha. Under current head coach Mike Schafer, the Big Red is 12-6-2 in season openers.
 
UP NEXT
Cornell closes out the fall semester portion of its schedule with a two-game series Dec. 5-6 vs. Denver at Lynah Rink. Cornell is then idle for three weeks before departing for the annual Florida College Classic, where it opens the tournament Sunday, Dec. 28 vs. Lake Superior State. The second game of the event, Monday, Dec. 29, will be against either Notre Dame or Miami. Cornell next plays ECAC Hockey games Jan. 9-10 at St. Lawrence and Clarkson.