ITHACA, N.Y. – For the first time in nearly 25 years, the Cornell men's hockey team will play host to Denver for a pair of pivotal non-league games at 7 p.m. Friday and Saturday at Lynah Rink. The games will be streamed live on subscription-based Big Red Digital with Jason Weinstein handling the 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).
 
SERIES INFORMATION
Denver at Cornell
TIME: 7 p.m.
GAME 1: Friday, December 5, 2014
GAME 2: Saturday, December 6, 2014
PLACE: Lynah Rink · Ithaca, N.Y.
RECORDS: Cornell 4-4-1, 3-3 ECAC Hockey, 2-1 Ivy League · Denver 8-3, 3-2 National Collegiate Hockey Conference
LIVE VIDEO: Big Red Digital
AUDIO: Big Red Digital
RADIO: WHCU-AM (870)
LIVE STATS: CornellBigRed.com
 
Cornell game notes (PDF)
Denver game notes (PDF)
 
THE FROZEN APPLE REVISITED
The Big Red rallied for a 3-1 victory over Penn State last Saturday at the second edition of The Frozen Apple at Madison Square Garden. Junior forward John Knisley scored his first two goals of the season, bookending senior forward Joel Lowry's winner midway through the third period. Sophomore goaltender Mitch Gillam made 37 saves to earn the victory while also recording his second assist of the season. His helper came on Lowry's winner, when he redirected a puck into the corner, Lowry won a board battle with a Penn State player and turned up ice, then wored a give-and-go with senior forward John McCarron. McCarron assisted on all three Big Red goals, becoming the first player on the team to score three points in a game this season.
 
ABOUT THE BIG RED
After a slow start to the season, Cornell has rebounded with three consecutive victories to get back to .500 for the first time since the start of the season. Senior forward Joel Lowry (3-4–7) leads the team in scoring and has a five-game scoring streak. The opposite wing on his line, senior captain John McCarron (0-5–5) has ascended to second on the team scoring list after posting four assists over the last two games. ... Sophomore goaltender Mitch Gillam (3-3-1, 1.61, .949) ranks third in the country in save percentage and seventh in goals-against average. He has made 37 or more saves while surrendering just one goal in three games this season. ... The Big Red is ranked third nationally in team defense (1.56 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. ... 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.
 
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 Nov. 21-22 victories against Yale and Brown leave the team 2-1 in Ivy League play this season.
 
ABOUT DENVER
The seven-time national champions and 25-time NCAA tournament qualifiers are on pace to extend at least the latter statistic with a quick 8-3 start to the season. Denver has won its last three games by a staggering combined score of 18-3 against Colorado College, Air Force and Wisconsin. The Pioneers also never left The Centennial State for all of November, with its last road trip coming Oct. 24-25 and resulting in a National Collegiate Hockey Conference split at Minnesota-Duluth. After four straight weekends at home after that, Denver was idle last weekend. ...  The forward trio of freshman Danton Heinen (6-7–13), sophomore Trevor Moore (4-9–13) and senior Daniel Doremus (3-10–13) are tied for the team lead in scoring. Senior Joey LaLeggia (5-6–11) is the reigning NCHC Defenseman of the Year and owns a team-best plus-8 rating. ... Sophomore Evan Cowley (6-3, 1.85, .929, 2 SO), a Florida Panthers draft pick, is the primary goaltender. Freshman Tanner Jaillet (2-0, 2.81, .895) has also made three starts.
 
THE SERIES WITH DENVER
The all-time series between the Big Red and Pioneers awakened from a 27-year hiatus two seasons ago. With the teams side-by-side in the national rankings, Denver swept a pair of hotly contested games, 5-1 and 2-1, at Magness Arena. Those wins gave Denver a 6-4 lead in the all-time series, with four of the teams' previos meetings coming in the NCAA Tournament. The teams split the two-game quarterfinal series March 21-22, 1986 at the old University of Denver Arena, but the Pioneers advanced on aggregate score, 7-6. Cornell won the three meetings prior to that, including a two-game sweep Dec. 29-30, 1979 at Lynah Rink and an NCAA semifinal victory on March 17, 1972. Denver won the first three meetings — including two regular-season games during the 1965-66 in Denver and the 1969 NCAA championship game.
 
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 on Nov. 22. 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-20 on the power play. Sophomore forward Matt Buckles has three power-play goals in just seven games, leaving him tied for the highest PPG/game ratio in the nation (0.43).
 
WIN, NOT LOSE, ON DRAWS
Sophomore forwards Jeff Kubiak and Jake Weidner have emerged as terrific faceoff men this season, ranking in the top six among ECAC Hockey centers as of Monday. Weidner ranks fourth by winning 62.0 percent of his draws. Kubiak ranks sixth at 60.2 percent.
 
NOW THAT'S A STREAK
It has been 1,556 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 scoresheet.
 
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 eight of the first nine 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 in April 2014.
 
UP NEXT
Cornell is idle for the next three weeks — two weeks for final exams, then another week for the holiday season. The Big Red then departs 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.