With at least home ice for the first round of the ECAC Hockey Championships clinched, the Cornell men's hockey team will continue its pursuit of a first-round bye this weekend when it wraps up the regular season with an Ivy League road trip to New England. Cornell takes on upstart Brown at 7 p.m. Friday before the season finale at 7 p.m. Saturday at Yale. Both games will be streamed on the subscription-based Ivy League Digital Network. There is also a free audio-only option on the ILDN, featuring play-by-play from Jason Weinstein. His call can be heard in the Ithaca area on WHCU-AM (870).
 
CORNELL at BROWN
TIME: 7 p.m.
DATE: Friday, February 27, 2015
PLACE: Meehan Auditorium · Providence, R.I.
RECORDS: Cornell 11-11-5, 9-8-3 ECAC Hockey, 4-3-1 Ivy League · Brown 8-17-2, 5-13-2 ECAC Hockey, 2-6-1 Ivy League
LIVE VIDEO ($): Ivy League Digital Network
AUDIO (free): Ivy League Digital Network
RADIO: WHCU-AM (870)
LIVE STATS: BrownBears.com
 
CORNELL at #12/12 YALE
TIME: 7 p.m.
DATE: Saturday, February 28, 2015
PLACE: Ingalls Rink · New Haven, Conn.
RECORDS*: Cornell 11-11-5, 9-8-3 ECAC Hockey, 4-3-1 Ivy League · Yale 16-7-4, 11-6-3 ECAC Hockey, 7-2 Ivy League
LIVE VIDEO ($): Ivy League Digital Network
AUDIO (free): Ivy League Digital Network
RADIO: WHCU-AM (870)
LIVE STATS: YaleBulldogs.com
 (*—records do not include Friday's results)
 
Cornell game notes (PDF)
Brown game notes (coming soon)
Yale game notes (PDF)
 
LAST TIME OUT
Cornell took three out of four points in its final regular-season home weekend, rallying for a 2-2 tie against Rensselaer last Friday before holding off defending national champion Union, 2-1, on Saturday's Senior Night. Senior forward and two-time captain John McCarron came to the rescue against the Engineers, scoring a power-play goal early in the third period and an extra-attacker goal inside the final minute to tie it. Sophomore goaltender Mitch Gillam shined the following night against Union, making several key stops among his 26 saves. Freshman forward Dwyer Tschantz gave the Big Red the lead in the first period, then senior forward Madison Dias set up junior forward John Knisley for the game-winner on a short-handed breakaway in the second period.
 
GOALIE UNIVERSITY
Cornell has produced nine First-Team All-American goaltenders in its history and 20th-year Jay R. Bloom '77 Head Coach of Men's Hockey Mike Schafer is widely regarded as one of the top defensive minds in the game, so it should come as no surprise that the Big Red enters this weekend surrendering the third-fewest goals per game in the nation (1.85). Sophomore goalie Mitch Gillam (9-7-5, 1.59 GAA, .941 SV%, SO) leads the nation in both goals-against average and save percentage, and freshman goalie Hayden Stewart (2-4-0, 2.10, .931, 2 SO) has been named ECAC Hockey Rookie of the Week after each of his shutouts.
 
WHO'S WHO
With seven points over his last five games, senior Cole Bardreau (5-15–20; 4 PPGs) leads the team in scoring. After a slow start to the season, he's also won 56.8 percent of his draws since Jan. 1. ... Typically on Bardreau's left wing is junior Christian Hilbrich (8-4–12), who leads the team in goals by two over sophomore Matt Buckles (6-3–9; 4 PPG). ... Sophomore Jake Weidner (3-11–14) is second on the team in scoring after collecting four points in his last five games. He is also the team's top faceoff man, winning 57.3 percent of his draws on the season. ... Senior Joakim Ryan (1-11–12), an All-ECAC Hockey Preseason selection by both the coaches and media, has 11 points in his last 12 games. He is now tied for third on the team in scoring with Hilbrich. ... Offense has been generally hard to come by for the Big Red this season, with the squad's average of 1.93 goals per game ranking 54th of 59 teams in the nation. Injuries have played a role, with Ryan missing eight November games due to injury and senior Joel Lowry (4-4–8), the leading scorer at the time, expected to miss the remainder of the season.
 
ABOUT BROWN
Don't let the Bears' 11th-place standing fool you — Brown is riding a five-game unbeaten streak, including a 2-2 tie at league-leading Quinnipiac last Saturday. Prior to that, the Bears rattled off victories agaisnt Harvard, Rensselaer, Union and Princeton on the heels of a seven-game winless streak. Sophomore goaltender Tim Ernst (6-5-2, 2.67, .916, 2 SO) is at the heart of the renaissance with just seven goals against over the last five games. Another coinciding move to Brown's surge has been the reuniting of its top three scorers onto the same line — senior left wing Matt Lorito (8-10–18), junior center Mark Naclerio (9-9–18) and junior right wing Nick Lappin (10-6–16). ... The Bears' special teams have struggled this season, but Brown's penalty kill has yielded just one goal in the last five games. ... The Bears haven't won a game this season in which it trailed at the end of any period.
 
ABOUT YALE
The Bulldogs are 5-1-2 over their last eight games, including a 2-2 tie last Friday at league-leading Quinnipiac and 6-2 rout the following night at Princeton. ... Yale leads the nation with a team goals-against average of 1.59. Sophomore Alex Lyon (15-7-4, 1.62, .938, 5 SO) ranks second in the nation in goals-against average, fourth in save percentage and is tied for second in shutouts. ... Sophomore right wing Mike Doherty (11-7–18) is tied for the team lead in scoring with sophomore right wing John Hayden (7-11–18; 3 PPG). Typically on the opposite wing of Doherty is freshman Ryan Hitchcock (3-12–15), who leads the team in assists. ... Junior defensemen Rob O'Gara (5-11–16) and Ryan Obuchowski (3-5–8) are tied for the team lead with plus-15 ratings. ... In 27 games, Yale has surrendered just 10 goals in the third period. The Bulldogs are 14-2-2 when scoring the first goal, but they have not won any games this season in which they trailed at the end of any period.
 
THE SERIES WITH BROWN
The Big Red has a commanding lead in the all-time series, 73-43-5, and Mike Schafer is a dominating 31-7-3 against the Bears during his 20 seasons as the Big Red's head coach. Cornell has won five of the last six games, including a sweep of the season series last year and a 4-0 victory on Nov. 22, 2014 at Lynah Rink in the teams' first meeting this season. Senior forward Cole Bardreau has three goals and three assists for six points in five career games against the Bears.
 
THE SERIES WITH YALE
Saturday's game will be the 146th all-time meeting between the Bulldogs and Big Red, with Cornell holding a 82-58-5 advantage since the teams first met during the 1902-03 season. Cornell has won the last three games between the teams, including a 3-2 victory on Nov. 21, 2014 at Lynah Rink. Defensemen Reece Willcox and Ryan Bliss scored power-play goals, then junior forward Christian Hilbrich scored the winner with 7:02 left in third period. Mike Schafer is 22-17-4 against Yale in his tenure as Cornell's head coach.
 
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.
 
KILLIN' IT
The Big Red is second in the nation with a 90.2 percent success rate on the penalty kill, trailing just Bowling Green (91.6 pct.). Within that number is an impressive streak against two-man disadvantages. Cornell is a perfect 21-for-21 killing off three-on-five scenarios over the last three seasons, spanning a total of 18 minutes, 30 seconds. The last time Cornell surrendered a five-on-three goal was against Yale on Feb. 11, 2012.
 
SURGES AND OUTAGES
While the Big Red power play sits in the middle of the pack nationally, it has been particularly effective in ECAC Hockey contests. Cornell's success rate of 21.9 percent on the power play leads the league. It's quite a turnaround considering where the team stood on the man advantage earlier this season. As of Nov. 9, 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. The Big Red was then 7-for-18 on the power play over its next four games.
 
WIN, NOT LOSE, ON DRAWS
Sophomore forward Jake Weidner has emerged as a terrific faceoff man this season. After spending most of his freshman year on the wing, he's split time on the wing and at center this year. One of the results is his 57.5 percent success rate on faceoffs entering the weekend, which ranks sixth among ECAC Hockey players who have taken at least 100 draws this season. John Knisley is up to 51.5 pct. after going 10-0 last Saturday at Harvard.
 
NOT JUST A DEFENSEMAN
Senior blueliner Joakim Ryan has been heating up offensively with 11 points in his last 12 games — including an assist on junior forward John Knisley's short-handed goal last Saturday against Union. Named to both the media's and coaches' Preseason All-ECAC Hockey Teams, Ryan suffered an early-season injury that forced him to miss eight games in November. The production is nothing new for the San Jose Sharks draft pick, who ranked 11th in the nation in points per game for defensemen (0.75) last season.
 
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).
 
DEPTH MATTERS
Injuries are a part of hockey, but the Big Red has endured a particularly challenging season in that department. Entering this weekend, the Big Red has racked up 74 man games lost to injury or illness.
 
THIS IS YOUR CAPTAIN SCORING
Senior forward John McCarron, a second-year captain for the Big Red, scored his first goal of the season in a 2-2 tie with Colgate on Jan. 31 and added two more last Friday against Rensselaer. McCarron has made a habit of finishing seasons strong over his four-year career at Cornell. Of his 23 career goals, 20 have come after the December holiday break.
 
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.
 
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 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). His current total of 375 victories in Division I play are tops among current ECAC Hockey coaches.
 
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 has lived in 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.
 
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).
 
UP NEXT
The first round of the ECAC Hockey Championships will then be held March 6-8, with seeds 5-8 hosting best-of-three-game series against seeds 9-12. The winners will advance the best-of-three quarterfinal series, which will be staged at the homes of seeds 1-4 from March 13-15. Championship weekend is March 20-21 at Lake Placid. The NCAA regionals will then be played March 27-29.