ITHACA, N.Y. — After making a move up the ECAC Hockey standings after last weekend's overtime victory and tie, the Big Red will look to keep the momentum going this weekend with two more home games against league-leading Quinnipiac at 7 p.m. Friday, and a contest against Ivy League foe Princeton at 7 p.m. Saturday. Jason Weinstein will handle play-by-play and Tony Eisenhut will provide color commentary for both games, which can be viewed on subscription-based Big Red Digital. Their call can be heard for free on Big Red Digital and in the Ithaca area on WHCU-AM (870).
 
#16 QUINNIPIAC at CORNELL
TIME: 7 p.m.
DATE: Friday, February 6, 2015
PLACE: Lynah Rink · Ithaca, N.Y.
RECORDS: Cornell 9-9-3, 7-6-1 ECAC Hockey, 3-2 Ivy League · Quinnipiac 16-8-2, 11-2-1 ECAC Hockey
LIVE VIDEO($): Big Red Digital
AUDIO: Big Red Digital
RADIO: WHCU-AM (870)
LIVE STATS: CornellBigRed.com
 
PRINCETON at CORNELL
TIME: 7 p.m.
DATE: Saturday, February 7, 2015
PLACE: Lynah Rink · Ithaca, N.Y.
RECORDS*: Cornell 9-9-3, 7-6-1 ECAC Hockey, 3-2 Ivy League · Princeton 3-15-2, 1-12-1 ECAC Hockey, 1-2-1 Ivy League
LIVE VIDEO($): Big Red Digital
AUDIO: Big Red Digital
RADIO: WHCU-AM (870)
LIVE STATS: CornellBigRed.com
 (*—records do not include Friday's results)
 
Cornell game notes (PDF)
Quinnipiac game notes (coming soon)
Princeton game notes (coming soon)
 
LAST TIME OUT
Cornell enters the weekend in sixth place in the ECAC Hockey standings with eight games to play for all of the circuit's 12 teams. The Big Red took three of a possible four points last weekend in a home-and-home series with Colgate, rallying for a 2-1 win in dramatic fashion in overtime on Friday at Starr Rink, then never trailing and scoring twice on the power play in a 2-2 tie Saturday at Lynah Rink. Cornell was 0-8 when entering the third period trailing, but went on to win after  junior forward John Knisley tied the game 5:06 into the third period and freshman defenseman Ryan Bliss scored 57 seconds into the extra frame. On Saturday, junior forward Christian Hilbrich (7-3–10) took the team lead in goals with a tip-in of a point shot from senior defenseman Joakim Ryan (0-6–6), then senior forward and two-time captain John McCarron (1-6–7) netted his first of the year on a redirection of a shot from senior defenseman Jacob MacDonald (2-3–5).
 
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 second-fewest goals per game in the nation (1.81). Sophomore goalie Mitch Gillam (7-5-3, 1.46 GAA, .946 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 eight points over his last seven games, senior forward Cole Bardreau (3-10–13) has taken the team scoring lead. ... Typically on Bardreau's left wing is junior Christian Hilbrich, (7-3–10) who leads the team in goals by one over sophomore forward Matt Buckles (6-1–7; 4 PPG). ... Sophomore forward Jake Weidner (2-8–10) is tied with Hilbrich for second in team scoring. He is also the team's top faceoff man, winning 58.7 percent of his draws on the season. ... Offense has been generally hard to come by for the Big Red this season, with the squad's average of 1.86 goals per game ranking tied for 54th of 59 teams in the nation. Injuries have played a role, with senior defenseman Joakim Ryan — an All-ECAC Hockey Preseason selection by both the coaches and media — missing eight games due to injury in November and senior forward Joel Lowry (4-4–8), the leading scorer at the time, expected to miss the remainder of the season.
 
ABOUT QUINNIPIAC
The Bobcats enter the weekend leading ECAC Hockey with 23 points on an 11-2-1 record in league play. Quinnipiac suffered its first consecutive losses of the season Jan. 16-17 against Merrimack before rebounding last weekend by staving off Brown for a 5-3 victory and gutting out a 2-2 tie Saturday at Yale. Leading scorer Sam Anas (16-14–30), a sophomore left wing, scored both goals against the Bulldogs. His eight power-play goals are tied for second-most in the country. ... Senior center Matthew Peca (5-21–26) leads the team in assists. Freshman right wing Landon Smith (11-12–23) and junior center Travis St. Denis (11-10–21; 4 PPGs) are tied for second on the team in goal-scoring. Smith had a hat trick against Brown on Friday. ... Junior goaltender Michael Garteig (15-6-1, 2.12, .911, 4 SO) returned to the lineup last weekend after suffering an injury against Merrimack. ... The Bobcats are 9-0 when leading after two periods and 8-4 in one-goal games.
 
ABOUT PRINCETON
The Tigers ended a 12-game intra-league losing streak on Saturday with a 2-2 tie at Brown. The result leaves the team tied for 11th in the ECAC Hockey standings. Princeton's only other non-loss in league play was a 2-1 victory over Cornell on Nov. 7. ... Junior right wing Jonathan Liau (4-7–11) leads the team in scoring. He's one of five players to net two power-play goals on the season. Princeton ranks last in the nation in team offense (1.40 goals/game). ... Sophomore Colton Phinney (3-14-2, 3.25, .911) has started 19 of the Tigers' 20 games in goal. ... Ron Fogarty is in his first season as the head coach of the Tigers after a very successful stint with Division III's Adrian (Mich.) College. Fellow Colgate graduate Brad Dexter has joined Fogarty from the Raiders to be the lead assistant coach, while Stavros Paskaris continues to assist Fogarty as he did at Adrian.
 
THE SERIES WITH PRINCETON
The Big Red holds a commanding 85-51-8 lead all-time, but it was on the wrong end of a 2-1 score Nov. 7, 2014 during the teams' first meeting this season at Hobey Baker Rink. Colton Phinney stole the game for the Tigers by making 40 saves until Patrick McCarron ended his shutout bid with 16 seconds left on an extra-attacker goal. Cornell won the last meeting between the teams at Lynah Rink, 4-2, on Nov. 1, 2013. Defenseman Joakim Ryan, a New Jersey native, has two goals and five assists for seven points and a plus-4 rating in the eight career games against the Tigers. 
 
THE SERIES WITH QUINNIPIAC
Cornell holds a 16-11-2 lead in the all-time series against the Bobcats, who joined the Division I ranks in 1998 with Rand Pecknold at the helm. Quinnipiac secured a 1-0 victory in the teams' first meeting this season on Nov. 8 in Hamden, Conn. The teams split last season's series, with the Bobcats securing 3-0 victory on Nov. 2, 2013 at Lynah. The Big Red rebounded with a 2-1 victory Feb. 21 at Quinnipiac.
 
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 last Saturday's 2-2 tie with Colgate. McCarron has made a habit of finishing seasons strong over his four-year career at Cornell. Of his 21 career goals, 18 have come after the December holiday break.
 
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 63 man games lost to injury or illness, plus another three to supplemental league discipline. Cornell played last weekend's series with Colgate without two of its top four defensemen.
 
KILLIN' IT
The Big Red is ranks third in the nation with a 90.7 percent success rate on the penalty kill. Within that number is an impressive streak against two-man disadvantages. Cornell is a perfect 20-for-20 killing off three-on-five scenarios over the last three seasons, spanning a total of 18 minutes, 25 seconds. The last time Cornell surrendered a five-on-three goal was against Yale on Feb. 11, 2012.
 
SURGES AND OUTAGES
The Big Red power play sits in the middle of the pack nationally, mainly due to inconsistency. 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 before going on another 0-for-17 slide. The power play has scored six goals in the seven games since, including two by sophomore forward Jake Weidner.
 
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. During his sophomore and junior seasons, he was 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. 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. He currently has a team-best four-game point streak.
 
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 373 victories in Division I play are tops among current ECAC Hockey coaches.
 
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 58.7 percent success rate on faceoffs entering the weekend, which ranks fifth among ECAC Hockey players who have taken at least 100 draws this season. Jeff Kubiak has also been solid on draws with a 53.8 percent success rate.
 
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).
 
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.
 
COMEBACK KIDS
Conventional wisdom suggests the first goal of the game is extremely important — especially for teams that typically play low-scoring games, like Cornell. But the Big Red has bucked that trend this season. With senior forward John Knisley scoring in the third period Friday at Colgate, and freshman defenseman Ryan Bliss supplying an overtime winner, Cornell won for the fifth this season when surrendering the first goal of the game — which is more than the four wins it has when scoring first. Just one other team on the Division I landscape can lay claim to a similar feat. American International has just three wins this season, but two have come when the Yellow Jackets yielded the first goal of the game.
 
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.
 
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 Big Red hits the road for two Ivy League games next weekend, starting off Friday at Dartmouth before heading to the greater Boston area for a Valentine's Day date at Harvard. Cornell then returns to Ithaca for Senior Weekend Feb. 20-21 against Rensselaer and Union before closing out Feb. 27-28 at Brown and Yale.