TROY, N.Y. – With a successful first half of the season in the books, Cornell will turn its attention back to ECAC Hockey play for the rest of the regular season starting with Friday's game at Rensselaer in a matchup of two of the top three teams in the league standings. Jason Weinstein will handle play-by-play, which can be heard in the Ithaca area on WHCU (870 AM, 95.9 FM). The game will also be streamed for free online by RPI TV.
 
GAME 16: CORNELL at RENSSELAER
TIME: 7 p.m.
DATES: Friday, Jan. 15, 2016
PLACE: Houston Field House  ·  Troy, N.Y.
RECORDS: Cornell 11-2-2, 6-1-1 ECAC Hockey  ·  Rensselaer 11-7-4, 4-1-4 ECAC Hockey
VIDEO: RPI TV
RADIO: WHCU (870 AM, 95.9 FM)
LIVE STATS: RPIathletics.com
 
Cornell game notes (PDF)
Rensselaer game notes (PDF)
 
The Big Red, In Brief:
Cornell righted the ship last weekend with a sweep of Merrimack to wrap up non-conference play and ascend to third in the country with an .800 winning percentage. The line of junior center Jeff Kubiak and freshman wingers Anthony Angello had four points apiece over the two games, and junior goalie Mitch Gillam made 26 saves to record his fourth shutout in Cornell's 3-0 victory Friday. In Saturday's rematch, the Big Red once again jumped out to a two-goal lead and effectively held the Warriors at bay through the third period for a 5-2 win. The victories came on the heels of a polarizing trek to the Florida College Hockey Classic in which the Big Red ended a 19-game  unbeaten streak for defending national champion and then-No. 1 Providence with a 2-1 overtime victory, only to be dealt a 8-0 loss by Ohio State the next day. ... Gillam (11-2-2, 1.77, .935, 4 SO) has started all 15 of the Big Red's games to date and logged the program's third-longest shutout streak (213:17) during November. He was named the ECAC Hockey Goaltender of the Week after last weekend's victories over Merrimack. ... Kubiak (6-10–16) leads the team in scoring and rating (plus-15), Angello (8-6–14) leads the team in goals and is ranked fifth in the country for goals per game among freshmen (0.53). He was named the most recent ECAC Hockey Rookie of the Week. ... Vanderlaan (4-7–11) is third in goal-scoring and tied for second in assists with junior forward Jake Weidner (2-7–9) and freshman defenseman Alec McCrea (2-7–9).

Rank and File:
The Big Red is currently fourth in the KRACH ratings, fifth the PairWise (used to determine qualifiers for the NCAA tournament), fifth in the Ratings Percentage Index, seventh in the USA Today/USA Hockey Magazine poll and eighth in the USCHO.com poll. This is the Big Red's highest ranking in the USA Today/USA Hockey Magazine poll since it was tabbed fourth on Nov. 5, 2012.
 
About Rensselaer:
The Engineers got off to a slow start aided by a challenging schedule, then swept a home-and-home with Union to kick off a nine-game unbeaten streak. After emerging from the holiday break with a two-game split at Miami, RPI resumed league play with a 3-3 tie last Thursday at Princeton. Junior forward Riley Bourbonnais (13-7–20; 4 PPGs), the team's leading scorer, scored the tying goal with 3:18 to play in the third. ... Bourbonnais typically plays on a line with junior Jake Wood (7-5–12) and Zach Schroeder (2-10–12). They're tied for third in team scoring, two points shy of sophomore forward Lou Nanne (4-10–14), a Minnesota Wild draft pick. Freshman forward Jesper Öhrvall (5-5–10) has all five of his goals in his last five games. ...  Senior Jason Kasdorf (5-5-2, 2.18, .931, SO) has re-emerged as the primary goaltender after an injury which allowed Cam Hackett (6-2-2, 2.34, .933) to establish himself as one of the top freshman goaltenders in the country. ... More than half of RPI's opponents' goals (27 of 53) have come in the third period.
 
The Series Against Rensselaer:
Cornell maintains a commanding 60-35-9 all-time series lead. The Big Red hasn't won at Houston Field House since Feb. 12, 2011. Last season, Cornell was shut out in its visit to Troy, then a pair of third-period goals from John McCarron salvaged a 2-2 tie in Ithaca. Mike Schafer holds a 28-15-7 mark against RPI.
 
Gillam's Groove:
Junior goaltender Mitch Gillam was named ECAC Goalie of the Week on Nov. 17, then earned Player of the Week and NCAA First Star honors on Nov. 24 followed by a 40-save effort Nov. 28 against Boston University. In that span, he posted the third-longest shutout streak in program history, spanning 213 minutes, 17 seconds over four games — including consecutive shutouts at Yale and Brown. That marked the Big Red's first back-to-back shutouts since Andy Iles did so Dec. 2-3, 2011 against St. Lawrence and Clarkson, and it was the Big Red's first consecutive road shutouts since Ben Scrivens blanked Princeton and Quinnipiac from Nov. 7-8, 2008. An odd twist on Gillam's five career shutouts is that he's only won three of them — Dec. 28, 2014 against Lake Superior State and Nov. 20, 2015 against Yale were both scoreless ties.
 
Special Order:
The Big Red is ranked third in the country with an 89.1 percent success rate on the penalty kill, having yielded no power-play goals in eight of its last nine games. The power play broke an 0-for-19 skid last weekend with Reece Willcox and Anthony Angello both scoring on the man advantage.
 
The Little Things Aren't So Little:
While junior forward Jake Weidner is tied for fourth on the team in scoring (2-7–9), his contributions go way deeper than those numbers — especially with increased ice time as a result of the early-season absence of John Knisley. Entering today's game, Weidner is the team's leading faceoff man (56.9%), and he ranks fifth in the country for shot blocks per game among forwards (1.53).
 
What, Me Worry?:
Four of Cornell's 11 victories have come in games in which it has surrendered the first goal. The Big Red had a combined record of 14-34-5 over the previous three seasons when it faced a 1-0 deficit. Cornell was a remarkable 4-0 when yielding the first goal until its Dec. 29 loss to Ohio State.
 
Wasting No Time:
Junior forward Jeff Kubiak entered the season with 17 career points through his first two seasons, but he followed that up with nine points in the first six games this year. He had the Big Red's six-game point streak since Brian Ferlin's seven-game stretch from Dec. 28, 2013 to Jan. 31, 2014. Kubiak had an assist Dec. 5 against Clarkson, giving him at least one point in each of the eight games this season in which Cornell has scored at least three goals.
 
Working Overtime:
The Big Red has gone to overtime six times before Jan. 1 for the first time in program history. Cornell still has a ways to go to match the program record for overtime games in a season, though — the Big Red played 12 in each of the 1985-86, 2010-11 and 2011-12 campaigns. Cornell is 3-1-2 in its six overtime games to date, with its three OT winners tied for the national lead with Michigan Tech.
 
Special Threads:
The Big Red wore special jerseys for its home opener which were recently auctioned off to bids totaling $10,400. Proceeds from the auction will go to a mission and service trip to the Dominican Republic this summer, led by head coach Mike Schafer and current players. In addition to the special design the red jerseys with a thick horizontal white stripe across the midsection, the jerseys featured name plates of the greatest Cornell hockey player to have ever donned that number according to the player that currently wears it.
 
Freshman Force:
The jump to college hockey can be a big one for newcomers, but freshman forward Anthony Angello — a 2014 draft pick of the Pittsburgh Penguins — has felt right at home with Cornell. Angello is the Big Red's first player to have points in his first four collegiate games since Ryan Moynihan from Nov. 8-16, 1996 — which was Mike Schafer's second season as head coach of his alma mater. He then scored the overtime winner Nov. 14 at Colgate. His eight goals lead the team, and he ranks fifth in the country in goals per game among freshmen (0.53).
 
Class of Captains:
On the day of its season opener at Niagara, Cornell announced that its entire senior class — Christian Hilbrich, John Knisley, Teemu Tiitinen and Reece Willcox — would serve as captains during its final season on East Hill. It marks the first time in program history the Big Red has shared the captaincy among four players, though it's worth noting that only two players will wear the 'C' at any given time. Hilbrich and Willcox will serve as on-ice captains for the team's away games, while Knisley and Tiitinen will do so in home games.
 
Onward and Upward:
With last Saturday's win over Merrimack, Cornell has already matched its win total from the 2014-15 season — and it still isn't to the halfway point of this season. The Big Red's two wins over the Warriors, coupled with victories over St. Lawrence and Clarkson in early December, also gave Cornell its first consecutive home sweeps since the 2008-09 season.
 
Blank You Very Much:
Cornell has recorded at least one shutout in each of the last 21 seasons – a streak that has easily been continued behind junior goaltender Mitch Gillam's four shutouts in just the first half of this season. The last time the Big Red went a full season without posting a shutout came during the 1994-95 season.
 
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).
 
Feel The Draft?:
Cornell has six players on the roster who have been selected in the NHL Entry Draft, including four from 2014. Freshman forward Beau Starrett (Chicago Blackhawks) was selected earliest in the group, having been taken in the third round with the 88th overall pick. Fellow newcomer Anthony Angello, also a forward, was selected in the fifth round by the Pittsburgh Penguins. Sophomore forward Jared Fiegl (Arizona Coyotes) and Dwyer Tschantz (St. Louis Blues) were then picked in the seventh round. Junior forward Matt Buckles was taken by the Florida Panthers in the fourth round of the 2013 draft, and senior defenseman Reece Willcox was selected by the Philadelphia Flyers in the fifth round of 2012's event.
 
Global Influence:
The Big Red has 16 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).
 
Little Apples:
•  The Big Red became the last team in the country to either score or surrender an empty-net goal this season with Dwyer Tschantz's first goal of the season last Friday.
•  Cornell went 13 games before it faced its first two-goal deficit of the season (Dec. 29 vs. Ohio State). The Big Red never trailed last weekend against Merrimack.
•  Cornell has scored just five goals in the third period. While that's the lowest total in the country, the Big Red has only trailed in the final period once this year.
•  With Alec McCrea, Trent Shore and Brendan Smith all in the lineup last Saturday against Merrimack, the Big Red dressed three freshmen defensemen for the first time since Jan. 20, 2008 against Clarkson (Jordan Berk, Mike Devin and Jacob Johnston).
 
Up Next:
Cornell makes the short drive west on Route 7 to face Union at 7 p.m. Saturday. The Big Red then returns home for an exciting weekend with a Friday, Jan. 22 game against Dartmouth (simulcast on ESPN3) and the annual rivalry game Saturday, Jan. 23 against defending ECAC Hockey champion Harvard. Cornell hits the road for games at Clarkson, St. Lawrence, Quinnipiac and Princeton the following weeks.