ITHACA, N.Y. – The Cornell men's hockey team returns home for four of its six remaining games in the regular season, starting with contests against Ivy League foes Brown at 7 p.m. Friday and Yale at 7 p.m. Saturday at Lynah Rink. Both games will be streamed on the subscription-based Ivy League Digital Network. Jason Weinstein will handle play-by-play and Tony Eisenhut will provide color commentary. Their call can also be heard in the Ithaca area on WHCU (870 AM, 95.9 FM).
 
GAME 24: BROWN at #15/15 CORNELL
TIME: 7 p.m.
DATES: Friday, Feb. 12, 2016
PLACE: Lynah Rink   ·  Ithaca, N.Y.
RECORDS: Cornell 12-7-4, 7-6-3 ECAC Hockey  ·  Brown 4-16-4, 2-12-3 ECAC Hockey
WEBCAST: Ivy League Digital Network
RADIO: WHCU (870 AM, 95.9 FM)
LIVE STATS: CornellBigRed.com
 
GAME 25: #10/10 YALE at #15/15 CORNELL
TIME: 7 p.m.
DATES: Saturday, Feb. 13, 2016
PLACE: Lynah Rink   ·  Ithaca, N.Y.
RECORDS: Cornell 12-7-4, 7-6-3 ECAC Hockey  ·  Yale 14-5-4, 9-4-3 ECAC Hockey
WEBCAST: Ivy League Digital Network
RADIO: WHCU (870 AM, 95.9 FM)
LIVE STATS: CornellBigRed.com
 
Cornell game notes (PDF)
Brown game notes (coming soon)
Yale game notes (PDF)
 
The Big Red Rewind:
Cornell is coming off an impressive three-point weekend on the road in which it erased a pair of deficits to secure a 2-2 tie Friday at #1/1 Quinnipiac, followed by a 1-0 shutout of Princeton on Saturday behind Mitch Gillam's fifth shutout of the season. Jeff Kubiak scored the first goal early in the second period against the Bobcats, then set up Mitch Vanderlaan's tying goal with less than three minutes to play in the third period. Patrick McCarron assisted on both goals. The next night against the Tigers, Gillam made 16 of his 32 saves in the first period and John Knisley scored the game's only goal early in the second period off a feed from Alec McCrea.
 
Who's Who at CU:
Junior goaltender Mitch Gillam (12-7-4, 1.89, .933, 5 SO) has started all 23 of the Big Red's games to date and logged the program's third-longest shutout streak (213:17) during November. After stopping of 71 of the 73 shots he faced last weekend, Gillam was named the ECAC Hockey Goaltender of the Week for a third time this season. He has moved back into the top 10 in the nation in goals-against average and save percentage, and his five shutouts are tied for fourth-most in the country. ... Junior forward Jeff Kubiak (7-11–19) leads the team in scoring and rating (plus-14). For the entire season, he's centered a line with a pair of freshman wingers on the JAM line (an acronym of their first names) — Anthony Angello (8-8–16), who leads the team in goals, and Mitch Vanderlaan (7-7–14), who is third in points. ... Junior Patrick McCarron (2-9–11) is the team's leading scorer among defensemen. ... Junior Matt Buckles (5-3–8) leads the team with four power-play goals.
 
... And Down The Stretch They Come:
With three weeks remaining in the regular season, Cornell is among five teams separated by one point for fourth through eighth places in the ECAC Hockey standings. Of its six remaining games, the Big Red plays four at home and four against teams above it in the standings (Harvard, Yale, Dartmouth and Rensselaer).
 
About Brown:
The Bears are 0-8-1 in their last nine games, including home losses last weekend to Havard (3-2) and Dartmouth (6-3). Brown's last victory was actually against the top-ranked team in the country at the time, when it took down crosstown rival Providence on Jan. 3. ... The Bears feature some of the best forwards in the league and some of the top newcomers. The top three scorers play on the same line, with senior Mark Naclerio (5-14–19) centering freshman left wing Tommy Marchin (12-10–22; 3 PPGs) and senior right wing Nick Lappin (14-15–29; 4 PPGs). Freshman Max Gottlieb (2-16–18) is ECAC Hockey's highest-scoring defenseman. ... Junior Tim Ernst (4-13-4, 3.02, .895, SO) is the team's primary goalie. ... The Bears' penalty kill is ranked 57th among 60 teams in the country (74.6%).
 
The Series Against Brown:
The Big Red has a commanding lead in the all-time series, 74-43-6, and Mike Schafer is a dominating 32-7-4 against the Bears during his 21 seasons as the Big Red's head coach. Cornell goalie Mitch Gillam was stellar when the teams met Nov. 21 in Rhode Island, making 27 saves for a shutout. Trevor Yates scored in the second period to power Cornell to a 1-0 victory.
 
About Yale:
With much of the ECAC Hockey hype surrounding front-running Quinnipiac and defending champion Harvard, Yale — the media's preseason favorite — has somewhat quietly posted a 9-1-2 record since a three-game losing skid after Thanksgiving. The Bulldogs earned a home sweep last weekend against Dartmouth (5-1) and Harvard (2-1). ... Yale is the top defensive team in the country, having yielded just 1.65 goals per game. Junior Alex Lyon (14-4-4, 1.51, .941, 3 SO) was named the league's top goalie last season, and he stopped all 19 shots he saw to hold on for Saturday's win over the Crimson. He has surrendered more than two goals in a game this season just three times. ... The Bulldogs are one of the strongest special teams squads in the nation — their power play ranks ninth (22.1%) and penalty kill second (92.3%). ... Senior center Stu Wilson (5-15–20) leads the team in scoring, and freshman center Joe Snively (8-11–19) was ECAC Hockey's rookie of the month for January. Junior forward John Hayden (12-4–16) is the team's leading goal-scorer.
 
The Series Against Yale:
Saturday's meeting will mark the 148th all-time matchup since the series started in 1902, with the Big Red holding a 82-59-6 advantage. Cornell has won three of the last four meetings at Lynah Rink, including a 3-2 victory last season on the strength of power-play goals from Reece Willcox and Ryan Bliss, and the winning goal from Christian Hilbrich midway through the third. The teams played to a scoreless tie on Nov. 20 at Ingalls Rink, with Mitch Gillam making 30 saves for Cornell.
 
Gillam's Groove:
Junior goaltender Mitch Gillam was named ECAC Hockey 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 six career shutouts is that he's only won four of them — Dec. 28, 2014 against Lake Superior State and Nov. 20, 2015 against Yale were both scoreless ties.
 
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 has more points this season (19) than he had in 57 games through his freshman and sophomore seasons.
 
What, Me Worry?:
Four of Cornell's 12 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.
 
Eyes On The Ivy League:
Yale's win over Harvard last Saturday kept the Ivy League championship race alive. While Harvard leads (7-1-1, 15 points), Cornell (3-2-1, 7 points) can still share the title with the Crimson if it wins its next four games. Full Ivy League standings are on Page 21.
 
The Little Things Aren't So Little:
While junior forward Jake Weidner is fourth on the team in scoring (3-9–12), 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 the weekend, Weidner and Knisley are the team's top faceoff men (both 57.1%), and Weidner ranks eighth in the country for shot blocks per game among forwards (1.22).
 
No Fear:
Cornell is 1-0-1 this season against No. 1-ranked teams. The Big Red defeated Providence in overtime, 2-1, on Dec. 28 when the Friars entered the game undefeated and ranked No. 1 in both major college hockey polls. Cornell followed that up by rallying for a 2-2 tie last Friday at Quinnipiac, which enters this weekend still undefeated in ECAC Hockey play.
 
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 and later had two goals against Merrimack on Jan. 9 to garner ECAC Hockey Rookie of the Week honors a few days later. Angello's eight goals lead the team.
 
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 at Princeton, Cornell has surpassed its win total from the 2014-15 season. Earlier this season, the Big Red recorded its first consecutive home sweeps since the 2008-09 season when it swept St. Lawrence and Clarkson in early December and a two-game set against Merrimack in early January.
 
Understudy Extraordinaire:
Associate Head Coach Ben Syer improved his career record as acting head coach to 5-0-1 after last weekend's games, when Mike Schafer was not in attendance. All but one of Syer's games as acting head coach have come with Cornell, including victories over St. Lawrence (Feb. 18, 2012), Clarkson (Nov. 14, 2014), Union (Feb. 21, 2015) and Princeton (last Saturday), and last Friday's tie at Quinnipiac.
 
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 five 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).
 
Working Overtime:
The Big Red went to overtime six times before Jan. 1 for the first time in program history. Now with 10 overtime appearances, Cornell is starting to approach the program record for overtime games in a season — the Big Red played 12 in each of the 1985-86, 2010-11 and 2011-12 campaigns. Cornell is 3-3-4 in its 10 overtime games to date, with its three OT winners tied for the national lead with Michigan Tech, Penn State and 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:
•  Cornell went 13 games before it faced its first two-goal deficit of the season (Dec. 29 vs. Ohio State). The Big Red has only trailed by two or more goals in two other games this season — Jan. 22-23 games against Dartmouth and Harvard.
•  Cornell has scored just six goals in the third period. While that's the lowest total in the country, the Big Red has only trailed in the final period five times this year.
•  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 on Jan. 8. Cornell then yielded its first empty-net goals of the season Jan. 22-23.
•  With Alec McCrea, Trent Shore and Brendan Smith all in the lineup Jan. 9 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).
•  Cornell has swept the Yale-Brown home series in each of the last two seasons and three of the last four.
•  Jake Weidner has four assists in four career games against Brown, while Matt Buckles has four goals in five career games against the Bears.
 
Up Next:
Cornell hits the road for its last Ivy League and ECAC Hockey trip of the regular season with a Feb. 19 visit to Harvard and Feb. 20 trek to Dartmouth. The Big Red then returns home for a Friday, Feb. 26 game against Union and Senior Night against Rensselaer on Saturday, Feb. 27.